Anyone interested in making a set of blades?

T

twirl

Joined
May 21, 2002
Messages
221
Hey guys, I'm wondering if anyone would be interested in making a run of blades for me, or would know how I could go about doing this. I could provide the dimensions and pivot sizes, but aside from that I dont know a thing else about blademaking!

Looking for around 100 of them, do knife makers usually have an easier time making the exact same blade?
 
Out of curiosity, who's going to finish them, whose name is going on the blade, how much are you willing to pay a custom maker to drop everything else he's doing for the period of time it takes to make 100 knives for you, and are you going to resell them?

This is generally not something custom makers get into, though you may get lucky.
You really need some place like Admiral Steel to laser cut your patterns for you from sheet stock rathar than doing this from barstock. This is more like factory work, and you just might contact some knife factory.
 
I'd like to leave it up to the knifemaker to decide whether or not he'd like to put his name on the blade. I couldnt possibly take credit for something I didnt make.

Is $5000 in the right range? I wouldnt stress time on it, as I know that knifemakers are busy, but a few months would be ok for me.

I'm designing handles on 3D that i'd like to match the blades to. Once the knife is complete as one, I'd like to sell runs of 100 as a semi custom job.

I just wanted to make sure I wasnt out of line on what I have in mind, so I hope this is the right forum to ask for advice.

Thanks for the replies.
 
Lets say you use a custom maker that sends his steel to a professional heat treater, this is what you have per blade in materials to fabricate. I'm talking good blade steel here not something found in the scrap pile.

$12.00 each for steel
$25.00 each for abrasives, +/-
$7.00 each for heat treat, aprox.
$44.00 total each, then times 100= $4400.00

Now granted some of those costs can be trimmed a bit, but there are many other costs not even taken into consideration here. Handle materials, handle pins/bolts, epoxy, finishing materials for the handle, leather or kydex, or whatever for sheaths, materials for making the sheaths, like thread, dye, etc., but you get my idea. This is something that a factory set up for doing large lots of the same thing would shine at, and I really don't know what the savings would be there, but something.
 
Oh all the handle materials and details, assembly, and finish work would be done by me.

Just a finished blade would be it. But based on your pricing, it looks like $4400 is for blade steel alone, and not including labor for the actual grind. I dont know what is a fair amount to offer, but from what you've been saying, a factory is definitely the way to go.

I did call microtech and I dont think they were interested. Do blade factories usually accept requests like that?

Thanks Mike, I appreciate the help.
 
Here is a idea for ya...

Since you know how to do all the assembly and finish work,then why not grind your own blades?Before you say I dont know how,neither did I when I started:D Kiding aside,

Just send the pattern to your steel supplier and have the blanks laser or water cut for you.Then while waiting for them hunt the web and find one of those double hollow grinders (I know they are made and sold as I have seen one at Batson's).This is a easy fool proof way to grind the blades,now send the blades to Paul and have them proffesionally heat treated,and when they get back you are ready to do the finish work that you already know how to do.Easy enough and then you can say you made the whole thing:D

Other suggestion is to order a similar blade from one of the knife suppliers that sell finished blades only,then re-shape them to your pattern and then do the finish.

Not to many guys will want to do something like this unless they are getting a piece of the sell,see what your asking is someone to basically go into business with you or do colaberation work for you and produce the blades for your creation,a factory basically.You could get the grinders and hire a person by the hour to grind for you and you supply all materials and shop.

Just my 2 cents worth,
Good Luck...Bruce
 
Hey guys, I think he wants to make folding knives.
"......dimensions and pivot sizes, ...."
 
I'm actually making a balisong :)

I did look into blademaking, and with the noise from grinding, the space required to do it, not to mention the numbers of classes I would have to take to make a quality blade, is just not feasible right now. Not to mention I dont think the neighbors would appreciate me grinding away in my backyard 15 feet from their house!

To avoid a big misunderstanding, I'm not asking for free blades so I can get my own business for free. I would be designing the shape on a draw sheet and am willing to pay someone a decent chunk to do the grinding and finishing on the blade surface. If they're getting a profit per blade they make for me, then that's essentially part of the sell without any risk. Everything else in the balisong would be done on my end, which includes the handles and latch, and assembly hardware, and of course the pictures, packaging, etc.

If it would make things any easier to have a steel factory do the blade cutouts and then hire someone to grind them before heat treating and finishing, I'm perfectly fine with that.

Bruce, thanks for the insight-- it's helping a lot to help me understand how it all works.
 
well i must say that i live in an apartment, and i grind blades after work and have never had a problem because i stop befor people go to bed. if a nabor complanes then bribe them with a knife, that allwase works.
 
twirl said:
Oh all the handle materials and details, assembly, and finish work would be done by me.

Just a finished blade would be it. But based on your pricing, it looks like $4400 is for blade steel alone, and not including labor for the actual grind. I dont know what is a fair amount to offer, but from what you've been saying, a factory is definitely the way to go.

I did call microtech and I dont think they were interested. Do blade factories usually accept requests like that?

Thanks Mike, I appreciate the help.
Click to expand...


$12.00 X 100= $1200.00. Where do you get all my price is for steel. Read my post again.

Don't call companies like microtech. Call Queen cutlery or one of the old established firms and maybe they wouldn't be interested either. 100 is not a large amount for a factory and when you have to set up jigs for the repetitious work it doesn't pay for just 100 knives.

I think you're in for a rude awakening with this balisong thing, or some poor maker is.

Like Bruce said, try it yourself.

I guess because all the handle and finish work will be done by you, that will be free, right??? Isn't your labor or the handle material worth anything?

I have some landscapeing work that needs to be done if you feel that way.
 
Mike Hull said:
$12.00 X 100= $1200.00. Where do you get all my price is for steel. Read my post again.

Don't call companies like microtech. Call Queen cutlery or one of the old established firms and maybe they wouldn't be interested either. 100 is not a large amount for a factory and when you have to set up jigs for the repetitious work it doesn't pay for just 100 knives.

I think you're in for a rude awakening with this balisong thing, or some poor maker is.

Like Bruce said, try it yourself.

I guess because all the handle and finish work will be done by you, that will be free, right??? Isn't your labor or the handle material worth anything?

I have some landscapeing work that needs to be done if you feel that way.
Click to expand...

Mike, there's no need to be offended or be rude about this whole thing. I made this thread to get an idea of if it is possible or not, and so far it looks like it's not feasible unless I do the blades myself.

I've already brought handle material into consideration, and yes there's alot of work there-- which is why I would have rather paid to have someone else do the blades who knows what they're doing.

I have created and sold things in the past that required machining, finishing, soldering and electrical work, and while it was not easy and there was some labor involved, I did come out with an excellent finished product that I am very proud of making. I may have just misunderstood the difficulty of obtaining a proper blade, and did not think that paying for a specific set of blades would be that much of an issue.

I'll give some cutlery shops a call and see what happens. At worst, I'll think about signing up for some blade grinding classes and start doing full customs rather than semi production.
 
twirl said:
Mike, there's no need to be offended or be rude about this whole thing. I made this thread to get an idea of if it is possible or not, and so far it looks like it's not feasible unless I do the blades myself.
Click to expand...


I'm not offended or being rude. Believe me, you'd know if I was. Just a little ticked off that you didn't even bother to read my post before making a false judgement.

You got it completely wrong and there are only three items listed, which shows me that you really don't have the slightest interest in this as a project if you skim over answers like that.
 
Mike Hull said:
I'm not offended or being rude. Believe me, you'd know if I was. Just a little ticked off that you didn't even bother to read my post before making a false judgement.

You got it completely wrong and there are only three items listed, which shows me that you really don't have the slightest interest in this as a project if you skim over answers like that.
Click to expand...

I apologize then. Your inputs have been a great help to me. I did read your post and not skim through it, and mistook the three items listed as all part of material costs, and just wanted to mention that there were going be additional costs for the labor involved in grinding and finishing. I should have wrote in my post, blade material and processing costs were $4400, rather than blade steel costs.

I am serious about this project. I know it takes determination, focus, money, and alot of flexibility when it comes to an independent project. If anyone needs any proof of credibility, I have an entire 11 page thread on a seperate forum detailing my previous project.

Mike, again, my apologies for the misunderstanding.
 
twirl said:
Hey guys, I'm wondering if anyone would be interested in making a run of blades for me, or would know how I could go about doing this. I could provide the dimensions and pivot sizes, but aside from that I dont know a thing else about blademaking!

Looking for around 100 of them, do knife makers usually have an easier time making the exact same blade?
Click to expand...

I've read the posts on this thread and do agree with the points made,if you want to make a run of knives you should look into having the blades and handles water cut,If your capable of making the handles then you should be able to do the rest,Right? It wouldn't really be fair to tie up a makers time and energy to do all the work (pretty much anyway you look at it) and place his/her existing orders and work aside for a while so you can finish up the knife and sell it,hell if that's all you want to do knifekits.com offers a bali kit with what your asking already done.If i was you i'd spend some $$$ out of that $5000.00 and invest in some equipment,do the work yourself and go from there,also if you make 100 knives and they don't sell then your stuck with 100
knives to play with and be out the $$$$$.Think about it:confused:
 
Try making one. Then see if it sells. Otherwise, you could end up with 100 balisongs in an old shoe box.

Gotta be careful these days, I went to Chinatown in LA and they sell CNC machined (with carbon fiber insert) balisongs for $20 these days. It could be easier to grind your own blade and fit it in something like this (it was held together with torx screws). If they got it out there, you could probably find it on ebay too!!

-Just my .02.
 
twirl, did you get my emaila few days ago with some things you might like to try?
brett
 
I don't understand why everybody's acting so irritated by this question. And they are... it's easy enough to see that.

Tying up a maker's time?

If a maker is an adult and can make their own decisions... isn't it his or her call whether or not it's worth THEIR time to get paid for an order of blades?

I've done LOTS of blades... all on my own accord, and there was zero regret on my part that somebody else was doing the handle. I didn't put my name on them. I made blades, got paid for them, and had more money to pay bills with.

If he was asking for this to be done for free that would be a different story, but he didn't.

I can't do it because I don't have time, but I'm sure there's somebody out there that can... but this guy isn't going to find them if he doesn't ask.

-Nick-
wheelerknives.com
 
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