burned out

ONeill said:
my question to you is , are these request for knives of there own designs or from designs you have already made ? If there seems to be an interest in one of your designs , next time you sit down to profile and start a few , do a few of that design . That way when you get the request you already have the blade ready to work on . If it is from there design , give yourself a lot of lead way , 4-6 months , and take it as a request and not an order . Explain it to them .
Click to expand...

+1 to that:thumbup:

If folks like your knives, it's because of "your" design and creativity. You have to be allowed to express yourself through your work. If a request for a design appeals to you, then by all means go for it... but don't get caught up in the "back and forth game" with a customer. If you aren't happy making it, chances are it's not the best it can be.

Some of the best advice I've received:

1. Set your pricing at what you need to make, in order to keep doing what you love.
2. Never take money upfront.
3. Don't give delivery dates.
4. Try to avoid trades. (notice I said "try")
5. Never work tired/upset.
6. Be honest to your craft and your customer.
7. Don't forgeweld naked.

Rick
 
Magnussen said:
+1 to that:thumbup:

If folks like your knives, it's because of "your" design and creativity. You have to be allowed to express yourself through your work. If a request for a design appeals to you, then by all means go for it... but don't get caught up in the "back and forth game" with a customer. If you aren't happy making it, chances are it's not the best it can be.

Some of the best advice I've received:

1. Set your pricing at what you need to make, in order to keep doing what you love.
2. Never take money upfront.
3. Don't give delivery dates.
4. Try to avoid trades. (notice I said "try")
5. Never work tired/upset.
6. Be honest to your craft and your customer.
7. Don't forgeweld naked.

Rick
Click to expand...

That last one is the most important one. :eek::D
 
Magnussen said:
+1 to that:thumbup:

If folks like your knives, it's because of "your" design and creativity. You have to be allowed to express yourself through your work. If a request for a design appeals to you, then by all means go for it... but don't get caught up in the "back and forth game" with a customer. If you aren't happy making it, chances are it's not the best it can be.

Some of the best advice I've received:

1. Set your pricing at what you need to make, in order to keep doing what you love.
2. Never take money upfront.
3. Don't give delivery dates.
4. Try to avoid trades. (notice I said "try")
5. Never work tired/upset.
6. Be honest to your craft and your customer.
7. Don't forgeweld naked.

Rick
Click to expand...

I would also like to add make sure you take time to make the knives that you like on top of customer knives. If you spend 50-50 of your work time on customer vs stuff that interests you then you won't suffer from burn out so much. It goes with the don't give delivery dates. I do more of a 75-25 customers coming first but I always make sure I am advancing my favourite current project. Once I did that my interest in getting into the workshop started up again.

Alistair
 
A golfing buddy once suggested to me that I should take a couple of weeks off and then quit all together..Hahah

I would suggest getting a couple of custom knife books, note which ones you like and why... then take the best ideas, combine them and create a new one of your own.

I think I am hearing that you are losing the passion for knife making and it has become a chore. So dump what you have been doing and recreate your knifes as your art, not your pension.

If you have the metal work down, get creative with the handles creation. But then again, if your passion has focused elsewhere, follow it.
 
These are all excellent answers! I had to kinda learn this the hard way also. I have always had a few orders kicking around which haven't been to bad to manage. I have been going to the Blade West show the past couple of years and last year I was lucky enough to win an award with one of my knives and have it pictured in Blade Mag. & then a local news paper wrote an article on my knives. All the sudden I got flooded with orders. I thought I am going to hit it hard stack these orders as close as I can and get a lot done. Soon after about ten orders or so I started getting burned out. I was mad couse I couldn't make what I wanted to and I started getting behind on orders then customers start calling because I was behind. I finally started not giving delivery dates, but just tell customers a estimated time. I have stretched my orders out a little giving my self time to make things I want to and life is much better. I have thought about not taking orders at all and just making what I want to and then put it up for sale and if they like it they will buy it.
 
I quit taking orders this spring after I got burned out with too much work. I am retired and feel I have earned the right to putter in my shop not trying to meet deadlines and work with other people's designs. And, because I was getting so far behind, customers would loose interest, cancel out and leave me with a knife that was designed especially for them.
It is much more fun doing what I like to do, on my schedule and to my own specs. After all it is a hobby and should be fun.
 
Thanks guys for all the great replies. I'm not going to take knife orders anymore. I actually called a guy about two I owe him by October and ran another design idea by him and he was fine with it so a little of the dread is off me now. thanks again fellas. Have a good week.
 
There's a reason that I have "too many hobbies" which is that I can always find something else to do when I get sick of another. Its the same reason I usually have more of my own projects in the works than I do my customers. So far its worked great for me, but I also don't have the biggest work load in the world. I used to just do knives but I had a couple times where I got to sanding on all of the projects I was working on and I almost went insane (5 knives worth of hand sanding in hollow grinds... fun times).
 
This is a great thread with some great advice. I've often felt the same way making sheaths and I know knifemaking is a lot more involved. Heading some of the wisdom in this thread could prevent some talented folks from burning out.
 
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