Gayle Bradley weight loss

There is a clear difference between use and abuse. I use every one of my knives, except the one my wife bought me as a gift. Don't want to break or lose that one. It takes me awhile to save and pay for a good knife, there for I tend to take care of my stuff to get the longest life and enjoyment out of them. To see some one take a grinder to a knife that is not cheap and do a hack job on it, gets a knee jerk reaction from me. But now I am a non-user, collector only, who does not understand how to actually use a knife. Wow. I use tools everyday of my life, and if I saw someone take a Dremel to a Dewalt Drill and hack big squares out of it to cut down its weight, I would say the same thing. But I guess that means I do not use my tools, I just collect cordless drills and use them as pencil pushers.
 
I totally agree that, once you pay for a knife, it's yours to do with as you damn well please. The only thing that "disturbs" me about this particular mod is that, unless I'm just seeing things in the photo below, the cuts in the right liner appear to go into the lock bar. If that's the case, it could cause problems for him down the road.

SCREEM said:
gb007.jpg
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Paul
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My Personal Website ---- Beginners Guide to Spyderco Collecting ---- Kiwimania ---- Spydiewiki
Dead horses beaten, sacred cows tipped, chimeras hunted when time permits.
WTC # 1458 - 1504 - 1508 - Never Forget, Never Forgive!
It's easy to grin when your ship comes in and good fortune and fame are your lot, but the man worthwhile is the man who can smile with his shorts twisted up in a knot. - Morey Amsterdam
 
SCREEM - Thanks for sharing! I really like what you did to the Millie. I noticed the same thing that you did about the choil, and thought about sanding the g-10, but your jimping mod is way cooler. I did not mind the weight of the GB, but as far as the other negative comments here, it is your knife. Keep doing what you want - it is yours after all, and it is not a sacred object. :rolleyes: I mod my stuff all of the time - good or bad - because I can. Keep up the good work. :thumbup::thumbup: Some mods work, and some do not - but success requires trying! I suspect the same posters who did not like your mod, would have loved it if you would have used a wire EDM or a milling machine to make the cutouts perfect in the liners. :):) Your technique did the same thing, it just wasn't pretty enough. ;)
 
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I totally agree with you Deacon. My point is simply this, do not expect all to understand, do not expect all to praise you for your workmanship. The idea to lighten the liners was ok, the execution was poor. I doubt that Tom Krein would be in business if he did work of that quality when he mods knives for people. Again, I totally agree that it was his knife and he can do what he wants with it. I just do not get all the praise for his efforts, and the throwing of knife collectors under the bus for not understanding why someone would do that to a knife of that caliber. We are a community of collectors and users. At the end of the day, we all love sharp pointy things. He would have been better off buying the right drill bit to do the job and drill holes, not cut it with a dremel. Or, just call any of the various knife moders around here and ask them what they would do, or if they could do it for you. If you could drop 100 plus for the knife, you could save up the 50 or so it would cost to have some one do it for you correctly.
 
Yeah, lockbar geometry is not something you want to play with.
As far as I can remember if a lock side liner is skeletonized they only put holes well below the lockbar. Any holes behind the lockbar are very small.
 
Bolt said:
I totally agree with you Deacon. My point is simply this, do not expect all to understand, do not expect all to praise you for your workmanship. The idea to lighten the liners was ok, the execution was poor. I doubt that Tom Krein would be in business if he did work of that quality when he mods knives for people. Again, I totally agree that it was his knife and he can do what he wants with it. I just do not get all the praise for his efforts, and the throwing of knife collectors under the bus for not understanding why someone would do that to a knife of that caliber. We are a community of collectors and users. At the end of the day, we all love sharp pointy things. He would have been better off buying the right drill bit to do the job and drill holes, not cut it with a dremel. Or, just call any of the various knife moders around here and ask them what they would do, or if they could do it for you. If you could drop 100 plus for the knife, you could save up the 50 or so it would cost to have some one do it for you correctly.
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I fully agree.

On the other hand, I'll admit I've butchered things when I was in a hurry to "get it done", especially in my younger days when funds were limited. Forty some odd years ago I turned the rather attractive factory grips on a Browning Medalist into an ugly mess by building up a heel rest out of plywood and wood filler. :eek: Looked about as bad as the liners on that Bradley, but my average jumped from the low 250's to the low 270's. Plus, at least after the first couple weeks, it tended to distract whoever we were competing against more than the guys on my team. :D

Paul
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My Personal Website ---- Beginners Guide to Spyderco Collecting ---- Kiwimania ---- Spydiewiki
Dead horses beaten, sacred cows tipped, chimeras hunted when time permits.
WTC # 1458 - 1504 - 1508 - Never Forget, Never Forgive!
It's easy to grin when your ship comes in and good fortune and fame are your lot, but the man worthwhile is the man who can smile with his shorts twisted up in a knot. - Morey Amsterdam
 
I think it doesn't matter what it looks like, gets the job done.

FWIW the Captain has the liners drilled/skeletonized on the lock side.
 
I don't think the cutout in the lock side liner of the modded Bradley actually extends into the lock bar. Maybe SCREEM can tell us more. What looks like the lock bar there might be an abandoned cut in the liner or a deep gouge. There is a cutout next to the bottom of the lock bar in the stock Bradley, but you can just see a little of it in the pic.
 
I left at least 3/16th from all places I deemed structural, I will post pics when I can. I did rush this mod(20 min) but can't bend the liners at all, they are just that thick. I can feel the weight of the blade past the handle now
 
Bolt said:
He would have been better off buying the right drill bit to do the job and drill holes, not cut it with a dremel. Or, just call any of the various knife moders around here and ask them what they would do, or if they could do it for you. If you could drop 100 plus for the knife, you could save up the 50 or so it would cost to have some one do it for you correctly.
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In what ways would that have been better?
 
The balance point of the GB when open is in the second bottom indent from the front of the knife. It's not as handle heavy as it may seem.

Weight -wise, I classify the GB as medium. Compared to the ZT 0200, it's 5.5 oz. versus 7.7. And the foot print is less . . .
 
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Bolt said:
There is a clear difference between use and abuse. I use every one of my knives, except the one my wife bought me as a gift. Don't want to break or lose that one. It takes me awhile to save and pay for a good knife, there for I tend to take care of my stuff to get the longest life and enjoyment out of them. To see some one take a grinder to a knife that is not cheap and do a hack job on it, gets a knee jerk reaction from me. But now I am a non-user, collector only, who does not understand how to actually use a knife. Wow. I use tools everyday of my life, and if I saw someone take a Dremel to a Dewalt Drill and hack big squares out of it to cut down its weight, I would say the same thing. But I guess that means I do not use my tools, I just collect cordless drills and use them as pencil pushers.
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Hack Job? :confused: You need to read "Zen and the art of Motorcycle Maintenance" SCREEM's work may not appeal to your sensibilities as a quality job, but so what? The definition of quality is "meeting the requirements". It may not be pretty, but it met his requirements!
 
hardheart said:
In what ways would that have been better?
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Personally, IMHO, drilling would have been easier with better looks but I also believe offset round holes may leave the liners lighter while yielding a stronger liner than square or rectangular holes in same liner(s). A series of small holes strategically placed may yield better overall balance as well.
 
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Bolt said:
WOW!!! That is like seeing a ferrari that has been chopped up and given low rider rims with spinners.
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A Ferrari?

Hardly, it was made in Taiwan.

That's the beauty of a user/beater knife, do what you want with it.
 
Judging by the various responses here so far, it is clear that we have three different camps here at BladeForums. Camp One is for those that love form only, and rarely use their knives. They just collect them for viewing purposes. Camp Two is for function only, and these folks could care less what it looks like, as long as it does the job. Camp Three is for those of us that like a healthy blend of both Camps One and Two.
Campers from camp two will quickly attack those that camp in the other two camps, while those in camps one and three will cringe at what campers from camp two will do to their knives in the name of function.
I make my home in camp three, and there is no point further discussing this from my end, because those of you defending this project are clearly camp two people and we will never see eye to eye.
Enjoy your Bradley and thanks for supporting Spyderco. A company that delivers both form and function.
 
DavidZ, in closing, I would like to refer you to Dictionary.com, as your definition of the word "quality" is a little off.
Quality is per the dictionary: high grade; superiority; excellence
This mod to this knife falls short of this definition.
The word you are probably thinking of is Sufficient.
In a sentence, it should read; This mod is sufficient for the owner of this knife.
You can not use the word quality in a positive way here, without lowering your own standards.
I find myself walking away from this thread very thankful that some of you here do not work in the Spyderco factory.
 
My only advice...don't stop modding. To me the fun of knife collecting is changing the knives to suit you. I have damn near destroyed some knives by modding but others I could not be more pleased. I improve about 75% of the knives I mod. To me that's pretty good. There have been sacrificial lambs along the way but thats part of the learning process.( You should see my Emerson commander converted to a "rhino". It would scare the living crap out of you.)
TC
 
Bolt said:
DavidZ, in closing, I would like to refer you to Dictionary.com, as your definition of the word "quality" is a little off.
Quality is per the dictionary: high grade; superiority; excellence
This mod to this knife falls short of this definition.
The word you are probably thinking of is Sufficient.
In a sentence, it should read; This mod is sufficient for the owner of this knife.
You can not use the word quality in a positive way here, without lowering your own standards.
I find myself walking away from this thread very thankful that some of you here do not work in the Spyderco factory.
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Since we're talking about the dictionary definition, also note that the word "quality" is a NOUN. It's a THING. It makes no sense to say "a high quality product." It does, on the other hand, make sense to say "a product of high quality."

I love grammar lessons lol
 
SCREEM, it's nice to see people mod a knife to their own wants/needs. I have modified many of mine as well, and some people will never understand that it is YOUR knife, you can do as you want. It isn't the prettiest job, but who cares? You will get better with time.

On another note, I hope that you didn't cut into the lock bar as that could, as Paul noted, cause you issues in the future.

Perhaps next time you could drill holes where the corners would be then connect the dots? A cobalt drill bit and slow speeds makes pretty easy work of liners and would produce a cleaner look and less likely to accidentally cut things you didn't intend to.

Dan
 
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