Reprofiled Spyderco Gayle Bradley

S

SirSharpSauce

Joined
Aug 1, 2013
Messages
67
For the past few weeks I've had the Gayle Bradley I couldn't be happier for its fit and finish and overall design. However I wanted to test the limits of the M4 steel and maximize its cutting ability. I ground the secondary bevel to around 9 degrees inclusive and added a tertiary mircobevel of 30 degrees inclusive to add robustness to the thin edge.

Before I thinned the edge:
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While grinding away metal:
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I duct taped the majority of the blade to retain its satin finish and geometry, but later removed it when working with finer stones. (Warning: duct tape clogged my Arkansas stones, fortunately the stones used were inexpensive)

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My Spyderco managed to bite me while sharpening. Yes, I like to live on the edge and use my Sharpmaker without the safety rods. ;)

Here are some shots of the GB nearly finished, not quite mirror finished, but I'll be working on it.
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It's penetration of wood with 45 degree pushcuts has greatly increased, it would probably do even better if I had ground off part of the hollow grind shoulder. Another day...
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It fared favorably against grinds (scandi, convex, and flat) that would normally dominate hollow ground blades, because of it's new thinness. Surprisingly, wedging wasn't too big of a problem.
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Show me any alterations you've made to your blades, whether they increased performance or not. I'm sure glad I did!
 
My reprofiled GB grinded away 1/8" of the shoulder, with lowest angle around 14 or 16 degrees inclusive (couldn't recall exactly). Maybe my calc is off. I found that a micro-bevel with inclusize angle at 20 or more is required, otherwise the edge roll too easily.
 
Good point, with the edges this thin rolling could be a problem, even with this tough steel. If I find my edges roll too quickly, I'll experiment with a 40 degree inclusive microbevel like you've said.
 
Looks good! I am not that brave, the lowest I have ever taken my knives to is 15 per side. Please let us know how it holds up, if it fares well I might have to give it a try! Thanks for sharing
 
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This is an update about the Bradley: I managed to get it up to mirror polish and it performed superbly thus far. No issues with edge rolling and when paired with a traditional folder, boy do they look amazing.
 
Beautiful edge you've archived there!
Makes me want to own a s90v knive ;)

Here's my thinned Esee 5 edge... no clue how many degrees... freehanded on waterstones till 5000 grit and then stropped till I was in complete zen modus :D
It did improve it's cutting abilities.... I'm considering removing the coating from the primary bevel and polishing it to improve cutting abilities further.

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Wow. So, you did the secondary bevel freehand then the secondary with the Sharpmaker? I did my GB to just 40° inclusive with the Wicked Edge and it turned out great. My reasoning was that the grind is already very thin, so going thinner would be overkill, but yours turned out great. 9° inclusive on the secondary is unbelievable.
 
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