Gayle Bradley 2 or Super Freek?

Ok, which one do you like best?

  • Super Freek

    Votes: 21 28.4%

  • Gayle Bradley 2

    Votes: 53 71.6%
  • Total voters
    74
TRfromMT said:
If trying out the M4 is your main goal, get the GB2.

BM heat treat on their M4 was shown to be sub par.

Spyderco's M4 on the other hand is the fold standard.
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I think you have it backwards.
 
DMG said:
I think you have it backwards.
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I don't believe so. I understood BM left theirs a few points short on heat treat, like 58 HRc.

Spyderco is 62 or something. (And the 4 of them I've owned have all has stellar edge holding performance!)

Full disclosure, I've never owned a Super Freek. After general dissatisfaction with QC on some of their other knives and reading about their heat treat I wasn't interested.


EDIT. MY MEMORY SUCKS. I went back and read the heat treat issue. It was their treatment of 3V that was a debacle.

Sorry to misrepresent.
 
TRfromMT said:
I don't believe so. I understood BM left theirs a few points short on heat treat, like 58 HRc.

Spyderco is 62 or something. (And the 4 of them I've owned have all has stellar edge holding performance!)

Full disclosure, I've never owned a Super Freek. After general dissatisfaction with QC on some of their other knives and reading about their heat treat I wasn't interested.


EDIT. MY MEMORY SUCKS. I went back and read the heat treat issue. It was their treatment of 3V that was a debacle.

Sorry to misrepresent.
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Right, their 3v was somewhere from like 55 through 58. Their solution was to toss 3v aside and use M4...
The Bradley upside mounts up. I’m sure the freek is a good BM axis knife.
 
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For me, it's like a Sebenza to a Large Grip. If you want the hand filling beater, go with the Freek. If you want something more refined that carries better, go with the GB2. I think both are great knives, but the GB2 still gets my vote.

21uLJbX.jpg
 
I know of some people who have gone ahead and done a cutout on the show side on their own to make the lockbar on the GB2 a bit more accessible. I'm a little hesitant to do something that extreme but if anyone here has tried it and has pictures that would be interesting.
 
c7m2p3 said:
I know of some people who have gone ahead and done a cutout on the show side on their own to make the lockbar on the GB2 a bit more accessible. I'm a little hesitant to do something that extreme but if anyone here has tried it and has pictures that would be interesting.
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I don't mind the lack of a cutout on my GB2 -- it makes it less likely to disengage under hard use IMHO and it's not all that difficult to close.
 
Alberta Ed said:
I don't mind the lack of a cutout on my GB2 -- it makes it less likely to disengage under hard use IMHO and it's not all that difficult to close.
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Yep, it's a non-issue imo. Once you become accustomed to it, it's really no more difficult to close than any other liner lock. Gayle himself said that he tests every knife by seeing if his wife can close it. That's good enough for me! :D
 
TRfromMT said:
I don't believe so. I understood BM left theirs a few points short on heat treat, like 58 HRc.

Spyderco is 62 or something. (And the 4 of them I've owned have all has stellar edge holding performance!)

Full disclosure, I've never owned a Super Freek. After general dissatisfaction with QC on some of their other knives and reading about their heat treat I wasn't interested.


EDIT. MY MEMORY SUCKS. I went back and read the heat treat issue. It was their treatment of 3V that was a debacle.

Sorry to misrepresent.
Click to expand...


I do remember the 3v problems.
 
abbazaba said:
For me, it's like a Sebenza to a Large Grip. If you want the hand filling beater, go with the Freek. If you want something more refined that carries better, go with the GB2. I think both are great knives, but the GB2 still gets my vote.

21uLJbX.jpg
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That Freek blade profile is pretty sweet, especially the high full belly.
 
soc_monki said:
Yep, it's a non-issue imo. Once you become accustomed to it, it's really no more difficult to close than any other liner lock. Gayle himself said that he tests every knife by seeing if his wife can close it. That's good enough for me! :D
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Maybe I have fat fingers or something I have always found closed off lockbars annoying. This is not to say that I can't close the blade, of course I can. Just takes more doing than a liner lock should to wedge the meat of my thumb in there though I do have larger than average hands. A very small thing and a great blade despite this.
 
I am still considering purchasing the BM Super Freek but Ive just haven't commited.As I already have a M4 Contego which takes a nice sharp edge,for a knife heat treated to the 62 - 63 Rc range.

As for the Bradley,I have never considered it because of two things, it has a liner lock and a uncoated blade. I like my axis locks a lot more as they can be effortlessly closed or opened.
 
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As someone mentioned in this thread, Hogue Ritter should be considered as an option if you are really into Benchmade Freek. I'm sure GB2 is a great functional folder but aesthetically it is just not attractive to me.
 
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I don’t have time to read all the posts but, the freek is way too thick behind the edge for me. GB2 all day!
 
P2P said:
I don’t have time to read all the posts but, the freek is way too thick behind the edge for me. GB2 all day!
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I don't think I have ever heard that. I own the Freek and don't find it to be very thick behind the edge at all. What are you basing this off of and what are the measurements?
 
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Had a GB2 and didn't like the handle ergonomics at all, plus the tip of the blade bit me when I reached my hand past the knife while it was in my pocket. The liner lock also wasn't nicely accessible. All in all, I wasn't impressed with mine at all, nor really with the original Gayle Bradley folder.

The only thing I think the GB2 does better is the cutting geometry, which is going to be significantly better than that of the Super Freak. If that's all that matters to you (which is a totally valid way to evaluate a cutting tool), then go GB2. Otherwise, Super Freak all the way.
 
c7m2p3 said:
I don't think I have ever heard that. I own the Freek and don't find it to be very thick behind the edge at all. What are you basing this off of and what are the measurements?
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Compared to the GB2, it's like twice as thick at the edge.
 
TRfromMT said:
If trying out the M4 is your main goal, get the GB2.

BM heat treat on their M4 was shown to be sub par.

Spyderco's M4 on the other hand is the gold standard.
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Any cut testing to support this statement? As far as I was aware, M4 is supposed to be one of the steels they do the best.

The only cut testing I've seen on Benchmade's M4 showed it performed about as well as Spyderco M4 after the factory edge was satisfactorily sharpened away.
 
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