- Joined
- May 21, 2007
- Messages
- 1,432
I am interested in a discussion regarding knife scales of stone. I am not talking about glued on "Santa Fe stoneworks" inlays. I am talking about carved stone with convex and concave surfaces drilled for brass rods or screws. In my youth I was extremely talented in stonecutting and polishing. It was very expensive and I got married and we had kids so that all came first. I sold all of my equipment and now 30+ years later I am retiring near the end of this year and I want to get back to stonecutting and polishing. If I do this I expect the shop would be set up for use by next summer. There is a learning curve so I would only work with "practice" quality stuff for at least six months and sell them - probably at a loss - on ebay. So, it would be a year before I dare do any knives for sale with top end stone.
I plan to buy "blanks" and scale them - even for individual requests as if they do not meet the expectation I or the buyer had then I would just keep or sell the knife. I can just picture in my mind a six knife, 440C steel, kitchen set with tigereye handles that have finger cuts and palm swells carved in..... Pinned with brass.......
If I like the outcome I may consider some custom work but that might feel too much like work for my liking. I would probably stress out too much with a $300.00 piece of custom steel in my hands!
I am fully aware that I could not charge near what the labor would be at even $5.00 an hour to do this as each scale would take four to eight hours of work (8 to 16 hours for each knife!) and the equipment will cost at least four thousand for just the stone work stuff. I am planning on 8 thousand for walls, equipment and furnishing the shop as the space, 24 feet by 32 feet, is already owned by me. (Above my auto shop see pics -
http://www.chevelles.com/feature/january2004.html)
Stones I would work with are tigereye, petrified wood, jaspers, dinosaur bone etc so pretty much very expensive stone with the cost of just the stone at probably about $18.00 to $70.00 per set of scales and about $15.00 in "consumables" such as diamond dust, belts, blades, diamond bits, wheels ect. Without any labor costs a "cheap" set would cost me $33.00 in materials alone and probably could go over $100.00. I am interested in kitchen knives, folders and fixed blade only as the stone would fracture too easily on knives such as Leverlettos and Mikovs with their long "arms".
My questions concern demand for really top quality stone on handles. I am not interested in making a bunch of money but rather to sell for enough to pay for new materials and a bit more to pay for the ones I keep or give away. Do you think there would be enough interest in this type of work to at least sell enough to keep busy enough to make a set or two a week if I expect to charge $50.00 as the start point?
Okay... Let's chat and don't worry about upsetting me as I haven't set up the shop yet so I do not have any "big money" spent foolishly...... yet!
Would you pay $50.00 to $100.00 for killer stone scales, custom cut and carved, on a readily available blank or manufactured knife worth less than $60. such as a G-10 leek, which has removable scales?
I plan to buy "blanks" and scale them - even for individual requests as if they do not meet the expectation I or the buyer had then I would just keep or sell the knife. I can just picture in my mind a six knife, 440C steel, kitchen set with tigereye handles that have finger cuts and palm swells carved in..... Pinned with brass.......
If I like the outcome I may consider some custom work but that might feel too much like work for my liking. I would probably stress out too much with a $300.00 piece of custom steel in my hands!
I am fully aware that I could not charge near what the labor would be at even $5.00 an hour to do this as each scale would take four to eight hours of work (8 to 16 hours for each knife!) and the equipment will cost at least four thousand for just the stone work stuff. I am planning on 8 thousand for walls, equipment and furnishing the shop as the space, 24 feet by 32 feet, is already owned by me. (Above my auto shop see pics -
http://www.chevelles.com/feature/january2004.html)
Stones I would work with are tigereye, petrified wood, jaspers, dinosaur bone etc so pretty much very expensive stone with the cost of just the stone at probably about $18.00 to $70.00 per set of scales and about $15.00 in "consumables" such as diamond dust, belts, blades, diamond bits, wheels ect. Without any labor costs a "cheap" set would cost me $33.00 in materials alone and probably could go over $100.00. I am interested in kitchen knives, folders and fixed blade only as the stone would fracture too easily on knives such as Leverlettos and Mikovs with their long "arms".
My questions concern demand for really top quality stone on handles. I am not interested in making a bunch of money but rather to sell for enough to pay for new materials and a bit more to pay for the ones I keep or give away. Do you think there would be enough interest in this type of work to at least sell enough to keep busy enough to make a set or two a week if I expect to charge $50.00 as the start point?
Okay... Let's chat and don't worry about upsetting me as I haven't set up the shop yet so I do not have any "big money" spent foolishly...... yet!
Would you pay $50.00 to $100.00 for killer stone scales, custom cut and carved, on a readily available blank or manufactured knife worth less than $60. such as a G-10 leek, which has removable scales?
