Knife Ratings

[Buck Wild]

Hello - Is there somewhere I can find the ratings Noss gives to the knives he tests??? I saw in a couple threads he rated one knife three out of seven swords....If I am mistaken let me know, just would be very interested in seeing his ratings......

I plan to base all of my future purchases on his results :thumb::)......

Noss - Your tests really tell us something about the toughness of these knives.....It is really nice to see that there are some low priced knives that do well in your tests (ie you dont have to drop a couple hundred bucks to get a quality knife)....Also, I would come and check here if I ever decided to drop a bundle on a knife...I wouldnt want to spend a ton and find out the quality of the knife is lacking....

GREAT JOB on the site!!!!!

[culpeper]

http://www.knifetests.com/

[xxo]

I don't pay attention to the ratings, I just watch the vids and draw my own conclusions (keeping in mind that these are for the most part, destruction tests, not cutting performance tests).
I also keep the type of knife in mind when watching the vids. For instance I thought that the Buck Nighthawk, Gerber LMF II and the Bushman all did well for what they are (affordable survival knives) and seemed tough enough, although Noss gave 'em only 4 swords. I also thought the Mora clipper was more than tough enough for what it is (low cost, light weight utility/wood working knife) even with the 2 sword rating Noss gave it.


Any rating system is going to be subjective based on what is most important to the reviewer or tester. I have seen some high ratings given by consumers reports and others based on features and performance aspects that were irrelevant to me and low ratings based on perceived short comings that some may see as advantages. If someone other than Noss was doing the ratings they would probably be different. The nice thing about Noss's tests is that they are all on video so that you can draw your own conclusions.


It would be hard to adjust the ratings to reflect cost since some of the cheapest knives (such as the CS kukri machete) did as well as or better than some of the more expensive knives. It would be possible that some of the toughest expensive knives would get a very low rating when you adjust for price.


I was going to post this is Psy-Ops thread that was locked, but I will post it here, since the topic is basically the same.

Buck Wild welcome to Noss's forum, he is really doing a great job with the site!

[out5yder]

Hello - Is there somewhere I can find the ratings Noss gives to the knives he tests??? I saw in a couple threads he rated one knife three out of seven swords....If I am mistaken let me know, just would be very interested in seeing his ratings......

I plan to base all of my future purchases on his results :thumb::)......


On http://www.knifetests.com near each knife name you can see a number of swords rotating. The more swords a knife has, the higher the rating.

As an opinion, I think you should better watch the videos rather than take into consideration only the ratings. The ratings are only for destruction resistence. But the performance of a knife is also important. And anyway, the rating does not say all about a knife. It is more like a summary of the Noss's impressions on that knife. I will give you two examples to understand these ratings ARE NOT ALL that matters. Once - a Battle Mistress (7 swords) will never slice as well as a mora knife (2 swords), regardless of how well you sharpen it. As a second example you can see the Scrapper 6 having a rating of 6 swords while the recently tested Skinny ASH1 has 5.75 (which is less). But I consider the Skinny ASH1 is the better knife of the two, no question about it. Even the Scrapper 6 remained in one piece after the test, its edge was bad damaged much faster and its tip was destroyed even from the beginning. The Skinny ASH1 had the tip intact after all the abuse. And its edge resisted better. In my opinion, the most important thing of a knife is the edge, because a knife (by definition) is a cutting tool. I can also say I have a Scrapyard SOD (the same as Scrapper 6 but only a bit longer) and a Skinny ASH1 and comparing the two for overall performance I must say the Skinny ASH is much superior.

In conclusion, I consider the ratings only orientative, but the real value is in the videos themselves. Noss's videos have a great value for all of us! When you go in a shop the seller never tells you that a knife will break or chip, nor are the knives ever advertised as chippable or breakable or easy to bend and all of them look good when new and exposed there to the eye. But with Noss's videos you can see exactly what a knife really is and how much can it take, before you pay the money for it. That's why a lot of people (including me) like a lot what Noss does. :thumb:

[Noss]

Yeah it's best to watch the videos and pay attention to what happens to the knife during the tests

[LoganSackett]

This site is best for finding out what a knife's strengths and weaknesses are. If I'm buying a knife, I'll find out what I'm going to use it for and then check here. I will usually ignore ratings. If one knife does really well for the job I'm buying it for, I'll get that one over a different knife with higher ratings.

The ratings are a good quick guide if you don't have time to watch all the videos. But if you want to really see if a knife is worth the money, the videos are better.