A W&SS standardized knife test.

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Everybody's expectations and knife usage are not the same and knives come in all sorts of sizes, shapes, materials and intended field of use and because of that, I would think some standardization is a good idea, but there should be freedom to do different tests chosen by the reviewer, as well. That would make it more interesting for everyone and still provide the useful information we are all looking for.

 

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[*]Part II / looking back reviews! Initial impressions and tests are useful, but I like to see reviews that return to a knife after a period of use (a long trip, a few seasons, etc). You get different information from a "great new knife shaves decent fuzz sticks" review and a "just came back from a week in the mountains - used this blade to clean trout and prep fires" review
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All the best,

- Mike

I like this idea very much. I also kind of glaze over when a knife is being reviewed on first impressions only. I also agree that norms need to be established for photos.

I would like to see some "knife diaries", you went out for a few days in the bush and used what tools for what tasks and how did they do?

Personally I find some of the "Destruction Tests" tend toward the frivolous. OK, so the knife will fail after exerting more force than I can physically generate doing a task I would never attempt in the bush. On the other hand I think when a knife fails doing something entirely within its normal expected "job description" I want to know. Mac