Why Is This Forum So Dead?

Y

yerscattergun

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Jan 3, 2007
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I was just wondering because knife enthusiasts are normally
at least slightly interested in swords and this board is one of the biggest if not THE biggest for edged weapons. For me, it was a natural
progression, folders to fixed blades to large fixed blades to machetes
to swords. Now, I just love swords, and a few here seem to have a real
interest and knowledge of them, but there are so few posts here. :confused:
Does anyone here know of any other sword forums(besides SFI)?
My google search turned up nothing except the Swords Of Might forum,
this one and SFI.
 
SFI, MyArmoury, Sword Buyer's Guide forum, and this one are the only one's I'm aware of, outside of community pages on Facebook and MySpace.
 
yerscattergun said:
I was just wondering because knife enthusiasts are normally
at least slightly interested in swords and this board is one of the biggest if not THE biggest for edged weapons. For me, it was a natural
progression, folders to fixed blades to large fixed blades to machetes
to swords. Now, I just love swords, and a few here seem to have a real
interest and knowledge of them, but there are so few posts here. :confused:
Does anyone here know of any other sword forums(besides SFI)?
My google search turned up nothing except the Swords Of Might forum,
this one and SFI.
Click to expand...

I can tell you that I stopped posting on SFI a long time ago, and don't participate here due to the absolute lack of common sense and overwhelming amount of idiocy that seems to permeate sword discussion.

There is a vast difference between naive and ignorant, and many of the good Forumites would rather say nothing and not participate than get involved in the 1,000th discussion of a reverse edged katana.

When someone asks a good sword-related question, I try to be helpful, if possible. When people start saying that a Forumite like cotdt is knowledgeable about swords, I run the other way.

Best Regards,

STeven Garsson
 
One can only recommend the same katana (and it's always a katana) so many times. When it comes to swords, collectors can get confused and think they're experts, and act very immature. I recommend the Sword Buyer's Guide forum; the owner is a very nice fellow, and works out all sorts of discounts with budget sword companies.
 
Knives can be serious business and knives can be fun, but swords of any value at all are more like custom knives than production, even when they are technically production pieces. A cheap word is only a sword-shaped object, not really worth discussing.

So with the best will in the world, this would not be a very busy forum, and any participation by fantasy groupies will drive off the few who do know what a real sword is.
 
Esav Benyamin said:
Knives can be serious business and knives can be fun, but swords of any value at all are more like custom knives than production, even when they are technically production pieces. A cheap word is only a sword-shaped object, not really worth discussing.
Click to expand...

Pretty much true there, Ed. Some of the good European stuff that is affordable is on par pricewise with a mid-level custom knife.

For katana and wakizashi, when they are affordable and good to START it's like a higher end custom, going quickly over $1,000. This is for stuff that is good out of the box, and stays that way as long as possible.

Best Regards,

STeven Garsson
 
Kind of a shame that this forum sees so little action, as there is as much knowledge out there as on SBG or any others.

I immagine that the dedicated sword forums see more posting because they deal specifically with swords and they pop up on the search engines more often than BF.

All of the above comments bear on the topic, and most fellas here see even a mid level Hanwei sword as the equivalent of a Busse knife and think they are better off with the latest Hogzillamegablade, or a limited production Spyderco offering than a hand and a half, or Oakeshott type XVI. Get into the Albions and A&As and such and some don't see the need and lose interest real fast.

Chuck
 
I'd add my guess that knives being tools, will see more use, and have far more users than swords. Also, swords typically require more materials and labour to produce, making a sword of a given quality more expensive than a knife of "equal" quality, further limiting the number of enthusiasts and forumite posts. Just a theory.
 
Kohai999 said:
I can tell you that I stopped posting on SFI a long time ago, and don't participate here due to the absolute lack of common sense and overwhelming amount of idiocy that seems to permeate sword discussion.

There is a vast difference between naive and ignorant, and many of the good Forumites would rather say nothing and not participate than get involved in the 1,000th discussion of a reverse edged katana.

When someone asks a good sword-related question, I try to be helpful, if possible. When people start saying that a Forumite like cotdt is knowledgeable about swords, I run the other way.

Best Regards,

STeven Garsson
Click to expand...



I agree STeven.


People just don't know what they don't know.


I have seen some knowledgable people on here and I wish more would participate here.

But usually from what I have seen when someone tries to pass on something of worth a kid sitting in a dorm room with an overly large vocabulary slays him out. No offense to kids in dorm rooms but you guys get my point

Steven I wish you would spend some more time here. When i was younger from my early 20 to my late 20 I studied under a Japanese teacher and even competed in some kendo tournaments. When my teacher went back to Japan I stopped any formal training and since then have still collected blades and have done some training . I am 41 now and STeven has really helped me to get back to what I have always held very dear.
 
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i think this is a quiet place because of the child-like comments that inevitably occur when a sword discussion begins (of which i am guilty of as well).

Swords are an obsolete tool. people that buy swords fall into four categories:

1. LARPers or renaissance faire folks

2. Martial arts practitioners

3. Blade collectors

4. People preparing for some sort of dystopian/zombie apocalypse

None of these categories is exclusive, some folks are in more than one:D

It is a guarantee that if someone has a sword question or opinion related question relating to their intended use, it will alienate the other 75% of the folks who are in here.

That is why the most common response to general sword questions is:
"What are you gonna use it for?"

answering this question puts you in a category and then......crickets
 
Machete's, hangers, and sidearms are frequently discussed under knives. These are primarilly tools, like large camp knives and khukuries.

Swords, on the other hand, are obsolete weapons.

Real historical swords are scarce and expensive, and generally purchase by collectors who are more interested in preserving them as historical relics, rather then fencing with them. The discussion around these things center on history, ethnographics, markings and such, and can be very esoteric.

That leaves the reproduction swords used by martial artist, or re-enactors; the ultra-expensive art fantasy pieces, and the mass quantity of cheap and dangerous sword-like wall decorations. Once again, a very divergent set of interests which are hard to approach in a general forum like this, without a great deal of frustration.

n2s
 
yerscattergun said:
I was just wondering because knife enthusiasts are normally
at least slightly interested in swords and this board is one of the biggest if not THE biggest for edged weapons.
Click to expand...

And out of all of the knife forums I know of bladeforums has the most active sword forum.
 
Would anyone be interested in hearing about the Tower Hanger I ordered from Armour Class in Scotland??
 
I think N2S pretty much have this one pegged.

My thoughts on the matter.

Firstly sword enthusiasts are a very small subset of the bladed community, therefore on a general blade board the participation is going to be correspondingly small. I believe that this is true for two reasons:

First it is because of the relative cost of the respective items. In my opinion reasonable user quality production swords start at or around 300 dollars. This far exceeds the cost of your average production knife. Good quality production swords cost in the 500 to 1500 dollar range which is easily in the custom knife range and custom swords are typically 1500 to 10000 dollars or more which exceeds everything but high end custom knives. Ergo there is going to be a smaller market at all levels.

Second swords are not exactly utilitarian are practical objects in today's world.

Additionally, there are boards that cater exclusively to sword enthusiasts, most sword enthusiasts are going to post about swords there rather then scouring the internet for knife boards with sword sub forums.

Finally the questions here do tend to get more repetitive then in other venues probably because of the segment of the population that mostly finds itself here, i.e. knife guys who find an interest in swords. I can't count the number of times over the years on this board someone has jumped on here to ask if this or that low end, cheaply priced chinese / pakistani / indian / filipino sword is worth the money. All they want is a yes or no. The answer is of course "yes." They are worth what you pay for them..... but one should wonder what they are really getting for that price... and somehow everyone always ignores that last bit. They are are merely happy to know that if they are spending "all that money" that they are getting what they pay for.

The other standard post is from the katanaphile telling us how incredible his katana is and that the katana is the "best sword ever." That one too gets old. At some point one starts wondering about the point of tilting at windmills...
 
Triton said:
The other standard post is from the katanaphile telling us how incredible his katana is and that the katana is the "best sword ever." That one too gets old. At some point one starts wondering about the point of tilting at windmills...
Click to expand...

Uh oh! (ducks and covers)
 
fitzOdaggers said:
i think this is a quiet place because of the child-like comments that inevitably occur when a sword discussion begins (of which i am guilty of as well).

Swords are an obsolete tool. people that buy swords fall into four categories:

1. LARPers or renaissance faire folks

2. Martial arts practitioners

3. Blade collectors

4. People preparing for some sort of dystopian/zombie apocalypse

None of these categories is exclusive, some folks are in more than one:D

It is a guarantee that if someone has a sword question or opinion related question relating to their intended use, it will alienate the other 75% of the folks who are in here.

That is why the most common response to general sword questions is:
"What are you gonna use it for?"

answering this question puts you in a category and then......crickets
Click to expand...



Hey you forgot about me! I'm number 5. The sword swallowing sideshow performer that actually makes use of the cheap ones, and the useful ones alike. :D

Carbon steel tastes better than stainless!
 
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