Anyone see Apostle P's rant on Spyderco?

[bearfacedkiller]

He dissected an email and made a ton of inferences which he presented very matter of factly.

He said Spyderco thinks that their customers are stupid. It is the title of the video. That is a bold assumption to make on behalf of someone else. Not to mention click baity and inflammatory.

In the comments section he goes as far as to say that he knows for a FACT that every knife that was returned to Spyderco that was disassembled was done because of an issue with the knife. How would he know that is a fact? He even said that Spyderco customers like to disassemble knives for cleaning and maintenance. He contradicts himself right there. Does he know every person who has returned an Advocate? He sure asserts that the problem was present in every knife before any of the owners took them apart. That is an assumption unless he knows every one of those customers.

[Liquid Cobra]

The video is hard to watch/listen to. The number of assumptions the guy makes is ridiculous. Not to mention the blanket statements.

Would you be willing to list the assumptions and blanket statements so they can be talked about and refuted if necessary instead of making general statements? I don't believe he made many, yes some, but not many. Just wondering what I missed. I don't believe he came from a bad mentality. I think he wants spyderco to be the best and take away some of the things people genuinel5have a problem with. That type of person is often the best listened to. He obviously likes the company but isn't a yes man either.

For instance, I don't agree with his view on the confidentiality notice. I think that was far fetched.

Not really no. I don't have that kind of time. The time I do have with regards to this hobby is for stuff I enjoy. That includes helping others, which you may think this would include, but typing out everything this guy says seems like a waste of time. Just watch the video if you're curious.

Ok one example real quick...

The part where he reads the email aloud and then he states that the Spyderco Warranty and Repair department states "Our customers are morons and ruin their knives when they take them apart."

They never stated that. They would never state that.

[bearfacedkiller]

I must have lost my mind. I just engaged that guy in the comments section. I am turning my computer off for a while. I got firewood to split, it's still winter here...

[Cujobob]

He's entitled to his opinion. People are more likely to put information out there if they belong to one of the extremes with their viewpoints.

His strong views regarding certain things outside of the knife hobby prevent me from being able to take him seriously anymore.

[murphjd25]

No comment. That guy is something else...

[Firebat]

Haven't seen that one, but have seen a couple of his videos. Struck me as a guy trying too hard to be an "authority" on knives. Found that off-putting.

[Bodog]

He dissected an email and made a ton of inferences which he presented very matter of factly.

He said Spyderco thinks that their customers are stupid. It is the title of the video. That is a bold assumption to make on behalf of someone else. Not to mention click baity and inflammatory.

In the comments section he goes as far as to say that he knows for a FACT that every knife that was returned to Spyderco that was disassembled was done because of an issue with the knife. How would he know that is a fact? He even said that Spyderco customers like to disassemble knives for cleaning and maintenance. He contradicts himself right there. Does he know every person who has returned an Advocate? He sure asserts that the problem was present in every knife before any of the owners took them apart. That is an assumption unless he knows every one of those customers.

Fair enough. I can't, nor should he or anyone but spyderco, say for certain that every knife sent back was taken apart. But even then spyderco probably couldn't say that for sure either. So yeah.

As far as spyderco calling everyone idiots, yeah, that's over the top. But from my personal interactions with spyderco warranty and repair it was them saying the knife is fine unless it's taken apart. The guy showed the same basic response in his video. I can say from my personal experience that made me feel like they were saying I am too incompetent to put two slabs of titanium back together with three screws. I can also say for a fact the only reason I took it apart to begin with was because the action sucked when it was brand new and I wanted to find the cause, not send the knife in just to get it returned with them saying everything was fine. It wasn't. But had all of this stuff not happened that's exactly what would've happened.

For whatever it's worth at the time that video was shot his knife didn't APPEAR to be flipping poorly but how it appears and how it feels are two totally different things. In his hands it could've felt really bad. I know mine did. And with spyderco it's all about how it feels in your hands and not looks, right?

Anyway, nothing about these knives are complicated. Maybe the backlocks or power locks or ball bearing locks. But frame locks and liner locks are not complicated. They SHOULD be made to be taken apart and put back together. If any of the links in the chain are too weak for that then those issues need to be replaced with something better. Soft screws, tolerances that are off just enough to screw things up if someone other than a spyderco technician puts it back together, bearings that are too few, too small, or just not able to rotate freely enough in the cage, these are all things that other companies are doing right. Spyderco will too. But no one should say (Sal doesn't and his employees should follow his lead) that there's no problem with these knives and then blame it on the customer. The guy was right in his video. That's a poor stance for a customer service rep to take and yes, I did feel that's how their WR department sees it. I don't believe that's how Sal sees it though and he's the one that matters in this issue.

As far as his comments, I don't know, I didn't read them. I DO know that a ton of spyderco customers take their knives apart. We see it all the time on these forums alone. In this day and age simple tools like knives shouldn't be worried about. That's an easy fix. For spyderco to return to their old warranty and explicitly state that any damage caused by disassembly will not be covered by a warranty, otherwise a full warranty is in effect for the reasonable life of the knife.

I don't know how long ago the wording was changed but it was. Now it says disassembly voids the warranty. It used to say up until a year ago or so that damage caused by disassembly isn't covered even though spyderco maintained publicly that wasn't the case. No, I didn't save screenshots of it but I did get into that discussion, on BF I think, where people kept saying disassembly voids the warranty and I believe I posted a screenshot of their warranty page that said otherwise. I checked again recently and it is different.

Anyway, in this day and age and considering the competition out there spyderco should at least understand that their current policies are driving off customers and right into the arms of companies who actually allow for that and even encourage it. This isn't a time period where it's just benchmade and spyderco and emerson out there anymore. I don't think spyderco will go out of business if they don't change immediately or anything, but I can say if they DID change and some kind of public release saying they changed their warranty policy many people would give spyderco a chance, either for the first or subsequent times.

[Bodog]

Haven't seen that one, but have seen a couple of his videos. Struck me as a guy trying too hard to be an "authority" on knives. Found that off-putting.

I'm sure the guy has probably handled a lot of knives. Whether his personality is the greatest is debatable but I don't really question him being able to say a certain feature of a knife is working right or not.

[mad german]

He's definitely handled a lot of knives, but that doesn't make him knowledgeable by any stretch of the imagination. It just means he's handled a lot of knives.

[Bodog]

I'm sure he can say if bearings are as good as the other knives with bearings he's held. What exactly does someone need to know to compare bearings that don't work well? Or if red loctite is a pain and that other companies get by just fine without it. Or whatever. That's all pretty vanilla stuff. It's not like he's talking about SEM photos and pointing out grain boundaries and other random crap that he may very well not have knowledge of. He's basically saying these bearing suck and it sucks that customers are trusted by other companies but not by spyderco. Not rocket science.

[HammerHill]

I appreciate and enjoy the youtubers who make videos with self-awareness, intelligence, and a sense of humor. I do not appreciate or enjoy TheApostleP, who I find to be pretentious, bloviating, and consistently disgruntled.

Yet, I do think Spyderco warranty policies could be improved. Disassembly should not be a blanket disqualification for warranty coverage. If I was rewriting the warranty, I would simply tweak the policy to be slightly more specific: damage caused by disassembly would void the warranty, while disassembly in itself would not. I understand that Spyderco shouldn't be responsible for incompetence and negligence, but disallowing disassembly is not the solution.

[Mic1]

My 2 cents which is worth less than 2 cents.

One: He normally has high praise for Spyderco really high praise. He loves the Bradley 1 it was one of his top knives he carries. Honestly he usually loves on Spyderco.

Two: You wont like this but I have to admit I hate the fact that Spyderco wont let us take our knives apart. I understand their reasons. To me It is the number one reason I don't own very many. Why lately I hesitate to buy any new ones. I am no big fan of Spydercos fasteners and pivots to begin with. With the lock tight now its just another reason I dont buy a new one. I have recently been getting rid of my spydercos and going with Reeves,Hinderer, or Hoback and other knife manufactures who promote maintenance. Hoback, Reeves even send the wrenches along. I understand its a different price point but not by much sometimes.

I buy Spydercos for their designs, Full Flat Grinds, and variate of steel I can get. Not their warranty because I am taking my knife apart regardless. I also think there heat treat regardless of where its done is spot on. I love my Maxamet truly a great knife and steel one of my favorites to date.

For example on carbon steel folders like M4, 52100, maxamet etc. Taking them apart and oiling or greasing the pivot area is in my opinion necessary. If food juices, blood, water gets in there it makes me feel much better to take it apart clean and oil it as well as sanitary. I know you can wash it use compressed air to blow it out and spray/drop oil in it.

Again just my view on the subject love spyderco.

[Donut]

It's tough to make everyone happy with communication.

The video is 24 minutes long, It seems too long for me to watch.

[holeshot]

First I want to apologize to any used car salesmen out there who might take issue with this but I'm not in the habit of taking cutlery advice from one. Unless there's a free set of steak knives with my purchase. :D

[WireEdge Roger]

I'm ashamed that he's a fellow Hoosier.

[TheKnifeCollector]

Nope, don't watch any of these self styled internet knife testers, commentators, or reviewers.

This, I don't either. I could care less what any of these people think or say.

[paladin]

I'm ashamed that he's a fellow Hoosier.

Roger, you're ACES with all of us here and on BF, but then again I always imagined you being a Volunteer at heart ...

As for other Indianans, I'm with Granny >>>>>> https://youtu.be/LlFA0xIoOMA

[PayneTrain]

I like youtube reviews for the moving pictures; the words are pretty much useless as a rule. The only person I like to listen to talking about knives in such a fashion is Eric since he can actually offer something interesting in the form of backstory and design philosophy. And yeah, I used a semicolon, and probably incorrectly. Bringin it back, baby!

[WireEdge Roger]

Paladin - that's hilarious! I'd forgotten about that scene. I'll have to watch the entire movie this weekend :D

[Firebat]

Haven't seen that one, but have seen a couple of his videos. Struck me as a guy trying too hard to be an "authority" on knives. Found that off-putting.

I'm sure the guy has probably handled a lot of knives. Whether his personality is the greatest is debatable but I don't really question him being able to say a certain feature of a knife is working right or not.

I didn't question him being able to do anything, you added that part.