Just a follow up review for anyone who's still watching this:
Picked up a twin for my Goblin in a fancy black tie trim from @Scraps here.
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He described it as having a decent action, but not great, assumed to be due to the lack of mass in the blade. If I didn't have another to compare it to I would've thought the exact same thing, but it didn't behave close to as well as my first one. So I tore it all down last night to have a closer look. What I found was that it apparently had been over-tightened at the factory, to the point where the ball bearings had pressed into the steel washers that sit between the bearings and the handles!
I cleaned off all the factory grease, flipped the washers over so the bearings had a smooth surface to ride on again, re-oiled and reassembled, being careful not to over-tighten this time.Happy to say that the two knives have equally perfect action now. Blade springs open with a solid snap now every time, no mis-fires, closes with a single shake after getting the detent ball past the edge of the lockbar. I just wanted to share that for any of the people I've seen comment about less than perfect action from their Bestechs here, it might be worth cracking it open and checking for marring on the washers.
And as for the carbon fiber: it's super nice in person. Matte finished, smooth and well machined but still almost grippy in the hand.But now I understand why there aren't any really great pictures of it, this stuff is a bitch to photograph, here's a comparison of how it looks with 2 different light sources:
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And a very unflattering angle for the blade, but showcases the CF well:
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Lastly, I just realized there was a lot of discussion over blade size before the drop, but didn't see anyone verify it since, so here's what I got for that:
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Hope someone finds this information useful if this drop comes around again, or for troubleshooting purposes on other Bestech knives.
KavikSome really fancy work here! Great catch and fix on the knife, great graphics showing the knife dimensions, great comparison showing the two knives with two different light sources! How the....? : )
DougFLA123Simple.... Just took the following equipment :
Nikkon d5300
Tripod
A table with a curved white cardstock background
2 studio lights at 600 watts each, with a known temperature for post production white balance setting, in addition to natural lighting (overcast day) for the other lightsource comparison
White umbrellas used to diffuse the light
Adobe lightoom and photoshop for editing the pics
The measuring was done with calipers and just added in in photoshop
Easy peasy lol
DougFLA123Lol a little sarcasm there, to make it sound more complicated then it was haha
But, crazy as it may seem, that's actually a pretty standard and simple lighting setup as far as product pictures go.
Not that I'm a pro photographer, but it's a hobby that I've learned a fair bit about
As for the lights, I just got super lucky and found a $350 lighting setup at a garage sale for $25! So this gave me an excuse to play with those 😁
KavikYour description was actually very clear, but do you have a picture of your setup? It’s so hard to get great pictures without a bunch of shadows and/or glare.
DougFLA123I don't have any pics of mine. My setup for these was okay, but far from perfect.
Ideally what you need for no shadows and no glare is multiple light sources and a diffuser between the light and the object.
The umbrellas over the lights worked okay, but not the best. And the 2 lights were better than one, but not as good as 3.
I plan to make a light box eventually, with white fabric for the walls as diffusers, open in the front, and mounts to attach 3 lights to the sides and top.
These light boxes can be purchased pre-made if you want an easy solution, but they aren't hard to throw together without much effort
Then the cardstock backdrop with the smooth curve is what gives the illusion of there being nothing behind it... No edge of the table, or corner of a box.... Like it's in an infinite space.
I need to find myself a better backdrop too though, my paper was a bit off-white
KavikI googled “product photography lighting setup” and saw images of exactly what you were talking about. Thanks for your input...it’s much appreciated!
And as for the carbon fiber: it's super nice in person. Matte finished, smooth and well machined but still almost grippy in the hand.But now I understand why there aren't any really great pictures of it, this stuff is a bitch to photograph, here's a comparison of how it looks with 2 different light sources:
And a very unflattering angle for the blade, but showcases the CF well:
Lastly, I just realized there was a lot of discussion over blade size before the drop, but didn't see anyone verify it since, so here's what I got for that:
Hope someone finds this information useful if this drop comes around again, or for troubleshooting purposes on other Bestech knives.