Can acid etching be profitable?

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suds01

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Hello everyone, this is my first post so feedback is appreciated, but down to the point. I would like to know your opinion on acid etching profitability. I'm looking for a way to make some extra money even if its $50-$100 a month and acid etching is something that looks great to me.

If I were to acid etch a $50 knife how much would you buy it for vs how much I could sell it for?

do you think I would be able to sell it, if so how quickly?

where should I sell?


Many thanks in advance for your feedback. Also I apologize if this should be somewhere else, just made my account today...

-suds
 
i would not think you would find this very profitable sorry to say.
I etched one of my blades and hated it, but thats just me.
 
Alrighty thats good to know, personally I like the idea, any other ideas on how I can make some side cash with knives that you can think of?
 
suds01 said:
Alrighty thats good to know, personally I like the idea, any other ideas on how I can make some side cash with knives that you can think of?
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Honestly with the amount of time and energy it takes to make serious money off this like Preacher and Tuffthumbz, it would take months or even years to bring in any noticable cash. Knife pimping is hard stuff
 
spyderco lover said:
Honestly with the amount of time and energy it takes to make serious money off this like Preacher and Tuffthumbz, it would take months or even years to bring in any noticable cash. Knife pimping is hard stuff
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well then lets turn this thread into suggestions how I can make money off knives, I don`t have much money to pour into this but still any suggestions would be great
 
Pretty much any possible knife mod is already being done by someone else, which means years of practice to catch up in skill so that you could compete in the market.

That's not to say "don't try", but just be aware that you won't see any profit until you've put in a lot of work.
 
would anyone suggest flipping knives (buying for lower selling for higher) I am currently trying to pay off uni bills so anything will work as long as I can see profits within a year
 
You never hit a home-run unless you swing away. I say if you have the etching stuff then swing away. Get your hands on some cheaper but not super cheap knives, etch them how you like them, show your work and see what happens. Tanning beds seem like a bad idea since you can just go outside for free, yet people tan in tanning beds. Golf is just walking around a park playing fetch with yourself. Each knife I make costs me more than $100.00 in time and parts even though my knives are only on par with a sub $40 factory blade. Your idea seems logical to me. Swing away.
 
haha you sound like my dad, I`ll give it a try with a couple of byrd cara cara2`s and if it flops oh well got myself some more edc`s
 
You may be better off just offering your service to people locally or who don't have access to some of the stuff (like rock tumblers). Say 5-10 $ a knife? Idk, just an idea.
 
i think you would be better off doing others knives like said above. less invested, and you can do to order. making scales is fun, but im not sure how much profit you could bring.
i make my own micarta, scales and etch or tumble my own knives, for my own personal enjoyment, and Its all so time consuming. good luck though!!
 
Flipping knives would not bring a lot of (if any) profit in the cheaper knives market, unless you're dealing them and have bulk stock.

Get a job, unless you already have $1000's of dollars to work with, then you'll actually have a chance at making money,
 
Forget even breaking if you have little skills and no pre-disposed passion for knives then I can pretty much guarantee you will loose money in the short term. Especially if you need cash flow relatively soon I would strongly recommend against it. Not saying you can't do it, but you have no idea how much money you can dump down the drain before you get good enough to sell your work for profit.
 
suds01 said:
haha you sound like my dad, I`ll give it a try with a couple of byrd cara cara2`s and if it flops oh well got myself some more edc`s
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You aren't going to make any money trying to flip low end production knives. If you want to make any money flipping, you need to have an in with several dealers to get first dibs on limited edition production knives. You need to go to every knife show you possibly can and know what is hot so that you can buy customs at retail from the maker and sell them for more.

You probably needs a few thousand dollars on hand to go to one of these shows and if you get really really really really really lucky, you could almost double your money. Then by the time you factor in the cost of travel, admission, food, lodging etc etc, you could probably make $1000 in profit.
 
look for another way to make money, seriously. Nobody will pay for another person to learn the craft, so unless your skill level in pimping is there with the best, you won't be able to make any profit (that's if someone wants to try you out). I think those that do pimping/sharpening etc do more for the love of the activity/hobby, as opposed to a viable way to make any profit. YMMV, and good luck in whatever you decide to do.
 
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