Cliff's Statement:
People go a lot further with praise than just aesthetics, a lot will comment on handle ergonomics, blade profile, steel choices, and so on talking about why the knife would be well suited for them, it is trivial to turn up masses of these posts.
Chiro's Response:
If you can tell that much based on a picture then you have more psychic abilities than I have.
Yeah, I have done all those things, and don't think there is anything psychic about it.
Handle ergonomics: Looking at a knife gives me a fair idea of whether it will be comfortable in my hand. For example, if I see shrunken scales (a ridge of tang extending above the scales) I know that will not be a comfortable knife for me to use. I have used other knives with that feature like the Nimravus to know that. No amount of looking cool, magic incantations, endorsements by high speed killers, attractice women or fast cars in their ads or even a heck of a nice maker will cause a knife with that feature to become comfortable in my hand. Grooves in the handle, like Airkat and TOPS use are the same thing. Again, maybe I have wimpy hands, but I know that those grooves would tear my hand up under hard use. Yes, I can tell that just by looking at those squared corners, the ridges and my soft hand.
Blade profile: I know what I use knives for, and know which blade profiles work best for those uses. You know what blade profiles offer the kind of perfromance you want too, otherwise you would never be able to design or make a knife except by trial and error, which of course is not the case. Everyone makes these "psychic predictions" of knife performance everytime they buy a knife for a specific purpose.
If you were making or buying a kitchen knife would you use 1/8" stock with a full flat grind or 1/2" thick steel with a shallow sabre grind? Do you have toi make and use both to determine which will work better for cutting up carrots? Of course not, you know what blade profiles work best based on your expereince as a knife maker, a knife user and just plain common sense. Without using both, I could have predicted that my Opinel would be a better slicer on binding materials than my RD9, I would have bet my life savings on it ($36) and I would have been right. Why? Because I am psychic? Miss Cleo watch out!! No, because cutting efficiency is based on geometry, you know that as well. You use those principles when you make a knife, everyone does, otherwise knife design and making would just be a giant crap shoot.
Steel choices: Steel is simply a matieral, it has known properties. You don;t ahve to be a metalurgist to figure these properties out as they apply to knives, you just have to read and understand Joe Talmadge's Steel FAQ, or have a basic working knowldge of those steels. Crucible puts out charts. Do you just pick out a random steel and make a knife hoping to succeed through trial and error? I bet not.
Talking about why the knife would be well suited for them: If their is one thing I can predict with virtual certainty is wheter a knife is suited for me, why? Because I am me. I know what I use a knife for, and I know which designs work best for my uses in my hands.
You make those predictions too, otherwise you would have to buy knives at random and wait and see which works best for you.
I say give the guy a fair chance before you destroy his life's work.
A little dramatic, don't you think?
It takes 30 seconds to hack out an email that points out all of your opinions,
Why would I waste 30 seconds of my life to write to a maker about a maker I have absolutely no interest in? Come on, that would interfer with the hours I waste arguing about meaningless knife crap on the forums. Mayebe I should just go jogging instead, if only I could pry my fatt butt out of this arm chair. . .
Cliff:
Other people of course have come in and attacked Alvin and Chas for comments they made, some of them even physically challenge them or make threats,
Threats of violence have no place in civilized discourse, that is for sure. It is behavior like that which makes me usually avoid forums and such. Hopefully that is not the case here, I trust that the moderation staff would see that as a viuolation of the user policy and take action.
Me:
That is a valid point. I see hundreds of designs I don't like on a daily basis, and usually don't take the time to comment on them, almost never in fact.
Cliff's response:
Most people do, this should not be the case though, it is one of the main underlying reasons for product overhyping. If you accept positives then you have to accept negatives under the same reasoning.
I respectfully disagree. It goes back to what my mother drilled ito my head as a child: "If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all."
If you looked through my back posts, probably the najority are simple "Great looking knife, nice job." types. I like that. It is nice to compliment people for a job well done, it is nice to express admiration for a person's skill, dedication and craftmanship.
It is not nice just to interject a negative opinion, to point out flaws, it makes people feel bad, and their is no benefit to it. Perhaps that is what I have done here, and to that extent,
mea cupla.
So yeah, I make lot's of "nice job" posts, and very few "poor choice or design because. . " posts. Call it being nice, call it karma, call it just good manners.
If people want an honest opinion, feedback intended to improve their product, I have no problem giving it. But most people don't post pictures of their work here looking in order to have the flaws pointed out, they post them so that people who like their work can say so.
In this regards, the internet should be no different than real life. I can go up to the receptionist in our office and tell her that her new outfit looks nice, her new hair cut looks good, or the cookies she brought in tasted great. I can do this with no corresponding duty to tell her her new shoes look terrible and she is wearing too much make-up. Pointingh out the positive stuff is nice, pleasant interaction. Pointing out negatives would be insulting, and would probablyr esult in her 280 pound State Trooper husband to reconstruct my facial structure.
On the other hand, I think Cliff was fully justified in giving his negative opinion of this product. That's what Floyd was looking for when he made the post, heck it is the title. . .
Should it have been done in private? There are arguments both ways. . . .
Whether I was justified in throwing in my own opinion? Again, I could argue both ways. . .
Anyways, thanks for calling me to the carpet Chiro.I really believe that if someone makes a statement, they should be prepared to defend it. if they are wrong or mistaken, they should be prepared to admit it.
I don't necessarily think you were right, or I was wrong here. But you caused me to think about my statements and assertions more in-depth as well as to evaluate my course of conduct in this thread and whether it is how I am and how I want to present myself.
In the end, I still think your knives are nice looking, cleanfunctional designs with great choice of materials, blade profiles and look ergonomic. As well, I still think Airkat's designs are F'Ugly, designed for fantasy use, and ill suited to my needs.
:yawn: :barf: :thumbdn: I'm sure you'll come up with some sort of lengthy explanation, though. Maybe you're using an early '90's Telnet workstation that browses the Internet in text-only format. 
