Beware of People Who Pretend To Know A Lot About Knives

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The_KaramVit

The_KaramVit

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Be very weary of the sources you come across while researching knives on the internet. I've spent close to 30 hours in the past week alone researching about knives online and this is the worst case of a bad source i have ever seen. Bear in mind this article was written in August 2013. I expect MUCH better.

http://www.bestsurvivalknifedude.com/best-bushcraft-knife/

It is not very hard to weed out the bad sources for us more seasoned knife people. For the less experienced or those just starting out, reading an article like this is very misleading. I just felt the need to expose this guy because a lot of the information he provided is just wrong. He is therefore the worst knife article writer i have ever come across. DO NOT TRUST Kenneth Blackburn.

Have a laugh with me:

He begins his article with MUST HAVE'S IN THE BEST BUSHCRAFT KNIFE!
"
The best bushcraft knife must be built like a tank and it must be capable of hard work without breaking.
The steel in the blade must be of high quality.
You must go for the best bang for the buck, the bushcraft knife is a tool, not a collector’s item.
You MUST choose a fixed blade or a full tang design."

He follows it up with, "As I told you before, a full tang blade is essential when choosing the best bushcraft knife. This type of blade which runs the entire width and length of the knife is what makes it strong and almost impossible to break. Partial tang designs are much cheaper but are to be avoided like the plague, they can fail you when you need them the most." , reiterating the need for a full tang knife.

Quite logical up to this point. He seems to have his own standards for bushcraft knives. Here's where it gets interesting!
He begins talking about steels and says:

"The most popular types of carbon steel for a high end bushcraft knife are A2 and VG-10 while 440C/AUS8 are the best stainless steels."

Uhhhhhhh...did you read that right??? I know i did. Excuse me, Sir, VG10 is not carbon steel. It is stainless. Strike 1!
WHOA! Did i read that right too??? You did! Neither 440C nor AUS8 are the best stainless steels.

He then jumps to recommendations for best bushcraft blade:

In all caps, it reads, Morakniv Bushcraft Carbon Fixed Blade Knife.

And then he lost me. Kenneth Blackburn, your big requirement for your best bushcraft knife is a full tang. You are recommending me a Mora, a knife with a partial tang. Strike 2, sir.

He then recommends Fallkniven knives. The company is known for their Laminated VG10 blades. Some popular models are the WM1 and the F1. Someone who didnt know Fallkniven previously and buys one may now think that their blade has a carbon steel, thanks to this dimwit, Kenneth Blackburn. Strike 3.

You're out, Kenneth.

Let's all be aware of the scum invading our knife community with their marketing and pretense and do our part in shutting them down.
I wish you all a very pleasant day and safe surfing and may you stay sharp.

Do reply with similar concerns about other sources! We all want to know who not to listen to, so at the end of it all, we will have good knife sources.

Vit
 
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Well, VG10 as used in the core of the laminated Fallkniven does have a high carbon content. Also, 440C used to be considered a "super steel" when it was first used in knives instead of 440A. That's all I got.
 
Edited: probably not the right place for my wall of text post :)

To the original OP. It looks like The Best Survival Knife Dude could use some educating. It could be that half the problem is communicating; his wording seems a bit disjointed so I'm wondering if it sounds different in his head to how it comes across on-screen.
 
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Why not reach out to him and extend him the opportunity to visit the forum and learn a bit more about knives rather than berating and lambasting him? We didn't all start out with encyclopedic knowledge on knives.

*** Always consider the source your information came from. :-)
 
carbonsteel928 said:
Why not reach out to him and extend him the opportunity to visit the forum and learn a bit more about knives rather than berating and lambasting him? We didn't all start out with encyclopedic knowledge on knives.

*** Always consider the source your information came from. :-)
Click to expand...

He joined essentially advertising his site a few months ago if I remember correctly. . .just reading the bio at the bottom of the page makes me think it's a site meant more to sell knives than to inform the consumer. I counted seven links to amazon on the linked page, furthering my point. :)
 
9blades said:
He joined essentially advertising his site a few months ago if I remember correctly. . .just reading the bio at the bottom of the page makes me think it's a site meant more to sell knives than to inform the consumer. I counted seven links to amazon on the linked page, furthering my point. :)
Click to expand...

I had wondered if this was the case to but don't want to call him out without some evidence
 
There is so much misinformation about knives, especially when it comes to marketing. The answer is educating consumers, but that's a long and frustrating process.
 
The article seems to me more like an extended Amazon sales junket. Since the skills are more important than the specific tools, the actual piece appears as if it is an edited chunk of a greater whole, perhaps a chapter. Who knows; maybe he's just fulfilling a contract, or an editor on Amazon's payroll cut it to fit.
 
Chris Larrikin said:
There is so much misinformation about knives, especially when it comes to marketing. The answer is educating consumers, but that's a long and frustrating process.
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That's why a reputable brand has value. Most people don't want to be educated, they just want to buy something they can trust.
 
Dunno. It was a little salesy but I would hardly call it "the worst".

440C is a perfectly serviceable steel, especially in the context of "bushcraft".

And VG-10 certainly is a high-carbon steel - for a stainless steel. It actually has the same amount of carbon as the A2 he lists: 1.0%

So yeah, the article wasn't great but I've seen far worse. Nothing worth getting all brimstone and hellfire over.
 
RevDevil said:
Well, VG10 as used in the core of the laminated Fallkniven does have a high carbon content. Also, 440C used to be considered a "super steel" when it was first used in knives instead of 440A. That's all I got.
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All true, except when paired in phrase with A2, VG10 may be misunderstood.

440C is, up to now, very respectable steel, in my books. Except, calling it and AUS8 the best in 2013 is far from true.

RevDevil, you frequently come up in my threads so thanks for always contributing to the discussions!
 
9blades said:
He joined essentially advertising his site a few months ago if I remember correctly. . .just reading the bio at the bottom of the page makes me think it's a site meant more to sell knives than to inform the consumer. I counted seven links to amazon on the linked page, furthering my point. :)
Click to expand...

Thanks for this information. Noted. Do you have info on his username or ID?
 
Lost Cosmonaut said:
Dunno. It was a little salesy but I would hardly call it "the worst".

440C is a perfectly serviceable steel, especially in the context of "bushcraft".

And VG-10 certainly is a high-carbon steel - for a stainless steel. It actually has the same amount of carbon as the A2 he lists: 1.0%

So yeah, the article wasn't great but I've seen far worse. Nothing worth getting all brimstone and hellfire over.
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Sorry for the hellfire. I basically wanted to make an example out of him because he, to me at least, represents all these "salesy" and/or "marketing" heavy knife stakeholders who need to be educated more before dishing out talk of "The best ______ knife". It isn't him i'm blasting as much as the likes of him and those kinds. Get me?
 
when i said VG10 is not carbon steel, it is stainless---that was wrong!

lol. is it contagious?

VG10 does indeed, as you guys have followed me up on, contain carbon but we generally clasify it as stainless
 
Chris Larrikin said:
There is so much misinformation about knives, especially when it comes to marketing. The answer is educating consumers, but that's a long and frustrating process.
Click to expand...

Lets give everyone free access to bladeforums! Oh wait we already have that! what now? :(
 
Chris Larrikin said:
There is so much misinformation about knives, especially when it comes to marketing. The answer is educating consumers, but that's a long and frustrating process.
Click to expand...

There is no educating consumers...just take a peek at the hundreds, if not thousands of threads here that are started, where the OP is asking for recommendations for his/her first knife, or a knife for a child, or one for his mother in law, et al; he starts off with a tentative list of knives, he gets a bunch of recommendations, and ultimately winds up buying something out from left field that no one anticipated. In the end, new guy or experienced guy will buy something that really appealed to his vanity, with no consideration for the sanity of such a decision.
 
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I can't believe someone typed something on the Internet that isn't true...ESPECIALLY on a blog...I'm a bit deflated. :(
 
leghog said:
Up to now? What problems did it suddenly manifest that you no longer consider is a "very respectable steel"?
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I didn't mean that it stopped being respectable. I meant it is just respectable knife steel, period. It just depends who heat treats it! A lot of people consider it as a steel of the past which only beat 440A and is now outdated because of all our more complicated alloy steels. I believe 440C can make a user absolutely happy.
 
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