200,000 knives a year?

Hi David,

I suspect that the 200,000 level is too low. That would be 2,000 makers only making 100 knives a year. There are almost 2000 makers in the ABS and Knifemakers Guild Combined.

As for the factory knives, if you do a little reseach online you can get a hold of the company's financial's. This would tell you almost exactly how many knives were produced by a particular factory.

WWG
 
I just checked my Knifemakers Guild directory and there seems to be less than 400 members, I doubt the ABS has more.

200,000 handmade knives is probably not a reach, though. There are alot of makers nobody hears of that are supplying gun and tackle stores with handmade product. And a quick search on Ebay shows guys turning out a lot of knives.

You can bet the top makers aren't turning out those kind of numbers, though.

I think I read once that Buck can make thousands of knives a day.

Just my uneducated opinion.

Win
 
Including the Apprentice Smiths the ABS has more members than the Knifemakers' Guild, but there are quite a few makers that are members of both associations. My guess would be that there are under 1000 different knifemaker members in these two groups. Many of these makers are part time and make very few knives (no where near 100), and some of the Apprentice Smiths in the ABS make no knives at all.

It would be pretty well impossible to accurately state the number of makers in the USA. There are a large number of hobby makers that only make a handful of knives per year, but when taken together probably make a large number. 200,000 may well be a conservative number, and I am willing to bet that the worldwide number would be much higher than that.
 
Well known makers are a rarity. I've seen handmade makers, just American made products, at gun shows, knife shows (naturally), powwows, crafts shows, woodworking shows, comic book shows, renaissance shows etc. I'd never heard of most of those makers before those particular shows. I saw some tables, full of mainly fixed carbon stuff, that looked like it didn't take too long to make, I did see some well made, IMHO, stuff though. I would like to see Blades information on where they came up with those figures.
 
Keith Montgomery said:
Including the Apprentice Smiths the ABS has more members than the Knifemakers' Guild, but there are quite a few makers that are members of both associations. My guess would be that there are under 1000 different knifemaker members in these two groups. Many of these makers are part time and make very few knives (no where near 100), and some of the Apprentice Smiths in the ABS make no knives at all.

It would be pretty well impossible to accurately state the number of makers in the USA. There are a large number of hobby makers that only make a handful of knives per year, but when taken together probably make a large number. 200,000 may well be a conservative number, and I am willing to bet that the worldwide number would be much higher than that.
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I can attest to that. I'm an ABS Apprentice Smith and I haven't sold a single knife yet...:(

I'd agree, you can't underestimate the number of small, unknown makers. I meet new makers and/or customers of makers I've never heard of before every day.
 
200,000 knives a year???? Looks like ptgdvc is responsible for getting about 10% of those! ;) :D
 
There's a thread over in shoptalk discussing knives made and sold this year from different makers. Personally I've made 60 this year. In 2004 I made 45 to 50. I'm a part time maker spending more time each week making knives.
Scott
 
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