Customized Gayle Bradleys?

R

RJ80

Joined
Aug 13, 2012
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I was a little slow jumping on the Gayle Bradley bandwagon, but I received mine yesterday and now I'm fully on-board! This has to be the highest quality knife I've experienced in its price range. It even seems to be built better than several I have that cost almost twice as much. So far I haven't had much opportunity to actually use it, but if the performance matches the fit and finish I'm definitely going to have a new favorite knife.

Assuming that the performance is what I expect it to be I'm thinking of getting the knife customized. What I have in mind is a low-rider pocket clip, blue twill scales, polished hardware and a slight relief for access to the lockbar since the factory chamfer is a bit hard on the finger. That being said, I'm open to suggestions, so if any of you have suggestions, or better yet, pictures of customized Gayle Bradleys I'd love to hear from you. Thanks in advance.
 
RJ80 said:
a slight relief for access to the lockbar
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I got a new GB for Christmas recently. The relief for access is the first thing that I thought about but I've been told that with a little use it becomes easier to unlock so I'm going to wait and see. The scales are already pretty nice, the pocket clip is a personal thing but I can see the advantage to that. There is another sub forum here for a guy that makes low ride clips. What I'm saying is that it is pretty hard to improve on this knife.
 
It is a near perfect knife and that is why no one has really modified it.

A low rider clip can be bought from STR.

I can access the lock with working gloves. I posted a video of it on youtube. Your thumb just needs to get use to it and it was designed that way.
 
i just made a deep-carry clip for mine and acid-washed the blade and liners. other than that, i saw no need to do anything else.
 
RJ80 said:
a slight relief for access to the lockbar
Click to expand...

I would not own a Gayle Bradley without this mod. Occluded Spydie holes and hidden liner locks are just not my thing.

IMG_7678.jpg

Work by Tom Krein.

IMG_7674.jpg
 
"I would not own a Gayle Bradley without this mod. Occluded Spydie holes and hidden liner locks are just not my thing."


I had to look that word up, but I totally agree with that:) The Spydie hole should be fully accessible on both sides. I really wish the Southard's Spydie hole was not occluded from the backside. I don't have a Gayle Bradley so I do not know about the liner lock, but it seems some guys do not mind it, although it always gets brought up so it must bother enough people. One of the things Spyderco has done with their CQI and many knives is make the lines of the knife flow when closed better, in particular the exposed tang near the front of the handle. The Gayle Bradley is curiously "un-refined" in this manner. Wonder if you could change that.
 
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Powernoodle, that mod looks really good. I would probably prefer something a little more subtle but I wouldn't object at all if mine looked like that.

As far as other mods I agree with most who say none are really necessary. On the other hand, the knife itself isn't a necessity for me either, I have plenty of other ones. I'm looking to customize it because I like it and want to make it my own. I think I have some good ideas in that regard but I'm looking for input in case anyone else has done something cool with one of these knives that I haven't thought of. I see this knife getting a lot of pocket time and I'd like mine to be a little different than all the other ones out there. Thanks again
 
nccole said:
I don't have a Gayle Bradley so I do not know about the liner lock, but it seems some guys do not mind it, although it always gets brought up so it must bother enough people.
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I have other knives with hidden liners such as my old AFCK and they have never been a problem for me but the GB's liners are about twice as thick meaning there is a LOT of spring pressure to overcome. I was not worried about it until I got it and experienced it firsthand. I have read that this will let up a little bit after you've used the knife a bit so I will wait and see with mine. I can close it easy enough if I deliberately position my thumb just right but this takes extra time and concentration. I don't open/close the knife that many times during the day so it isn't a big deal for me. Even though the hole is partially occluded this doesn't really hamper the opening for me although the bigger and less occluded hole of the Para 2 makes that knife very foolproof to open quickly.
 
powernoodle said:
I would not own a Gayle Bradley without this mod. Occluded Spydie holes and hidden liner locks are just not my thing.

IMG_7678.jpg

Work by Tom Krein.

IMG_7674.jpg
Click to expand...


If they came factory like this, i would already own one. I'm sure at some point i'm going to buy this knife, and this will no doubt be my first mod. All those who say they adjust..my hat's off to you. That's just something i don't WANT to adjust to, simply because the alternative is so much easier and makes so much more sense. There are some things in life that make no sense to fight and adjust to, and for me this is one of them.

BTW I love the mirror/sky pics. Very cool.
 
I checked out the STR clips and, as I mentioned, I really like the relief by the lockbar on Powernoodle's. I think those mods will go on the list once I get around to it. I don't find the hole hard to access for opening and I have no problem using the lockbar with my thumb but I'm left handed and I've always closed liner and frame locks by pressing the bar with my left index finger and starting the blade closed with my thumb. The liner tears up my index finger when I close the knife this way. I suppose I could change, but years of muscle memory are against me.

Has anyone done custom scales on these? I like the carbon fiber but something different might be cool too.
 
austonh said:
Why mess with perfection? ;)
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Why not? It's really close, but I wouldn't quite call it perfection. If it makes you feel better I'll take one for the team and buy a second one so that I can leave one stock and mod the other. :D
 
Wow, I like the DLC job. How much did that cost? I'd buy a Gayle Bradley, if only they offered a DLC blade.
 
I'm curious about the DLC as well, looks good. I'd be looking for someone to do some scales in silver twill to go with it if I had that done to mine.
 
This concentrated vinegar patina worked really well for me.
 

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STR will make a clip for almost anything and certainly has options for Spydercos in general. Last year I had him make a low-rider clip for my GB that looked like a pen clip, very neat.
 
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