As John said, once you strip away the reality TV show drama, most of the tests are based on the standard tests knifemakers must pass for certification by the ABS.
I have to admit that the show was what rekindled my desire to make knives. Made one when I was 16 in the shop at school (I wasn't actually in shop class, it was my home room. Had I been in the class I wouldn't have been able to...dumb huh). Now 30 years later I figured I needed a hobby to keep myself sane. Two comments about the show. It drives my OCD 17 year old crazy because he thinks the testing relies too much on randomness. I mean how can they tell that leg bone is exactly as tough as that other leg bone. He settles down for the mechanical tests that seem more controlled (welcome to my world...remember I said about keeping sane). Other thing is now that I've made a couple knives the whole show is punctuated with my wife asking "why are they doing that?" "What's that for". Anyone else have this going on?
Proper mechanical testing would be long and very boring, drama and excitement sells, being OCD and watching that random fun stuff could be distracting. As bad as me I have not seen a whole show yet, usually wander off into the shop.
I sort of feel the way your son does. I'm a bit OCD myself (though i always thought of it as specific or unambiguous : ) and some of those tests i just don't like. Maybe they're standard tests, i don't know but some of them are just not things you'd do with a knife. My wife has no interest at all in my knife making. The only questions she ever asks are "what do you need all those knives for?" or "are you going give those away or sell them?" .
I get "sell them" a lot more than give them away. Good that she doesn't know what I've spent in sandpaper alone.
