Artist or knifemaker?

I think there was a video of her here about a year ago and there was an interesting discussion regarding her potential customers and functionality of her knives.
 
Have you seen how much money people pay for Starlingear?

A sucker is born every minute.
 
Most of the knives I have seen made from files have most of the pointy points ground away. A few leave a remnant but not as much as these.

The video I saw showed her forging these farriers rasps she says she uses. She can't be doing much heating and hammering for the teeth she leaves.

I am a tight wad to begin with so for $800 that slicer better have a lot better fit and finish for me to part with the green.
 
To me the designs don't fit the purported uses. Who'd want a cheese knife with all kinds of file teeth to clean later?

Anyway, if she has a business and she's making things people want, well, good for her. The whole "I'm a woman in an unconventional trade using reclaimed wood and metal from my daddy's farm in Vermont to make artisan knives that cut cheese while sipping on wine" probably pushes the right buttons of a certain segment of people. Whether they actually work well doesn't matter to some people, it's the story behind it and the smugness the knives offer.

Remember the Prius episode of South park?

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Marketing things seems to always be easier when you're a woman in a male dominated game...at least on Instagram.

Came by her products on Instagram at one point....I'm not impressed.
 
Hard H2O said:
Most of the knives I have seen made from files have most of the pointy points ground away. A few leave a remnant but not as much as these.

The video I saw showed her forging these farriers rasps she says she uses. She can't be doing much heating and hammering for the teeth she leaves.

I am a tight wad to begin with so for $800 that slicer better have a lot better fit and finish for me to part with the green.
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Having made more than a few file/rasp knives I can tell you the following from looking at that those kitchen knives:
- No heating/Hammering was done on those.
- They're very thick for kitchen knives.
- The grind is terrible for a kitchen performer on such a knife.

Maybe if they had a full height flat grind they'd actually work well. But the way they look now. And the half ground flats bevels on there.....and the $$$ that she's apparantly getting for them....I'd agree with CM....one born every minute.
 
She's an artisan, a craftsman. I can identify with her work and her aesthetic. It's a boutique item for a boutique price. I wouldn't call her customers suckers, just people spending money in a way I would not. We could get into whole different lines of what constitutes a sucker by talking about, say, chiropractic, vitamin supplements, acupuncture, energy healing, and the like. And those things actually harm people by diverting them from actual medicine. All that's not germane to knives, though it does address the "sucker" accusation.

She's having fun, people are buying a product they value, food is being made, and money is circulating. This is a success story.

But (and the adage is true, the "but" renders meaningless everything that went before) I don't want one at that price or any other. I have handled farrier's raps--there's one on my workbench right now--and they are heavy. I can't imagine the balance of a chef's knife coming out well with one. But I could be wrong and would like to try one at the kitchen counter. I also don't want gunk in my blade. I don't even like serrations on an EDC (one exception, my SAK Trekker/GAK), let alone a rasp.

My two cents.

Zieg
 
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The Zieg said:
She's an artisan, a craftsman. I identify with her work and her aesthetic.

She's having fun, people are buying a product they value, food is being made, and money is circulating. This is a success story.

Zieg
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For her? Yup. This is a success story.
 
The Zieg said:
She's an artisan, a craftsman. I identify with her work and her aesthetic.

She's having fun, people are buying a product they value, food is being made, and money is circulating. This is a success story.

Zieg
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I wonder if this was a big corporation having fun by making money off suckers would still be a success story to you or if you would feel differently.
 
Scurvy092 said:
I wonder if this was a big corporation having fun by making money off suckers would still be a success story to you or if you would feel differently.
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The key to your question is the intention of misrepresentation, which is the stock in trade of the big corporation ripping people off. I don't see that happening here. As I said, this is a boutique product that doubles as art and gives a sense of satisfaction to the purchaser. There is no promise of better tasting food, quicker prep time, or indestructibility of the edge. It's pretty much "what-you-see-is-what-you-get".

So, no, I would not feel the same way as you propose because I don't see the two situations as analogous. But maybe you could convince me otherwise. I'm open to the discussion.

Zieg
 
What I see is a lady making what looks like crap or so called boutique items. And having people that probably know nothing about knives getting suckered into buying. Etsy,instagram,facebook famous by a soccer mom and it spread like wildfire. You know what they say a fool and his money are soon parted.
 
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