Man I feel this so hard. I had almost the same thing happen at a small hammer-in last year, watched a dude forge a little utility blade from a chunk of old coil spring and that thing cut through cardboard and zip ties way better than my Benchmade. The whole toaster oven heat treat thing blew my mind too, I always figured you needed some fancy kiln setup to get a decent edge but he just watched the color and quenched it in some old motor oil. Makes you realize how much of this hobby is just guys overpaying for a name on the side of the blade, you know.

Reminds me of how every app now shows you a notification but hides the actual info until you tap through three screens. It's like we're all being trained to accept less clarity in exchange for something that looks streamlined on the surface. The real problem is nobody stops to question whether the design actually helps people or just looks good on a slide in a meeting. You'd think a bus sign would be held to a higher standard since people are literally running to catch things based on it. But nah, we just adapt to the confusion and blame ourselves for not guessing right.