Today’s visual knife essay is mostly about anger, but also about a knife.
The extremely limited production Shamwari, designed by Gareth Bull of Bull Knives and
made by the We Knife Company.
Sometimes dubbed the Shamweri, much like the custom version of the knife, has also had
it’s availability and pricing on the secondary market completely ruined by collectors.
Remember if it wasn’t for all the other (emphasis on the word “other”) collectors
shitting on the hobby, collecting things would be fun!
In fact if I were you I’d post below this video how unfair it was that I got this knife
when you wanted one.
And then go to Instagram and find every single picture of the knife and talk about it there
too- feed your hate.
This knife has made it’s way to me by Eugene, of the Dashboard reviews Youtube fame.
Him being a decent man to whose channel you should subscribe, he sold it to me what he
paid for it, which is all you can ask for in the hobby these days.
You can go watch his video where he breaks down the differences between the custom and
production.
You’ll get no such pleasure from me- because I’m going to mostly compare it to stuff
like the Massdrop Keen which will cause Eugene to pop a blood vessel.
That’s how you bring out his anger.
Now Prybars, people who only buy knives to flip for a profit, overpriced lanyard beads,
bring out my anger.
I mean there’s more- but for brevities sake, let’s express our collective displeasure
of what this channel is vs what you want it to be and and generate some blue lines.
Yeah I wish I was one of those channels that reviews every new expensive and ugly Spyderco.
Blade size and cutting edge.
I shoulda sided with tradition and only carry the Buck 110, and liking the Pro doesn’t
count.
Handle Size and Grip area.
This video won’t have any batoning, which will set a bunch of people off.
Spine thickness and handle thickness.
I only release 1-3 mediocre videos a month now and that really ruins your heat treat.
Tallneses.
And by the time I release this video, I’ll have sold this to someone else that isn’t
you.
And you’ll never ever ever get a chance to resell this knife.
So the production Shamwari ticked off a bunch of people- that let’s be honest were
probably already ticked off.
I even got some DMs when I posted this knife on Instagram, concerned if I should even make
a video about this.
People who hate something so much, something they’d never buy, but want to tell everyone
about that thing.
They only did a run of 500, and had to make 2 or 3 attempts at selling them on their website.
And then everyone who wasn’t able to get one, took out that anger on social media.
The Bulls helped ruin the hobby for the fine folks who either own the custom or wanted
the chance to grift $100 or so off the top when they resold it.
Like their hero, a flaky sweaty 50 something scalping tickets outside a Tay Tay show.
Starting with the blade.
It’s a drop point style made from a tumbled finish Crucible 20CV and ground in the hollow
style.
Kudos to the Bull Knives- that’s probably the least anger inducing choice they could
have made with the steel.
The blade finish says tumbled but it looks a little more bead blasted-ish to my eyes.
The blade has a keen edge, see what I did there Eugene- and was pretty sharp.
The blade is deployed by a front flipper mechanism.
Unfortunately front flippers, don’t seem to be going away any time soon.
I wouldn’t say they make me angry though, more like mildly perturbed.
I mean I don’t believe I have any left…
I gave my hunter away to Pete which I liked, and gave the Real Steel Metamorph away on
Instagram.
Can’t give this one away though, I have to pay off the $340 I put on my credit card
for the Sharp By Design Evo Typhoon.
So this is a front flipper, and it’s kind of a small knife.
The Bulls make the custom in several sizes, but for some reason the first production run
was to appease the small handed knife bros- no one wants to make them angry and get punched
by their tiny hands.
I bring this up because to have great fun flipping one of these all day, you probably
have to have the right size hands.
One of my followers over on IG posted and quickly delated a comment, musing why everyone
flips with their thumb and not their pointer finger.
I dunno it doesn’t work for my hands, and most people Ive seen flip with their thumbs.
I guess a person could spend 10 hours a day getting their hand positioned right in a carpeted
room, to impress at least a dozen of their followers with their impressive technique,
of being able to do this while not dropping their $275 titanium boutique bull- shamwari
on the hard floor.
Then someone would let you know most people use their thumb- less chance to drop it dude.
Remember everyones favorite kind knife bro is the one telling you you’re using your
using it wrong.
But the flip is smooth, and it basically drops shut close.
It’s on bearings and it fires hard once you get your technique improved.
The handle is two slabs of black anodized tumbled titanium- called dark blast or some
shit.
It’s minimal on the hardware, with a single standoff, a stop pin and a pivot screw.
Then there’s that big blue pivot disc, collar?
The handle is comfortable but small.
No hot spots or areas owie on the finger meat.
It is a smaller knife than I like to carry.
The pocket clip.
It looks really nice with that hidden hardware and well integrated into the design.
If it wasn’t so smooth underneath the clip and the clip wasn’t well chamfered it’d
be a pocket killer.
As is it slides into the pocket easily and should stay there.
Comparisons.
First the Shamwari.
Truly a flipper made for the flippers.
Its a really well made, and nice looking knife.
Feel free to use this language in your “for sale” ad.
It’s a bit too small for an every day carry for me, but fans of the Ontario Rat II sized
knives who don’t mind spending $280 on a knife (or in reality $350)- have at it.
It goes almost without saying that if the Sebenza 21 didn’t exist would the Shamweri
exist- at least in it’s current form.
Saying that definitely makes people angry.
This is a large Sebenza 21, handles aren’t sculpted quite like the Shamwari- (aside voice)
unless you count the field grade, it’s not as smooth a deployer, but the large sebenza
is a little more my size.
These start at about $450.
This is the carbon fiber variant and you pay a little over $500 now.
How about another We made knife but let’s say purpler with a very similar construction
that costs over $100 less.
The Keen.
Eugene this one’s for you.
My guess is the Bull name, the steel, and the smaller production run accounts for the
price difference.
There is less knife, less steel, and less titanum in the Shamweri.
The Shamwari is a better looking knife though, but I wouldn’t keep it for over $200.
Let’s do something a similar size the Para 3.
About a $140 knife a little taller of a knife, the Shamwari has a longer cutting edge and
similar grip area but slimmer in the fist.
Get’s kinda lost in medium to larger hands.
Wrapping it up.
I need to get this review done so I can sell the knife and pay off the Production Evo Typhoon
from Sharp by Design.
It’s a larger knife and I’m a bit Keener on the looks.
See that Eugene?
By the way subscribe to Eugenes channel, links are below and at the end of the video.
A much more prolific Youtuber than myself.
Anyway, say what you want about the Shamwari but it holds it’s value, so I can probably
get what I paid for out of it.
If it was a larger version of it I might keep it.
I don’t know if it’s worth my time for me to try for a custom or a later larger production
run- if it happens, some things aren’t worth the aggravation.
The knife just doesn’t speak to me on another level to deal with the collectors market.
And if you like this sort of video… by the way by the time this video is released the
knife is already sold, so don’t ask… -but if you like this sort of video.
Subscribe to the channel.
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Thanks for watching.