Impact mark on lockbar of Bradley Alias

Macchina

Macchina

Joined
Apr 7, 2006
Messages
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I received a used Bradley Alias in a trade today. This knife is amazing, very well made and I love the blade shape. Looking closely at the face of the lockbar, I saw a mark I'd never seen on a framelock before. Do these knives come like this from the factory, or is this wear from heavy use? The knife is very sticky when closing it, but I expected this from what others have said here. I don't care much about the lock being sticky, I am only concerned about the knife developing blade play in the future because when the knife locks up, the lockbar nest's in the indentation shown in the pics below. If you have one of these, could you check it out to see if yours is the same?
Thanks,
Michaelmcgo
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The guy I traded with was not aware of this mark and is willing to reverse if I choose. I don't feel at all cheated, I'm just wondering if this indention is normal.
 
I can't see the pics you posted, but that is due to the filter in place on the system I'm typing from. There will be marks on the stop bar from the very first opening. If the blade is currently tight, no vertical play, then it is probably alright. One thing to keep in mind is that if vertical blade play does develop down the road, all you have to do is rotate that stop pin a tiny bit and that will put lockup back almost like new.
 
It is a lot more than a mark, it is an indentation about .020" deep. When the lockbar engages the tang of the blade, it nest into this indentation (the lock bar cannot travel any farther over because of the sharp edge on the indentation). I will take better pics at lunch time.
 
To me it looks like the knife was opened and then spine whacked hard and that created the indent. I have seen people do this with liner locks to "seat" the lock (which is not needed at all). I wouldn't accept the knife personally. That's just me.
 
I had one, and it was like that. I do think it's part of the design, and a spinewhack necessary to do that would be impressive!
 
I posted more pics. As you can see in the pic below, there is a lip formed. The liner and tang currently fit together against this lip. The depression is so deep, it almost looks intentional, perhaps to prevent the liner from traveling all of the way over. If somebody owns a full size Alias, could they take a look at their liner and see if the depression is put in there at the factory. The lockup is currently perfect right at about 50%, and there is almost no blade play.
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i think the normal wear of the liner would have to allow the lockbar to travel further under the tang, and it looks to me like the depression is stopping the liner right there...not good i think
 
If there is no blade play now then I would'nt worry about it too much. It looks like lockup is about 50% which is'nt bad. Perhaps someone else who owns a Bradley could take a look at theirs.
One thing to keep in mind is that if vertical blade play does develop down the road, all you have to do is rotate that stop pin a tiny bit and that will put lockup back almost like new.
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I don't know if the Bradley has the same oblong shape on the stop pin as the Sebenza.
 
I didn't see any pics that refer to the Lockbar dirrectly... The 7th picture down does show the lockup, and the lockbar appears to be smooth with no indention as far as I can tell.
 
despite the mystique of Ti, it is similar to Al just harder. It can "flow" under pressure. just hit the "lip" with a stone if it bugs you.
 
It almost looks like something is inlaid on the tip of the lock bar. Maybe it's the pictures, but I recall that some makers either plate or inlay a small bit of carbide at the tip of the Ti lockbars to reduce lockbar wear.
 
RLR said:
I had one, and it was like that. I do think it's part of the design, and a spinewhack necessary to do that would be impressive!
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I didn't see that before. Do you still have yours? If so, could you possibly post a pic.

Do you know why they would do that? Is it to prevent the blade from moving over too far?
 
Glad you posted this question.

I have a brand spanking new Alias that arrived just over a week ago. Thanks New Graham. I've been taken by it ever since it came out of its box. Wonderful knife. Certainly the finest folder I've ever had the pleasure of EDCing. After reading your post I looked at the lock bar and under strong light I found that there is, in fact a slight "fence" cast into the front of the lock bar that runs along the top and out side edge. Engagement of the bar with the blade tang occurs inside this fence. Pretty cool. Since mine is so fresh from dealer, the wear in this circumscribed area is minimal to none. From the box the bar engages the tang right at 50%. I can see where the "fence" on the outside edge will at some point limit movement of the bar but it will take a long time for mine to reach that point.

Thanks for posting. Had you not done so, I never would have noticed this detail.

poco
 
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