After so many years of blogging (admittedly, not so much recently), its interesting to sit back and muse about what MTJS represents and how the girl and I have evolved along the way, both as people and as content creators.
MTJS was created as a way of justifying my purchasing habits, I figured if I wrote about hardware then surely it was reasonable to keep buying it, over time the community formed and it became more of a conversation. Ultimately this leads us to the past couple of years and certain events that have put my motivation to write prolifically (I know I was never that prolific, but bare with me) into doubt.
I remember when I was first contacted by a company regarding reviewing a product- it was shocking to me that someone would send me something to test out and when Case Knives offered to send me some shinies, I was utterly blown away.
I am forever thankful for companies like Case, Camillus (sorry about giving you a bad review, but in my defense it was a bad knife), Leatherman and Kershaw for having me sent a few slabs of steel over the year. To this day I am humbled that so many people have taken an interest and supported MTJS.
With that said, I do think receiving items is a double edged sword (so to speak), when it comes to my reviewing style, because 95%+ of the gear here was purchased by me with my own funds, So I am used to buying stuff I like- when I get something for free it’s more often than not a more a neutral review.
The nature of getting the item for free, leads me to think perhaps I was inadvertently biased in my conclusions. If I was using my own money- would I have bought them?
Maybe, maybe not.
The tough part for me is trying to be unbiased and upfront with you lot whilst living in a consumerist society and ultimately, the nature of this blog encouraged this.
A never ending stream of knives and other cool tactical widgets for you to spend your money on but at the end of the day, the over commercialization of simple tools has actually put me off writing on here.
Every day new crap comes out with little more than a different colour and another blade steel that offers no discernable advantage. I frankly don’t see myself buying another modern tactical folder.
It’s an odd thing to read if you are a longtime reader, but the nonsense both in terms of design and consequent pricing has become absurd, especially in light of the real world performance.
If you want to process wood in the outdoors- get yourself a Mora and a pruner. It will be far better than any super badass tactical blade I can think of.
Seriously.
The problem I find myself in, is that whilst I used to love writing on MTJS, I cannot in good conscience push an ideology I do not believe in.
I am not sure what this means for this blog and its community, I should have written this a long time ago but I think part of me wishes I could go back to being excited over the never ending deluge of steel on my doorstep. But this ship has sailed.
I have 50 or so knives I still havent reviewed. Some I have been meaning to write about for nearly 5 years (Fallkniven F1, ESEE 4 etc. to name but a few) , I will most likely scribble up an opinion with pretty pictures but I can’t see this blog going back to being gear obsessed from a consumerist stand point.
I have been struggling regarding what to do with it, and so I delved into the past and remembered that the articles I enjoyed the most (other than whiny rants like this one) were the Reader Question series and the various anecdotes from my past.
I want this blog to be more conversational in nature, so I will be answering comments (and emails) in the form of blog entries and once in a blue moon, opening up the chest and reviewing something I already own.
Thoughts?
You certainly had a nice run there. I followed all the way. It was interesting. And certainly exciting to see what was coming next.
I never jumped aboard as a hard core collector, jumping in there and buying all the newest knives. And the more I used the I owned myself the less it mattered which one I was using. Never seen the need to buy any others. However, I did enjoy watching all of the reviews yourselves and many others did. Manufacturers did take advantage of getting the word out through such reviews. They figured what’s giving out a few freebies here and there if it leads to more product sales. Ride the wave, keep the sales flowing in. Its was trending..
But there was so much more you (and Elise) brought us. That’s what I miss the most. It wasn’t only the knives. Life in general is so much more than just surviving. Its more than knives, saws, multi tools and axes. Its so much more than K rations stored in a pantry. Paracord, knots, and building fires all have their place. You folks put a personal element into it and that made it nice. Many of us looked forward to continue on and learn more about you two in your efforts to survive. In the end, its still about people.
I’ll still look for you in the future to see what you bring us next. Until then keep it real.
Cheers Pappy and I completely agree with you, I want MTJS to be more about the human element/conversation even though it started off more or less as a knife blog. Thank you for sticking with us for so many years!
Thomas…we come to you for your insights. You don’t and shouldn’t write for us. I enjoy your style, no matter what the subject, so write about what interests you and find that passion again. Pretty sure most of us will be here still.
Cheers Dave, it does feel like I almost pigeonholed myself with the gear consumption and to walk away from it is almost a betrayal of the roots of MTJS, if you catch my meaning. At the end of the day, I am looking forward to scribbling this year- even if its less steel heavy. ;) Thanks for the support!
Just keep going with what you love, certainly making 50 reviews about knives is not that fun anymore.
Do what you love, and I think it would be the same topics we (the readers) also love.
To be honest, if all 50 knives were completely different and performance wasn’t so subjective- I would probably tolerate it better than I do now. The issue is 90% of folders on the market are perfectly fine performance wise and whats left is aesthetics and value which is so much harder to peg down- especially since I try to write informative articles instead of just listing specs! That said I will still write about knives, but it won’t be the primary bias of MTJS. Hope you stick around & thanks!
I’ve used knives for better than 60 years, I’m not a collector, just a user. Probably own 40 plus between folding and fixed.
I’ve found your site interesting and informative in the past and thank you both for that. Over the years I now find I’m regularly using five different folding knives, a small folding utility blade, and two multitools, depending on what I’m doing, where I’m going and what I’m wearing. Really have no “need” for more blades. At the end of the day, just being new doesn’t make it all that much better in my world, just different materials doing the same task that people have been doing for eons.
Always appreciate hearing your thoughts and ideas.
Thanks Joe, its basically my position too! I EDC a douk-douk most days and a lot of that has to do with the practical aspect of living in a super hot country and needing to slip a knife in my pocket that doesn’t take up much room. I also still love my Stretch II for the same reason, lightweight and dependable. Much appreciate your support Joe!
Hi Thomas,
After watching a few videos from shot show I can see where you’re coming from, such a load of rubbish. I’m not a collector, but I generally carry a leatherman and a folder, $30 is my limit on the folders as if it gets lost it’s easy to replace.
Perhaps you and Elise are just getting mature, hence the change in outlook.
Take care,
Keith
I think we watched the same video’s! Hah. Out of the knives I saw, I only saw a couple I would consider snapping up and the primary one was the Ka-Bar wrench- something about a super stainless (425HC) integral fixed blade for the garden makes perfect sense. I like the idea of keeping it lodged in a stump for when I need it. Beyond that, I pretty much shrugged through the rest of the offerings from the major manufacturers- did you also notice how many of these microbrand Chinese manufacturers exist now? Crazy.
Glad to see your post but kind of sad to see you’re scaling back on the reviews. I really enjoyed reading your thoughts on particular knives, especially if it was one I considered purchasing.
Recently I’ve become a full-on collector, mainly interested in older knives with an American knife maker history. But I also just bought 2 new German-made folding Boker Hunters, I just love that pattern. So that statement is partially somewhat true at best. lol!
When I see an interesting knife, be it a folder or fixed blade, I want to see it in hand and give it a try. Collector knives aren’t really bought for that reason; more like, “this is something desirable by myself, and hopefully others, that might appreciate in value over time.” So that’s what I’m into at the moment. But I also have a pile of users.
One thing about your posts that I truly enjoyed was reading about knives seen on TV or in movies. You guys were always spot on in tagging any knife! It amazed me and I also appreciated links you would provide to purchase that knife or find out more information about it. I thank you for all of that information!
Glad to read something new from you and I hope things are going well. Take care and happy knifing!
To be fair John, I wasn’t posting much last year! ;) I will probably end up doing more knife reviews this year- I just won’t be on the new shiny stuff bandwagon anymore. I also really love classic knives- something really pleasant about using something thats rooted in tradition. Thank you so much for noticing our work with identifying knives in movies and TV shows- no lie, its a giant pain in the ass. So much frame freezing! So I am glad someone appreciated it!
Really good comments and I agree about the stuff coming out today. One prime example. In the late 90’s I got a Leatherman multi tool free for Marlboro UPCs from the packs from their Adventure Gear program. It was the PST2 from leatherman. Still have it, still works fine but just look at all the new multi tools since then from Leatherman! Don’t need them, my PST works fine. Same with all the EDC and Survival knives out there. Usually the original works just fine. I’ve got an old Army P-38 can opener from the 1970’s when I was in the service, still works fine. Sure there’s newer models like the P-51, plus various can openers on knives but my old P-38 still does the job just fine, plus it was free in a C-Ration case I opened while in the field. Frankly I’ve got no more funds nor room to buy nor store any more preppier supplies. Now I’m concentrating more on watching this new epidemic coming out of China and wondering will this be the time I will start needing to actually use equipment or eat survival food/water I have stored? Or is this just another blip on the radar, here today gone tomorrow. Regardless, at least I have supplies and the know how to survive for awhile. Thanks to you and your wife’s articles, I have made some good purchases just in case. Thank you!
Thanks for the support Broadwing! I feel the same way about my Leatherman Rebar- in my eyes its the perfect multitool and even though I own the super expensive MUT, the Charge TTI etc. I still prefer the Rebar. Must be a reason for that!
I will give you my review of the Fallkniven F1. At the end, I will tell you my application and it was never designed for that function.
I watched a dumb video. It was summer time in the mountains – shirt sleeve weather. The reviewer castigated the F1 knife because the grip was too narrow. Well, the knife was designed to be used in Sweden using gloves. Sweden is a cold place in the winter.
The USAF survival knife was designed to be used all over the world. It was designed to be used by crewmen in transport aircraft, not just a jet jocky. If a transport plane with a crew of 8 crashed, they might have to cut open the aluminum body of a plane. So the back of blade was designed to cut aluminum, not to start a fire. The blade was designed for general usage and not as a sushi knife.
Why not just issue a Mora? The generality is that the people who use Moras grew up using them. They knew that you didn’t throw green wood in a fire, you collected dry wood. You didn’t build a cabin in the wilderness. You didn’t fight with people.
People who take a knife, put it against a stump, and hammer down the blade through a stump and declare that a knife is no good if it can’t are nearly completely ignorant of survival in the wild. There are plenty of Mora users in Northern Europe who would disagree.
The typical jet jocky is urban, went to college and picked up minimal survival skills. If his plane goes down, his objective is to get back to his lines of defense. so, a stronger blade is needed. The probability that the 20 or 30 something year old pilot has a limited knowledge of knives and limited experience.
Take your Mora, your US air force survival knife, your Esee 4 knife, etc. Take each of those knives and keeping each within the factory sheath, put the whole unit in a pants pocket of a Brooks Bros. suit. Won’t fit. Take the F1, in its ugly factory sheath and it fits right into a suit pants pocket.
Ok, you are an English national walking around Sagres or Evora, Portugal. Are you going to have a fixed blade dangling off your pants belt? If you did that in Los Angeles, Ca, even though it is legal, a cop would stop you.
I hear you BDC and as usual, your comments are incredibly insightful. Frankly, sometimes, I think you should be the one doing reviews! Haha. As for the application (and pocketability) of the F1, yes it’s very niche in its inception- personally I really like it but it’s tough to review something that I like for reasons that are not particularly tangible for the people reading this blog. I try to be somewhat unbiased (within reason) and when looking at performance, bang for buck etc. it does put me in a weird position.
For example, let’s take the ESEE 4, it’s a super popular 4″ “Survival knife”- the performance is decent, the ergonomics are adequate and the price is reasonable relative to mfg location as well as fit and finish. That said, for $100, is it good value? Will it offer a substantial increase in performance compared to an inexpensive Mora? If we define performance by toughness- the Hultafors GK is a beast and could withstand most abuse so I am kinda stuck regarding my judgements. Beyond saying “if you like it buy it”, I do feel like I have an obligation to pass judgement and regarding my own biases, the demographics of this blog and what I perceive to be the general use case of the people reading this (collecting, light bushcraft and wood processing). I feel like throwing my hands in the air because so much of what I write will simply end up sounding derivative!
Hope this made sense- I am proud of what I have written (thus so far) and I don’t want this to change, so something had to give.
As for carrying fixed blades in Portugal, I would be relatively comfortable these days due to being older and not being the sort of person to dress super tactically. That said, I see your point and I am inclined to agree that I would ere on the side of caution and keep it out of sight if out trekking. When I do review the F1, I will bring up all those points (with full credit, haha!). Thanks again mate, I always look forward to seeing your name pop up in my comment queue!