Your thoughts on the Steel Will Bruiser 500 Knife?

Wavester

Wavester

Joined
May 5, 2008
Messages
1,665
Are you looking for an overbuilt beast that is a folder trying to be a fixed blade? Then this is for you ;-)
What are your thoughts on the Steel Will Bruiser 500 Knife?

[video=youtube;gHpKFCt6nbA]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHpKFCt6nbA[/video]
 
While the folder holds no interest to me, I would like to provide some feedback:

The video should be much shorter; I found myself almost immediately skipping past the intro (please consider dropping that entirely) and trying to find content of value.
- "Stats" for the knife can be looked up immediately by the person watching the video, and can also just be left in the description on the youtube page.
- Cut tests are so reliant on the angle the blade is being held at and the material that it is essentially of no value to the viewer. Additionally, it only demonstrates that a knife is sharp, as paper provides very little information about the cutting performance of the knife.
- Size comparisons would be more ideally and efficiently done as a still photo with -all- of the knives in the frame at once, lined up along a common point (generally the pivot)

As such, the majority of the first five minutes offers very little original or informative content. I would strongly suggest sticking to your impressions of the knife and bringing up individual statistics as they become relevant - remember that people are watching your video, and ideally want to hear your views and opinions. Everything else is just so much talking.

Speaking of so much talking, you may also benefit greatly from preparing a list of bullet points so that you have a clear stream of thought and observations with no backtracking, "um"s, etc. Editing your videos down can also provide the illusion of such preparation, and people are pretty used to jump cuts these days.

Consider the lighting and framing of your shot. The angle is awkward (it feels cramped) and the lighting constantly casts shadows on the knife. A soft white light from the top and the sides will do wonders.

The knife itself is honestly overpriced and visibly underbuilt. $30 more gets you a 0804CF with superior everything and an exceptionally similar overall profile.
 
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Fantastic reply! I will take all your suggestions into consideration! Thanks for taking the time to write this and provide feedback on the video.

Comeuppance said:
While the folder holds no interest to me, I would like to provide some feedback:

The video should be much shorter; I found myself almost immediately skipping past the intro (please consider dropping that entirely) and trying to find content of value.
- "Stats" for the knife can be looked up immediately by the person watching the video, and can also just be left in the description on the youtube page.
- Cut tests are so reliant on the angle the blade is being held at and the material that it is essentially of no value to the viewer. Additionally, it only demonstrates that a knife is sharp, as paper provides very little information about the cutting performance of the knife.
- Size comparisons would be more ideally and efficiently done as a still photo with -all- of the knives in the frame at once, lined up along a common point (generally the pivot)

As such, the majority of the first five minutes offers very little original or informative content. I would strongly suggest sticking to your impressions of the knife and bringing up individual statistics as they become relevant - remember that people are watching your video, and ideally want to hear your views and opinions. Everything else is just so much talking.

Speaking of so much talking, you may also benefit greatly from preparing a list of bullet points so that you have a clear stream of thought and observations with no backtracking, "um"s, etc. Editing your videos down can also provide the illusion of such preparation, and people are pretty used to jump cuts these days.

Consider the lighting and framing of your shot. The angle is awkward (it feels cramped) and the lighting constantly casts shadows on the knife. A soft white light from the top and the sides will do wonders.

The knife itself is honestly overpriced and visibly underbuilt. $30 more gets you a 0804CF with superior everything and an exceptionally similar overall profile.
Click to expand...
 
Blade looks nice, I personally love the look of fullers on folding knives, although I don't have any experience with the steel (K110). The opening looks very smooth, hopefully comparable to the Gekko or better, and I do find the thumb disk they put on to be attractive (doesn't is act as the spine jimping as well?) Overall my thoughts on this knife are it seems worthy of the name, and I want to play with one myself :D
 
To be honest I stopped watching the instant I read your thanks to Steel Will for providing the knife in your review.

In my experience the reviewers objectivity goes out the window at that point.
 
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I am very honest with my reviews. If a knife stinks, I say so. If it's nice, I say so - no matter who lent me the knife.
SW saw my review and my negatives and appreciated it - said it makes them a better knife company :-)
I hope you can check the video again sometime now that you know this :-)

Todd21969 said:
To be honest I stopped watching the instant I read your thanks to Steel Will for providing the knife in your review.

In my experience the reviewers objectivity goes out the window at that point.
Click to expand...
 
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