-
All For Sale threads must have a pic showing the knife being sold with written date listed, your username & Bladeforums or BFC to prevent photo harvesting from elsewhere - scammers hate this one trick! The rules for The Exchange can be found here. Please read and follow them. Stop using Paypal Friends & Family and follow our best practices to prevent getting ripped off or having a bad deal.
-
The BladeForums.com 2024 Traditional Knife is ready to order! See this thread for details: https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/bladeforums-2024-traditional-knife.2003187/
Price is$300$250 ea (shipped within CONUS). If you live outside the US, I will contact you after your order for extra shipping charges.
Order here: https://www.bladeforums.com/help/2024-traditional/ - Order as many as you like, we have plenty.
And then we have this guy.
- Thread starter Fixall
- Start date
- Joined
- Feb 28, 2011
- Messages
- 27,421
It's a bad way to handle refunds possibly to the point of violating FTC rules. If he took full payment he should be contacting all customers to offer a refund and giving one automatically if he doesn't get a response.
Ah yes, I thought I remembered the name. This is the guy who designed fidget spinners. He then decided to design knives and have them made in China. That supply chain tho!
He came across as using this community purely to get design input and to pump his business, he wasn't a paid service provider at the time, if memory serves. This thread got a little fun: https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/feedback-on-my-tanto-design.1682273/
He came across as using this community purely to get design input and to pump his business, he wasn't a paid service provider at the time, if memory serves. This thread got a little fun: https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/feedback-on-my-tanto-design.1682273/
- Joined
- Dec 1, 2016
- Messages
- 11,013
I am not familiar with this particular maker(?)/designer so maybe I am missing context. However, going through that thread demonstrated some very unnecessary needling - I thought the guy responded with a lot more respect than he was being given. I can guess at what you mean by "fun" but it wasn't the designer who was being an asshole in that thread.
Yes, yes it was. He’s a user and a taker who specifically asked for free help and then got overly defensive when what He received wasn’t praise for his ill-conceived designs. Asking for help should be done with humility, not arrogance.
I guess I see it somewhere in between these two points. But then we have what is in the OP. Just confirms the guy's true nature and that all those free advice threads were just him being a sponge like a-hole.
- Joined
- Dec 1, 2016
- Messages
- 11,013
I am trying not to put myself in a position where I am defending a guy that I don't know anything about. However, the purpose of these threads is to inform us of the saints and the ne'er-do-wells - and it is to that end that I post anything at all on this matter. We simply need more information.
You and I have very, very different takes on what transpired in that thread. You see a free-loading "designer" who took umbrage with any contrarian feedback. I see a guy who was deliberately provoked by one of the forum's most notorious antagonists. Under the circumstances, I think the guy comported himself better than a lot of folks here would have.
The OP in this thread does raise cause for concern and that sort of attitude isn't going to endear many to his efforts. I still think we need more information though. Folks seem ready to tar and feather a guy and expect those of us who are on the outside-looking-in to just roll with it? I understand that there are members here who have been scorched for less but others have been guilty of more and skated on by.
What makes this particular guy so deserving of our torches and pitchforks?
I think the attitude this designer displayed in the past, admittedly after getting prodded a little, echos his tone and words as presented in the OP. Couple that with a guy who clearly only came here to get this community to give him design "feedback" on his outsourced fad flavored knives, and I guess I'm not inclined to look at him favorably. To each their own.
- Joined
- Dec 1, 2016
- Messages
- 11,013
When I have a bit more time, I might dig into his post history and see if there had been cause to antagonize him - maybe there is prior history that I am unaware of. If I am supposed to judge him though, based solely on the thread you provided, he isn't the one who gets my hackles up. I might have responded far less kindly had I been on the receiving end of what was far more than just a "little prodding".
I am willing to judge him based on
Fixall
's OP - it appears that the guy has lost patience and is lashing out (not a good look at all). However, I am going to need more than that before I'm willing to hoist him with his own petard, so to speak.(Frankly, I am not even certain why I care in the long run - not my kind of knives.)
This is what I am confused by.
- BladeForums is absolutely a place I would come to for design feedback.
- Many designers outsource the manufacture of their designs - why is it a problem with this guy? (residency of manufacturer aside)
- "Fad" is in the eye of the beholder, in my opinion. What I find to be ugly and gimmicky (a lot modern folder designs), another is going to be over the moon with.
- Correct me if I am wrong but he readily upgraded his membership (multiple levels) in that very thread. Doesn't smack of someone who was looking to get freebies.
When I have a bit more time, I might dig into his post history and see if there had been cause to antagonize him - maybe there is prior history that I am unaware of. If I am supposed to judge him though, based solely on the thread you provided, he isn't the one who gets my hackles up. I might have responded far less kindly had I been on the receiving end of what was far more than just a "little prodding".
I am willing to judge him based on
(Frankly, I am not even certain why I care in the long run - not my kind of knives.)
This is what I am confused by.
- BladeForums is absolutely a place I would come to for design feedback.
- Many designers outsource the manufacture of their designs - why is it a problem with this guy? (residency of manufacturer aside)
- "Fad" is in the eye of the beholder, in my opinion. What I find to be ugly and gimmicky (a lot modern folder designs), another is going to be over the moon with.
- Correct me if I am wrong but he readily upgraded his membership (multiple levels) in that very thread. Doesn't smack of someone who was looking to get freebies.
I actually didn't know about his thread here asking for input. I know of him through Instagram and Reddit. You basically have the jist of it. He had some delays and had people ask about refunds and delivery dates and he lost his cool and lashed out. It's not his first (or even second) time posting stuff like that, so I ended up just cancelling my pre-order and ordering a Kubey Vagrant. His knives are made by Kubey (which I've been wanting to try), but I think some of his designs are a bit better looking.
I thought it was pretty poor customer service, and something people should probably be aware of when ordering from him... But I avoided dragging his name through the mud, or doing anything more than posting his Instagram post, because I didn't think it warranted anything more than that.
I only vaguely recall his posts here but I remember them in the vein of many others who've come before.
First post as "Hey check out this knife I designed give me honest feedback". Then second post after no one told him he was a genius "You clowns wouldn't know a good knife if it bit you". And then it went downhill.
This place has always felt like a you get what you give. If you kick in the door spoiling for an argument that's what you get.
First post as "Hey check out this knife I designed give me honest feedback". Then second post after no one told him he was a genius "You clowns wouldn't know a good knife if it bit you". And then it went downhill.
This place has always felt like a you get what you give. If you kick in the door spoiling for an argument that's what you get.
When I have a bit more time, I might dig into his post history and see if there had been cause to antagonize him - maybe there is prior history that I am unaware of. If I am supposed to judge him though, based solely on the thread you provided, he isn't the one who gets my hackles up. I might have responded far less kindly had I been on the receiving end of what was far more than just a "little prodding".
I am willing to judge him based on
(Frankly, I am not even certain why I care in the long run - not my kind of knives.)
This is what I am confused by.
- BladeForums is absolutely a place I would come to for design feedback.
- Many designers outsource the manufacture of their designs - why is it a problem with this guy? (residency of manufacturer aside)
- "Fad" is in the eye of the beholder, in my opinion. What I find to be ugly and gimmicky (a lot modern folder designs), another is going to be over the moon with.
- Correct me if I am wrong but he readily upgraded his membership (multiple levels) in that very thread. Doesn't smack of someone who was looking to get freebies.
Danke42 has it summed up pretty good. Taking without giving and getting indigent. It is the sum of the parts
Pàdruig
. No need to agree of course. That said, what was posted in the OP fits the feel of the rest of those parts, for me anyway.
- Joined
- Dec 1, 2016
- Messages
- 11,013
I think this is one of those instances where I am apt to simply agree to disagree.
It wasn't difficult to run though his BladeForums history, there isn't much. Brian's issues aside, I am hard pressed to find the "sum of the parts" though. If folks took issue with his responses to deliberate provocation (which appear to have only happened in the thread in question), I am just going to have to say folks need to stop assuming the worst in people and to learn to be more respectful when delivering criticism. I am almost 100% certain that there was some clear pre-conceived bias though - how else does one get about treating a new member so poorly?
That all said, Brian elaborating on his experiences elsewhere is the present focus and unfortunately for this "designer", it isn't looking good. You can have the coolest knife on the market but if you treat your customers poorly, you're going to pay for it in the long run.
It wasn't difficult to run though his BladeForums history, there isn't much. Brian's issues aside, I am hard pressed to find the "sum of the parts" though. If folks took issue with his responses to deliberate provocation (which appear to have only happened in the thread in question), I am just going to have to say folks need to stop assuming the worst in people and to learn to be more respectful when delivering criticism. I am almost 100% certain that there was some clear pre-conceived bias though - how else does one get about treating a new member so poorly?
That all said, Brian elaborating on his experiences elsewhere is the present focus and unfortunately for this "designer", it isn't looking good. You can have the coolest knife on the market but if you treat your customers poorly, you're going to pay for it in the long run.
I think what’s being overlooked is that when he was offered a lot of very sound advice about designing a knife vs a fidget spinner (his primary foray into the EDC/ knife world) he rejected it completely. He had no interest in learning how to design a working tool, he wanted people to tell him how long to make the blade, what sort of blade shape was best, etc. that’s not design, that’s crowd sourcing.
His customer service was irrelevant to me because I thought and still think his knife “designs” looked like crap and offered nothing in the way of new ideas, either in looks or in practical and actual design.
He reminds me of people who think copying a Maloof rocking chair or a Nakashima table makes them furniture designers and builders. It doesn’t and they’re not.
His customer service was irrelevant to me because I thought and still think his knife “designs” looked like crap and offered nothing in the way of new ideas, either in looks or in practical and actual design.
He reminds me of people who think copying a Maloof rocking chair or a Nakashima table makes them furniture designers and builders. It doesn’t and they’re not.