A tweaked version of Delta 3V, Magnacut. or Cruwear ...

SharpBits said:
Oh, Iā€™ve been saying that long as well. Most people look the other way when the subject comes up.
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That's one way to look at it.

Sorry to say it, but Nathan the Machinist Nathan the Machinist just made a great case to increase his prices.

"But when you are producing a high bang-for-the-buck high value product where the hard costs are the majority of the costs, and your brand value is not just the "brand" but the actual value"

That is, it can be flipped for twice the price ?
 
ferider said:
That's one way to look at it.

Sorry to say it, but Nathan the Machinist Nathan the Machinist just made a great case to increase his prices.

"But when you are producing a high bang-for-the-buck high value product where the hard costs are the majority of the costs, and your brand value is not just the "brand" but the actual value"

That is, it can be flipped for twice the price ?
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I liked your post, but I don't like the implication (and you're probably right). šŸ˜¬
 
SharpBits said:
Matthew Gregory Matthew Gregory is shaking his head and mumbling something about saying that same thing for years. šŸ˜†
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Matthew Gregory

is this close!*

*(this close).... picture me holding my index finger and thumb very close together, but not quite touching)

THIS CLOSE!!!
TO BEING A VEGETARIAN!!

Or a vegan

Or something

Idunno. I forgot what I was talking about. He drives a Subaru

I do too, but whatever....
 
He's merely transitioning...

240325-rachel-maddow-snip-ac-954p-22aaf2.jpg
 
Matthew Gregory said:
No.

The right thing to do is buy a new one. That way, youā€™ll have an investment grade ā€˜vintageā€™ US manufactured version, AND a new one for daily use, due to itā€™s obviously improved characteristics.


šŸ˜
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You joke, but this will become a selling point in the future I have no doubt. A knife with ā€œoriginal CPM steelā€ will be the new Westinghouse micarta.

ferider said:
That's one way to look at it.

Sorry to say it, but Nathan the Machinist Nathan the Machinist just made a great case to increase his prices.

"But when you are producing a high bang-for-the-buck high value product where the hard costs are the majority of the costs, and your brand value is not just the "brand" but the actual value"

That is, it can be flipped for twice the price ?
Click to expand...
A strong secondary is good for makers. They donā€™t need to chase it in their own pricing to benefit from it.
 
Nathan the Machinist said:
The price of material goes up and we adapt. That skinner used to be $150, 15-20 years ago.

Raw materials are going up quite a lot. And, when it was going to an American company, I felt pretty good about that. And it still is, kind of. But Crucible is gone and that makes me sad. They were a TITAN in the industry and they're gone. Y'all don't know what a high-speed steel lathe tool blank is and the role that Crucible played in American manufacturing for the last 100 years. But believe me when I tell you, we lost something precious.

Niagara Specialty Metals is an ultra high-end boutique steel producer (edit to add: under considerably better management than Crucible was) with extraordinary skill and capabilities and also phenomenal service and integrity and I honestly don't know what we (and everyone else in the industry) would do without them. There is no substitute. There is no other equivalent in the world. Bob Shabala is a national treasure. It is people like him that make America great and why I have so much optimism for our future.
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I hope NSM reads this.
 
MarbReds said:
A strong secondary is good for makers. They donā€™t need to chase it in their own pricing to benefit from it.
Click to expand...

It's not black and white .... when a knife shows up on the secondary - say - > 2 years after release for twice the price, I agree with you, that's healthy.

But when it's resold quickly a couple of months after release for twice the price, when resellers raid Bladeshow tables before the show opens, when pre-orders are largely populated with flippers, etc., I'd rather see that additional money go to the maker. In particular if the maker himself thinks that with the now higher production costs, his ROI is dangerously low, as I interpreted Nathan's post.

I see bigger makers (like Spyderco) follow cost increases with regular, often yearly price increases, and I recommend CPK does the same.

I'll stop arguing this now. It's none of my business, obviously.
 
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ferider said:
It's not black and white .... when a knife shows up on the secondary - say - > 2 years after release for twice the price, I agree with you, that's healthy.

But when it's resold quickly a couple of months after release for twice the price, when resellers raid Bladeshow tables before the show opens, when pre-orders are largely populated with flippers, etc., I'd rather see that additional money go to the maker. In particular if the maker himself thinks that with the now higher production costs, his ROI is dangerously low, as I interpreted Nathan's post.

I see bigger makers (like Spyderco) follow cost increases with regular, often yearly price increases, and I recommend CPK does the same.

I'll stop arguing this now. It's none of my business, obviously.
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I agree with you, the nuance I was trying to speak to is the fact that resellers raiding tables and flippers filling preorders create lots of sales, BUT at least some portion of those people are only buying because there is some meat on the bone for them to profit too. Raising costs to flipper-level doesnā€™t guarantee that the maker pockets all of the difference, because flippers are only in it if thereā€™s additional profit to be made.

To be clear I hate flipping, I think itā€™s a crummy, unfortunate reality of producing a desirable product in a limited capacity.

I could also be misinterpreting Nathanā€™s post, but I think he made the point that his prices have increased, from $150 to $650 for the skinner, as a result of the environment in which he is doing business.
 
Nathan the Machinist said:
The price of material goes up and we adapt. That skinner used to be $150, 15-20 years ago.

Raw materials are going up quite a lot. And, when it was going to an American company, I felt pretty good about that. And it still is, kind of. But Crucible is gone and that makes me sad. They were a TITAN in the industry and they're gone. Y'all don't know what a high-speed steel lathe tool blank is and the role that Crucible played in American manufacturing for the last 100 years. But believe me when I tell you, we lost something precious.

Niagara Specialty Metals is an ultra high-end boutique steel producer (edit to add: under considerably better management than Crucible was) with extraordinary skill and capabilities and also phenomenal service and integrity and I honestly don't know what we (and everyone else in the industry) would do without them. There is no substitute. There is no other equivalent in the world. Bob Shabala is a national treasure. It is people like him that make America great and why I have so much optimism for our future.

But the fact of the matter is, things are becoming expensive. Making things is becoming expensive.

Something I did not expect was the cost of service of the machine tools to go up as drastically as it has. I'm paying $200 an hour just for the guy to sit in traffic on the way to the shop, to reload some undocumented parameters lost in a power surge. Some rather basic repairs (that I cannot do myself anymore because they've made these things so freaking complicated to try to work on) were recently $9,000. And the electrical kit to prevent a repeat of these repairs was 10 grand for the main piece and the ancillary stuff. And that's biting the bullet and installing it myself.

Try to buy large copper in 2026.

The cost of carbide is out of sight. The quarter inch SGS carbide that I use for our profile cuts is getting up to $30. Each. For a quarter of an inch carbide endmill.ā† tiny. We use these by the fistful everyday. This cutter was $7 when I first started doing this process.

Wages have doubled (this is a good thing, I love my crew, I want to triple it)

Steel has doubled

Carbide has tripled

Abrasives have more than doubled

And just the basic stuff that I need to operate a business such as a truck and trailer have doubled.

Everything related to producing anything in America has become so incredibly expensive in the last 10-20 years.

Except electricity, for some reason. Which is great. I should go knock on wood.

Oh yeah, shop space. Shop space in Mooresville has doubled

10 or 15 years ago, the 10,000 sq ft shop I needed was 1 million dollars. I can't swing that.

Now it's a million dollars for 5000 sq ft. I still can't swing that.

(If anybody here wants to help me with a million dollars for a shop in town with better power and a loading dock, please send me a PM. I will make you a really nice butter knife and give you a large portion of our annual profits, worth literally hundreds of dollars a year. It will literally pay for itself before the sun moves from a hydrogen cycle to a helium cycle!)

(Timmy, I might need that butter knife back bro)

I'm doing okay because I don't pay 10k in rent (the shop is here on the compound, I own it), and I am mostly able to do everything I need myself, so we are okay, but I see so many other awesome people who lack the skills and capacities who just want to run a business and do good stuff struggling and failing. This is a difficult time (with no end in sight) and people complaining about the cost of groceries don't understand how bad it is for folks making stuff. You think ground beef is bad? Buy a high performance 2" flute length, half inch carbide endmill and go through three or four of those in a day and then talk to me about how expensive your chicken breast with broccoli is.

These cost increases disproportionately affect the best makers producing killer work without a lot of fluff in their pricing. You make rough little 01 work knives with a cord wrap for 400 bucks and your hard costs go up $50? You're going to be fine. You're part of the 98% of the knife makers who have a $5 heat treat? And it doubles? You're going to be fine. These cost increases affect the good makers more than most.

If you are making a $50 tube of lipstick and your cost doubles from .45 cents to .90 cents, you're going to be okay.

But when you are producing a high bang-for-the-buck high value product where the hard costs are the majority of the costs, and your brand value is not just the "brand" but the actual value, these costs disproportionately affect those of us who are actually doing the best work. It ain't just me, and I feel bad for those just a little younger than me who don't have the war chest and 12 machine tools already paid for, trying to maintain a business in this environment, who's rent keeps doubling.

The production of the best manufacturing concerns in America is a savage distillation process. These times are tricky, but it ultimately makes us stronger. I do mourn the loss of Crucible though.
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I'm blushing. The team we have at Niagara Specialty Metals is second to none. So proud to be part of an organization where everybody truly cares.
 
Nathan the Machinist said:
Matthew Gregory

is this close!*

*(this close).... picture me holding my index finger and thumb very close together, but not quite touching)

THIS CLOSE!!!
TO BEING A VEGETARIAN!!

Or a vegan

Or something

Idunno. I forgot what I was talking about. He drives a Subaru

I do too, but whatever....
Click to expand...

Blues said:
He's merely transitioning...

240325-rachel-maddow-snip-ac-954p-22aaf2.jpg
Click to expand...

Richard338 said:
I was surprised the other day at the gym, to see him on the TV reporting the news.
View attachment 3124725
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Nathan the Machinist said:
That's not Matt Gregory

That's some kind of a reporter




View attachment 3124745





Here's a recent portrait of Matt Gregory
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Goddamnit
 
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