Search function - Am I being very dense or is it rubbish?

[Wook]

Today I wanted to do a search for "potato patina" since I wanted to stain my pocket knife and I heard overnight in a spud was a good way to do so.

My search yielded lots of results that contained references to "patina", lots that contained the word "potato" and an indeterminate number where both the words I wanted were present.

I tried adding + signs to the start of the search terms like you can in Google, but got the same results. Trying advanced search had the same results.

How do I make it only return hits where both keywords are present? Or is that not possible using the in-site search function?

 

[Shewie]

Have you tried it including the speech marks like you've done above?

 

[Wook]

It doesn't make any difference, the results look the same as if the quotes weren't there. But even if it had worked, surely that would only yield posts where people had actually said "I made a potato patina!".

I also want posts where people say "I made a patina with a potato", or any of the million variations of that sentence. Basically I want to search for the words potato and patina when they occur in close proximinty to one another.....

 

[Vulpes]

To be fair, it's not much good. More often than not, the thing you've specifically typed into the search bar comes up on the 3rd page of the search, everything before being totally off topic... Just takes a little patience to sift through each page of results sometimes.

 

[Shewie]

Have a read of this thread ....

http://www.bushcraftuk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=89220

 

[Wook]

I could also do it with the command "potato patina site:www.bushcraftuk.com" typed into Google - but I've always found Google a royal pain in the backside for searching forums. I'd hoped to be able to do it in-site.

 

[shaggystu]

I could also do it with the command "potato patina site:www.bushcraftuk.com" typed into Google - but I've always found Google a royal pain in the backside for searching forums. I'd hoped to be able to do it in-site.

i think you're on to a bit of a loser to be honest mate, the search function "in forum" isn't very good at all. i just google whatever it is i'm looking for, if i can remember the thread title then the it'll be on the first page of results on google, if not, i might have to trawl through three or four pages of results to find it. it's amazing how often BCUK comes up near the top of the results for bushcraft related topics on a google search, i think they must like us

 

[Kepis]

im going to throw a spanner in the works, i just used the search function for info on Pyrography, worked brilliantly, got all the info i needed and then some , but on the flip side, i have also searched for stuff in the past that i know is on the site but no matter what search terms i use - nothing comes up

 

[Retired Member southey]

Advanced search, tick posts, select titles only, type in this "patina" click search threw up three results,

this being one of them,

http://www.bushcraftuk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=14219&highlight=patina

 

[Wook]

You say Patina, I say Potato......

 

[Toddy]

The search function drives me nuts
I usually manage by remembering a relatively unusual word that was used in the thread and searching for that.
Damn all use for a newbie searching though

Doing the search through Google usually ends up embarassing me

Hopefully folks will read the thread and someone will point you in the right direction

atb,
M

 

[ReamviThantos]

Did you set this thread up for that joke Wook LOL.

 

[Wook]

No, but as I was typing I realised the phrase "Potato Patina" is inherently funny.... then my dribbling insanity just took over.

 

[Shewie]

i think you're on to a bit of a loser to be honest mate, the search function "in forum" isn't very good at all. i just google whatever it is i'm looking for, if i can remember the thread title then the it'll be on the first page of results on google, if not, i might have to trawl through three or four pages of results to find it. it's amazing how often BCUK comes up near the top of the results for bushcraft related topics on a google search, i think they must like us

Your browsing behaviour is being tailored to suit these days Stu, scary stuff but "they" have ways of prioritising your search results based on where you normally visit. Have you noticed how it's always the same few sites that pop up first, some of the more obscure stuff we used to find a few years back is now well down the list.

Back to the naff search on here though, I can usually find what I'm after although it sometimes takes a few different word combos before I can narrow down the search. It's a known issue on BCUK, but if you go gently it usually gets you where you need to be. I'm not sure if it's a VBulletin thing or just on here?

 

[bushwacker bob]

I think its a vBulletin thing.
To help your other quest Wook. It would be faster to stick your knife in a spud overnight to find out that it depends on what steel your knife is as to how much of a patina you get.
smudge the blade with a stronger acid such as mustard will also do it, but better.

 

[ged]

This all seems very complicated.

All you have to do to use the big search engines to search just one website is add the name of the website at the end of the search like this example

patina site:bushcraftuk.com

Then the search engine will only deliver results for that site.

It works for any site.

And yes, the forum search facility is useless.

 

[shaggystu]

Your browsing behaviour is being tailored to suit these days Stu, scary stuff but "they" have ways of prioritising your search results based on where you normally visit. Have you noticed how it's always the same few sites that pop up first, some of the more obscure stuff we used to find a few years back is now well down the list.....

i kind of suspected it might be something along those lines, and i agree that it is slightly scary stuff, but it does work to my advantage a lot of the time too....as in the way i described here. it's a strange and unusual place this here internet thingy

 

[Wook]

Well I couldn't find anything conclusive on the forum about Potato Patina, so I had a bash.

My knife has gone from this:

to this:

Which I am reasonably pleased with.

It no longer looks like Sherlock Holmes' knife, which is a pity. But now it looks like something the Mad Trapper of Rat River would carry - which I am pleased about

I had already scratched the blade up with use and slightly ham fisted sharpening. The knife could not pull off the shiny look any more - so I'd call this an improvement.

The patina-ing process has not dulled the blade at all. It went into the potato hair popping sharp, and it still is.

 

[Retired Member southey]

Now if you post a new thread with "forced potato patina" as the title it would help make future searches easier.

 

[Wook]

Good idea, will do so.