BladeForum Knife: Poll #1 PRICE?

What STREET price would you pay for a BladeForum Kershaw Knife designed by YOU?

  • $0-$99 (Will sell more quantity, but few material options)

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • $100-$149 (Think ZDP Leek size & style)

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • $150-200 (ZDP Cyclone size & style)

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • $201+ (Sky's the limit on steels, coatings, and designs, but will sell much fewer)

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Total voters
    0
  • Poll closed .
nygiantsfan3342

nygiantsfan3342

Joined
Aug 20, 2006
Messages
1,539
I spoke with Thomas at length today about this "Forum" knife business. His concerns were logistical in nature, obviously. Mainly cost and ease of production, to be specific. For a true Forum knife to be feasible, we have to first agree on how much we are willing to pay for a knife. Thomas needs to be able to sell about 500 pieces of whatever knife we agree on. That means we need to convince a dealer/vendor to invest in 500 knives without prior knowledge of the knife. I'm thinking New Graham or someone similar...

The price issue is a catch 22 of sorts. Accoridng to Thomas, if we are willing to pay more per knife, we would get better materials. But the higher the price, the fewer will be sold. Please don't vote for a price range that you couldn't or wouldn't want to pay. This is not a wish-list knife poll, it is what you would honestly spend today, tomorrow, or next month for a BF knife.

I believe that a good STREET price for a nice knife would be $150. That gives a good mix of affordability and good materials. Please vote according to what YOU would HONESTLY spend on a knife that you helped create. Please answer honestly, because Thomas needs an accurate estimate of the financial investment that we are willing to commit. There is no wrong answer either, if 90% of the votes fall in the sub $100 category, the Forum knife can still happen, but we wont have as many exotic steel options because of the cost. In the poll, I used the most recent ZDP knives as only as examples of the size of the knife and/or the type of exotic materials that correspond with each price.

Again, the Forum knife is not just a boutique run knife. Dealers and vendors specifically order and pay for special runs like the Plain Edge Random Leek and the like. With a forum knife, WE are the dealer/vendor and the financial responsibility falls to us (unless we get a true knife dealer on board). That makes agreeing on price, design, materials, etc. even more important so we can keep Thomas from getting stuck with hundreds of knives that no one wants.

I will let Thomas make my Poll Sticky. ...wait, that's not what I meant...:eek:

The next poll will be about the knife design.
 
I agreee $150 is a good level. I could easily go higher for something I really liked, but that's a good target level.
 
i would pay 150 is if had nicer materials better steel like zdp-189 etc....maybe a carbon damascus blade like the new leek.....well you get the idea....ryan
 
$150 comfortably, but it would have to be a helluva Leek (really exotic steel PE Random Leek and CF or Micarta to give you an idea).
$175 comfortably for something Mini-Cyclone or bigger. Again, it'd have to be a pretty amazing Mini-Cyclone. An exotic Spec Bump would be about right, but probably too big for most.
$175 and up you really have to think about what other knives you can get at street. Ti Bumps, Offsets, ZT's, and the higher end pretty exotic Spyderco folders.
 
I would pay any price you have listed. However I do think the 150-200 range is the sweet spot.
 
i would pay the $150 happily. my budget is more on the low to mid range price, but if it has something that i helped come up with, then yeah, id shell out the $150-$200 for it. i guess i'll leave the polls up to you Jeremy
 
It says I can't vote in this poll ?!?!?! WTF?

I'm down in the $150-200 range also.

mike
 
Yup, I can't vote either! Where do you think we are, Florida! ;)

Anyway, $100-150.
 
Be advised, I *highly* doubt this project will fly. As much as I'd love to have a BFC Kershaw, 500 pieces at $150 street price would probably be an up front investment of $50,000 on my part. A 100 piece run, yes, we can do. A 500 piece run would require deposits.
 
Bit different perspective if anybody's interested....

Because I no longer collect knives and only want users, forum knives don't have much appeal to me, and pretty much by definition the market for them is limited. So IMO it makes better sense to design a knife that stands on its own merits as a knife, and that can be produced and sold to the broader public, producing however many with special forum markings, maybe different colored scales or whatever, for the forum enthusiasts. The "forum models" then have the added collector-type appeal sort of like first production runs, yet everyone can buy the regular model ... in fact I'd imagine there would be forum members who'd like to own both, keep the forum knife pristine and have the same basic knife for a user.

With that in mind, I think a higher quality piece that stands on its own merits as a tool should be the primary focus; why would a blade enthusiast want anything less? Kershaw should use its expertise to design a knife for a market niche they have reason to believe will sell well and be profitable for the company. Done that way, it might even be possible to offer the forum knives at basically the same price as the regular models, or at only a slight additional charge, as a kind of perk for forum members.
 
offsetlover said:
yeah i get that crap also. its cause we're registered users. we aint special like Jeremy or Kneedeep or Thomas ;)
Click to expand...

I didn't know you had to have a paid membership to vote. Sorry. But maybe you should pay the $30 and become a member? It really helps give back to the mods and Spark who created this great site.
 
nygiantsfan3342 said:
I didn't know you had to have a paid membership to vote. Sorry. But maybe you should pay the $30 and become a member? It really helps give back to the mods and Spark who created this great site.
Click to expand...

jeremy, if i had the money i would definatly do that. if i ever get a paid membership it will be at the end of the year. the cat kinda needs a check up and im saving for blade 08
 
Dog of War said:
Bit different perspective if anybody's interested....

Because I no longer collect knives and only want users, forum knives don't have much appeal to me, and pretty much by definition the market for them is limited. So IMO it makes better sense to design a knife that stands on its own merits as a knife, and that can be produced and sold to the broader public, producing however many with special forum markings, maybe different colored scales or whatever, for the forum enthusiasts. The "forum models" then have the added collector-type appeal sort of like first production runs, yet everyone can buy the regular model ... in fact I'd imagine there would be forum members who'd like to own both, keep the forum knife pristine and have the same basic knife for a user.

With that in mind, I think a higher quality piece that stands on its own merits as a tool should be the primary focus; why would a blade enthusiast want anything less? Kershaw should use its expertise to design a knife for a market niche they have reason to believe will sell well and be profitable for the company. Done that way, it might even be possible to offer the forum knives at basically the same price as the regular models, or at only a slight additional charge, as a kind of perk for forum members.
Click to expand...
I agree...We don't really NEED a Forum Knife to be anything really expensive or "special" beyond what's "normal" for a Kershaw knife. With that in-mind, I nominate the "standard" Cyclone or "Mini"-Cyclone as OUR "Forum Knife".:D
 
I don't post in this or any forum often, but I do read daily.

I voted for the $150-200 (ZDP Cyclone size & style) range. For a quality knife it's worth it. I'm not too fond of the recurved knives, so depending on the knife style selected I'll most likely get one.
 
meh, for $ 150, you can already get one hell of a great knife...mini-cyclone Ti/ZDP. Dress it up a bit, with a dam blade and black clip and I'd be perfectally happy. I like the idea of using "off the shelf" parts, to speed it up and help hold down costs. Tooling a damascus blade to the Mini would the only time consuming issue.
 
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