C134 Gayle Bradley: the Beauty & the Beast

Nemo

Nemo

Joined
Oct 16, 1998
Messages
1,697
Hello,

I have ordered last week to a Canadian seller on Ebay (great service BTW, 7 days door to door from Canada to France!) the C134 which I was inamored with since I ever saw it on the Spyderco catalog.
It was love at first sight.

The Beauty:
GBeautiful.jpg


Three Elegant Amigos:
ThreeAmigos.jpg


Top is a BM800HS the famous AFCK in M2. The first modern "tactical knife" with a non stainless steel blade to caught my eye 12 years ago...
And also my good old Starmate (#776) which has been in Hell and back and is still as solid as ever... (the eccentric pivot helped to eleminate any wear concern with the linerlock!)

The GB is simply the smoothest out of the box. (The C123 Captain is as smooth, also the Paramilitary I owned and the Tie Millie...)
The fit and finish are top notch. Really the Taiwanese craftsmen behind such a jewel are true gems and they honor Spyderco by their attention to details and their quality of production. They are true jewellers !

GBPrecision.jpg

Quoting Sal: the thick liner lock is solid as a RIL. The thin blade, the gentle belly, and the deep hollow ground give a unique "pocket lightsaber" experience. You can whittle some hairs !!! And a CPM M4 steel blade at a RC of 65 ! This is going to be fun !!!
Gayle Bradley is to the knife-making what Ferrari is to Formula One: performance oriented. The very nice and grippy CF handle give a real motor-sport feeling. Mr Bradley is really welcome in Sal Escuderia, as we know how much Mr Glesser is in love with high performance cars ! (The "spyder" in Spyderco...)

The handle is square and heavy but I love heavy butt knife and square handle. My love for the Sharpfinger pattern alsways reflected that.
The balance is perfectly centered under the middle finger. The knife feel very alive and agile.
GBBalance.jpg

I also love how the choil is integrated to the handle. The grip is really secure and I don't have any concern about the blade to close on my finger or to have my hand slip on the edge even with wet hands.

Also like the Starmate the straight pattern give you a very confortable reverse grip or up edge grip.
GBReverse.jpg

The Ti Millie may be my Spydergrail but the Gayle Bradley is my Dream EDC !
The C134 is a beast of a workhorse which is dressed like a gentleman slipjoint.
Oh, and I can open and close that knife with my right and my left hand with ease.

cheers
Nemo
My new little blog...http://nemoknivesreview.wordpress.com
 
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Very nice review and pic's, the GB is quite the knife to behold.
It must just be me,but I find the carbon fiber handles, on my Sage, GB and Terzoula slippery.
 
Thanks for the review, Nemo. I'm also very fond of my GB. This is one of those knives where pictures don't do it justice... it has to be held and felt to be appreciated. I also like heavier folders with full liners, so this one is a good choice for me.
 
The chance also to use such a thin blade with an high performance grind made of such a steel... this is a whittling dream come true.
I used to love to whittle with my M2 blade as it gave some kind of "patina" to the wood.
Also I noticed the best wood chisels were made in M2...
I don't know if it's the fine grain of the steel but the fact is if you gently remove some wood, you will notice like a shiny polished patina on the surface sculpted.
The same with CPM M4. The GB is a wood lover.

The GB is my replacement for my good old C55 PE Starmate after 12 years of good and loyal service. Time to be a drawer queen !
 
the blade is fantastic, I can't agree with the grip though, with the edge so close to the choil I was a bit scared of slipping on that blade. I jimped the scales on mine and some partial jimping on the liners, now it is secure but, still not secure like a mili or the sage. I love mine just the same the maker is extremely good at his craft.
here's a couple pics of mine, I also weight relieved the liners.
gb034.jpg

gb039.jpg

gb023.jpg
 
Non skeletonized liners -> less mess to clean.
Full liners mirror finish: great balance and easy rinsing under the tap !
YMMV.
The GB is perfect as it is IMHO.
 
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those are some nice knifes Nemo, that BM looks awesome. Do you have a Military as well? if not you're missing out
 
Great comments :thumbup: on a great knife with great ergos made from top-drawer materials, designed by a talented user/competitor, at an unbelievable street price.

I find it one-hand/either-hand friendly, like you.

I bought one as soon as they were available and was so impressed I bought another as a spare immediately, which I seldom do.

I hope this doesn't sound critical, but I've been surprised at the number of people who feel they need to modify this knife to "improve" it. I picked it up with the idea that Mr. Bradley probably knows how to design a hard-use folder and haven't found any reason to change my view on that.

Nemo said:
Hello,

I have ordered last week to a Canadian seller on Ebay (great service BTW, 7 days door to door from Canada to France!) the C134 which I was inamored with since I ever saw it on the Spyderco catalog.
It was love at first sight.

Top is a BM800HS the famous AFCK in M2. The first "tactical knife" with non stainless steel blade to caught my eye 12 years ago...
And also my good old Starmate (#776) which has been in Hell and back and is still as solid as ever...

The GB is simply the smoothest out of the box.
The fit and finish is top notch. Really the Taiwanese craftmen behind such a jewel are true gems and they honor Spyderco by their attention to details and their quality of production. They are jewellers !

The liner lock is solid as a RIL. The thin blade, the gentle belly, and the deep hollow ground give a unique "pocket lightsaber" experience. You can whittle some hairs !!! And at a RC of 65 ! This is going to be fun !!!

Gayle Bradley is to the knifemaking what Ferrari is to Formula One: performance oriented. The very nice and grippy CF handle give a real motorsport feeling. Mr Bradley is really welcom in Sal Escuderia, as we know how much Mr Glesser is in love with high performance cars !

The handle is square and heavy but I love heavy butt knife and square handle. My love for the Sharpfinger pattern alsways reflected that.
The balance is perfectly centered under the middle finger. The knife feel very alive and agile.

I also love how the choil is integrated to the handle. The grip is really secure and I don't have any concern about the blade to close on my finger or to have my hand slip on the edge even with wet hands.

Also like the Starmate the straight pattern give you a very confortable reverse grip or up edge grip.

The Ti Millie may be my Spydergrail but the Gayle Bradley is my Dream EDC !
The C134 is a beast of a workhorse which is dressed like a gentleman slipjoint.
Oh, and I can open and close that knife with my right and my left hand with ease.

cheers
Nemo
Click to expand...
 
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SCREEM said:
those are some nice knifes Nemo, that BM looks awesome. Do you have a Military as well? if not you're missing out
Click to expand...

Thank you !
I owned a CPM440V Millie and been written some reviews on the C36 with F. Perrin back in 1997... Gosh ! Time flies !!!
My favorite Sal design with the UKPK !
Now reviewing the Tie Millie. My Spydergrail !


You can always adjust a knife to suite your need, tune it and adjust it. I remember Bob Kasper doing some nice tuning on the AFCK to suit his view in self defense.
Also it's a great way to own a unique knife which reflect your personality.
But I also respect the designer knowledge and wisdom and would never ask my own view to be changed at the source. If M. Bradley designed his first Spyderco that way, every little details got their own importance. You can be agree or not agree, like or dislike a designer... But in the case of the GB, 27 months (if I remember well) has been necessary to got from the designer mind to the ELU. He certainly has tested many prototypes before his final decision.
Now I'm happy to walk in his shoes and enjoy his knife as he has designed it. It's a powerful experience to understand his purposes behind his design. To see how the knife maker wants his tool to be used.
By knowing his creation you learn about the man also and share his knowledge and wisdom.
It's like reading a book and start to change the words and sentences to suite our fancy... A knife maker is an artist and he deserve our respect too. They are not creating prototypes for us to improve but they give us the best of their craft ! Like it or leave it.
Who are we to teach him how to make a knife ?
My 2 cents. :-)
 
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JNewell said:
Great comments :thumbup: on a great knife with great ergos made from top-drawer materials, designed by a talented user/competitor, at an unbelievable street price.

I find it one-hand/either-hand friendly, like you.

I bought one as soon as they were available and was so impressed I bought another as a spare immediately, which I seldom do.

I hope this doesn't sound critical, but I've been surprised at the number of people who feel they need to modify this knife to "improve" it. I picked it up with the idea that Mr. Bradley probably knows how to design a hard-use folder and haven't found any reason to change my view on that.
Click to expand...

I'm with you on that +1000

I can open and close mine one handed without a second thought.
 
My only complaint would be about the clip which is very tight agaisnt the CF handle. When you take the GB from your pocket, all your pants are following it ! :D
I try to loose the clip a bit but without success.
(I don't want to break it)
No big deal.

Also I thought to carry it tip down and open it like my Millie (spyderdrop style) but the hole is far from the pivot and deep in the pocket. I keep it tip up carried like my Catbyrd and I use my index finger and momentum to gently open the blade.
Closing it, is absolutly no issue unless you wear gloves and drop the knife in dish soap.
In that case only a UKPK is easy to close !
 
I JUST received mine today and echo your sentiments !

A beautiful knife, the blade arrived very sharp :)
Also I noticed that the edge is almost convexed slightly, so there isn't a shoulder
at the top of the bevel, it blends in very smoothly to the hollow grind
so the knife doesn't have to fight to slice into things.
I immediately used the knife to open some hard plastic wrapping on a new
cell phone my daughter picked up, had to carefully carve around the outer
edge so in case something went wrong with the phone, we could take the package
back without much mess. Now normally it can be hard to slice but the GB went
very easily through and around the heavy plastic !

and the full handle made it easier to control, no twisting about while you gripped it.

My only nit pic would be the sharp edges along the hole and across the hump above
the hole, the edges needed to be knocked down slightly, which I've just taken care of
with some ceramic stones.

It has replaced my old edc, a Kershaw OD1 which is also a nice knife as well, but the new
kid on the block has taken over. We shall see how long this will last, I used to have the
Stretch, loved that knife too but it was just a bit too thin handled for me, the GB has no
such problems in that area and I don't find it to be too heavy at all.

Nice job Spyderco! and Mr Bradley!
G2
 
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