My point exactly. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbup.gif" alt="" />
If the point was to just hawk as many knives as possible, then Scrap Yard's business model would have started out a lot different.
Dan has produced knives constructed of new alloys (154CM) and new designs (Muk, BDLE) and hasn't felt the need to pre-test those knives before releasing them to dogdom. Why did he feel the need to do with that with an old design and a proven alloy?
I'm not going to answer this question again.
Whatever the thinking was behind the creation of the Regulator Test Team, its affect on sales (assuming it's ever sold outside the test team) is unmeasurable without a control group or previous sales figures to compare to.
I don't have to measure it at this time. I have enough common sense to know that he would have sold more just over last weekend if he had released it to everyone at once.
There is a danger here, too. By creating test teams and so much secretiveness about posting test results, Dan & Jerry may be sending the message that they don't trust their own designs well enough to release them without having them tested by their customers first. I'm sure that's NOT what they have in mind. But it is definitely one way of interpreting the need to create test teams.
It could be interpreted as spite for people who didn't attend Blade as well. I'm not really concerned with the extent that some people can twist the limits of interpretation.
In the final analysis, most knifemakers don't find it necessary to have their customers pre-test their products before they offer them for sale. And I, for one, already trust Dan's judgement. If he builds it and I like it, I will buy it . . . test team results notwithstanding. And I doubt I'm alone in feeling that way.
Who cares what other knife makers do?