Pet peeves about knife discussions and youtube videos

[Quiet]

My gripes:

People on Youtube who are ridiculous pedants about the most ridiculous, insignificant details of a knife they're reviewing. "Can you believe the scratch on the inside of the blade pivot that it took me using a thousand lumen light shown at juuuuuussssst the right angle up into the pivot workings to see?? Man, the quality of this brand has really gone downhill!" or "Gah, why does this $30 knife have this super tiny bit of side to side wobble?"

Speaking of video, it's mildly irritating when the review consists primarily of subjective non-informative discriptors about how nice the knife is and "man, ya just gotta getcha one'a these, you won't be disappointed!" Or, they spend more than a split second talking about where they got it. "So, I wanna give a shout-out to Steve at Whatever Knife Site for sending me this knife, he knew I'd been looking for one, and so we spoke on the phone, and after we talked about how his four-wheeler's runnin', he offered to take care'o me! it's so nice, you guys definitely gotta get one!"

As I've gotten more into knives, I just want a quick, data-dump video, with some shots on the hand, maybe showing some flipping action. Let's see you cut some media with it, let's hear the specs, what use do you have in mind? What makes the grind on this knife good for that use? Stuff like that. Entirely too many .05megapixel webcam users who are like "Awright, guys! Time fer thah unboxin'! Mayne, yew jess GOTTA get this knahfe, it's just AWE-some, ya know? Looka that sweet jimping!"

Or, on the other end of the spectrum, one of the many reasons I don't watch NutnTragic is that he spends roughly 40 minutes trying to stuff his personal life philosophies into each video.

 

[Krelldoggy]

Thanks Metalhed, good advice. Your intuition was correct although I may certainly have not been clear enough (for some).

Part of what I was trying to get to was that I am not clear why being a fast and effortless flipper makes a knife a better tool. It seems to me that it just makes the knife more fun to play with...my XM-18 deploys one-handed very fast and with a satisfying feel and lockup. I have some ball bearing flippers that are totally fun but I fail to see what advantage they really have.

In the blade/handle ratio topic I still do not see the need for matching lengths other than some vague idea of "symmetry". To me a handle is for your hand to grip and a blade is for cutting and can be in all sorts of shapes and lengths. I suppose from a standpoint of art, the two should match nicely, but as a tool I see very little relationship. So yeah the CQC-14 looks a little weird but it is a competent tool...much more so that some knife with a two inch handle.

My pet peeve is clicking on a thread I might find interesting, or may want to contribute to, and seeing Craytab take one sentence of the OP's post out of context and then jacking the thread with his silly nit-picky drama. I'm not going to post on this thread further, nor will I participate in any arguments he will likely start. I am not trying to troll, be a jerk, or start anything. But with that being said, it really does sadden me to see this crap on every other thread when I am browsing. The OP's point wasn't to define an auto, that's at least how it seemed to me...I believe he was only trying to make the point that the knife may as well be an automatic. Then of course Craytab has to quote it, bold the text, and belittle the OP by spouting off an argumentative statement/correction.

As I said, I'm not even mad, it really just bums me out It surely doesn't make new or newer people to the site feel comfortable in joining in on the conversation, and that is what irritates me the most. Just ignore him Krell. Move on, and don't give him the time of day. People like him live for this type of stuff, don't give him the satisfaction.

 

[Quiet]

My peeve is checking out a tube video that I think might be interesting only to find out that:
1. the person made no preparations at all before pressing "record" (howzabout a script, dumbass?)
2. the person spends half of the video flipping the blade open and then closing it, without even managing to at least keep their hand in the frame while doing it
3. one of the first five word they utter is "f**k", and they use expletives in place of being able to speak with intelligence and authority (like some standup comics I've heard lately)
4. they provide nothing of value in the way of a review (functionality? fit and finish? price? sharpness on arrival? actual use?)
5. discussion of things that really have no relevance to the topic (i.e. bitching about the way something worked out of the box when it is fully adjustable)
6. lack of a true knowledge of the subject at hand

And for a peeve about discussions: people who think somehow that a high post count means they know more about a subject than someone with a low post count.

I could go on, but wouldn't it be better if i couldn't?

I should have read further in the thread before posting, you did a better job than I did of summing up my viewpoints perfectly. :thumbup:

 

[craytab]

My gripes:

People on Youtube who are ridiculous pedants about the most ridiculous, insignificant details of a knife they're reviewing. "Can you believe the scratch on the inside of the blade pivot that it took me using a thousand lumen light shown at juuuuuussssst the right angle up into the pivot workings to see?? Man, the quality of this brand has really gone downhill!" or "Gah, why does this $30 knife have this super tiny bit of side to side wobble?"

Speaking of video, it's mildly irritating when the review consists primarily of subjective non-informative discriptors about how nice the knife is and "man, ya just gotta getcha one'a these, you won't be disappointed!" Or, they spend more than a split second talking about where they got it. "So, I wanna give a shout-out to Steve at Whatever Knife Site for sending me this knife, he knew I'd been looking for one, and so we spoke on the phone, and after we talked about how his four-wheeler's runnin', he offered to take care'o me! it's so nice, you guys definitely gotta get one!"

As I've gotten more into knives, I just want a quick, data-dump video, with some shots on the hand, maybe showing some flipping action. Let's see you cut some media with it, let's hear the specs, what use do you have in mind? What makes the grind on this knife good for that use? Stuff like that. Entirely too many .05megapixel webcam users who are like "Awright, guys! Time fer thah unboxin'! Mayne, yew jess GOTTA get this knahfe, it's just AWE-some, ya know? Looka that sweet jimping!"

Or, on the other end of the spectrum, one of the many reasons I don't watch NutnTragic is that he spends roughly 40 minutes trying to stuff his personal life philosophies into each video.

Are you sure you aren't one of these reviewers? You've got the diction down!

 

[The Aflac Duck]

Thanks Metalhed, good advice. Your intuition was correct although I may certainly have not been clear enough (for some).

Part of what I was trying to get to was that I am not clear why being a fast and effortless flipper makes a knife a better tool. It seems to me that it just makes the knife more fun to play with...my XM-18 deploys one-handed very fast and with a satisfying feel and lockup. I have some ball bearing flippers that are fun to play with but I fail to see what advantage they really have.

In the blade/handle ratio topic I still do not see the need for matching lengths other than some vague idea of "symmetry". To me a handle is for your hand to grip and a blade is for cutting and can be in all sorts of shapes and lengths. I suppose from a standpoint of art, the two should match nicely, but as a tool I see very little relationship. So yeah the CQC-14 looks a little weird but it is a competent tool...much more so that some knife with a two inch handle.

Cool, glad to hear your opinion. Seems like you started this thread in hopes people would agree with you, rather than discuss things.

 

[Krelldoggy]

Just interested to hear what others think whether they agree or not. It would be great to learn a few things from the experts.

Cool, glad to hear your opinion. Seems like you started this thread in hopes people would agree with you, rather than discuss things.

 

[Quiet]

Are you sure you aren't one of these reviewers? You've got the diction down!

LOL Tell me about it. It's just a lot of experience. Some days when I have downtime, I'll do a general search for a knife I'm interested in, and watch two or three videos (or more until I find one with enough content I'm looking for). I'm always up for discovering new YT knife reviewers who put out a quality product, but it just seems like for every one of the guys who do the task justice, you get ten other guys who decided to make a video without having any idea whatsoever. And then even more laughably, they're always "HAY YA'LL, BE SHURE TAH LIKE, SUBSCRAHB, SHARE ME ON YER SOCIAL MEDIA!" Right, a guy with four videos (all of which were shot with a camera from 1996), and complete crap content. Let me just rush to provide you with free advertising. LOL, no.

I mean, I get it, they all have to start somewhere, but let's not kid ourselves. Want to see how it's done, go watch others who are putting out good videos, and do what they do, then put your own spin on it, you know?

 

[The Aflac Duck]

Just interested to hear what others think whether they agree or not. It would be great to learn a few things from the experts.

Well, for discussion purposes I think that a poor blade:handle ratio equals a poor design. 5" handle with a 3" blade? No thanks...

I really do like Spyderco and their knives are extremely well made, but some of their ratios are sketchy. Much of it stems from incorporating a finger choil...and don't even get me started on Striders ratios

That said, I still love the Manix's (Plural: Manixi?) I own. However, if I can reach for a better option that is more well-designed to my eyes, I'll grab that 8/10 times instead.

 

[dogstar]

My pet peeves:

1. Long intros. A 3 minute video has 45 seconds of badassery with guns, batoning, and roaring flames to a heavy metal soundtrack. It makes it really hard to keep watching, even when I speed up to 2x.

2. The reviewer never uses the knife; the whole video is just 12 minutes of yapping. The medium of video is to show action. Cut something, for Pete's sake!

 

[stuff_things]

Man, the self-righteous are thick tonight!

 

[collim1]

My pet peeve is janitors locking one side of double doors. And people slow walking three abreast on the sidewalk. Oh and TP loaded in the rear deployment configuration. Drives me batty.

Wait, what were we talking about?

Now you have crossed the line. TP should only unroll from underneath. No exceptions. Been fighting that fight with my wife for years.

 

[Charlie Mike]

I've heard from more than 2 independent sources that an unofficial drinking game has been made with my videos. If I say f**k, c**t, etc... you gotta do a shot.

 

[A.L.]

More than 10 min videos, hell, even more than 5 min videos.
24 min video about the crap you carry on daily basis? No thanks!

 

[trevitrace]

I remember watching Bill Dance growing up and they'd incorporate his goofs onto the show (I think, it's been a couple decades) and I loved it, fairly certain I still would.

Stepping off his boat, rolling down a bank...it was a fun bonus on how to properly bump stumps. Too much editing these days, that's what I say.

 

[Kwon Kwang]

Everyone keeps complaining about long videos! I like when a reviewer goes in depth and really talks about a knife. It's just fun for me. My favorite knife reviewers (in no particular order) are cutlerylover, nutnfancy, X4CTO, The Late Boy Scout and WeAllJuggleKnives - all for similar reasons. Though I disagree with all of them at times (just a part of being human), they're all intelligent and experienced gentlemen who know what they're talking about.

This Millennial generation and their attention spans...

 

[GermanyChris]

Speaking as an engineer whose done a stint in marketing for a bit...

This kind of stuff is what you get when you have an object (knife, ski, bike) whose performance depends both what it's being used for (different materials to be cut, different kinds of snow, different riding surfaces and race types) and the skill/technique of the user (the person cutting, the skier, the rider).

IME, when you a situation like this, it's almost impossible to come up with objective criteria because the uses and users vary so much and tests rarely mimic actual use.

And it's super easy for the market to perseverate on easy to measure or easy to point to esoterica as ways of justifying large sums of money. Strike up a conversation with skiers about what makes a fast ski. Or ask a cyclist about how stiff or comfortable the frame material on his bike is. All you end up with silly tropes that get repeated on forums and in magazines. Like a bike frame should be stiff to be fast. <shrug>

People need to feel good about their purchases and this is how they do that.

Ride up grades don't buy upgrades...

Ti and steel are the only proper frame materials, Campagnolo is the only company that provides proper shifting, and tubies are the only proper tires

 

[GermanyChris]

I don't really watch many knife/gun videos but:

Blade to handle should be proportionate it tells me you've given some thought to the knife and it's use BUT if the knife is intended to be beaten on then more handle is OK.

Flippers should flip but I don't dig them.

No I can't really sit through a nutnfancy, or I'm a gun guy but can't shoot The Late Boy Scout video. The cool thing about youtube though is it's a fine on demand echo chamber so I watch ApostleP

 

[clearkevin]

I do pay attention to blade handle ratio because I generally want as much blade and edge as I can get. I don't like when people talk about how sharp that tells me only that the reviewer or someone he knows can sharpen a knife how long does that edge stay or how is the edge geometry would be more helpful.

 

[pinnah]

Nope. Just like your Father in law, many people who know very little about knives think any knife that opens quick and has that snapping noise is an automatic. It has happened to me several times. Without even knowing anything about the the knife I am opening (usually to help with some sort of cutting tasked the person is unprepared to handle; no knife) folks will say "aren't switch blades illegal?" I then explain to them what a switch blade is and the type of knife I have can be purchased at the local big box home improvement store down the street. But, as we see in this thread, some people who even go out of their way to post complaints about how others discuss knives don't really know what they themselves are talking about and are confused about some of the basic terminology involved in this hobby and even the legal restrictions based on definitions most of us abide by on a daily basis.

Are flippers sold in Washington? Can you carry one? Is a flipper an Automatic knife? How does a flipper relate to being an Automatic knife legally speaking?

These are basic things we should all either know or come here to learn about.

Well, since we're sharing....

As a former mathematician, one of my pet peeves is people who think that formalized definitions are stable. If you want stable definitions, stick to mathematics. The definition of an irrational number has stayed the same for eons. Legal definitions, medical standards and technical standards, not so much.

The book "Sorting Things Out: Classification and it's Consquences" by Bowker and Star is required reading for anybody interested in how social factors drive changes in standardized classification systems, which includes formal legal standards. The book follows the history of the ICD and, among other things, discusses how changing social attitudes towards women caused the disease of "hysteria" to appear and later disappear.

As my lawyer buds put it, the law is just a starting point for negotiations. This is exactly the hope of advocates on both sides of weapon debates.

So here's how it goes down... Like all people who own them, you know perfectly well that when you deploy your flipper in front of the average father-in-law type with a swish-clack that you'll startle them. And so then you "educate" them and go to great lengths to explain how it's not a switchblade because of some technical minutia. And they'll nod politely and think, "I don't care what he says, that thing is a switchblade." And then some percentage of those father-in-law types will be upset enough that they'll write their legislature complaining that the hardware stores are selling knives that "effectively the same as a switchblade". And of course, as the debate unfolds, some people will stamp their feet on a forum talking about the finer points of technical distinctions and feign surprise that locking flippers are now illegal in their state.

 

[Ray5118]

I turn them off immediately when
1 The speaker admits up front they know actually nothing about the knife ( why post a video ? ) or knives in general
2 There is loud background music and I can't hear a GD thing
3 And the speaker is a child , in their room , or the basement ( sorry kids )

I have plenty more pet peeves

I would like to add this one

# 4 Do I really need to see the person unbox the knife , really?
(One guy actually had video of the delivery truck driver handing him the package!)