Clients buying wood vs Makers buying wood?

Greenberg Woods

Greenberg Woods

Joined
Dec 27, 2013
Messages
2,696
Hey Guys, I had some questions for you guys. Several of my clients have started sending clients to me to buy their wood directly and have it drop shipped to the maker.

The benefits being they do not have to invest in a diverse inventory, the client picks exactly what they want, and I am very knowledgeable about rare woods and can answer just about any question a client might have.

For me, These clients tend to spend more on a single block than a knife maker who has to buy wood for 10 knives or so.

My questions is, do you do this? Would you consider it?

If so, what are some incentives I could offer that would make you consider trying this?
Please let me know!
 
I don't request it, but I've had several clients do it in the past. One used to make custom fly fishing rods, and had me use some of his own burl blocks stabilized by K&G for his knives. Another brought me a 6' long 1x6 of rosewood to use for one knife, and insisted I keep the rest.

I'd probably do it again in the future, it seems to work well.
 
Geoff Flato said:
I don't request it, but I've had several clients do it in the past. One used to make custom fly fishing rods, and had me use some of his own burl blocks stabilized by K&G for his knives. Another brought me a 6' long 1x6 of rosewood to use for one knife, and insisted I keep the rest.

I'd probably do it again in the future, it seems to work well.
Click to expand...

How common is stabilized wood in Canada? I imagine shipping is killer
 
Greenberg Woods said:
How common is stabilized wood in Canada? I imagine shipping is killer
Click to expand...
The one big knifemaking supplier up here sells wood done by K&G, but doesn't list it online. You have to phone in and if he has what you're looking for and request pictures. There was a guy selling raffir wood out east, but he's stopped carrying it. Of course we have the obligatory few guys selling cactus juice wood and the like.

Most of the guys up here order 1/4 or more of their materials from out of the states anyways, so buying stabilized wood isn't too much of an issue. Its still cheaper to ship than steel.

Sending wood from Canada to K&G to get stabilized worked out to something like $15 per block last I heard, could be more now.
The big thing for us right now isn't shipping, its exchange rate. Your dollar was around $1.30 of ours last I looked.
 
I've not done this, but have had a couple people give me wood that they have to use on their knife. One of them is a arborist, so he sends me any cool pieces he gets anyway.
 
Greenberg Woods said:
How common is stabilized wood in Canada? I imagine shipping is killer
Click to expand...
I reclaim wood, dry it and cut blocks and ship it to K&G for stabilizing. Costs me about $23 to ship 7 pounds to them from Canada. I live near the border so I have K&G ship to a receiving place in Sumas Washington where I pick it up and bring it over the border in person. If the border agent wants they can charge me 12% taxes, but 9/10 times they don't. Works out to about $6-7 a block for me once I am done. That is a screaming deal considering nice maple burl goes for $20-30 a block.
Reason I don't have it shipped back to be across the border is "brokerage fees" and that the taxes are ALWAYS charged when it is shipped across the border. Brokerage fees with couriers is usually 40-50% and around 15-20% with USPS.

I got some nice Koa and Buckeye Burl on ebay for good prices and cut that into blocks and sent it to K&G. I would have had that shipped directly to K&G if it didn't need to be cut into blocks first.
 
Ben, what you mentioned is not uncommon.
Usually with higher end collectors and kitchen knife customers.
More experienced knife makers will usually give the customer some guidelines such as only wood stabilized by K&G or other stabilizer they like.
Minimum dimensions and which woods that they don't want to work with.
This way saves the knife maker a lot of time and money.
 
Burl Source said:
Ben, what you mentioned is not uncommon.
Usually with higher end collectors and kitchen knife customers.
More experienced knife makers will usually give the customer some guidelines such as only wood stabilized by K&G or other stabilizer they like.
Minimum dimensions and which woods that they don't want to work with.
This way saves the knife maker a lot of time and money.
Click to expand...

Thats what I am finding. A lot of guys who found me looking for rehandling knives like the approach.
 
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