Cringe review by Project Farm of which knife brand is "best"

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Vince000

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This is so cringe inducing it's frustrating how a non-knife person "tests" knives from "cheap" to "expensive". For the most part he compares apples to oranges and selects factors that are absurd (e.g. lock release pressure). No normalizing for the different steel types and heat treatment, etc.
 
I put little to no stock in Youtube knife-opinion videos. And I lean towards giving them no credibility at all. Perhaps because I've seen too many that were nothing more than some guy with a camera giving his personal opinions. Anyone can play "knife expert" on Youtube.

You say that video is cringe inducing? I can believe that. So I won't waste my time watching it.
 
killgar said:
I put little to no stock in Youtube knife-opinion videos. And I lean towards giving them no credibility at all. Perhaps because I've seen too many that were nothing more than some guy with a camera giving his personal opinions. Anyone can play "knife expert" on Youtube.

You say that video is cringe inducing? I can believe that. So I won't waste my time watching it.
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I’m right there as well. There are a few reviewers who seem to know their stuff, but most of their reviewing is about Steel and heat treat rather than the knives. But sitting through their videos sometimes involves hearing about the adequacy of CATRA testing, carbide tear-out, etc. I mostly use YouTube to see a knife I want to buy in action and scale prior to purchase.
 
I made a post about it earlier, but got removed probably because Im not a gold member. Anyway, before calling it cringe, this was the post I wrote:
The guy chooses knives based on his fan base suggestion, with the most requested of each brand.
He doesn't care or know about the steel type, nor the excelled advantage of some blade profile and grind.
The video is not meant for knives collectors nor blade enthusiasts. It is meant for normal users and trade man, who use whatever they can find or gifted to. The video is biased toward heavy usage, low maintenance, and price ratio.
This is a quite fair presentation of the non enthusiasm. Not all people want to waste time to debate about knives on forums.
 
There were a few interesting things in the video but mostly, it wasn't useful information for me. Different things matter to different people. For instance, I don't care how sharp a knife is out of the box so long as it isn't dull. I care about corrosion resistance but his test felt both rushed and not sensitive enough to be useful. I could say more but I don't feel that it's worth getting granular here.

As far as whether or not YouTubers can provide useful information, it all depends on the YouTuber. Different methods of testing will be much more useful than others. For instance, Outpost 76 or Pete from Cedric & Ada provide fairly well-controlled testing and more helpful types of analysis. As far as opinions, different YouTubers have different perspectives and levels of experience. Kevin Cleary is one of the few reviewers that I watch consistently.
 
One thing is for sure, the Wicked Edge sharpener he used did a great job. For me the test was as much about the sharpener as it was about the knives.
 
This was already posted, but I don't know where the original thread went to???

Anyway, as I commented in the original thread - this is 19 minutes of my life I won't be getting back, especially when one of the final conclusions is - "Why not just get a Smith and Wesson?" :rolleyes:
 
Deino said:
I made a post about it earlier, but got removed probably because Im not a gold member. Anyway, before calling it cringe, this was the post I wrote:
The guy chooses knives based on his fan base suggestion, with the most requested of each brand.
He doesn't care or know about the steel type, nor the excelled advantage of some blade profile and grind.
The video is not meant for knives collectors nor blade enthusiasts. It is meant for normal users and trade man, who use whatever they can find or gifted to. The video is biased toward heavy usage, low maintenance, and price ratio.
This is a quite fair presentation of the non enthusiasm. Not all people want to waste time to debate about knives on forums.
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Well, D Deino , I think you nailed it. He has a lot of useful videos up and tests anything from wood glue and saw blades to Fix a Flat. Some of his tests are very well designed and have great real world application. As a working contractor I find some of his reviews on caulk, epoxies and battery powered tools quite helpful. In particular, his battery powered tool tests absolutely mirror what I have found in job site conditions when using them daily.

That being said, we can't be all things to all people and that includes him. Like anybody else that does reviews of anything, they miss the mark on occasion. I think what you found that is the Hallmark of his channel is that he tests products that are specifically requested by his viewers and subscribers. For example when he tests saws and saw blades he includes DeWalt and Milwaukee products which are pretty much middle of the road or bottom tier tools. But they are readily available at any big box store and the DIY crowd loves them. So that's what he tests.

I haven't looked at anything on his channel for a long time, but at one time he used to read every comment that was posted and occasionally comment on them. He echoed what you said, that he simply responded to the requests that he got. He also never claimed to be the last word of testing and has no laboratory or study lab to work in. He comes up with a valid test that he believes in and off he goes.

And in every single thing he tests there is always someone that craps on the video that he makes because it is not up to their standards. But, it's that way with everything these days. You have to make every single person sitting on their couch eating a bag of chips and drinking Dr Pepper happy when you post a video, or they will take the time out of their busy day to call you out for doing a bad job.

I readily agree that a great deal of the content on YouTube is absolute crap. That includes some of the people that are revered here. But that's just my opinion...

For what it is, and "every man" kind of channel, I think he gets it right more than he gets it wrong. But that's just me.
 
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Project farm has done VERY informative vids. I personally love what he does. He isn't a knife nut like inhabitants of bladeforums, nor did he claim to be. I watched the entire video and he never said chose the s&w over the bigger brands. I think what he is saying is for 13 dollars, the cost of a meal at panera bread, the s&w did good. So if you are broke or just want something cheap af then yea grab the s&w lol
 
I watched enough of it skipping through it to not like it. Delivery as much as content I have to admit.
 
Vince,
I enjoyed this video, watched it last night. I thought that his battery of tests was performed quite well. Seems like the guy is all about the testing being fair and accurate. Perhaps you need different tests, but his were for laymen. That's why he didn't exhaustively describe the different steels in each knife, it would go over a layman's head.

I also thought he picked some widely available, recognizable knives to test, not exotics we won't ever be able to buy. Happily, I have three of the blades he tested
 
I love his channel normally but did not like this video at all. I feel it's going to give non knife people really bad ideas.

The video says the best knife brand and yet tests things like edge retention and corrosion resistance. We know those are steel properties, not brand properties. Testing corrosion resistance and edge retention of a bunch of knives in different steels and saying the ones that do the best are the best brand is simply ridiculous. Even the sharpness test is going to be influenced by grind and sharpening angle and is a ridiculous test to try to rank the best brand of knife.

It was disappointing to watch because I usually love his videos testing products but this one was just not good.
 
I really like project farms videos. I saw this one last night. He's coming at things from a regular Joe's perspective and not an aficianado's. Even as a knife nut I found the video interesting. I won't be selling off my collection for SW folders though.
 
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