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+-- Thread: Bad tool reviews (/showthread.php?tid=7348918)
RE: Bad tool reviews - Handplanesandmore - 07-17-2019
Indeed, time (duration of use) is an important factor. Also critical is a user's skill level pr technique. For example, some Festool tool users may complain about certain new tools they acquire, blaming the poor results on the tools, not realizing their techniques are wrong.
Another example is the Veritas honing jig MK2 that some owners struggled with using it for narrow chisels. They blamed the jig rather than their skill/technique. I have used that jig and its predecessor for over 15 years for everything from wide bench plane and rabbet plane blades down to 1/8" chisels with zero issues.
Reviews, good or bad, are useful, but for hand tools, they don't replace actual handling before a purchase decision is made.
Simon
RE: Bad tool reviews - Vince - 07-22-2019
(07-13-2019, 07:16 AM)elinourrumming Wrote: FWIW, In my time at a magazine, that was not entirely true. What is true is that we did not print bad tool reviews; we tried plenty of tools we wouldn't recommend, so we simply didn't write about them. But every word I published about a given tool was my honest reaction – and it had zero to do with advertising.
We have a general rule against publishing bad reviews at Woodsmith (and ShopNotes) as well. If a tool is a real dud, we just don't write about it. No point in wasting valuable space talking about a non-starter. However, if there are flaws or downsides to an otherwise good tool, we do mention them.
Even when we had no advertising and we purchased all the tools we reviewed, we would still get letters from readers accusing us of being in cahoots with the tool manufacturers. Conspiracy theorists abound.
RE: Bad tool reviews - EightFingers - 07-23-2019
I’ve updated several of my Amazon reviews (as much as a year later).
RE: Bad tool reviews - R Clark - 07-23-2019
(07-23-2019, 02:10 AM)EightFingers Wrote: I’ve updated several of my Amazon reviews (as much as a year later).
I just did that for a garden product that I've had for a year. The problem flagged in my first two-star review on the item only got worse, and so I downgraded it to one star and elaborated on the issue and how it had gotten worse.
RE: Bad tool reviews - Smashedfinger - 08-09-2019
I always shudder when another chisel review is posted on youtube. Unless you have a full laboratory with a million dollars in testing equipment, you won't really find out how good or bad they are for several years.
RE: Bad tool reviews - Tony Z - 08-11-2019
(07-23-2019, 06:52 AM)WxMan Wrote: I just did that for a garden product that I've had for a year. The problem flagged in my first two-star review on the item only got worse, and so I downgraded it to one star and elaborated on the issue and how it had gotten worse.
I try to give unbiased, straight forward reviews, yet Amazon will not publish about one out of five. Because of that, I take with a grain of salt most of their reviews. I also go back months later to update what I have posted.
RE: Bad tool reviews - TGW - 08-11-2019
It would certainly be in the interrest of readers as well as a benefit for the industry if duds were rewiewed honestly..........
RE: Bad tool reviews - tomsteve - 08-12-2019
(06-23-2019, 10:33 AM)Smashedfinger Wrote: How can you make up your mind based on a ten minute review from someone that has either been given free tools from a sponsor, or has only used the tool a couple times?
i dont.
RE: Bad tool reviews - Tony Z - 08-12-2019
(08-11-2019, 11:20 AM)TGW Wrote: It would certainly be in the interrest of readers as well as a benefit for the industry if duds were rewiewed honestly..........
I would agree-if we don't not hear anything about a product that has been on the market for "X" years, human nature leads us to believe said product is decent!
RE: Bad tool reviews - TGW - 08-12-2019
(08-12-2019, 12:30 PM)Tony Z Wrote: I would agree-if we don't not hear anything about a product that has been on the market for "X" years, human nature leads us to believe said product is decent!
Every year several manufacturers of decent or even good tools go belly up because of the competition from cheap tool shaped objects that just don't do their job.
Importers and distributors thend to favour cheaper products because they can be sold with higher profit. Buyers tend to favour cheaper products because they believe exactly what you say.
With the result that is is getting harder and harder to find tools that actually function at all. All while lots and lots of people spend hard earned money buying garbage.
Not to mention the use of underpaid third world slave labour to undercut decent workers and make lots and lots of us unemployed. Just to help the manufacturers survive in this race towards the bottom.