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Post by AndiTheBarvarian on Aug 14, 2019 16:12:31 GMT
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stormmaster
Member
I like viking/migration era swords
Posts: 7,649
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Post by stormmaster on Aug 14, 2019 16:14:35 GMT
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Post by MOK on Aug 14, 2019 16:15:47 GMT
@edelweiss, The Levin Lance, cut it out. You can dislike or disagree with each other all you want but please be civil about it.
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Post by Curtis_Louis on Aug 14, 2019 17:12:19 GMT
@ nternal805, I just edited your post (removed image). Way too far.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Aug 14, 2019 17:37:59 GMT
OK, HOLD THE PHONE HOLD THE FREAKING PHONE! I just watched Skall's video and it was painful. HOWEVER, he claims that when he opened the box he knew something was not right about the sword. He had to do research to learn what was wrong with it. He did not know where the sword was found. He did not know that the scabbard throat had fused onto the upper guard. He even explains that archaeologists did not know this initially. So how can he, in good conscience, hold Windlass's boots to the fire for their stupidity, for their arrogance, for insulting his alleged Viking ancestors, whilst also being equally as ignorant?! Shouldn't he know this already? Shouldn't he be able to identify a major historical find that is clearly within his purview as a collector AND a Scandinavian? Hey, there's no shame in not knowing a thing! We're all born knowing nothing, and getting to know anything requires that you first realize you don't know, so shaming people for not knowing any particular thing is 100% counterproductive. It's not wanting to know that should be shamed. Skall did his research and found out the damn thing is made wrong. Why didn't Windlass do the same research before making the damn thing? It's not like this information is new or obscure or anything - Marto may have had an excuse, decades ago, but these days it's actually hard to find production quality pictures of the sword without also finding a mention of the scabbard's throat being stuck to the blade's guard. PS. Of course, you could argue that Skall should have done his homework before buying, which is fair enough.
I am dealing myself back in to respond to this post.
Should Windlass have done their research? Absolutely. There is no excuse for this oversight. The quirk with the Dyback sword is well known.
Should Skall have done his research before buying? Yes...
...but he did not buy. The sword was loaned to him by Windlass with the intent or expectation that he offer a review.
Forgive me, but that's an entirely different matter. If someone offers me a free meal at a restaurant with the understanding I will publish a review, and I walk out upon seeing the first course claiming that it was stupid and an insult to my intelligence or ancestry, and also reneged on my commitment to writing the review, THAT is rude. I do not appreciate that kind of rudeness and I think he should be called out on it. I think he has become too big for his breeches. That is all.
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pgandy
Moderator
Senior Forumite
Posts: 10,296
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Post by pgandy on Aug 14, 2019 18:06:17 GMT
Since Skall is taking heat at present I thought that I’d turn up the heat a little. People, when you get that urge, please stop... breathe in... breathe out... and then do something else. A little heat is nice and cozy, but too much heat burns everything down. Got it. But I’ve got to say that Skall bothers me more than anyone on the Internet. He will take a product that he knows little to anything about, misuse and abuse it then give a bad review costing vendors and the manufacturer. He’s done this several times at the moment the one that comes to mind is his review on Windlass’ Buffalo Horn Sword Cane. He misused it both as a sword and cane. That one bothered me to the extent that I finally did a video rebuffing it. Both can be seen on YouTube. I agree enough has been said about Skall and I’ll say no more.
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Post by MOK on Aug 14, 2019 18:17:30 GMT
Ok, now you're just being dramatic. Oh, right! You're right, I got that wrong. But then, that just means he had no reason to have researched it beforehand. But then, if someone offers you a "free" meal (TANSTAAFL!) in exchange for a review, and it turns out that the appetizers are made of inedible plastic... I think I'd give up on the meal at that point. All that said, I do think a lot of people seem to take him waaaaaayyyyyy too seriously. And way more seriously than he himself does, in fact.
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Post by Jordan Williams on Aug 14, 2019 18:28:55 GMT
Ok, now you're just being dramatic. Oh, right! You're right, I got that wrong. But then, that just means he had no reason to have researched it beforehand. But then, if someone offers you a "free" meal (TANSTAAFL!) in exchange for a review, and it turns out that the appetizers are made of inedible plastic... I think I'd give up on the meal at that point. All that said, I do think a lot of people seem to take him waaaaaayyyyyy too seriously. And way more seriously than he himself does, in fact. I feel like I gotta comment here too, there's nothing inherently non functional about the design that really stopped him from making the review. The throat was stuck to the guard, really, is the only thing, and I don't think it's fair to compare that to an inedible appetizer. Maybe an overcooked appetizer or an underseasoned one. Also, it costs what, 40 - 50 bucks to send to Canada from the U.S.? If it is from windlass and not reliks that is, they just spent like 100 bucks or so to have skallagrim say "it's below me to make a review of this". I know it's a big company so who cares about the money they spend, but it is just disrespectful on his part. The irony here being how disrespectful I have been to him. Yeah, people take him really seriously sometimes, but there's a lot of beginners that watch his stuff and take it as gospel because they just don't know any better.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Aug 14, 2019 18:31:48 GMT
Ok, now you're just being dramatic.
Of course Skall should do his research and I don't fault him for doing so, even if I ridiculed him for not knowing about the Dyback sword in advance of his review. He often does blind reviews without much research at all. He often faults a product for not living up to his expectations or standards without doing his research first, i.e. the sword cane pgandy keeps bringing up. This isn't about research, this is about relationships.
Food analogies aside, we often discuss fostering good relationships with manufacturers and vendors on this forum. One does not positively contribute towards that end by sending the item back out of sheer snobbery. Having an uncomfortable grip and discovering a stupid blunder made by sheer ignorance hardly renders the sword unworthy of review. A bowl of inedible plastic it ain't. Windlass didn't do their research and made a stupid mistake. They should be called out on it, but perhaps the format of a review is the best way to do that. Reflecting on how stupid Windlass was and how they wasted your time many months later is rather arrogant.
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Post by Cosmoline on Aug 14, 2019 18:43:00 GMT
Skall is not a martial arts expert or an archeologist or a historian. He's just a guy who likes swords and has an interesting on-line persona. IIRC he used to have a sword shop in Norway before going to BC. His various postings should be viewed in this light. And like the rest of us, he has immediate feedback the second he picks up a sword. Make of it what you will.
To get back to the OP, the way I avoid the hole of cynicism is to try different permutations and explore other related topics. So for example, if you have a bunch of swords but never fight, try a sparring discipline. Or if you are bored with swords, get a selfbow. Etsy has some nice hickory ones for very reasonable prices. There's always living history as well. Personally I've found the medieval living history folks way easier to deal with than the early modern ones ;-)
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Post by MOK on Aug 14, 2019 19:01:38 GMT
I feel like I gotta comment here too, there's nothing inherently non functional about the design that really stopped him from making the review. The throat was stuck to the guard, really, is the only thing, and I don't think it's fair to compare that to an inedible appetizer. Maybe an overcooked appetizer or an underseasoned one. Also, it costs what, 40 - 50 bucks to send to Canada from the U.S.? If it is from windlass and not reliks that is, they just spent like 100 bucks or so to have skallagrim say "it's below me to make a review of this". I know it's a big company so who cares about the money they spend, but it is just disrespectful on his part. The irony here being how disrespectful I have been to him. Yeah, people take him really seriously sometimes, but there's a lot of beginners that watch his stuff and take it as gospel because they just don't know any better. Yeah, fair enough.
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Post by AndiTheBarvarian on Aug 14, 2019 19:09:47 GMT
I think some of his videos are good and some are meh!
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Post by Adrian Jordan on Aug 14, 2019 20:12:57 GMT
Hey folks, I know a lot of it was done with the intention of humor, and you can certainly express your opinions on his videos, but yes, skallagrim is a member here. Sure, he doesn't engage a lot, but he does come on occasionally. There does need to be at least a baseline level of respect shown to other members. He does open himself up to attention and criticism by being a Youtuber, but, as with any other member or M&V, this needs to be done in a way that it is more a straight complaint/criticism and not an attack.
Why do I always harp on this aspect of expressing dissatisfaction or skepticism? Because in the past(and presently) posts made in an aggressive, attacking tone lead to others reacting in a similar manner, usually with escalation in following posts, which leads to a complaint/criticism turning a thread into a bashing session, which often leads to members on the other side of the fence dropping in and aggressively defending the subject of the complaint, which leads to locking, moating, warnings, bans, forum members leaving the forum and on and on etc.
Now that that's out of the way, back on track with the OP. I'm not sure if I ever dealt with a sense of cynicism, but I have gone through bouts of ennui. Most of the time this comes from the fact that I cannot afford to buy swords for the most part anymore, and just looking at them online both excites and frustrates me. I'm trying to occupy myself by doing some real simple customization on ones I already own to bring a little zazz! back into the collection. Well, I say "real simple" but I have that rare talent to make any easy, straight forward project a total and complete nightmare, hahaha. Add to that a vicious case of self disgust, hyper critical nitpicking and terror at messing up I go through during and at the end of almost every project I do and sometimes I wind up wishing I hadn't done anything in the first place. But then I usually feel better and am glad(...sometimes) that I did. It's a roller coaster, but it brings real feelings back into the mix.
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Post by AndiTheBarvarian on Aug 14, 2019 20:35:32 GMT
Skallagrim is a SBG-forum member here? Cool!
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Post by Jussi Ekholm on Aug 14, 2019 20:55:51 GMT
I might be getting old and grumpy even though I shouldn't. But I just feel that this forum is completely different place than this was in the early 10's. I remember there was so much good stuff going on in here I just couldn't resist joining in at the beginning of 2012.
I haven't been that active in here lately. I will contribute if I feel like I have something that the forum will benefit on when I share it. Unfortunately the stuff I am focusing on is not in the scope of this forum. Yes I have 2000+ posts in the forum but I just checked my numbers for the last two years and it is 57 in 2019 and 70 in 2018... I cannot easily explain what has happened but it is easy to see that something major has happened in my posting activity. And I know I am not the only one that is posting less than before.
We should try to think how we could make the forum as more desirable platform so more people would join in discussions, make threads, have fun with swords. Yes we can bring in some more facts too (like Hotspur was hinting earlier). How can we get new and old members interested? Like I said earlier I am not (unfortunately) the target audience of this forum anymore so I am quite out of touch what should be done etc.
My point was not specifically about Skallagrim, but the sword family in general. This is quite minor hobby and I think our core group at SBG is getting quite small. Inside jokes are funny to those that get them and are in on fun but many occasional readers might not get the jokes and know the people writing them. I think good manners go long way in general.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Aug 14, 2019 21:56:53 GMT
27 respondents in this roll call I am not hard to find, all the pictures you'd hope to find, even here Glen A Cleeton KA1QOK Hotspur horseclover Bombadil and a few more www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000715996723gcleeton@gmail.com howler did propose in one thread my cat done left me, my girl done scratched me and I'm a hurtin' man That line alone is worth the price of admission Here with my mandolin buddy 25 years ago, Harvard Square Cambridge, MA
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Post by randomnobody on Aug 14, 2019 23:12:53 GMT
I'm not sure if I ever dealt with a sense of cynicism, but I have gone through bouts of ennui. Most of the time this comes from the fact that I cannot afford to buy swords for the most part anymore, and just looking at them online both excites and frustrates me. I'm trying to occupy myself by doing some real simple customization on ones I already own to bring a little zazz! back into the collection. Well, I say "real simple" but I have that rare talent to make any easy, straight forward project a total and complete nightmare, hahaha. Add to that a vicious case of self disgust, hyper critical nitpicking and terror at messing up I go through during and at the end of almost every project I do and sometimes I wind up wishing I hadn't done anything in the first place. But then I usually feel better and am glad(...sometimes) that I did. It's a roller coaster, but it brings real feelings back into the mix. As one of the oldest remaining members, by join date, and the guy with the highest post count in the whole forum (Jesus, over 14.6k? 3k more than Adrian, the number 2 poster) I've been a lot less active in the past few years for a number of reasons. A lot of the folk I used to enjoy have moved on and left. Either their tastes evolved and they felt there was nothing of interest left for them here or they left the hobby altogether. Discussion lately seems to be about 60% negative. We don't like X brand, Y retailer sucks, Z YouTube celebrity is stupid. What little positive goes on is outside my collecting interests. On that note, my own collecting interests have changed significantly since joining. Hell, the only reason I signed up was because I was reading up on a sword from Oni Forge, the Kiyomaro. Anybody remember either of those names? How about this one: Marc Ridgeway wrote a very detailed review of the aforementioned sword, with some really fantastic photos, so I joined up solely to ask him some further questions about that sword. At the time, I'd already burned myself a number of times on decorative wallhangers, not knowing any better at the time, and had just begun learning what a functional sword was all about. There weren't many options on the market at the time. I'd already gotten a Hanwei/Paul Chen practical katana, which I'd chosen over a Cold Steel Warrior at a booth at a local gun show, and Dynasty Forge wasn't really doing anything for me. I don't think Cheness, Musashi, Munetoshi etc was a thing yet. I couldn't afford Bugei or MAS, Last Legend was recently dissolved, but I'd just found Oni Forge and they were ticking some boxes. I never did end up buying one, as I just couldn't get the money together. Shortly after, Oni Forge went away. I wound up dipping in an out of swords for a while, trying to find new spice where I could. I tired of katana, picked up a euro or two, got a custom wak somewhere along the line and suddenly the production market just didn't appeal anymore. I bought a couple antiques, but I just didn't have the disposable income to make it a regular thing. I have other hobbies that take most of my income that I can enjoy more consistently. I just don't have the room to be swinging swords around anymore. Hell, I don't even have the time anymore to dig out the swords I do have to just look them over and appreciate them. Recently, my girlfriend has been having some sinus problems, and wanted to try sleeping in my recliner for a night to see if being more upright might help. I don't know how many of you have seen my recliner, but I made a thread about it a few years back in the Collections subforum. It's mostly antiques, where my primary interest had been the last time I had any cash for sword stuff, and I spent a while going over each one, remembering what they looked and felt like, noticing things I hadn't before, and generally missing having time to play with them. Unfortunately, I still don't. I put everything into the computer chair instead, she slept in the recliner one night, decided it didn't help, and I moved everything back the next day. This time in a hurry, so I couldn't really explore anything. I don't know if the production market has stagnated or if things are just more expensive than they used to be, or if it's just that the few new things that appeal to me are just beyond my financial capacity, but I find I spend very little time anymore looking at swords online, and whenever I do it's almost always the same swords. Sometimes they appeal to me more or less than the last time I looked at them, but either way I can't afford them and have nowhere to put them, anyway. I don't know if there's just a certain length of time in which the average person can be interested in swords before that interest gives way to other things, or if it's just the socio-economic gap dictating who has the time and privilege to accumulate and appreciate swords. For me, while I still (albeit infrequently) find interesting discussion here, I feel like I'm only here out of habit. But what the hell, there's still a few decent people here.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Aug 14, 2019 23:38:28 GMT
I never did quite get the Ric Willy and carpet story. Might not even have been Ric but Shadowhowler going green and the cutting competition thread an entire group alternate universes. I had left sometime around 2008, then as Hotspur and returned with my Westerwald Beck family heritage. Or my great uncle of old Napoleon There is some resemblance there How many sock puppet accounts do figure are out here? Robert Marks used to post under the Eyal Azerad Darksword account and sometimes did not add his initials. Not a big deal but confusing sometimes. Maybe I am howler
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Post by nddave on Aug 15, 2019 1:55:30 GMT
So on topic, I cant really say I've ever really been cynical in regards to my sword enthusiasm or the forum. I kinda had a hiatus back in 2014 or so. Then it was pretty rough around here, much more so than people think today. With all the Marc, Ricky and forum war stuff.
Since then it has been pretty pleasant and even with some of the old members gone I still think its a great place to visit and discuss swords and feel it has one of the better if not best communities on the internet swords or otherwise. The only other place I frequent besides here is the IGN Nintendo Lobby and hell, that place on a good day makes this forum look like a Sunday school day camp, lol!
Currently my sword enthusiasm has gone up a notch I'd say as I'm just starting out doing my own Youtube channel and reviewing swords and offering discussion videos there. I feel I'll always enjoy myself here though, even if I become some Youtube Sword Celebrity (probably not happening but you never know) and will still post written reviews here as well as join in on the various discussions and overall camaraderie here. But overall I've always enjoyed swords, owning them, reviewing them and of course researching them and their history. There's always something new to learn or discuss and I think that's why I enjoy them so much even if its more of a niche hobby.
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Post by pvsampson on Aug 15, 2019 2:45:46 GMT
We should try to think how we could make the forum as more desirable platform so more people would join in discussions, make threads, have fun with swords....... How can we get new and old members interested?.....
My point was not specifically about Skallagrim, but the sword family in general. This is quite minor hobby and I think our core group at SBG is getting quite small. Inside jokes are funny to those that get them and are in on fun but many occasional readers might not get the jokes and know the people writing them. I think good manners go long way in general.
I am a member of several forums relevant to my interests. I see a lot of elitism here. Most are in general pretty friendly,but there are those that are quite belligerent in their postings especially toward those that have not been on the forum for as long.Recently there was an exchange that basically stated "I have been here for x amount of time and been collecting for x time.How long have you been here?". Words to the effect of those anyway,and that level of elitist attitude does not look good. I may not have been here long,but I have time and I read and pay attention.I want to learn about bladed weapons and related subjects because of my martial training and through that learning I have found that my history of working with my hands can be utilized to hopefully make mine and my daughters lives a little easier.How? By practising making bladed weapons until there is a time when I hope to be able to sell them for a small profit.I have a way to go as I have only made three blades so far,the first ever I have made by the way,but I am satisfied that I am heading in the right direction. I have very little money after expenses and kids school and stuff,so any sword purchase is a big decision for me,hence why I don't have many and those I do have are cheap,but I am happy with them.I would be a lot happier if I had an Unokubi Raptor and a VA Malatesta and maybe a nice Jian,but still pretty happy at this point. When reading this thread I was a little disappointed at the bagging of the youtuber. The guy does what he does,is the way he is and has a large fan base,and gets paid for it.I don't personally watch his vids as I come here for reviews and anything I wish to know I use the search function,and read.Also I watch Iaido vids,and learn and train what I can from what I learn.And cutting vids,and swordmaking and blade making vids. So my point? Not really sure but some members here would do well to remember that not everyone has been collecting or cutting with or training with or making swords or blade weapons for as long as a lot here. Elitism tends to give some people a rather cynical outlook toward those elitists.
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