Huge WOW @ Spyderco Gayle Bradley

[markg]

Keep us posted Dave... There are a handful of folks I trusts to beat the crap out of a knife and tells how it works. Dave is on that short list.

I have heard a lot of great things about this knife over its production life, might have to break down and get one soon... :)

[syphen]

I felt the need to resurrect this old thread to add my WOW to this chorus.

My GB arrived today, and I am HUGELY impressed. This knife is absolutely flawless! :)

I'm looking forward to see how M4 behaves, but I can already see that it takes a very fine sharp edge, finer than 20CP.

With some Tuff glide, I'm looking forward to many years of service from this beastly beauty!

Mine showed up today!!

WOW is right!! This thing is a portable hand-tank. I always thought my Manix's were beefy. This thing puts the Manix 2's to shame for a beefy knife.

Fit and finish are among the best I've ever had in a knife.

This is my first M4 knife but I hear good things and have been on a huge non-stainless kick after being introduced to Super Blue.

[DCDesigns]

Mine showed up today!!

WOW is right!! This thing is a portable hand-tank. I always thought my Manix's were beefy. This thing puts the Manix 2's to shame for a beefy knife.

Fit and finish are among the best I've ever had in a knife.

This is my first M4 knife but I hear good things and have been on a huge non-stainless kick after being introduced to Super Blue.

I have to agree with you, I have endless respect for my GB. I left it in my lap when I was getting out of a jeep earlier, and it fell a decent height onto concrete. It contacted mainly the CF scale, and there is literally NO damage. I too love Super Blue, M4 and SB are two of my very favorite steels spyderco uses. My Gale Bradley is now my favorite knife bar none. If I had to give them all up, and just keep one, it'd be MY gb.

I know Ive posted this pic several times, but I love looking at it anyway :p My Stonewashed and forced patina GB:



Just bought a strop and some compounds so I can polish that bay's edge like a mirror. I love the contrast of a dark blade and a mirror edge!

[jackknifeh]

I have to agree with you, I have endless respect for my GB. I left it in my lap when I was getting out of a jeep earlier, and it fell a decent height onto concrete. It contacted mainly the CF scale, and there is literally NO damage. I too love Super Blue, M4 and SB are two of my very favorite steels spyderco uses. My Gale Bradley is now my favorite knife bar none. If I had to give them all up, and just keep one, it'd be MY gb.

I know Ive posted this pic several times, but I love looking at it anyway :p My Stonewashed and forced patina GB:



Just bought a strop and some compounds so I can polish that bay's edge like a mirror. I love the contrast of a dark blade and a mirror edge!

How did you force the Patina?

Short story (I hope).
Bought Manix2/M4 (stop)
Applied Tuf-Glide as always (stop)
Later decided to try forcing patina, NO LUCK. Tried several things. Leave in potatoe overnight, mustard, vinigar. Emailied Sentry Solutions to see how to remove Tuf-Glide temporarily. They replied and I did what they said then tried mustard again. Left mustard on for about 15 minutes. Got a little (very little) bit of darker appearance. I gave up. I wanted patina only for corrosion prevention so since I couldn't force patina I figured the Tuf-Glide would be more than enough corrosion prevention so I re-applied it. Later on I put a low back bevel on the edge creating a wide edge bevel with a mirror polish. About a week ago I was outside with my son and he mentioned he liked the patina on the blade. Surprised, I looked at it and the blade obviousy was darker than I remember. It was obvious I think because of the wide mirror bevel creating contrast and being outside in the sunlight which is different than the indoor light.

I think the time I used mustard after removing the Tuf-Glide created some patina. I am very happy with the darkness of my blade but it is not near as dark as yours. So, how do YOU force patina? I have a GB but I never thought I wanted patina on it but you never know. Plus, I'll probably buy another knife with non-stainless steel in my lifetime. Someone recently suggested to Spyderco something like a Para2 with M4. :D I think some patina on the blade would look good.

Jack

[bigdog27]

might be time to get one.

[jackknifeh]

might be time to get one.

I got my GB in a trade by unexpected luck. When I finally got it (I had been wanting one for a long time) I realized it was way past time. There are many great knives on the planet and the GB is one of them. I kept reading how great they are but just always got something else on my wish list when I bought. I still have two knives like that on my list. Para2 and Dragonfly. Sooner or later I'll have them too and say "Why did I wait so long" I'm sure.

So, this is just one more little push to move the GB up on YOUR wish list. Something tells me you have one. :)

Jack

[syphen]

What does spyderco call the finishing the gb's pocket clip? And why do more hourglass clipped knives not use it?! Way better then black paint and polished....

[DCDesigns]

How did you force the Patina?

Short story (I hope).
Bought Manix2/M4 (stop)
Applied Tuf-Glide as always (stop)
Later decided to try forcing patina, NO LUCK. Tried several things. Leave in potatoe overnight, mustard, vinigar. Emailied Sentry Solutions to see how to remove Tuf-Glide temporarily. They replied and I did what they said then tried mustard again. Left mustard on for about 15 minutes. Got a little (very little) bit of darker appearance. I gave up. I wanted patina only for corrosion prevention so since I couldn't force patina I figured the Tuf-Glide would be more than enough corrosion prevention so I re-applied it. Later on I put a low back bevel on the edge creating a wide edge bevel with a mirror polish. About a week ago I was outside with my son and he mentioned he liked the patina on the blade. Surprised, I looked at it and the blade obviousy was darker than I remember. It was obvious I think because of the wide mirror bevel creating contrast and being outside in the sunlight which is different than the indoor light.

I think the time I used mustard after removing the Tuf-Glide created some patina. I am very happy with the darkness of my blade but it is not near as dark as yours. So, how do YOU force patina? I have a GB but I never thought I wanted patina on it but you never know. Plus, I'll probably buy another knife with non-stainless steel in my lifetime. Someone recently suggested to Spyderco something like a Para2 with M4. :D I think some patina on the blade would look good.

Jack

Hey Jack, Im glad you like it! I have never applied any tuff glide to my GB for one (though Im considering it now that the patina/stonewash is done, +might be good for the liners {question: what steel are the liners? 420j2?}), so I didnt have any issue seeing a patina right away. I started with mustard, and covered all except a squigly line toward the edge (gave the look of a hamon line, pretty cool). Soon though I went a bit overboard with mustard and ended up with this:



I wasnt as crazy about it as I was when it was just one dark line, so I decided to continue to darken it.

*Note- I have tried mustard, lemon juice, battery acid, and finally apple cider vinegar that was wood aged (most likely a lower ph{more acidic} than normal vinegar) :Here is my experience with each:

Mustard- Darkens mainly a dark line from where the edge of the mustard blob was - in the center of where the mustard sat, there was almost no darkening. Mustard is not very acidic, so this is probably not the best thing to use (unless you want your knife to resemble a hot dog)

Lemon juice - supposedly the lowest ph of anything in the kitchen, supposedly lower than vinegar. I say supposedly because I could hardly see a difference after two hours submerged in lemon juice. Conclusion, lemon juice sucks for patina. Over all blade was barely just a shade darker.

Battery acid - OK, maybe not the smartest thing Ive done. I geared up with a face shield and apron, then took my hatchet to the end of a AA battery... The black liquid that came out started eating a paper towel, so I thought it would work great for forcing a patina. I covered the top of the blade with it and waited... Nothing. The only thing that happened is it bleached the :spyder: to a light off-white/grey. (something I am actually really happy with now since it contrasts the dark blade really well... yea, I knew that would happen :rolleyes :) The blade was not any darker. This was confusing since I use PCB on stainless even to etch and darken blades.

Apple cider Vinegar -wood aged - Ok, this stuff rocks! I was really worried I wouldnt be able to cover up the squigley lines from the mustard attempt, so I wanted to make sure I gave the vinegar enough time to do its work. I left the blade submerged in a cup of it over night (12-16 hours). The blade was practically black when I saw it! Then I just took it, threw it into a container full of round river rocks, added water, and started shaking. Took about fifteen minutes ended up with this: :)


Im really happy with the way it turned out!

[DCDesigns]

What does spyderco call the finishing the gb's pocket clip? And why do more hourglass clipped knives not use it?! Way better then black paint and polished....

looks like its been hot blued if you ask me. resembles the finish of some old revolvers I have.

[bammann45]

I beat on mine pretty hard without fear. I had babied it for awhile then a few months ago I had to replace our dishwasher. This left me with a very old, very gross dishwasher that I either had to have hauled or *make* fit into my trash can. Out came mr Sledgehammer. But the plastic tub itself rebounded the hammer under impact. Out came the Gayle Bradley, I took a deep breath and started ripping away at it til it was in small pieces. It cut through it like butter. Next I used it to cut thick bundles of electrical wiring, zip ties etc that held the guts of the dishwasher together. It is still razor sharp.

[Fred Sanford]

Keep us posted Dave... There are a handful of folks I trusts to beat the crap out of a knife and tells how it works. Dave is on that short list.

I have heard a lot of great things about this knife over its production life, might have to break down and get one soon... :)

Mark,

Thanks. I appreciate that bro.

[dbcad]

Battery acid - OK, maybe not the smartest thing Ive done. I geared up with a face shield and apron, then took my hatchet to the end of a AA battery... The black liquid that came out started eating a paper towel, so I thought it would work great for forcing a patina. I covered the top of the blade with it and waited... Nothing. The only thing that happened is it bleached the :spyder: to a light off-white/grey. (something I am actually really happy with now since it contrasts the dark blade really well... yea, I knew that would happen :rolleyes :) The blade was not any darker. This was confusing since I use PCB on stainless even to etch and darken blades.

Have to add if the end of a AA alkaline battery were chopped off you'd be getting a strong basic solution, not an acid. Still very nasty stuff :eek: The KOH solution that is used has a ph of 14, the most opposite of an acid as you can get. It will burn you though, highly reactive.

Now the carbolic acid from a lead acid battery in your car is a different story.
You don't want a strong acid for patina, you want a weaker acid in a water solution. Lemons, onions, and acetic acid in vinegar have patina'd for me in the past. According to SolidState cat urine works quite well :)

[jackknifeh]

Hey Jack, Im glad you like it! I have never applied any tuff glide to my GB for one (though Im considering it now that the patina/stonewash is done, +might be good for the liners {question: what steel are the liners? 420j2?}), so I didnt have any issue seeing a patina right away. I started with mustard, and covered all except a squigly line toward the edge (gave the look of a hamon line, pretty cool). Soon though I went a bit overboard with mustard and ended up with this:



I wasnt as crazy about it as I was when it was just one dark line, so I decided to continue to darken it.

*Note- I have tried mustard, lemon juice, battery acid, and finally apple cider vinegar that was wood aged (most likely a lower ph{more acidic} than normal vinegar) :Here is my experience with each:

Mustard- Darkens mainly a dark line from where the edge of the mustard blob was - in the center of where the mustard sat, there was almost no darkening. Mustard is not very acidic, so this is probably not the best thing to use (unless you want your knife to resemble a hot dog)

Lemon juice - supposedly the lowest ph of anything in the kitchen, supposedly lower than vinegar. I say supposedly because I could hardly see a difference after two hours submerged in lemon juice. Conclusion, lemon juice sucks for patina. Over all blade was barely just a shade darker.

Battery acid - OK, maybe not the smartest thing Ive done. I geared up with a face shield and apron, then took my hatchet to the end of a AA battery... The black liquid that came out started eating a paper towel, so I thought it would work great for forcing a patina. I covered the top of the blade with it and waited... Nothing. The only thing that happened is it bleached the :spyder: to a light off-white/grey. (something I am actually really happy with now since it contrasts the dark blade really well... yea, I knew that would happen :rolleyes :) The blade was not any darker. This was confusing since I use PCB on stainless even to etch and darken blades.

Apple cider Vinegar -wood aged - Ok, this stuff rocks! I was really worried I wouldnt be able to cover up the squigley lines from the mustard attempt, so I wanted to make sure I gave the vinegar enough time to do its work. I left the blade submerged in a cup of it over night (12-16 hours). The blade was practically black when I saw it! Then I just took it, threw it into a container full of round river rocks, added water, and started shaking. Took about fifteen minutes ended up with this: :)


Im really happy with the way it turned out!

I like the look of the blade with the lines and shaded areas. From what I read mustard acts with the oxygen in the air to form the patina. That's why the area around the edges is more pronounced. Now that I'm thinking I can get patina on my Manix2 M4 blade I may try that. I'll have to find out how to remove the Tuf-Glide again. I looked it up just a week or two ago but have already forgotten what should be used. I think I pasted the info into this forum but searching on Tuf-glide or patina will result in volums of threads.

Thanks for all the info. I may even try the stone washing. Can't wait to see what that does to my edge. :D BTW, I used the Manix to do some cat 5 wiring recently and cut the cable with the knife several times. No chipping. I was happy.

Jack

[DCDesigns]

I like the look of the blade with the lines and shaded areas. From what I read mustard acts with the oxygen in the air to form the patina. That's why the area around the edges is more pronounced. Now that I'm thinking I can get patina on my Manix2 M4 blade I may try that. I'll have to find out how to remove the Tuf-Glide again. I looked it up just a week or two ago but have already forgotten what should be used. I think I pasted the info into this forum but searching on Tuf-glide or patina will result in volums of threads.

Thanks for all the info. I may even try the stone washing. Can't wait to see what that does to my edge. :D BTW, I used the Manix to do some cat 5 wiring recently and cut the cable with the knife several times. No chipping. I was happy.

Jack

No problem man. Im sure any really strong solvent is capable of taking of the tuff glide. I think they suggest something like gun solvent like Hoppes #8. If you cant get that, soaking it in something like acetone will probably do the job as well.

Something really acidic like PCB should be able to eat right through the TG as well.

[DCDesigns]

Oh, and you'll have to start over on that edge... I did have a couple minor chips, but I dulled it intentionally before the stone wash to minimize the chance of this.

The good news is you get to start over on that edge! I just ordered a paddle strop and compounds so hopefully I can get it to a mirror soon!