Gayle Bradley question

R

riceboy72

Joined
Feb 7, 2008
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Greetings everyone,

I've been enjoying a new-to-me Gayle Bradley that arrived in my mailbox yesterday and believe it really does live up to its hype. However, something's nagging me so I come to you, the experts who also use and love the Gayle Bradley, to find out if this is normal.

I dug for the specific term used to describe shutting your knife and the blade "snaps" closed, usually at or about the halfway mark (I hope this makes sense) but can't find it to save my life. Basically all my knives do it at or around halfway, but the Gayle Bradley seems to not do this until the blade is nearly closed, at which time it does it -- just without the "snap."

So what's this called when it snaps shut, what part of the knife is responsible for it (I'm learning the technical parts and operation of knives finally), and is this normal for the Gayle Bradley? I originally looked up ball detent issues, but it appears it only prevents the knife from opening when it's closed and does not help it along when closing it.

I have no idea if this makes sense, but I hope it does. I want to love this knife but this little thing about it bothered me enough that I had to ask.

Thanks for your help, and your patience with helping me understand knives better.
 
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Hiya!

Congrats on the GB! It's a knife that loves to be used, and loves you back for it.

As far as your question's concerned, your particular knife isn't faulty. That's what it's supposed to do. The "snap" shut is simply the ball detent pulling the blade "to" by popping into the divot on the blade made for it. It's gonna happen super late on any liner or framelock. If you're used to backlocks where the lock spring's pressure will force a blade to close at the last third of its travel, then yes, the GB's liner lock is gonna feel different.

So yeah, you're really just feeling the difference of a liner/framelock versus a backlock (or, to be completely fair, versus a ball lock or axis lock, too). Nothing more, nothing less. I wouldn't worry terribly about it.

Hope this helps! I'd love to hear how you like the GB!
 
Ah, FriarPhenn, the man whose Bradley collection made me swoon and whose posts and pics about how hard you can use these knives helped me pull the trigger on one, THANK YOU. This is exactly what I was looking for.

And you're right; I compared the GB's closure to an Endura and a Native, as well as a Benchmade Griptilian, and didn't consider how the different locking systems all played into how they close.

So far, I love this thing. At first, when I opened the box, I was a bit underwhelmed and thought, "So this is it? This is the famed Gayle Bradley?" After an hour of monkeying with it, I know realize why you, along with the others who posted about it's hard use, love this knife and say it's among the best in the Taichung offerings, love the Gayle Bradley so. It certainly is a good hunk of steel.
 
Riceboy, congrats on a fine knife...

I think you are asking about the 'self-close' you typically get with back locks? When the blade gets pulled back into the handle at small blade openings. If thats what you are referring to then Friar is right, you will not get that with liner locks like the GB.
 
Thank you, Brock, and yes, that's exactly what I was trying to describe. And I did the unthinkable yesterday -- I dropped the GB on my aggregate concrete driveway. I feared the worst when I picked it up, but all it had was a slight blemish to the edge of the liner, and a very slight ding to the tip which was remedied today.

I'm still kicking myself in the ass for it. This knife really is built like a tank, and rightfully so.
 
Perhaps that word you were looking for is "talk". Talk is the term for the snap of a knife as it closes. If the talk is good, it snaps in place crisply. If the talk is not so good, it may be mushy or not snap closed at all.
 
FWIW, while most of the liner locks on the market today are "Walker style" liner locks that provide excellent "flickability" at the expense of minimal "self close" and poor blade retention, there are still some liner locks that operate very much like back locks and slip joints because they rely on a back spring, rather than a tiny ball to provide those things.
 
Deacon,

Some examples of those knives using springs for closure would be ...............


That's interesting, never realized that. I have lots to learn.
 
osta.doc said:
Deacon,

Some examples of those knives using springs for closure would be ...............


That's interesting, never realized that. I have lots to learn.
Click to expand...
Victorinox Sentinel is the one I'm most familiar with...

vnox_sentinel_02.jpg


vnox_sentinel_00.jpg



...but I'm sure there are others as well. I know Case made some liner locks with backsprings years ago, pretty sure they still makes one or more that way. Heck, before Michael Walker came up with the ball detent style liner lock, all liner locks were built that way. Most of the locks were fairly flimsy, at least some of the older Cases used brass liners.
 
Waking this thread up because I heard someplace that the GB blade thickness is about the same as the PM2 all the way down to the point. Is this true? I would have thought with the "hard use" proclamation/idea behind the GB, that the blade would be thicker than the PM2. Not that it really needs to be, I just thought....

Could someone who has both put up a pic of the GB and PM2 blades. I'd like to see a thickness comparison.

Thanks
 
The PM2 blade stock is 3.5mm, the GB is 3mm, according to the Spyderco website...

I have both, and I can tell you the PM2 indeed uses thicker blade stock. No picture at the moment, sorry...

The PM2 has a FFG with a distal taper though, which makes the second half of the blade nearest to the point thinner than the GB.
 
Brock O Lee said:
The PM2 blade stock is 3.5mm, the GB is 3mm, according to the Spyderco website...

I have both, and I can tell you the PM2 indeed uses thicker blade stock. No picture at the moment, sorry...

The PM2 has a FFG with a distal taper though, which makes the second half of the blade nearest to the point thinner than the GB.
Click to expand...

Ah, I see now. No picture needed then. Thanks for clearing that up for me.
 
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