Things you like in theory, but not in practice

[Insipid Moniker]

I admit it was a leap thinking that anyone would be able to follow collegiate level statistics on BladeForums and that some of you would be thrown with your GEDs and High School level mathematics.

The following POLL was on BladeForums: How many knives do you carry daily? (Responses on BladeForums ranged from 2012 through to 2015).

My NOTES:
- Did not count SAK (of which there were many) or flashlights (of which there were a few) as carried edged tools.
- Could not understand the carry options for approx 5 posts

THE TALLIED RESPONSES FROM 159 POSTS ON THAT BLADEFORUMS ARTICLE: 2 to 3, 1 to 2, 2, 2, 1, 2, 1, 2, 3, 1 to 2, 2, 3, 2, 2, 1 to 2, 2 to 3, 5, 4, 1, 1, 2, 2, 2, 2, 1 to 4, 2, 2, 1, 2, 2, 1 to 3, 4, 3, 1, 2, 3, 4, 2, 3, 4, 1, 3, 1, 2, 2, 2, 2, 3, 1, 2, 2 to 3, 1, 2, 1, 1, 2, 2, 2, 1, 2, 3, 3, 2, 2, 2, 4, 2, 1 to 3, 1, 5, 3, 3, 1, 3, 2, 2, 1, 2, 3, 1, 1, 3, 1, 2, 1, 4, 2, 1, 2, 1, 2, 1, 2, 1, 2, 2, 2 to 3, 3, 2, 6, 4, 3, 3, 1, 3, 1, 3, 2, 3, 3 to 4, 2, 3 to 4, 2, 2, 1, 2, 1.

THE STATISTICAL DATA:
Number of respondents: working on it
Mean number of knives carried daily: working on it
Median number of knives carried daily: working on it
Mode number of knives carried daily: 2
Max: 6
Min: 1


The average BladeForums EDC is above 2 knives, and all that I was saying was to carry another knife.

You really wanna go there? Okay, here are a few things. A. That isn't a poll. B. It's extremely far from from scientific. C. Even assuming every one of the 159 responses was from a unique user that's significantly less than 1% of BF users. D. Being a thread you have to click on, the 'poll' requires folks to self-select and self-report and self-selection is notoriously biased while self-reporting is notoriously unreliable. E. You're relying on mean rather than median, which allows extreme outliers to have a disproportionate effect on your outcome. F. You haven't even mentioned standard deviation.

 

[Comeuppance]

Extremely wear resistant steels - I still really want Rex 121 at 69 HRC, but sharpening it would be ZERO fun

Handsome folders, to a certain degree - I find them difficult to use and I always end up pulling a more user knife to do the work... which undoes the purpose of owning the aforementioned handsome knife. I actually really dislike this problem, because shopping for knives gets really weird. Do I buy the one I like and not use it, or do I buy the ugly one I want to beat on? It's so twisted.

Agreed on both. I thought the Kizer Megatherium would be my new carry knife until I realized there was a 0% chance I wanted to beat up on it at all. Also, I have more or less settled on giving up on super-duper steels and place my upper limit now around S35vn (which is convenient given the surplus of S35vn folders these days)

I think the trick is to find a knife that is just aesthetically pleasing -enough- that usage marks won’t make it look like garbage. That’s one of the few upsides of full Ti handles - carry marks add a nice character to them.

Fittingly, considering both of the statements I have just made, I have primarily been carrying a Factor Iconic Ti and, most recently, the Recon 1 I mentioned in the original post. Both have a good-but-plain look to them while also not looking terrible when used.

 

[Comeuppance]

You really wanna go there? Okay, here are a few things. A. That isn't a poll. B. It's extremely far from from scientific. C. Even assuming every one of the 159 responses was from a unique user that's significantly less than 1% of BF users. D. Being a thread you have to click on, the 'poll' requires folks to self-select and self-report and self-selection is notoriously biased while self-reporting is notoriously unreliable. E. You're relying on mean rather than median, which allows extreme outliers to have a disproportionate effect on your outcome. F. You haven't even mentioned standard deviation.

Bad statistics ragers unite.

Self-selection is really the killer aspect of forum polls. People who are conscious of their unusual / outlier positions or habits are disproportionately more likely to respond in a topically-related poll just for the sake of attention (nothing wrong with that; just truth) and it omits the vast majority of users who are just too indifferent to the topic to bother responding.

A truly useful poll would be a survey that had a high response rate and was targeted at random users, only bothering to analyze the data when at least 10-20% of active users had responded. Anything else is just such horribly skewed data for so many reasons.

Also, all of this is just incredibly off-topic.

 

[RadialBladeworks]

Agreed on both. I thought the Kizer Megatherium would be my new carry knife until I realized there was a 0% chance I wanted to beat up on it at all. Also, I have more or less settled on giving up on super-duper steels and place my upper limit now around S35vn (which is convenient given the surplus of S35vn folders these days)

I think the trick is to find a knife that is just aesthetically pleasing -enough- that usage marks won’t make it look like garbage. That’s one of the few upsides of full Ti handles - carry marks add a nice character to them.

Fittingly, considering both of the statements I have just made, I have primarily been carrying a Factor Iconic Ti and, most recently, the Recon 1 I mentioned in the original post. Both have a good-but-plain look to them while also not looking terrible when used.

You took the words straight from my head, man! That's exactly my thinking! My main knife is literally the Recon 1 Clip Point in S35VN and XHP. I can use it, and I also think it looks better with use. Cold Steel has been my go-to for priceerformance ratio. I don't mind kicking the shit out of those guys, yet they are also built really well. CPM steel for $100USD is pretty friggin' awesome

 

[RadialBladeworks]

You really wanna go there? Okay, here are a few things. A. That isn't a poll. B. It's extremely far from from scientific. C. Even assuming every one of the 159 responses was from a unique user that's significantly less than 1% of BF users. D. Being a thread you have to click on, the 'poll' requires folks to self-select and self-report and self-selection is notoriously biased while self-reporting is notoriously unreliable. E. You're relying on mean rather than median, which allows extreme outliers to have a disproportionate effect on your outcome. F. You haven't even mentioned standard deviation.

lol Insipid just f#cked that guy up...

 

[jbarsquat]

Why?

I explained the Spyderco dislikes. Back locks just aren’t as convenient as I’d like.

 

[stabman]

This balisong fork?

It took me abit of practice to get good at flipping a bali in a continual smooth motion. Once you figure out how to flip then it is alot easier and more intuitive that I thought it would be.

I’m still not trying any aerials or crazy tricks though.

Nah, I want to get one of those.
Mine has the regular 4 tined fork, so I have to work harder to stab myself with it.
I've gotten good at getting my feet out of the way when it falls from trying those aerial tricks.

The spoon version is handy though, in addition to being safer:

 

[Lapedog]

Nah, I want to get one of those.
Mine has the regular 4 tined fork, so I have to work harder to stab myself with it.
I've gotten good at getting my feet out of the way when it falls from trying those aerial tricks.

The spoon version is handy though, in addition to being safer:

Atleast it looks like it makes a viable spoon.

This thing is a lousy pen. If you try to write with it closed it is way too wide and uncomfortable. If you try to write with it open then the arms flop down and all over.

 

[stabman]

Atleast it looks like it makes a viable spoon.

This thing is a lousy pen. If you try to write with it closed it is way too wide and uncomfortable. If you try to write with it open then the arms flop down and all over.

How is it as a fidget toy though?

 

[Lapedog]

How is it as a fidget toy though?

Decent. Better than a fidget spinner, not as good as a real balisong. It’s abit too light too so it doesn’t make a great practice tool for real balis.

It can be fun to flip around when you are bored though.

 

[bikerector]

Flippers, and especially flippers with bearings. I like to fiddle with them but in use I just don't find myself loving them and have sold them everytime.

The compression lock was another, I really hated how you had to change you're hand position so much to go from use to unlocking the blade compared to a liner lock or frame lock. Hate the PM2, love the millie.

 

[Basp2005]

Wave features.

 

[Chris "Anagarika"]

Strongest "lock" only if the pivots are strong. A buddy of mine had a balisong, and one of the pivots busted off quite quickly. Brass handled balisong of low quality, the sort most people had at that point in time.

Agree. I’m thinking of good quality same as most branded good folders (torx pivot).

 

[marcus52AR]

Pretty knives/ safe queens.

I've had some nice knives come and go because they were too nice to use. Also, even though in theory I liked the idea of having some safe queens, I've found they don't give me much joy in practice