I'd like to share something...

I

ioerror

Joined
Feb 12, 2010
Messages
101
Hi there :-)

I'm new and I'm mostly reading reviews and watching pics and videos.
It's just something that bothers me... i know that i'm not the one to talk, keeping i mind the fact that this is probably my first post and i've never made a review of a knife, but if i don't share this it will just keep piling up.

I've been watching Youtube reviews for almost 5 years now... and reading reviews here. And probably 80% of them onlu show pictures of knives that someone just bought an hour ago... There is nothing bad about sharing that wonderfull feeling of a new knife :-). Other reviews sound like that "...ok...ammmmm...uuuuu this is my knife, I like it very much. It is a folding knife. It has a lock and a clip. The blade is that long...the handle is that long... It is cutting well, and i can put it in my pocket. ok...ammmm... uuuu that is all bye".

We can all read and see pics. We know a thing or two about dimensions and can probably see the difference between a folder and a fixed, between steel, Ti and micarta... that sort of thing. It is like sharing initial impressions and nothing after... When i get a new blade i'm not sitting and looking at it. I start cutting what ever there is around me... Wood, rope, Zipties, cables (3x1.5, UTP...) Nylon, textile, bottles, food... the if i decide i can share my experience...

Don't get me wrong. I love to look through the gallery and i wish that every one of us gets the blade he/she wants.

I'm talking about contents of a review about it's quality... You might like how the knife looks i might not and if the review say only that... then we go different ways, but if you share the works that you've done with it, then i might get impressed and try it out.

Just sharing thoughts. Share yours :-)

And I'm sorry for the mistakes.

IOerror
 
ioerror said:
... but if you share the works that you've done with it, then i might get impressed and try it out. ...
Click to expand...

Work?! What kind of work would you suggest? I used to feel the same way about most reviews, then I realized that there really isn't much more that can be said about the knife that wouldn't become very subjective, or worse abusive and distructive. It is just a slab of steel that is sharpened and affixed to a handle; it doesn't do much more then rust without human intervention. What fits my hand may not fit yours; the best knife ever for me may fall short of 50 other knives that you have played with that I have not; what I chop is not what or how you chop; what I can sharpen may not be what you would want to sharpen. Every time someone gets into performance testing it leades to a pissing match between avocates and detractors. We learn nothing new about the knife but we manager to anger almost everybody. The user is a large part of how any knife performs, and pretending otherwise is counterproductive.

n2s
 
ioerror said:
Hi there :-)

I'm new and I'm mostly reading reviews and watching pics and videos.
It's just something that bothers me... i know that i'm not the one to talk, keeping i mind the fact that this is probably my first post and i've never made a review of a knife, but if i don't share this it will just keep piling up.

I've been watching Youtube reviews for almost 5 years now... and reading reviews here. And probably 80% of them onlu show pictures of knives that someone just bought an hour ago... There is nothing bad about sharing that wonderfull feeling of a new knife :-). Other reviews sound like that "...ok...ammmmm...uuuuu this is my knife, I like it very much. It is a folding knife. It has a lock and a clip. The blade is that long...the handle is that long... It is cutting well, and i can put it in my pocket. ok...ammmm... uuuu that is all bye".

We can all read and see pics. We know a thing or two about dimensions and can probably see the difference between a folder and a fixed, between steel, Ti and micarta... that sort of thing. It is like sharing initial impressions and nothing after... When i get a new blade i'm not sitting and looking at it. I start cutting what ever there is around me... Wood, rope, Zipties, cables (3x1.5, UTP...) Nylon, textile, bottles, food... the if i decide i can share my experience...

Don't get me wrong. I love to look through the gallery and i wish that every one of us gets the blade he/she wants.

I'm talking about contents of a review about it's quality... You might like how the knife looks i might not and if the review say only that... then we go different ways, but if you share the works that you've done with it, then i might get impressed and try it out.

Just sharing thoughts. Share yours :-)

And I'm sorry for the mistakes.

IOerror
Click to expand...

The problem with knife reviews is that it's dependent on the user and the work the user does. People use knives differently so there's very little to be learned from a review IMO. I could pick up a knife and think it's the best performing knife on the market whereas you could pick it up and think it's a hunk of junk. An example of this is the Ritter Grip I owned. I had no problems carving wood with it but I saw a guy chip two of them doing the same thing. Different technique in accomplishing the same task. The knife worked great for me but failed for him. Another thing is when reading reviews people can be biased to one company or another and overlook what someone else would think of as a huge flaw. I've had "duscussions" with some Busse guys about the grinds that I dislike but they seem to not care about and would go on to tell you it's the best knife ever.
The way I pick knives is by the overall geometry and the reputation of the maker for quality heat treats. Then I use it myself to judge if it's going to work or not. Expensive but it's the best way I've found to get what I want.
 
Reviews are a product of our own point of view and our technique of using knives. That is an absolute truth. I do not argue about that. What works for some people doesn't work for others.
Still their point of view is important only if it tells us more then just how the knife looks, or that the blade is black for example... That i mean under the term "quality" of a review. Tell me what have you done with that knife, using your technique. What happened? Don't just describe me the knife :-). That's only the beginning of a knife review, not the review itself :-). That said (LOL) i wonder how my reviews would sound ;-)

IOerror
 
A lot of the YouTube reviews show the people taking them out of the package for the first time.

I think they just want to show off their knives.
 
ioerror, check out our forums in The Great Outdoors

Hunting & Fishing
Outdoor Gear, Survival Equipment & More
Wilderness & Survival Skills

Read some of the reviews by pitdog and mistwalker, for example. They show you their new and old knives on hikes and trying out new techniques. With lots of photos of beautiful countryside. :)
 
I know a lot of people don't like him, but I think nutnfancy does a good job reviewing knives. It's entertaining and informative and has relatively good production quality. If you take his reviews with a grain of salt, it can help you a lot in choosing a knife or helping you cope with waiting for a knife in the mail.
 
I haven't spent any time looking at U-toob reviews, and very little time reading any of the online reviews here on this forum. I tend to go by manufacturer-stated dimensions, materials, and over-all asthetic appeal. Once I have a few knives in mind, I'll check them out at a brick-n-mortar, or even handle them on a passaround, and only then will I make a decision on whether to buy, or not.

Lately, 90% of the knives I buy, I've handled already.

In the past I've had to sell or trade off the knives I had received from online purchases, as they didn't fit me, one way or the other. Anything not in MY hand is a subjective opinion, and not worth a whole lot to me.

Nowadays, I don't have the excess cash to waste on experimenting, so I limit my purchases to those things that I KNOW I'll like, and keep. I haven't sold or traded a knife in almost 5 years, except for one trade.
 
I agree, most reviews are simply people reading the specs of the knife. I can find that info on my own through the mfg website. What I really wast to hear about are the ergos, the materials, the fit and finish, etc. The things that I can't know unless I go and hold the blade myself. Also, I want to hear the bad things too!. To many people are so loyal to their "chosen brand", that they refuse to say anything negative about it. Fact is almost every blade has some room for improvement.
 
I don't watch them unless its one posted here I want to see.
I do appreciate there efforts, no mater how deep they get into testing. I know I'm to lazy to fool with making them:o


Now, show us one of yours so they'll know how its done:thumbup::p
 
Youtube is just like anything else that gets popular. You get quality and you get quantity. You have to weed through the quantity to get to the quality.

There are some good reviews of knives folks actually use, but they are few and far between.

Another thing that's interesting is how much authority a person can wield through a site like Youtube, or even this very forum. We don't know each other from Adam and yet, we hang on each others every word as if it's the Gospel itself! The Internets are truly amazing! ;)

I find that I get to spend a lot of my down-time (I am in IT) on the internet, perusing sites like this and others, but I am careful not to allow my opinion to be based too much on what someone else thinks or says. And these days that ain't so easy to do!
 
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