From PremiumKnives.com
Author - Anthony Arnold
About Bradley Cutlery
As the story of Bradley Cutlery goes… the Elkhart, Indiana based company was founded from pure frustration by a
knife distributor annoyed about the continual backorder status of Chris Reeve Sebenza knives.
Not having inventory to offer his customers, the owner, (Brad) of Bradley Cutlery decided that he could
build a 100% American made Sebenza equivalent using the same materials, but make the knives readily available
and a lot less expensive. Bradey Cutlery backs its knives with a
lifetime warranty and life-sharp sharpening service. PremiumKnives was the first to have the opportunity to
review these incredible, new, heavy-duty folding knives.
Review of the Alias I & II
Series Knives
We are exposed to thousands of knives every day and typically we are a little
skeptical about yet another new knife, and even more so about another new knife company, this time we were
not disappointed. We procured Bradley Cutlery’s Alias I and II
folding pocketknives and our staff started testing.
A little background on the inspiration of the Alias knife -
the Sebenza series of knives, designed and produced by Chris Reeve has long been regarded as the
ultimate heavy duty folding knife. Due to the Sebenza’s high quality and popularity there is also a 3-8
month waiting list to receive one and they are a tad on the expensive side, at over $380 each.
Bradley Cutlery’s Alias series offers customers an alternative in an equally equipped but less
expensive form.
The Bradley Cutlery Alias series is obviously not an exact duplicate of the Sebenza,
nor was it intended to be. The Alias series is simply an
outstanding alternative to the Sebenza, at a great price.
That said, the Alias series offers up almost identical specs when compared to the
Sebenza, including the same components and
materials, like S30V Blade Steel, 6AL 4V Titanium Handle, and a titanium mono-lock (frame-lock) design for
extreme strength. Bradley Cutlery also uses the same phosphorus bushings used on the Sebenza. The Alias series
features beautifully blue anodized aluminum barrel spacers and thumb studs and a stone washed stainless steel
pocket carry clip (the Sebenza uses titanium thumb studs, spacers, and pocket clip), all for $100 less than
the Sebenza.
The overall fit and finish of
the Alias knives are first class. All pins and screws are top
grade stainless steel. The machining work looked flawless. The
male and female testers alike thought the knife felt well made, locked up very solidly, had a smooth
operation, and thought the knives were optimally sized and shaped for general cutting chores.
The Alias’ frame-lock locks with vault like authority however was easily released by thumbing the
frame-lock. A great lock design which we were unable to defeat.
So how does it cut?
All the standard cutting chores including fashioning two dozen hot dog sticks, a couple days in the warehouse
opening boxes, general office and household chores and of course a cardboard cutting test, didn’t seem to
affect the razor sharp edge. Edge touch up sharpening was
done easily with a smooth butcher’s steel, only once. Although we really were not surprised with the
Alias’ edge holding, as the Sebenza, with the same blade steel holds a razor sharp edge for longer than most
people have the patience to test.
By the end of the test we were all very satisfied with the edge holding capability of the S30V steel
and the shape and usefulness of the blade.
Ergonomics & Style of the Alias Series
Where we believe the
Bradley Cutlery Alias series pulls ahead of the Sebenza is in ergonomics and design.
Everyone thought the knife
felt more comfortable in the hand, when compared to the Sebenza. The
thumb stud is placed where the thumb naturally lays and the handy reversible (tip up or down positioning or
easy removal) actually feels natural in both positions and even feels comfortable in the tip up mode for
inside the waistband carry. Occasionally we find that a designer
simply didn’t think out the tip up position before positioning the holes and as a result the reversible
pocket clips just don’t work well when moved to the other position, the Alias series does not suffer from
this fate. The pocket clip is a low profile design and proved secure and unobtrusive when clipped to jeans,
pants, khakis, suits, and purses. Several ladies in the group, also commented about how nicely the knife
stayed put in their purses when clipped in, even during some fairly vigorous keys-in-the-bottom-of-my-purse
searches.
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