Gayle Bradley

rawpaak · #1

Wow ! What a kife . I love everything about it except right now it takes two hands to close it, Does that get better ? Are there any tips , secrets. Thanks , Ron .

kbuzbee · #2

rawpaak wrote:Wow ! What a kife . I love everything about it except right now it takes two hands to close it, Does that get better ? Are there any tips , secrets. Thanks , Ron .

I have no issues closing mine one handed. Very easy. But a few folks have drilled out the handle on the push side to give better access to the thumb hole and the lock.

Ken

jackknifeh · #3

rawpaak wrote:Wow ! What a kife . I love everything about it except right now it takes two hands to close it, Does that get better ? Are there any tips , secrets. Thanks , Ron .

It will get easier. Try placing your thumb on the lock bar in different positions. I like to place my thumb on the bar with my knuckle almost on the bar. A little pressure down then over and the blade will close using your index finger. Once the blade is unlocked reposition the knife and close it. Try not to cut off any more fingers than necessary. :)

It is really a great knife, one of my favorites.

Jack

chuck_roxas45 · #4

jackknifeh wrote:It will get easier. Try placing your thumb on the lock bar in different positions. I like to place my thumb on the bar with my knuckle almost on the bar. A little pressure down then over and the blade will close using your index finger. Once the blade is unlocked reposition the knife and close it. Try not to cut off any more fingers than necessary. :)

It is really a great knife, one of my favorites.

Jack

What jack said.

[video=youtube;TD0PB9zJvvQ]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TD0PB9zJvvQ[/video]

gull wing · #5

Congrats rawpaak, it gets better, just see how that thing continues to cut and cut and cut. It's the only knife (of that weight)I EDC, it's pretty heavy, yes it's that good.
Unlocking! If you have strong, hard, fingers, you can"learn" to unlock without modifying it. But for myself and many others we "wimps" increased the arc size at the lock lug area, for better access.
I did my mod very "modestly", polished the steel to match the surrounding seel, if you had not known of the before, you could not tell. Now it's great.

FroOchie · #6

I want to EDC my GB everyday but when I take it to work I just catch myself sitting in the light looking at the gleaming polished liners all day. Not very productive but oh so fun.

kbuzbee · #7

FroOchie wrote:I want to EDC my GB everyday but when I take it to work I just catch myself sitting in the light looking at the gleaming polished liners all day. Not very productive but oh so fun.

Beats hanging out on Facebook, or Tweeting what you had for lunch like your coworkers are doing

Ken

BAL · #8

I agree that it' not the easiest knife to close, but I think that the idea is that you
only need to close it after you actually use it, not over and over as you are watching
The Best Defense on The Outdoor channel.

JNewell · #9

I don't regard myself as particularly gifted in terms of manual abilities or deterity, but I've always found the Bradley very easy to open, unlock and close with both hands (and that is coming from a primarily left-handed user). :spyder:

enduraguy · #10

Make your thumbs stronger, knife working as intended. - Sal

Alchemy1 · #11

I had mine modded (which obviously voided the warranty) by a member here. I can't remember his name, but he was gracious enough to do it for me. Sad part is, I don't really use my GB anymore.

kbuzbee · #12

Alchemy1 wrote:Sad part is, I don't really use my GB anymore.

I completely understand. Currently the GB is one of my two favorites and still sees regular use. But I have some truely excellent knives that don't. I suppose I'm just not much of a "rotation" guy. I pick the one I want and stick with it. Always looking for The One, I guess

Just yesterday, I pulled out my Lil'Temp and was thrilled with it, but I never carry it anymore. And that's just one example... I have dozens of knives that, were they my only knife, I'd carry quite happily. But they aren't, and I don't. It makes me sad if I think about it, so I don't

Ken

chuck_roxas45 · #13

Alchemy1 wrote:I had mine modded (which obviously voided the warranty) by a member here. I can't remember his name, but he was gracious enough to do it for me. Sad part is, I don't really use my GB anymore.

Why is that?

FroOchie · #14

JNewell wrote:I don't regard myself as particularly gifted in terms of manual abilities or deterity, but I've always found the Bradley very easy to open, unlock and close with both hands (and that is coming from a primarily left-handed user). :spyder:

Using both hands it's very easy, its one handed I think most of us have difficulty with. If that was their design intention though, they did it well. When I close it one handed with my right hand I feel like I'm going to rip the pad of my thumb off. The tough skin pushes so far over it mishapes my thumb for a few minutes. lol

Alchemy1 · #15

chuck_roxas45 wrote:Why is that?

I just end up carrying other larger, more robust, knives. For some reason they tend to be frame locks as well. Funny thing is I had a Sage II and got rid of it because I didn't care for frame locks at the time...LOL. 75% of the time I carry a Strider and the other 25% is split between my ZT 0561 and my Lionspy.

DeathBySnooSnoo · #16

FroOchie wrote:Using both hands it's very easy, its one handed I think most of us have difficulty with. If that was their design intention though, they did it well. When I close it one handed with my right hand I feel like I'm going to rip the pad of my thumb off. The tough skin pushes so far over it mishapes my thumb for a few minutes. lol

I agree that it probably was designed to be less easy to unlock, but I think that it is a large minority of people that have difficulty manipulating the lock one handed. Try just changing the way you use hte lock, where you place your thumb and what part of the thumb you use. I find that the lock bar tension is fairly light and that when I unlock my thumb almost rolls across the top of the lock bar. I should mention that I tend to hold my thimb almost parallel to the lock...

JNewell · #17

FroOchie wrote:Using both hands it's very easy, its one handed I think most of us have difficulty with. If that was their design intention though, they did it well. When I close it one handed with my right hand I feel like I'm going to rip the pad of my thumb off. The tough skin pushes so far over it mishapes my thumb for a few minutes. lol

I did mean one-handed, and I without minimzing the issues some people have, I think the majority find the knife works very well, one-handed, right out of the box. :) :spyder:

enduraguy · #18

Does anyone find the fact that the steel liners protrude past the scales detracts from user comfort?

rawpaak · #19

the more i play with it the more i really like it ( the knife ) ha ha , it is a really great knife, thanks to all for the replies , Ron.

jzmtl · #20

I can unlock mine one handed but it's a pain in the butt and it chew up my thumbnail, so I modded it. Too bad I don't use it anymore, may need to sell it eventually.