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I think time of year has a lot to do with it.

The Christmas buying season stretches out depending on who you are.
Women think ahead and buy early, men don't.

Once the Christmas buying season is over, people are broke until valentines day, then they are really broke until they start thinking about the fall hunting season again.

( speaking of outdoor knives)
 
Grandpa Peter's and Grandma Betty's said:
I have been using 5160 from the start and it is a good enough steel ~ I know all the scientist's have come up with something having a fraction more of this and that over 5160 but it is a great steel and holds a great enough edge for what my knives are designed for ~ easy to forge and heat treat too ~ toughness is always good too ~ taken care of it stays clean too ~ I have finished texturing my sheath with my texturing tool ~ it totally erased the basket weave and flowers leaving a great looking sheath ~ glad that it worked out as I had hoped ~ it's like a totally different sheath ~
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Steel choices are about two factors, performance and marketability. You will have a tough time convincing people 5160 is a good choice for anything but a chopper. If you are selling, kniw your market.
 
Grandpa Peter's and Grandma Betty's said:
I'm okay with it......my knives aren't rocket science ~ Thank's Willie ~
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I reread my post, and it may have come across as harsh. I didn’t mean it that way. Have you considered 8670, 15n20, or even L6? They have similar properties, and are more marketable in smaller knives. Up here in Canada, the Nickel steels are popular because they maintain their toughness in the cold. I’ve been doing a few in z-tuff lately. Very well received. A8mod will be added to my regular steel list after Larrin’s big article on toughness/edge holding balance.

If anyone asks me what 8670 is, I just show them this:

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I ask people to prioritize toughness, edge holding, and stain resistance. I have a few steels I know quite well, and steer people to what I know I can heat treat well.
 
I really like the handle and blade shape, but I like forged mono steel knives that look forged, even if it’s just at the ricasso. I don’t know if that appeals to the majority of buyers or not, just my preference.
Disclaimer: I’m not a collector, I hunt a little and make stock removal user knives.
 
Your work is worth more than you are asking, IMHO. I understand that pricing dances along a slender thread but anyone who can't see the value of your excellent and for a lifetime handwork, has me confused. :confused:
 
Willie71 said:
Steel choices are about two factors, performance and marketability. You will have a tough time convincing people 5160 is a good choice for anything but a chopper. If you are selling, kniw your market.
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Yeah, I will admit that, "good enough steel", is a turn-off for me when the price tag is several hundred dollars. And the steel means more to me than the handle. But I am not a knife maker, collector, or a person that can afford to have safe queens. And I didn't know that people still use marks rather than names. I would wonder why someone would not want to put their name on it.
I do agree that if I were planning on selling a product, I would want to know what people are buying, and what is popular. I also think that someone willing to endure some constructive criticism will eventually prevail.
Your knife and sheath look great!
 
12345678910 said:
Name changes happen all the time. It's ten bucks and follow the procedure. It's slow but it gets done.


the
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That's not what was told to me when I requested a while back. None of the moderators I asked or Spark ever said anything about 10 bucks and a process. Maybe its changed now and I will certainly request again but I'm not making up the fact that the last time I asked I was told no they dont do that here. I'm not butt hurt about it and I didn't keep pestering either. I just accepted what was told to me at the time and moved on.
 
Signalprick said:
That's not what was told to me when I requested a while back. None of the moderators I asked or Spark ever said anything about 10 bucks and a process. Maybe its changed now and I will certainly request again but I'm not making up the fact that the last time I asked I was told no they dont do that here. I'm not butt hurt about it and I didn't keep pestering either. I just accepted what was told to me at the time and moved on.
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This post by Spark has been up since 2007 outlining the process for username changes:confused:
 
WValtakis said:
This post by Spark has been up since 2007 outlining the process for username changes:confused:
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Signalprick said:
That's not what was told to me when I requested a while back. None of the moderators I asked or Spark ever said anything about 10 bucks and a process. Maybe its changed now and I will certainly request again but I'm not making up the fact that the last time I asked I was told no they dont do that here. I'm not butt hurt about it and I didn't keep pestering either. I just accepted what was told to me at the time and moved on.
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Yep.
They are not into hand holding.
The sticky is there. All you have to do is read it and follow it.
Then once you post the payment/ticket number it can be a long wait.
 
Grandpa Peter's and Grandma Betty's said:
My knives are good for many things and they are not only good for some chopper they can skin a deer cattle sheep pigs just as good as any other knife ~ I totally disagree with that statement and many many other makers and owners of knives made from 5160 do too ~ just thought I would clear the air on that statement ~ my knives are awesome ~ my cousins have skinned a number of pigs and boar and who knows what else with one I gifted him and he says it is his go to knife and works great ~ he is an old timer farmer rancher that has cleaned more game than you can imagen ~ he says he loves it ~ many other people love them too ~

Just saying ~
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You must have lots of people lining up to buy them, making our advice on marketing completely wrong. I certainly won’t be offering any advice to you in future.
 
Grandpa Peter's and Grandma Betty's said:
My knives are good for many things and they are not only good for some chopper they can skin a deer cattle sheep pigs just as good as any other knife ~ I totally disagree with that statement and many many other makers and owners of knives made from 5160 do too ~ just thought I would clear the air on that statement ~ my knives are awesome ~ my cousins have skinned a number of pigs and boar and who knows what else with one I gifted him and he says it is his go to knife and works great ~ he is an old timer farmer rancher that has cleaned more game than you can imagen ~ he says he loves it ~ many other people love them too ~

Just saying ~
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You posted a thread asking for advice on selling your work because it seems to be sitting a while then when advice is given by knowledgeable makers who are consistently selling on the forum and in their local areas you get defensive and basically say you know best, perhaps you need to work on a attitude change before asking for more help. My 2 cents for what it’s worth, your knives look good but they also don’t look unique, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing but the type of knives your making are targeted towards hunters and users but you are asking prices that in my experience are well above what the typical user would pay for a knife that’s going to be used for skinning or processing game. You are using a decent steel but there are better choices out there that are just as easy to work with, 8670 for example is similar to 5160 but has improvements in toughness and slightly more carbon if I’m not mistaken, at least based off the spec sheets I’ve seen. The fact you don’t have a makers mark on the blade immediately makes me cautious especially since it’s not a unique style, and the confusion with the stamp on the sheath makes me think your getting sheaths made by another maker then retexturing them, which is fine but I would expect that to be disclosed at that price tag if that’s the case. Also I wouldn’t post anything for sale that I wasn’t proud of and happy to stand behind, if you didn’t like the sheath on that knife you should have made the changes or a new one before posting. My advice if your actually open to advise is calculate exactly how much time you have in a knife, figure out at the price you are asking what that is per hour on the knife and then subtract the time spent hand sanding and see what the price would be for example if the $350 knife took 10 hours, but you spent 4 hours hand sanding, you could potentially price the knife much lower and find a more effective way to achieve the hand sanded finish, going up higher on the grinder or using surface conditioning belts to get a more uniform starting point. Most people don’t want to pay for hand sanding and if you told them they were paying 100-200 dollars for hand sanding time they would probably laugh, on a user knife, art pieces and collector pieces are different but it takes time or luck to get to those points.
 
You can make a great product but if it’s not something a consumer wants it won’t sell. There are plenty of knife steels that work great for 99.9% of task that a knife would be asked to do. But there are also several steels that seem way more desirable from a consumer standpoint and would make sales easier. Nobody is criticizing your work, they are trying to help offer a way to increase the demand of your product. It is why I have a standard steel if I make something to sell but also do custom orders where the client chooses the steel.

If changing steel would attract more buyers to your great work I don’t see why that would be a big deal. You wouldn’t even have to make all of them from a different steel. Make a few and see if they sell better. Seems like a pretty small thing and low risk. Certainly nothing to get upset over
 
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