Advice on producing standardized small knives(fixed blade)

R

Reuben Kruger

Joined
Jan 14, 2020
Messages
27
Hi all,

I am looking for some advice on how to efficiently produce and sell small standardized knives. These will all be fixed blade, and I will have two or three designs.

Just for some context:
I am 16 years old and I live in South Africa. I have been making knives for about two years now. I have only done custom orders so far, and have found it extremely inefficient with the current setup I have. I do mostly stock removal, as most of my hunting knives are in 12c27 or 14c28n, which I have no experience in forging. I have done quite a few hunting knives with high grit finishes and bolsters, which take me way too long to complete. The resultant profit per hour was bad. Let's just say I could have made more mowing lawns.

So I have decided to focus on standardized small fixed blades now. I have figured out a system where I can pump out close to 30 knives in 2 working weeks(that is 3 full days and a 1/2 day per week).

I am aiming for something like this (not my picture):
3bd0218115dc25bfd2cd7c1f3a4b316f.jpg


Like the picture, I want a small EDC knife with a synthetic handle and a rough-ish finish that you don't have to worry about getting scratches and wear. The problem is I do not have a kydex press or anything close and there are very few(if any) kydex makers here in South Africa. I have considered leather sheaths, but that would increase the price drastically, as I want the product to be something cheap(say $20) that could be a christmas gift for a boy for example. Adding a leather sheath on top of that would almost double the price.

Does anybody have any suggestions for alternative options for carrying the knives? Is it an option to sell the knives without any sheath or carrying device or is this not practical?

Any other advice will be appreciated as well.

Thanks for reading,
Reuben
 
Hi Reuben,

First off we're not allowed to talk about sales here as a general rule, but in answer to your question about efficiency, batching your process is probably the best way to get your time per knife down.

For example:
I want to make 10 knives that were exactly the same, maybe with a couple different handle materials or something.

Step one: make patterns for your blade and handle materials

Step two: get boxes that can hold each set of knife parts.

Step three: use patterns to nest your blades into your sheet/bar of steel in the best way possible, keeping in mind rolling direction and space for the actual cut you will be making (bandsaw, plasma cutter, angle grinder all have different strengths/constraints on layout).

Step four:Cut out all materials and place all parts in boxes

Step five: shape/grind. First, drill all your holes, then grind profiles, then rough in your bevels.

Step six: heat treat.
Step 7,8,9, etc...

Basically break everything down into a sequence that makes sense to you, and do each step to all the knives before moving on to the next step.

It's FAR more efficient... And boring.

Horsewright Horsewright does batching and knocks out tons of knives this way. In sure he'll have more to say on the topic.

As far as kydex sheaths go, just make your own press, it's super easy. Just get some heat resistant foam and glue it to some boards, use some clamps for pressure. Done.
The are TONS of videos on YouTube on DIY kydex
 
Andy has good advice.

Now, as the moderator, you are not allowed to discuss sales, customers, pricing, post photos of knives you are selling, etc. without a Knifemaker Level membership.
Feelfree to discuss techniques, methods, materials, styles ... everything else.
 
Don't stop mowing grass.


Kydex press, get a quick release woodworking vise and mount it sideways.
 
I just use plywood rectangles with foam spray glued to them and clamps for a press. I have a nice steel fabricated one too, either way gets the same results.


Scribe your knives onto steel from some kind of a pattern.
Make 10 ground to profile and keep the best one for your next pattern.
Repeat

You can get great accuracy from scribed patterns using layout dye and grinding.


That's a lot of knives!
 
A.McPherson said:
Hi Reuben,

First off we're not allowed to talk about sales here as a general rule, but in answer to your question about efficiency, batching your process is probably the best way to get your time per knife down.

For example:
I want to make 10 knives that were exactly the same, maybe with a couple different handle materials or something.

Step one: make patterns for your blade and handle materials

Step two: get boxes that can hold each set of knife parts.

Step three: use patterns to nest your blades into your sheet/bar of steel in the best way possible, keeping in mind rolling direction and space for the actual cut you will be making (bandsaw, plasma cutter, angle grinder all have different strengths/constraints on layout).

Step four:Cut out all materials and place all parts in boxes

Step five: shape/grind. First, drill all your holes, then grind profiles, then rough in your bevels.

Step six: heat treat.
Step 7,8,9, etc...

Basically break everything down into a sequence that makes sense to you, and do each step to all the knives before moving on to the next step.

It's FAR more efficient... And boring.

Horsewright Horsewright does batching and knocks out tons of knives this way. In sure he'll have more to say on the topic.

As far as kydex sheaths go, just make your own press, it's super easy. Just get some heat resistant foam and glue it to some boards, use some clamps for pressure. Done.
The are TONS of videos on YouTube on DIY kydex
Click to expand...


There’s lots we could talk about. I would strongly advise ya to get a knifemaker’s membership so we can get into the knitty gritty.
 
I'm going to edit your title to take selling out of it. No problem with talking about starting a business, just no sales talk without the proper membership.
 
Glad you understand. When you have a knifemaker membership you can chat about customers and sales all you want. In the meantime, show us what you make and ask any knifemaking questions you have.
 
Reuben, there's a pretty well-known South African maker named Neels Van Den Berg who makes knives under the name Black Dragon Forge. He has a video on youtube about making his sheaths with an alternative to Kydex that he gets locally called "styrene". He also shows his somewhat streamlined process for making sheaths quickly and inexpensively. You might check out some more of his videos, he has a lot of content about making batches of knives efficiently. Here is his instagram, you could probably DM him and ask where he gets his styrene if you can't track it down online.
 
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