What Should a Good Review Consist of?

[Vildmark]

Yep, what do you guys think a good review should consist of? I'm primary talking bushcraft/wilderness activities here.

So show ya cards.

 

[Cliff Stamp]

First be specific about the knife, even in custom knives there is variation from one to another, so take some measurements to let the reader know just how yours was built.

Do some work which seems sensible for the knife, take more than one knife along so you have something to compare it to so that the performance is meaningful, the more the better. Repeat the work a few times to make sure that you are not concluding something that is more of a fluke than a reality.

Discuss the review with the maker and other users to make sure that you are attempting to do what it is intended to be used for or as is promoted. Be willing to do other work if they suggest something that would better showcase its abilities.

As for specific types of work, there are lots of Bushcraft knives, some are very different, look at the JEB :

http://www.jenseneliteblades.com/images/estpair.jpg

This was designed for such a purpose, but obviously has a different intended purpose than something like a Deerhunter which could also readily be called a solid wood craft knife.

A starting point, some activities are not relevant in all enviroments or with all knives :

1) carving woods for traps, bowls and such
2) cutting woods for shelter
3) splitting, digging in woods for tinder
4) digging for food
5) cutting/chopping ice (not all bush is tropical)
6) cleaning game, carving bones for tools
7) various utility cutting, scavanging "junk"
8) cutting large soft vegetation
9) cutting weeds, thorny brush, and other "vine" like plants

Don't make it too complicated, go do what needs to be done and use the knife to do it.

-Cliff

 

[ROCK6]

Again, the size of the knife will dictate some, but I would add battoning under the chopping category...it's not an issue for most knives, but is a task I use a lot to split small pieces of wood.

Most "bushcraft" knives have less belly than a skinner, and typically a more pronounced (and sometimes more robust) tip for drilling holes and digging into wood/bone.

I would also add edge retention...again, I like a good convex edge, but how well does it work for skinning/food prep after you've done a bunch of wood work? Is it easy to put an edge back on via stropping or some other simple field manner?

Doing small work is a good indication of handle, choil and thumb positioning...building a trap, carving a utensil, etc. is a good test of blade manipulation. Again, that depends a lot on the size of the knife you're looking for.

ROCK6

 

[Cliff Stamp]

Yes, for all these activities, you are not looking at a simple pass/fail grade, mostly any knife can do any task if you take your time, be really careful, or be willing to do a LOT of work, some are just way more efficient than others. Talk about handle ergonomics, security, cutting ability, edge retention, ease of sharpening, durabilty / toughness, sheath issues, etc. . Have fun and focus on what you like doing.

-Cliff

 

[R.W.Clark]

I actually agree with Cliff here except for two small parts. Those are half of point 3 and all of point 4.

A knife is not a digging tool. A knifes' worth is much better spent carving a stick to do the digging. If the ground is so hard that a good hard stick won't get into it, it is time to move locations as there is likely to be little food there to begin with.

Also you should note where you got the knife (ie was it given and if so by who or was it purchased), what happened to the knife after your review, and you should show photos of the tasks you are talking about while they are being done.

 

[USAFSP]

To expand on what R.W. said, one of the most important things is to come back to your review at monthly if not bi-annual reports on long term usage. Ya know, after all the moving parts of folders have been broken in, and after fixed blade sheaths have been used for a while.

 

[JDBLADE]

I basically do my reviews in 3 parts esp., in relation to cutting etc. The first section of the review is how the knife works "out of the box" ie no sharpening, re profiling etc. The second section of the review is after the knife has been sharpened or reprofiled as the case may be. In relation to these 2 parts I have standard tests for every knife regardless of type. I have designed a proforma to make it easier and so that I follow these standard tests for every knife. The third part of the review is knife specific IE a hunting/skinning knife would be taken into the field; a kitchen knife used in the kitchen; and an EDC folder carried for some time. I carry a notebook so as to keep a record of the tasks.

I also look at ergonomics and safety issues etc which again I have a standard check list for but I do find by having the standard tests/tasks whatever in parts 1 and 2 that I am able to get a quick "feel" for the knife. Of course sometimes this "feel" may be overturned by field tests or having carried the knife for some time. I find the more knives I test the more the "feel" turns out to be right. Another advantage of the standard parts 1 and 2 is that I can quickly get out a preliminary review esp., on a new product that my customers are asking about.

 

[tknife]

The best reviews I have read have been using the knife as it was intended to be used, and maybe throwing in a few twists. If the knife is a large camp/survival knife, lots of chopping, carving, digging, some prying, food prep. Then you can discover any strong or weak points that come through. Was the knife tooo heavy? Too light? Dulled too fast? Handle not comfortable? etc. Those are the things I like to know.

 

[STR]

I think a review for the most part is highly opinionated and in most every case subjective but they are still valuable. In a few circumstances like with Cliff Stamp for example who does this a bunch it can be more objective in the presentation than from an individual. Most people that spend their hard earned dollars on a knife they are reviewing already liked it before they bought it so most reviews are favorable but some don't feel motivated to even say anything at all unless they are disappointed or angry at the company. (remember that old saying if something good happens to someone they tell three people but if something bad happens they tell 10) I like to hear why they like them more when this is the case and why they are disappointed when they don't but I generally shy away from the very angry emotional reviews more geared toward the companies than the knife.

Things important to me are:.How does the handle feel? Is the lock up solid? How is the fit and finish of the product? Was the knife sharp out of the box, and did it feel gritty or need lubed? I also like hearing how the knife feels in the hand. How it works for what it was designed to do and how well it keeps and takes an edge. Does the clip hurt your hand and get in the way with certain or all grips? Is the knife easy to retrieve out of the pocket or does it grab the pocket so tight you have to really struggle to get it out. Does it slide back on the pocket easily with one hand or not. How far does it stick out of the pocket when clipped? Is there any blade wobble? Did the pivot pin need adjusted right off the bat? Stuff like that. For fixed blades, how is the sheath? Does the knife stay in the sheath when snapped in?

Mostly though just state your observations both good and bad. Pictures of anything you noticed or anything you did with the knife are always a plus but some of the great reviews I've read had no pictures at all. Just very good overall statements about the knife and their recomendations as to what could possibly improve it.

I can tell you from personal experience that the knife company reps do read these reviews. I wrote one a about a year ago about a knife and my disappointment that the pocket clip could not be replaced after I broke it because the company didn't do "in house repairs". The next day I was contacted by another rep that read my review and they got my address and sent me a clip N/C that they very kindly scarfed off of a returned knife that had been replaced. So, state your opinions and observations. It does make a difference.

 

[Cliff Stamp]

A knifes' worth is much better spent carving a stick to do the digging. If the ground is so hard that a good hard stick won't get into it, it is time to move locations as there is likely to be little food there to begin with.

Around here you can get very rooty soil which isn't that hard to dig with in terms of moving the soil, but is so thick with roots that using a stick is near impossible, obviously you can't be productive digging in woods with a digging stick either.

Other reasons to dig would be to simply place poles for various reasons, such as staking a peg or setting a spike for a trap which you might want in a specific location for various reasons so you can't always move to softer soil.

Lots of knives are also intended to be used for digging, simply because you don't make them to do so, doesn't mean you get to tell every other maker what users can do with their knives. That is kind of an odd perspective. Plus, it really isn't even an issue for any knife outside of a really thin edge light utility knife.

Even on the blades I have seen which I would rate on the very low end of durability and toughness in the heavy utility / survival / emergency class (the hollow ground high carbon stainless ones) all have all the edge damage by digging restored in about five minutes.

The same knives can easily be grossly damaged simply working in hardwoods. For example the Buck Strider was used to dig a moderate hole in rocky soil (one of the promoted uses of the knife), the edge chipped out, as expected for a high carbon stainless steel, but easily resharpened. Awhile later it suffered complete blade failure while hacking up hardwoods.

Now I do own blades that would not respond well to vigerous digging, the light utility knife that Wilson made for example, 1/8" thick full distal taper, CPM-10V at 62/63 HRC, if I had to dig with that I would be very careful not to load the point as it would not take much to crack it off.

I have dug with such knives, I used one from Mel Sorg to take weeds out of a grave as I was helping out a few friends and that was all I had on me. I just needed to resharpen the knife when I got home, and it worked much better than a digging stick as it could cut through the roots. Mel just thought it was funny when I told him.

Lots of knives not only indend this as part of their scope of work, but many like the Mission MPK-Ti have it as one of the main focus point, and others specifically include it obviously in the design such as :

http://www.jenseneliteblades.com/evosurv.htm

The only real concern about digging is that it puts a lot of wear on a blade, unless you do it carefully or there is little rock in the soil, but personally if I really like a blade, respect the maker and actually wear it out through use, then I'll just buy another one, I don't see that as a bad thing. Plus you are looking at years in any case.

There are also lots of other materials which put a similar high rate of wear on a knife, used carpet for example, or just used materials in general which contain a lot of dirt/grit can be very abrasive or try to spend a summer cutting fibreglass insulation.

Mostly though just state your observations both good and bad.

This is the biggest problem with a lot of reviews, they come off as pure promotions as there is no mention of weak points, what the knife doesn't do well, where another knife would be a better choice etc. .

Pictures of anything you noticed or anything you did with the knife are always a plus but some of the great reviews I've read had no pictures at all.

Mike Swaim rarely used pictures, can't actually post any on usenet anyway, neither did Joe Talmadge, noting that pictures are a requirement for informative reviews when you consider the worth of the reviews those two guys is just insane.

Plus it is just a silly concept, if you were to sit down and talk to someone, would you expect them to constantly show you pictures. I just gave a friend a hand to haul up several truck loads of wood using a four wheeler.

Before we went down I was asking him about how it handled, how much wood we could load on, how it could handle inclines etc. . It would not have been more informative had he showed me a picture of it loaded on an incline than just told me.

Buy hey, add them if you can of course, on some things they can be valuable, such as showing wood cuts because you can gauge user skill, and throw in vid clips if you have a decent camera as well because then you can better judge things like "hard swings", "vigerous prying in woods" etc. . .

Lots of great stuff like that coming out of the HI forum thanks to Dan.

-Cliff

 

[knifetester]

The best reviews I have read have been using the knife as it was intended to be used, and maybe throwing in a few twists. If the knife is a large camp/survival knife, lots of chopping, carving, digging, some prying, food prep. Then you can discover any strong or weak points that come through. Was the knife tooo heavy? Too light? Dulled too fast? Handle not comfortable? etc. Those are the things I like to know.

Those sound very interesting, can you give us some examples of such reviews or who wrote them? I would be very interested in reading them.

Thank you,
KT

Edited to add: It would be very helpful if people could post links to the reviews they thought were especially well done whatever your criteria.
Thanks

 

[allenC]

While some folks like "just the facts", I want all the subjected opinions that I can get.
I can read the specs of the knife (3", AUS-8, 3 oz, G-10 scales, ect...) and still not know much about the knife.
I want to know how the knife FEELS to you.
I want to know if you believe you've got a great knife or only an "okay" knife.

I want the opinion even if it goes against the specs.

Here's why your opinion matters more than the exact technical details:

Certain knives just have more appeal than others even if they have the same basic design and are constructed of the same materials.

And while one man's opinion may be dismissed, but if you constantly read or hear the same opinion on a knife over and over and over, then there is no doubt some truth to those opinions.

Now, I realize that I need to update my own reviews here on the forums.

Good luck,
Allen.