Bradley Alias 2: Poor Man's Sebenza Indeed

[Sonnydaze]

Bought a NIB Alias II half-serrated to use as a gift. Never gave it away; never used it. It seemed to be a fine folder.
Went crazy trying to sell it on the Exchange; finally got $140 back from my $182 investment.
I think that most of the problem was the half-serrations. They do work fine in my experience, but they don't sell.

 

[Nimick]

I could swear I wrote this same review four years ago. Or more, was it more? I don't know.

 

[Mossyhorn]

Yeah you probably did. It seems that this is the way the forums going. It's great for new members, but very old for those of us that have heard it before.

 

[VictorLouis]

I know this won't make sense to most folks, but the Alias flat-out feels better in my grip than either a 'zaan, CLassic or 21. I have not laid hands on a 25, but don't see how it could be THAT much different. Now, I know the build quality is in a whole 'nuther, minor league. But doggone it, that Bradley sure feels good.

 

[ToddM]

It makes perfect sense, there's a lot to be said for ergonomics and everyone's hands are different, feel is a big part of it for most. For example I just can't accept the mini-grip because of the "cheap" feeling short handle. The ESEE 4 everyone loves has too short of a handle for me, or it just doesn't fit right. I "butchered" a hogue folder handle because I didn't like the deep finger cutout that "forced" my hand into only one position I didn't find comfy. I love my DPX HEFT 4 handle but hate my HEFT 6 handle, it's way too wide/thick at the butt end compared to the 4" for me. My strider was that way, I got a good one, solid lock up, centered, good grind but hated the blocky handle, though it does make me want to try a CC version. I've ground on the G10 handles of just about every knife I own, and honestly it's a "quirk that irks" with me how even $200 street price folders have sharp handle edges that can be drastically improved with nothing more than some sandpaper and a respirator in 5 minutes. It doesn't matter how expensive it is, if it doesn't feel/fit right it's probably not worth much to the user.

 

[Muaddib1116]

I just got my Alias 2 back from Benchmade today, and I am very pleased. They fixed the issue with the ball-detent/blade stop alignment, now it has a nice solid feel when closed. I'm not sure what they had to do to fix it, but I suspect that they had to replace the scales. The tiny scratch near the pivot screw is gone and I'm pretty sure the blade is the same since that tiny jimping grind mark is still there on the spine. The lockbar is still pretty sticky, but I'm guessing that some break-in and some pencil graphite will resolve that.

I'm not sure if absence made the heart grow fonder or if my one real gripe about the closed-blade play just made me overly critical, but my opinion of this knife is now very very favorable. It's still no Sebenza, but if I had bought this knife in this condition before my Seb, I might have had second thoughts about making the leap (but let's not delude ourselves, I would have bought the Seb eventually anyways).

I'm going to have to hunt down a regular grey finish Alias 2 though, because this blue one is just too pretty to carry.

 

[Confederate]

Photos?

 

[Muaddib1116]

Ok, here they are, here's a bunch of them. Sorry about the lint, it's from the alcohol soaked paper towel that I wiped it down with, it wasn't visible with the naked eye.

 

[Slabwax]

I think I'm going to tack one of these down. I love the blue finish.