FFK,
I understand that youve come up with a locking mechanism that you believe in. And you have apparently gone to a lot of trouble to patent it, and work out the kinks. That is good for you, innovation and creativity is good for the knife world.
But if you want to market and sell your knives, you need to realize that people often buy the maker just as much as the knife. Obviously, the quality needs to be there, but assuming it is, you need to present yourself professionally on the forums. I dont know you, and maybe you feel you are, but it seems pretty apparent that people are getting burnt out on these threads about your knife. Youve proclaimed everything about this knife you can, I believe. Time for the rubber to meet the road.
You need to do some tests, preferably videotaped live, so no accusations are made about doctoring it. Even if the tests arent to destruction, show what this mechanism is capable of. What it can do that other knives/mechanisms cant. That is what will be convincing. If you look back at Bladeforums history, tons of people have come on here making extravagant claims about knives. To set yourself apart, you need to show proof. Not talk about proof, not allude to proof, not extemporize or pontificate about proof, SHOW PROOF.
You face the additional problem of possibly inventing a solution to a problem that practically speaking, doesnt exist. So far, youve shown one (1) failure of a folding knife that was laterally stressed. One which came from a much, much smaller market than the U.S. You havent shown one failure that is familiar to us here. That doesnt mean they dont exist, but it certainly doesnt seem to be a common issue.
People keep telling you that most responsible people arent going to subject their folding knives to the type of lateral stresses your lock is designed to withstand, and you dont want to hear it. Listen: That is your market telling you they dont want your product in its current incarnation. Force feeding a product to consumers doesnt usually work. Not to start on the seemingly inconvenient deployment process for the lock.
I hope some of this helps you out. If you dont lay off the incessant threads and snarky replies, you wont be able to give these things away once theyre finally ready for market. When will that be? Another good point, give your potential customers a target release date.
Sam :thumbup:
PS: Since you mentioned the thread title to my friend Cricketdave, as of this point, it should be amended to Folding Knife Break, not Breaks. Unless I missed one somewhere.
