Gayle Bradley M4 folder?

Reeek

Reeek

Joined
Aug 16, 2008
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Does anyone have an idea what this upcoming knife will look like and if the blade will be coated or uncoated?
 
Haven't heard anything either. IIRC it's supposed to be a monster folder.:D

I sure hope it is.:thumbup:
 
Sal Glesser said:
The blade is not coated.

sal
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That is good news to me. My M4 knives are uncoated with no corrosion issues, though those in humid areas may not be so lucky. Just keep it covered in tuf glide or mineral oil and dry it off and you should be fine. I am interested in the details of how it will look, it should be fun.

Sal, any idea on the hardness range you are shooting for? My Krein custom is 62-63 RC and performs great. I haven't had my M4 Mule tested but it is similar in performance to the Krein. 62-63 RC seems to be plenty hard for excellent performance without pushing the limits too much. Whatever the hardness ends up at I'm sure it will perform great, because I've come to expect that Spyderco really does it's homework to come up with optimal heat treats that may not have spectacular hardness numbers, but they just plain perform great.

Mike
 
Sal had a proto available at the Eugene show in April and it was far and away the most exciting non-art knife I saw from anyone, not just Spyderco. Super smooth action & great ergos! A good working knife but with tons of class. But not particularly huge as I recall. Sal, any idea when these will be available? I WILL have one of these, no matter what!
 
IIRC carbon fiber handle, Liner lock and blade length shy of 4 inches. No clue as to the blade shape though...:(
 
I recall a good working-blade shape, nothing radical - sort of like the Umnumzaan without the spine-flourishes, and a satin finish.
 
Gayle Bradley designed the knife as a hard user. As two time champion of the cutting competitions, he certainly has the experience to determine what works well. He's also a remarkable person in general. Gayle and his wife Hester are some of those special people. I heard that they are at AG's show this weekend.

His custom knives ar also performance oriented.

The steel was shipped to the maker (CPM-M4) and the maker is beginning production. The plan is to have them this year.

sal
 
This is another must have knife for me. I just haven't been able to find satisfaction with the other brand CPM M4 knives on the market due to several reasons, mostly ergonomics as the other problems were solvable.

Monday morning I'll put in another call to the store I started waiting lists for this and the "tuff". I'll prepay as soon as I find out the price. I don't care if I have to starve for a week, and do without non essentials. I've been waiting for this knife since before it was ever announced. Joe
 
By the way, this steel isn't real fragile. It lives and thrives above Rc 61 IMO. For me, Rc62-63 is ideal. It's not real chippy at this RC, and the steel takes and holds edges like very, very few others. It responds to the strop better than any steel I've encountered.

Please, RC 61 or above. No lower. Thanks, Joe
 
The Mastiff said:
By the way, this steel isn't real fragile. It lives and thrives above Rc 61 IMO. For me, Rc62-63 is ideal. It's not real chippy at this RC, and the steel takes and holds edges like very, very few others. It responds to the strop better than any steel I've encountered.

Please, RC 61 or above. No lower. Thanks, Joe
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I agree with this 100% in my experience! GREAT steel takes an edge like no other I have used!

I will have to see if I can catch up with Gayle tomorrow!

Tom
 
Tom Krein said:
I agree with this 100% in my experience! GREAT steel takes an edge like no other I have used!

I will have to see if I can catch up with Gayle tomorrow!

Tom
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Tom, your M4 Ultimate Caper you built for me takes the best edges I have ever created. My M4 Mule gets extremely sharp too, but I think the thinner edge on the Caper might make it seem just the slightest bit sharper than the Mule. I believe you said my UC was 62 RC, and my M4 Mule sure seems to be in the same hardness range. I just plain LOVE M4, and any time I see M4 in a thread title I have to stop, I just love it's performance and extreme sharpness levels.

Mike
 
I'm not sure what Gayle runs his big custom competition knives at but I suspect it's not under RC 60-62. A folder could easily run at Rc 62 and do all that's typically required of folders within reason.

The Mules sure had a nice heat treat. It would work out great in a folder IMO. Not too low, not too high. It's not chippy even when thinned out and sharpened to 20 degrees inclusive ( and less)

To be honest I'm very grateful to have lived to see knives with the performance and ergonomics and reliability we are taking for granted now.
 
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