Gayle Bradley 2 - So close to perfection...

[Canazes9]

I received my Gayle Bradley 2 a few days ago and have been getting acquainted with it. Overall I'm impressed with the knife. The slightly proud scales work very well to create a contoured handle feel, very comfortable! The polished liners are quite attractive and the overall fit and finish of the liners and scales are excellent.

Execution of the liner lock is easier than I expected. I know most of the gripes were with the original GB model, but several folks have also complained about the GB2. I have no issue with it. I prefer deep pocket carry and they equipped this model with a standard 3 hole clip design, allowing me to easily swap to the MXG clip I prefer.

I really like the folded shape of the knife. I prefer larger blades for EDC, I think the size of the Endura4 is about perfect, allowing a lot of blade to be easily, comfortably carried in my pocket. The GB2 has a similar profile and comfort in carry.

The blade opens and closes extremely smoothly, just the right amount of tension. Easy to middle finger flick, opens smoothly with the thumb. Love the CPM M4 steel and it came adequately sharp. I'm also happy with the profile of the blade and the strong tip.

The lack of perfection comes with the choil - what a train wreck! They didn't extend it far enough past the plunge grind and it actually is worse than having no choil at all. The person that ground my blade seems to agree as the grind has a disappointing recurve starting about 3/8" from the plunge grind as they fought the plunge grind when sharpening.



There's no excuse for this on this otherwise excellent knife. Spyderco needs some CQI on this model pronto. I'll fix the choil and the grind myself on this knife and have a knife I'll be happy with, but Spyderco shouldn't expect their customers to have to fix basic design flaws like this.

David

[swigert]

Interesting thoughts. I’m pretty sure there’s not supposed to be a choil. It’s not meant to be a choil.

[Canazes9]

Interesting thoughts. I’m pretty sure there’s not supposed to be a choil. It’s not meant to be a choil.

It is 100% a choil. It was cut in to the blade intentionally with extra effort required to finish it. If they extended it another 1/4" it would have been perfect. If it is not corrected, I will forever be chasing this recurve in the blade when I sharpen it.

David

[Evil D]

You may be the only person alive who sees that as a choil. I'd call it a rather large ricasso/sharpening notch.

[Canazes9]

You may be the only person alive who sees that as a choil. I'd call it a rather large ricasso/sharpening notch.

Ricasso/sharpening notch is now considered the preferred terminology for a sharpening choil? I didn't say it's a finger choil, but by definition it's a choil.

https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/choil

Call it what you want, it's poorly executed, and it screws up sharpening the knife - as can be clearly seen with the factory grind.

David

[Evil D]

You may be the only person alive who sees that as a choil. I'd call it a rather large ricasso/sharpening notch.

Ricasso/sharpening notch is now considered the preferred terminology for a sharpening choil? I didn't say it's a finger choil, but by definition it's a choil.

https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/choil

Call it what you want, it's poorly executed, and it screws up sharpening the knife - as can be clearly seen with the factory grind.

David

Well a ricasso is an unsharpened length of blade near the tang. I've never heard anyone refer to that as a choil, usually a choil is a place where your finger goes.


AAAAAAANYWAY I do agree that it's a giant waste of blade regardless of what it's called or why it's there. It's more than is necessary to aid in sharpening and it's too small to put your finger on. This is why I prefer the GB1 over the 2.

[Xplorer]

...basic design flaws..David

Generally speaking, I am not a fan of sharpening choils or notches (or whatever term one wants to use) just because I don't think they serve a functional purpose. Adding one to a blade is more of an aesthetic choice than anything IMO.

But, I'm unclear as to specifically what you see as the design flaw. In your view, what aspect of functionality is lost because of this choil/notch size choice? Is it just that the sharpened bevel on your knife has a little re-curve or is there something more that I'm missing?

Chad

[hoimin]

Aesthetically, I probably agree with the OP. Freehand sharpening a poorly realized plunge grind into ricasso/sharpening choil is also a bit of a pain.
Practically speaking, I never really use the heel of a folding knife's cutting edge for anything anyway, so while I understand the frustrations of the above, there are higher impact priorities to focus on from a production standpoint.

[Canazes9]

You may be the only person alive who sees that as a choil. I'd call it a rather large ricasso/sharpening notch.

Ricasso/sharpening notch is now considered the preferred terminology for a sharpening choil? I didn't say it's a finger choil, but by definition it's a choil.

https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/choil

Call it what you want, it's poorly executed, and it screws up sharpening the knife - as can be clearly seen with the factory grind.

David

Well a ricasso is an unsharpened length of blade near the tang. I've never heard anyone refer to that as a choil, usually a choil is a place where your finger goes.


AAAAAAANYWAY I do agree that it's a giant waste of blade regardless of what it's called or why it's there. It's more than is necessary to aid in sharpening and it's too small to put your finger on. This is why I prefer the GB1 over the 2.

And just because you persist, that's not a ricasso - The Endura4 has a ricasso. It's a choil, because it has been notched. Just because you haven't heard it doesn't make you right.

David

[Canazes9]

...basic design flaws..David

Generally speaking, I am not a fan of sharpening choils or notches (or whatever term one wants to use) just because I don't think they serve a functional purpose. Adding one to a blade is more of an aesthetic choice than anything IMO.

But, I'm unclear as to specifically what you see as the design flaw. In your view, what aspect of functionality is lost because of this choil/notch size choice? Is it just that the sharpened bevel on your knife has a little re-curve or is there something more that I'm missing?

Chad

The flaw is that the choil doesn't extend past the plunge grind far enough enough to sharpen effectively. The recurve is there because the person that was sharpening it at the factory was having trouble sharpening behind the plunge grind. If the choil extended another 1/4" (heck, even another 1/8") there wouldn't be a problem. Not having a proper sharpening choil becomes a bigger issue with the hollow grind as it makes the plunge grind more pronounced.

That little recurve isn't supposed to be there - the edge is supposed to be straight all the way to the choil. It would be one thing if they just skipped the choil and left a ricasso - I wouldn't like that either, but when they go to the trouble to cut the choil and smooth and polish it, it's obvious they meant it to be a sharpening choil. The choil was added to make it easier to sharpen the hollow grind, but they screwed it up by not extending it far enough. It just seems really silly to go through the trouble of adding a choil and then missing getting it right by 1/4".

David

[Evil D]

You may be the only person alive who sees that as a choil. I'd call it a rather large ricasso/sharpening notch.

Ricasso/sharpening notch is now considered the preferred terminology for a sharpening choil? I didn't say it's a finger choil, but by definition it's a choil.

https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/choil

Call it what you want, it's poorly executed, and it screws up sharpening the knife - as can be clearly seen with the factory grind.

David

Well a ricasso is an unsharpened length of blade near the tang. I've never heard anyone refer to that as a choil, usually a choil is a place where your finger goes.


AAAAAAANYWAY I do agree that it's a giant waste of blade regardless of what it's called or why it's there. It's more than is necessary to aid in sharpening and it's too small to put your finger on. This is why I prefer the GB1 over the 2.

And just because you persist, that's not a ricasso - The Endura4 has a ricasso. It's a choil, because it has been notched. Just because you haven't heard it doesn't make you right.

David

FFS dude ok it's a choil lol.

[Canazes9]

FFS dude ok it's a choil lol.

Perhaps in the future you should restrict yourself to lecturing others on subject matter you actually understand, then you won't get so flustered.


David

[Evil D]

FFS dude ok it's a choil lol.

Perhaps in the future you should restrict yourself to lecturing others on subject matter you actually understand, then you won't get so flustered.


David

You are absolutely right.

[Xplorer]

...It just seems really silly to go through the trouble of adding a choil and then missing getting it right by 1/4"...David

OK. I see what you're saying. Thank you.

I guess I don't share the same view that this is a flaw because I don't see any improvement that would come from extending the choil further. This idea is the same reason I don't agree with adding sharpening choils in the first place. If the choil is extended further there's just less blade to sharpen. It would mean trading a difficult to sharpen area of the blade for an area with no edge at all. There's no functional benefit. It's just an aesthetic issue and my preference is to have more blade and sacrifice my ability to perfectly sharpen the last 2-3mm. You and others might very well have a different opinion, and I think those opinions are just as valid.

If I had my preference I would have no choil at all and angle the plunge back toward the handle in order to provide as much sharpened blade as possible within the space available. But I don't think that me having a preference that is different from what the designer chose to do makes his design flawed.

Best regards,

Chad

[Canazes9]

...It just seems really silly to go through the trouble of adding a choil and then missing getting it right by 1/4"...David

OK. I see what you're saying. Thank you.

I guess I don't share the same view that this is a flaw because I don't see any improvement that would come from extending the choil further. This idea is the same reason I don't agree with adding sharpening choils in the first place. If the choil is extended further there's just less blade to sharpen. It would mean trading a difficult to sharpen area of the blade for an area with no edge at all. There's no functional benefit. It's just an aesthetic issue and my preference is to have more blade and sacrifice my ability to perfectly sharpen the last 2-3mm. You and others might very well have a different opinion, and I think those opinions are just as valid.

If I had my preference I would have no choil at all and angle the plunge back toward the handle in order to provide as much sharpened blade as possible within the space available. But I don't think that me having a preference that is different from what the designer chose to do makes his design flawed.

Best regards,

Chad

Exactly!

Eliminate the choil, it's not my preference, but I can understand the argument. The existing choil doesn't fix the problem and still creates the negatives that you don't like.

To be clear, it's not the end of the world - I absolutely love the knife and it will be my EDC for the foreseeable future. Just hate that it came so close to perfection and missed that one thing.

David

[Xplorer]

...To be clear, it's not the end of the world - I absolutely love the knife and it will be my EDC for the foreseeable future. Just hate that it came so close to perfection and missed that one thing.

David

Little details aside, it's a great EDC knife to be sure. I hope you enjoy yours as much as I've enjoyed mine. :)

Best regards,

Chad

[rybu0305]

I wouldn’t call it a choil either. I have seen a lot of examples with that recurve though. At least have a dozen personally. It is an area for CQI but does not keep the GB2 from being one of my favorite knives of all time. I sent one in for sharpening and it came back much better.

[ronT2]

Huh…all this time I thought it was a choil for the tip of my thumb to fall into when closing, kind of a safety thing…who knew? :confused: Still a great knife. I have two of them slight recurve and all.

[JDennis]

The Gayle Bradley 2 is perfection besides the lock, should be a compression lock and for what i do, LC200N :)

[Canazes9]

Okay, so I've owned the knife for a little over a week, haven't even thought about carrying another knife. My aggravation with the sharpening choil and the recurve has lessened considerably (still think the choil should be centered on the plunge grind, but not worrying about it anymore.) A couple of additional observations since I've carried it for a while:

The liner lock hasn't moved despite being opened and closed many 100's of times.

The liner lock is actually not difficult at all to disengage even w/o a cut out.

CPM M4 is amazing steel! The factory edge was about 34 deg inclusive. Normally I reprofile to 30 inclusive and put a 36 deg microbevel. I decided to just sharpen this at 36 inclusive because I had read so much about the steel and the hollow ground blade - I wanted to see how it would perform w/o the thinner secondary bevel. It gets scary sharp! It seems like most steels have a learning curve, on what they like best - CPM M4 responded favorably to everything! Diamonds, aluminum oxide, polish stones, polish tapes, strops, etc, CPM M4 responded to all of it and always seemed to get sharper.

The knife exudes quality and solidness. The liner lock feels impressively solid. The action is extremely smooth, feels great to flick or roll open.

The proud liners absolutely work in my hands to create the contoured effect that Gayle Bradley designed for. The carbon fiber scales provide nice texture without being too rough.

Finally, even though the purists won't like it, the MXGear deep carry titanium clip looks better than the factory clip (at least to my eye).

Frankly, I can't believe how inexpensive this knife is. I see now why so many rave about the Gayle Bradley's. Get 'em while you can! I'm seriously considering buying a spare (or two).

Obligatory pic:





David