7 yr old wants to sell knife-what to do??

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SDS

SDS

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I have a little bit of a dilemma. My son is 7 and he enjoys coming out to the shop and tinkering about from time to time. I don't let him out there when I'm busy making knives usually because I don't like the distraction of having to watch him to be sure he doesn't get hurt.

He has made a couple of knives and he came to me about his last knife a few days ago. He wants to put it up for sale. He first wanted to ask $200 for it. We had to have a long talk about value, perceived value, what other makers (who have been selling a lot of knives) get for their knives and what his knife might realistically bring.

Anyway, my dilemma is what to do?? Do I list his knife for sale and just see what happens? If it doesn't sell will it crush his creativity? I thought about buying it myself but I don't want to give him a false sense of self esteem. I know that if I buy it he will just want to make another for sale and then we'll be right back to where we are today.

Help???

Here are a few pictures of the knife he wants to sell. He decided, after much discussion, that he wants to ask $50 for the knife. It is 154CM with pakkawood handles held on with corby bolts.

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Help me figure out what to do please???

SDS
 
show him the value of keeping his first few knives. tell him about how they can be good indicators of his progression and what he needs to work on more. give him a goal. for example. tell him his fifth knife he can sell and to make sure he learns from all his mistakes from the first 4.
 
First off, can i go back in time so you can adopt me? That is soo freaking awesome. I think the fact that a 7 year old made that makes it more valuable, id take him to a knife show and have him sell it in person. Pretty sure if my girlfriend saw that she would make me buy it. Could be a good way to teach him about making money for himself and how to improve his craft to make people want to buy. Keep the first one he makes so he can sell it for a small fortune when he becomes a famous knife make.
 
I agree with peter, make him keep the first few and learn, but I must say, for a 7yr old that is a pretty fine piece of work!!
 
peter r said:
show him the value of keeping his first few knives. tell him about how they can be good indicators of his progression and what he needs to work on more. give him a goal. for example. tell him his fifth knife he can sell and to make sure he learns from all his mistakes from the first 4.
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First off, what a lucky son you have. That's a nice knife for any young maker, let alone a 7 year old.

I pretty much agree with peter r. Give him a goal or standard to work towards, such as one of your knives or the knife of another young/apprentice maker. When he can make one that is up to that level, then he can start selling.
 
The real goal would be to provide a way for him to keep his first knife - or one of them anyhow - that he can look back on later. The perception in his eyes is that the first knife he sold was to the person that taught him to make knives. This would be the best encouragement method I believe.
 
peter r said:
show him the value of keeping his first few knives. tell him about how they can be good indicators of his progression and what he needs to work on more. give him a goal. for example. tell him his fifth knife he can sell and to make sure he learns from all his mistakes from the first 4.
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+1
Show him the need to keep the first one to use as a reference point. Explain that the subsequent knives should be measured against the first 5 so he can work on the areas that he feels improvement is needed. Also you can explain that to fetch specific prices it takes years of work and dedication to acquire. Let him know that he has a great start. Knifemaking is a journey, not a suit you can put on. I doubt his creativity will be crushed, he may actually have a stronger desire to follow dad.
kc2kth said:
The real goal would be to provide a way for him to keep his first knife - or one of them anyhow - that he can look back on later. The perception in his eyes is that the first knife he sold was to the person that taught him to make knives. This would be the best encouragement method I believe.
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Agreed. Never sell the first editions. How cool would it be for him to keep it, and when he is all grown up, he can pass THAT first knife onto his son. Wow, that will already have spanned 3 generations. Beautiful family memories there.
 
My humble opinion is don't over think this.Help him put the correct price on the piece and see what happens. It's life, that's how we learn. Good luck with your son and have fun.
 
verdigo said:
My humble opinion is don't over think this.Help him put the correct price on the piece and see what happens. It's life, that's how we learn. Good luck with your son and have fun.
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This would be my vote. I had my own business for years. Teach him at this age the full amount that goes into something. Have him sell the knife and use the funds to purchase materials for a future sale. Kinda give him an all around view of responsability. This in my honest opinion would allow him to fund his creativity on his own and give him a fuller sense of self accomplishment.
 
He really needs to keep those first few so he can see his progression, where he started, his roots if you will. There is so much value to him in keeping those first ones, that he can't yet see and understand it is your job as Dad to ensure that he does.

Moreover, don't sweat the lessons about selling a knife, heck the child and he is still a child regardless of the apparent high quality of his work and obvious skill. Already has a good work ethic and is trying to start marketing at 7. The child is seems to be well on his way both with his making/artisan skills and his economic business sense. You should be happy with the problem you think you have. You don't have a problem at all your boy seems to be doing well on all sides except the short sightedness of keeping those first few, and that is where you come in DAD. He can't be perfect but from the looks and sounds of things he is pretty good.

Instruct him to keep those blades and try and tell him why, again he is obviously a sharp child and will eventually come to understand and even better appreciate your guidance on this one. One day he may wish to have some of his first ones to show to his son.
 
First of all, be thankful your son has similar interests as you. You can't put a price on that. I would have him figure up what he has in the piece as far as time and materials, then come up with a price that will generate a profit. Explain to him that it may or may not sell at that price but it's a good indicator of what to expect in the knife making business. This may be a good time to talk to him about marketing as well. Remind him that whether or not someone else may want it, it still has value to him as a useful tool.
 
Wow, thank you all very much for all of the input on this. I have more to ponder now but I think I have a direction to that thinking now. I'm going to mull this over some more before I make a decision but I really do appreciate everyones input.

Obviously I'm very proud of my son and I do realize how fortunate I am to have a son who enjoys my interests.

Thanks again,
SDS
 
Hey! if my son could make a knife like that, I'd buy it with a family discount. Kidding aside that's an awesome knife. I would buy it in an instant if I did not have to pay for shipping.
 
That's so cool man.. The knife looks pretty good. I'm sure someone will buy it for $50 or even more.
 
Vicareous Reality, I have no idea what that is but I'm going to have to look it up.

Singularity35, I have to admit that it would be cool to be able to say that your first knife was sold overseas.

Jayinhk, I honestly didn't have a lot to do with this one. I did most of the bandsaw work on the profile (so he didn't lose a finger) but he did the final profiling on the grinder. I marked his center line and started his plunge lines but he did all of the rest of the grinding on the blade and drilled the tang. I also helped clamp up the handle scales for drilling. I would say that he did 80-85% of the work on this knife easily. There are grind marks left on the blade and it has a convex grind.

I think I am leaning towards offering to buy this knife from him, with a family discount, and give him money and the materials to make another knife. I also like the idea of telling him that he can sell knife #5 if he can meet certain quality standards.

Thanks again,
SDS
 
If it doesn't sell will it crush his creativity?
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You'll have to prepare him for that possibility.



My approach would be to rig the whole thing. Get someone you trust to agree to buy the thing for $50. Your shill might even insist on giving your son $60 to give your son a bit of a boost... but not to much.

Your shill? Yes. Shill bidder bidding and buying on your behalf. Your unknowing son will complete the sale with the shill, receive the money -- your money -- from the shill, send the knife to the shill, receive a nice letter back praising the knive -- but not too much -- etc. The shill will privately send the knife to you and you will put it away and keep it hidden until some appropriate time -- such as when your son passes his ABS MS test or something like that -- and then you'll gift it back to him. A perfect Kodak moment.
 
A seven year old made that? :eek:
I could see paying in the $50-$100 range for a knife like that. At least, I would if I had $50-$100 to spend :p.
 
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