Covid 19 Will our demand drop?

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Hankins

Hankins

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Covid 19 Will our demand drop?
With a potentially serious (IMHO) drop in the economy looming...
Will the demand for Custom/Handmade blades drop as well?
Mods feel free to move this if too far off topic
 
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Hankins said:
Covid 19 Will our demand drop?
With a potentially serious (IMHO) drop in the economy looming...
Will the demand for Custom/Handmade blades drop as well?
Click to expand...

I don’t have a crystal ball, but in 3 days in Canada, we had 500,000 people apply for EI. I’m assum8ng demand will drop quite a bit. I’ll be making mostly small, simple knives this year.

There may be a market for Zombie knives, depending on how this unfolds. I have a lot of coal if needed.
 
I'm wondering about our supply lines. I let my steel stock run low. I've ordered more and it's supposed to ship on the 24th but who knows?
 
Demand will drop as people's resources will be focused on essential items, like guns, ammo and toilet paper :rolleyes:. I will be focusing on my JS knives after I get the last of my orders out unless someone absolutely needs a 16" bladed slayer with chainsaw and flamethrower attachments....and of course a bottle opener. Then I'm your guy. Payments accepted: Gold, silver, .45ACP, .308NATO, and toilet paper. :thumbsup::D
 
There's a bad moon on the rise and customs are somewhat of a luxury so I'd say yeah, it's gonna slow. How much? Who knows but the for sale fixed blades forum typically has 7 to 9 sold of the 20 on the front page including the high demand top flight guys. 10-12 marked sold would be spectacular, sometimes you'll see that on page 2. We can only hope that the severe steps being taken with millions sent home will work to slow the spread, not just for knifemaking! Meanwhile I'll grind for beer, I got all that other less important stuff.

As for supplies we've all probably seen reports of the stresses the truckers are going thru so we may need to just be patient. My real life clients sure are understanding... so far!
 
N.W. Gean said:
If I've learned anything about from this crisis, it's that when times are good I should be stocking up on silver, ammo, 1075, and toilet paper...
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If you're in the USA, Registered Transferable Machine Guns.
Nice ones
Values increasing better than stock market or real estate.
 
I think another gauge will be attendance at knife shows as well. I anticipate BLADE attendance will be affected by this due to
- Travel
- Social Distancing
- Disposable income

even if the US based COVID effects are under control by June there's likely to still be residual, lasting issues.
 
I haven't had any cancellations on orders at this point, I'm a fulltime maker and I'm ok thru April as far as I can see
Beyond that is uncertain, but frankly every month is uncertain.
 
sales have slowed down but not stopped. But then again people don't stop buying knives just because they can't buy toilet paper. They stop buying knives because they got laid off from work or they're retired and their 401k cratered. Give it a few weeks...
 
allenkey said:
Of course it will drop! Great time to just make them for yourself, try new things, or make nitty gritty self defense weapons for cheap 'zombie knives' as Willie says haha

I'd hate to be a full-time maker right now!
Click to expand...

I’m a therapist, and 75% of my business evaporated this week. It’ll get worse, I’m sure. We just set up telehealth so we can do virtual sessions.
 
Nathan the Machinist said:
sales have slowed down but not stopped. But then again people don't stop buying knives just because they can't buy toilet paper. They stop buying knives because they got laid off from work or they're retired and their 401k cratered. Give it a few weeks...
Click to expand...
Nathan , this thing is in the beginning.... it will get much , much worse next several months........
 
In the USA unemployment was under 3% before the virus epidemic. Last week unemployment filings were double the previous week before. In the 2008 recession, unemployment was 10% and who knows how stagnant wages were for those who still had work.

So yeah, I'm pretty sure that for the average maker, demand will drop.

Isn't Blade show cancelled? Or have they announced anything yet?
 
Natlek said:
Nathan , this thing is in the beginning.... it will get much , much worse next several months........
Click to expand...
I'm not really sure it will. yes there is a surge o unemployment but that is not because thy lost their jobs. Its because states and cities have set up restrictions on people and in some places thy are restricted to their home for 15-30 days. Thy have not lost jobs, thy have been on hold for the most part in some areas to keep it from spreading to fast. We know its going to spread we just need to flatten the curve so we don't have a huge spike and not enough resources to help them like italy.
 
the stock markets are down to levels from 2016... 4 years of gains are gone

the economic impact of this situation is going to be similar to the great depression - but hopefully for just the short term...

(except for some key industries, like cruise ships, airlines, etc - which are fubar for a year at least)

demand will drop but I don't know how long or severe
...

now might be a good time to re-tool & make ammo ; )
 
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