7 yr. old maker wants to sell a knife-what do I do?

Crush his creativity?
No, inspire him!

Teach him that a first try at anything, no matter how good it is, is stilll a first try.
He must keep it so he can learn how he improves.
And set a goal of how many he needs to make before he sells

Another lesson is because someone will buy it does not mean it is sellable.
What quality does he have the patience before he will want to sell it.

And all of this is a fine balance for a father to teach a 7 year old son

Good Luck
 
I think keeping the knife in the family is your best option, you'll be able to keep tabs on what will become a sentimental piece yet also inspire your son's creativity & business savvy! :thumbup:
 
Facebacon said:
sell it to a lady in the family for a nice kitchen knife?
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Or sell it to a guy in the family for a nice kitchen knife! Cooking is a man's job - but I'm fine with letting the ladies clean up afterwards. Of course that could just be because I like cooking more than cleaning.

That looks like a nice utility/paring knife that SDS jr made.
 
SDS, I believe that your decision is very sound, and the best part is, that he will always know where his 1st knife is, IN the family, so cool, he will really thank you some day.
 
Of course he wants to sell it ... He wants to be like Dad!
What a nice complement.
Give it to Grand Dad great idea. Have him spend the money on supplies and learn a lesson about the cost of doing business.
 
I would say dont let him sell his first knife. If this is knife number 5 or something then I say not such a big deal.

Why does he want to sell a knife at 7 years old? Is it because he sees dad doing it? Is it simply because he wants money for video games? Is it because he wants people to validate his work to make him think he does good work?

To me the answer to your dilema depends on the reason.
If he wants money to buy a toy or something then I say its ok, let him learn a basic comerce lesson.
If he wants people to validate his work so he can feel proud then I am not sure. I dont see any real harm, I dont think he would be damaged, maybe feel sad but he will get over it. WIll also be a comerce lesson.
If he is doing it because dad does it... well I dont see any real harm but I think that maybe it can mean he doesnt understand it.

I was thinking about giving away my first from scratch all by myself (except for heat treating) knife to an auction for blade forums or something like that. Maybe he could do that?
 
Knifemaker.ca, actually this is the first knife that he has made by himself. The other knives that he worked on were knives that I had ground the blade on and had done other work on the knife so that all he had to do was some basic assembly and finish work. This is the first knife that he designed, ground and assembled with minimal help from me. I didn't want him using the metal cutting bandsaw or the buffer but he did all of the other processes in the construction. I also did the heat treat. I didn't figure a 7 yr. old needed to be grabbing a red hot piece of steel out of the kiln.

Thanks to everyone for all of the comments. I will encourage him to make more and if he makes a sound knife I will likely let him sell one of his next knives.

To those who offered to buy this one, thank you very much for the offer. I think Grandpa will appreciate it more than anyone at this point.

Skimo, give me a shout sometime. I meet up with a group of guys for coffee once or twice a week and it's like a knife show and tell. Your welcome to come by and join us.

SDS
 
Great resolution. Having an 8 year old myself, I can empathize on this one. My son helped me make a knife for an early mother's day present. He wants to make one this summer. I will probably have him make it for Grandpa(after hearing your resolution). Here's the only thing I would do different, Give him the $50 for it, then make him buy the materials. Actually going to a store and paying for them out of his $50 will teach him more. Kids seem to have little concept of how much things cost and making him buy the materials will help establish that.

Now, can you please send us some more pictures of it? I think you need to set your camera to Macro-focus, because it keeps focusing on the wood behind the knife.

SDS said:
Between this thread and the one in the general forum I think I have this solved.....well, actually it was my wife's idea, but with input from everyone here as well.

I am going to offer to buy the knife from him for $35 and $15-20 worth of materials so he can make another knife. Me being a guy, I didn't realize that fathers day is next month. We will gift this knife to my Dad for fathers day. My Dad gets his grandsons first knife, I get the gift credit, and some day I will get the knife back when my Dad passes away.

Woohoo!!

Thank you all for the suggestions. This really had me buggered up trying to come up with a solution.

SDS
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My advice, let him sell it! That's better than anything I could do and I'm 16. Who cares what price he gets hes 7, I'd wager $50 or $100 would make him very happy. If he starts at 7 making knifes that there is a life long passion he will develop. I wouldn't try to stop that, I would encourage it.
 
While selling it might not be a bad idea. I think it would mean more to him if you buy it off of him and hold on to it. It will give him a taste of making a knife that people will want, but knowing that his dad likes it and uses it, Or you could fake sell it to a guy at work and then give it back to him later and it might mean more down the road when hes his first solo knife.
 
I think you found a great solution for this knife.

But this will come up again if he really likes making knives. For future sales I like your idea about setting a quality standard. There must be some goal for him to reach quality wise before he sells a knife. This will make him strive to do a better job in my opinion.

He'll be glad you kept the first one in the family when he gets older!

Good Luck.
 
Good resolution Dad. There should be more men raising their boys with the care that you are demonstrating. Good-on-ya.
 
Overall, while selling the knife is a nice thing, I think you can explain the situation exactly as you've explained it here. "Grandpa wants to encourage you to do good work, so he's buying your first knife and will hang onto it for safe keeping. Meanwhile, let's keep this about having and getting better at making knives - not making money. Let's get your quality up to a level where it will be a real good deal for buyers." You might not believe this, but a lot of 7 year olds get adult concepts like this.

But 7 year olds are 7 after all, so they don't have the patience to work for hours on a single step, which is why I think a "small goals" system might work best. You don't want to overwhelm him with overbearing expectations of perfection.

In that case, we're talking about one lesson at a time.

I think you can set up small, fairly easy to accomplish goals with a nice "atta-boy" for getting it right (not money, more like a trip to DQ or a round of catch or something like that).

A small goal could be as simple as getting the procedure for safely drilling holes correct. Or hand sanding one grit properly.

You can also set up profile patterns for him to copy and show him where the pattern is off a bit. Stuff like that.

By the time he's 13, he'll be making perfect Loveless copies. :)

By the time he's 25, he'll be blowing people away with his creativity and craftsmanship.
 
I'm with Typpyr about the selling.
Only, if this is his FIRST knife, the FIRST he did all by himself, don't allow him to sell it. Tell him he can make another one and sell that.
He's gonna regret he sold it when he grows up.
Moreover, it's a very decent knife, and can be a GREAT working knife, and not every man can have a working knife and, when he is say, 40, tell his friends it's HIS knife and he made it when he was 7! :D
I still have my first knife, which is also the first I customized (but not built), when I was 11... Wish only I had made it when I was 7!

As for the next knives, make sure he sells them for the right reasons, and that people know where they come from (people have different expectations from a 30 y.o. and from a 7 y.o. and it's only right that he gets fair treatment).
There's a lot to learn in selling the knives he makes.
He can learn about investment, about getting the materials he needs for another knife and saving some bucks for himself or starting to buy his own tools... there is pride and self esteem in owning your own tools. ;)
Don't let the threat of failure scare you or your son from a path that can be great to tread together.
True, some lessons can be painful, but he will not be alone, and that is a great thing for a dad and son to do together...
You'll be there to help materially, to put failure and success in due perspective, to encourage.
And have fun. ;)
 
SDS>>

When I was younger we had to sell candy for some school function, my dad was the first in line to buy some. It made me feel great to just make a sale to somebody, it gave me the gas to go to other people.

Here's what I think:

You should buy it. Give him $50 for it, put it up and keep it. Tell him it's such a great knife that you don't want to take a chance on somebody else getting away with it. It'll be a huge boost to his self confidence and you'll have something that he made with his own little hands.

What's 50 bucks between father and son?

That's my .02, take it for what it's worth.
 
Thats a damn nice knife for a 7 year old.

I say talk him down to 25 bucks and buy it off him. Keep doing this over the years until you are getting a good deal or he catches on.

He might not appreciate this right away, but totally will later.

Dont throw him to the sharks just yet....
 
The knife looks amazing for a 7 year old. Probably better than what most adults could produce. I think that he could probably sell a few knives if the price was right.
 
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