I have a hard time understanding people who collect knives just to collect them. Well, most don't bother me so much, but some try to say something which sucks is actualy great, even though they have never used it. Now, I am a strong proponent of there being more than one answer to a given question, but some thing s just don't work satisfactorly for certain activities.
Many of these people have a problem with the word "tactical", they think that since it's labeled "tactical" it's gotta be good. "Tactical" has become a fad. It doesn't matter wether something really works or not, most people will never actualy use them, it's about what's new and trendy.
For instance the "wondersteel of the month club". There was a time when there wasn't a wide variety of suitable bladesteels available. So when something new came along, it might well have been worth raising a fuss over, like cutlery-grade stainless steels. But now, whenever somebody comes out with a new alloy, there's this writhing mass of steel groupies that just goes ape over it, well until the next alloy anyway. In use, the differences between most alloys are slight, most of the benefit is on the smith's side of things. Steel groupies remind me of the spicegirl or back door,er street, boys or something.
I suppose it's nothing that I really need to worry about. It's easy to go through life with blinders on and never worry about anybody else. But that's not my way. I'm not saying I want to make everybody conform to my views, but if somebody's speaking their mind, well I'm gonna speak mine.
I agree with putting a knife through it's paces. There's an ancient Viking proverb;
"Praise no day till evening, no wife before her cremation, no sword till tested, no maid before marriage, no ice till crossed, no ale till it's drunk."
Chopping wood and rope is great and all, and does have some value for establishing benchmarks, but it's best to actualy live with the thing in the field before passing judgement. This becomes dificult with fighting/defensive knives. Consequently, there are more lame defensive and fighting knives than any other category. Sure, many art knives are unusable, but the operative word there is "art".
Yeah, I'd say that many good uses for a knife can be found by mistake, but purpose-designed blades, provided they are designed by competent people, do have an advantage in that they will be workable in what they're designed for without relying on trial and error to decide what they're best suited for.
