Unpopular opinions

[Barmoley]

I have no problem with knives being sold at market price, regardless of much the owner paid or how long they had it. @OwlWoodworks certainly did not and does not owe anyone an explanation for his pricing and I’m sorry he now feels pressured into explaining all of that on his BST posts.

Calling out “flippers” for their pricing when they’re an honest normal person just selling a knife only serves to drive sellers to other platforms like eBay. “Honest” is the key word - definitely call out the misrepresented knives, the knife acquired for free as a reject/second and sold at full price, etc.

If you sit next to @martinhuber on a plane on his way to a bladeshow and by some miracle manage to out-drink him on a bet and he hands you a knife for free, by all means sell it the next day for $600. If Yannick is your bestie and he gives you a knife for Christmas, hell yes sell it to me for 1k. And if a River Jump sells for 3k, then sell it for 3k.

And @OwlWoodworks dammit I still want your Straub jailbird but that one I think we should make an exception and you should sell it to me for 50% off. On 2nd thought I still can’t afford it at 50% off so maybe 75% off.

This is it precisely and I can't understand why self appointed flipper vigilantes don't realize that they are doing a disservice to the community with their misguided, feel good actions. The original flipper thread started as a good idea, but it seems it evolved into something else, where the attitude now is that anyone selling for what some feel is too much gets called out and questioned. If you disagree with the price DM the seller or better yet don't buy. The seller should not be expected to explain the price and the outside observer can't know all the details to be able to determine a flip in many cases. Some are obvious of course, but many are not. There are just too many variables. What has happened because of this need for some to try to "save" the rest is that many sell their best, most sought after pieces privately or on other platforms due to not wanting to get grief here and we all lose as the result.

 

[Heckel7302]

Ive got no issues with roundabouts, but this one in particular is dumb.
Green = clear to drive, yellow = yield, red = stop sign
View attachment 304156
Everyone assumes it works like other traffic circles and you get multiple t-bone accidents per day at the internal yields.

For sure dumb design. It helps to live in a place that is entirely roundabouts so everyone knows how to navigate them. There's the occasional yahoo that gets confused of course.

 

[esoo]

Ive got no issues with roundabouts, but this one in particular is dumb.
Green = clear to drive, yellow = yield, red = stop sign
View attachment 304156
Everyone assumes it works like other traffic circles and you get multiple t-bone accidents per day at the internal yields.

That's friggin stupid.

 

[ian]

Chinese drivers in China FTW...

For reals. (Although my sample size is limited -- I just remember being pretty astounded at the madness a couple times.)

Driving through Chinatown in Boston was a nerve-wracking experience

Why? You can’t drive more than 3mph. It’ll just be a love tap when you hit the baby’s stroller.

——

If Boston drivers are idiots, I think it’s because they spend all their mental effort trying to figure out where the f they’re going as opposed to looking out for obstacles.

Signed,
He Who Makes 30 Turns Every Commute

 

[ian]

Also, Boston just started putting lanes in a bunch of rotaries, I assume in an attempt to tame the madness, but now it’s so much worse, because people still exit the rotary from the inner lane, and now that there are lanes, you don’t expect them to do so.

 

[OkayMode]

They’re showing off their fancy selvedge denim. It’s a whole thing, the same way we show off patina and normal people think it just looks like an old, dirty knife from Saw II.

I’ve used my growing confidence scouring intimidating Japanese websites for Jnats and knife stuff to buy selvedge jeans direct from Japan too (at about 1/3rd of the price compared to retailers in the UK).

Lovely bit of hobby cross-pollination.

 

[drsmp]

I agree the flipper shaming/accusations have gotten a bit out of control. It’s sad that people have to post receipts and even then they sometimes get grief. Calling out or reporting scams, obviously misrepresented knives sure. Otherwise a knife at what you think is a fair or market price and it will either sell or not. You shouldn’t have to account for every penny you put into a purchase to justify your sale price.

 

[spaceconvoy]

This is it precisely and I can't understand why self appointed flipper vigilantes don't realize that they are doing a disservice to the community with their misguided, feel good actions. The original flipper thread started as a good idea, but it seems it evolved into something else, where the attitude now is that anyone selling for what some feel is too much gets called out and questioned. If you disagree with the price DM the seller or better yet don't buy. The seller should not be expected to explain the price and the outside observer can't know all the details to be able to determine a flip in many cases. Some are obvious of course, but many are not. There are just too many variables. What has happened because of this need for some to try to "save" the rest is that many sell their best, most sought after pieces privately or on other platforms due to not wanting to get grief here and we all lose as the result.

'feel good' is much too kind of an assessment. it's a cabal of price fixers that makes it so the most sought after knives are only accessible to keyboard warriors with useless desk jobs who have the ability to spend all day online

 

[Seemore]

Honestly, I think its the street layout that contributes to it. NYC area is a grid so its somewhat predictable.

In boston, some ******* stops you from making a turn you are instantly lost and going through some random ass toll tunnel for the 2nd time.

I hope whoever designed the street plan for Washington D.C. died a painful death.

 

[DitmasPork]

NYC Boston has the worst drivers in the USA. NYC drivers are just aggressive and a lot of people trying to make a living off of them (cabs uber).

Boston in my experience has just been idiots.

In NYC, there're are lots of drivers that lack basic skills required to be on the road, plus aggression—I'm tired of flipping off drivers that cut me off when walking in a crosswalk, tired of slapping the car's trunk as they pass. Entertained watching drivers that don't know how to parallel park.

In Hawaii, pedestrian have right of way, as they should, but often lack awareness, casually walking in front of moving/reversing cars.

 

[martinhuber]

If you sit next to @martinhuber on a plane on his way to a bladeshow and by some miracle manage to out-drink him on a bet and he hands you a knife for free, by all means sell it the next day for $600.

That sitting on a Plane to a Bladeshow thing isnt even that unlikely.
Outdrinking me isn't a hard thing since i get druck VERY Easy.
But....me giveing knives away for free...i really, really, REALLY have to like you or you did some other favours in the Airplane toilet. (#nohomo but 20$ is 20$)

 

[labor of love]

No it’s okay. Making knife collectors feel a little uncomfortable selling bnib river jumps is doing the lords work.

it's a cabal of price fixers that makes it so the most sought after knives are only accessible to keyboard warriors with useless desk jobs who have the ability to spend all day online

Well there’s certainly a reason lots of folks have 5-7 Yannicks (for example) while most have none. Not always because they’re the quickest for drops either.

 

[Koop]

Ive got no issues with roundabouts, but this one in particular is dumb.
Green = clear to drive, yellow = yield, red = stop sign
View attachment 304156
Everyone assumes it works like other traffic circles and you get multiple t-bone accidents per day at the internal yields.

Wait...are you saying that the vehicle already in the roundabout has to yield at the yellow line? That's asinine!

 

[ethompson]

Wait...are you saying that the vehicle already in the roundabout has to yield at the yellow line? That's asinine!

Precisely, and when they don’t inevitably they collide with someone who isn’t in the roundabout but has the right of way

 

[DitmasPork]

Ive got no issues with roundabouts, but this one in particular is dumb.
Green = clear to drive, yellow = yield, red = stop sign
View attachment 304156
Everyone assumes it works like other traffic circles and you get multiple t-bone accidents per day at the internal yields.

Here's a 7-circle roundabout for your consideration.

 

[cooktocut]

That sitting on a Plane to a Bladeshow thing isnt even that unlikely.
Outdrinking me isn't a hard thing since i get druck VERY Easy.
But....me giveing knives away for free...i really, really, REALLY have to like you or you did some other favours in the Airplane toilet. (#nohomo but 20$ is 20$)

I just discovered that Austrians know what "nohomo" means. What a time to be alive

 

[Jovidah]

They're finally anschlussing with the 21st century!

 

[Delat]

'feel good' is much too kind of an assessment. it's a cabal of price fixers that makes it so the most sought after knives are only accessible to keyboard warriors with useless desk jobs who have the ability to spend all day online

That’s pretty much me and I still can’t score a drop

 

[Michi]

NYC Boston has the worst drivers in the USA. NYC drivers are just aggressive and a lot of people trying to make a living off of them (cabs uber).

Paraphrasing Terry Prattchet: Time is quantised. The shortest period of time that can exist is defined as the amount of time that elapses between a traffic light in New York City turning green and the cab driver behind you honking his horn.

 

[martinhuber]

I just discovered that Austrians know what "nohomo" means. What a time to be alive

Man the time i'll spend in the US in the next few Years, i should get a Honorable Citicenship...

 

[HumbleHomeCook]

Man the time i'll spend in the US in the next few Years, i should get a Honorable Citicenship...

Pitch a tent at @DanielC's place, do a wootz run with him then apply for a work visa.

 

[aporigine]

Honestly, I think its the street layout that contributes to it. NYC area is a grid so its somewhat predictable.

In boston, some ******* stops you from making a turn you are instantly lost and going through some random ass toll tunnel for the 2nd time.

The one thing I remember from driving in Boston was — anyone using a turn signal was declaring an emergency.

 

[More_Gyutos]

I spent most of my life between Boston and New York. The worst driver by far are from Connecticut. Connecticut drivers are bad AND dangerous.

 

[myguidingmoonlight]

I really thought Labor was going to generate more Toyama debate

I'm still at the opposite end for Toyama. My first Toyama is a stainless clad 240, cuts like hell, still wows me remembering it despite already having a Yoshikane by its side. I guess it was a good sample, it had amazing food release and still ploughs through carrots with ease.

Here's an older video of mine cutting some carrots with it.

If I still own that Toyama today, it would still stand shoulder to shoulder with my Shi.han and Birgersson.

On the other hand, the dammy Toyama I had was a poorer cutter compared to its stainless clad cousin.

 

[SwampDonkey]

I'm still at the opposite end for Toyama. My first Toyama is a stainless clad 240, cuts like hell, still wows me remembering it despite already having a Yoshikane by its side. I guess it was a good sample, it had amazing food release and still ploughs through carrots with ease.

Here's an older video of mine cutting some carrots with it.

View attachment 304275


If I still own that Toyama today, it would still stand shoulder to shoulder with my Shi.han and Birgersson.

On the other hand, the dammy Toyama I had was a poorer cutter compared to its stainless clad cousin.

Yeahhh that's what I feared. Mine wasn't  bad but it was a step behind most everything in my collection, and it cracked more carrots than the Wat Pro nakiri that's silent 97% of the time. The ShiHan I tried of Blokey's (the one he sold a bit ago) was an entire tier above it in every regard. I liked the steel and it took/held a killer edge, but that was about it for me.

This is a 3-parter and the only videos I have of the Toyama, but you can see it was a little grabby on horizontal onion cut and did not want to go through that butternut. (This was when I first started doing cut vids so excuse the awkwardness)

 

[myguidingmoonlight]

Yeahhh that's what I feared. Mine wasn't  bad but it was a step behind most everything in my collection, and it cracked more carrots than the Wat Pro nakiri that's silent 97% of the time. The ShiHan I tried of Blokey's (the one he sold a bit ago) was an entire tier above it in every regard. I liked the steel and it took/held a killer edge, but that was about it for me.

This is a 3-parter and the only videos I have of the Toyama, but you can see it was a little grabby on horizontal onion cut and did not want to go through that butternut. (This was when I first started doing cut vids so excuse the awkwardness)

I see you have a KU Toyama. They are slightly different grind than the stainless clad migaki version. The stainless is completely convex, the shinogi was smoothened out for a gentle transition from bevel to flat.

The KU version has a very defined shinogi/shoulder and a soft convex bevel. My example of the KU is that the grind wasn't as asymmetrically convex as the stainless version, so it has some food release issues too. It also struggled more on horizontal onion cuts, I'm assuming the shinogi is also at play there.

 

[DitmasPork]

Always wanted to try a Toyama. I have two iron clad Watanabes, interested in checking out how they compare.

 

[MarcelNL]

As someone who drove in plenty if US cities and other countries I;d say that traffic in the US is meek at best...sure there are loads of cars but in general the attitude is live and let live.....

Wait until you see traffic in China, which is slightly crazy, or in Italy where it is testosterone driven, or Paris on the place the la Concorde where you really need to be determined to get out at the exit you want, are but my first place goes to traffic in the Russian Federation, where it seems as if 75% or more of the drivers are suicidal.
I sat in a cab (NO way I'm driving in Russia) in St Petersburg where a 2 lane road was being used by 4 cars in parallel and a fifth driver squeezed in on the left, while a sixth driver overtook the lot on the right ...when something similar happened on the other lane with oncoming traffic.

(I forgot to add that our lane was travelling at 90km/h where 50 were allowed and the oncoming traffic probably was at the same speed)

 

[mengwong]

selvedge jeans

That first episode of The Bear makes more sense to me now

 

[aporigine]

As someone who drove in plenty if US cities and other countries I;d say that traffic in the US is meek at best...sure there are loads of cars but in general the attitude is live and let live.....

Wait until you see traffic in China, which is slightly crazy, or in Italy where it is testosterone driven, or Paris on the place the la Concorde where you really need to be determined to get out at the exit you want, are but my first place goes to traffic in the Russian Federation, where it seems as if 75% or more of the drivers are suicidal.
I sat in a cab (NO way I'm driving in Russia) in St Petersburg where a 2 lane road was being used by 4 cars in parallel and a fifth driver squeezed in on the left, while a sixth driver overtook the lot on the right ...when something similar happened on the other lane with oncoming traffic.

(I forgot to add that our lane was travelling at 90km/h where 50 were allowed and the oncoming traffic probably was at the same speed)

For a month last year I was fascinated by Russian dashcam vids. I do not ever wanna play chicken with a Russian driver. They simply do not flinch. Incidentally I learned three different pronunciations of Блят!