Custom commissions: how long of a wait is too long?

Comeuppance

Comeuppance

Fixed Blade EDC Emisssary
Joined
Jan 12, 2013
Messages
4,765
I first contacted a maker on this forum in late January. In the first week, we had a pretty good mockup of the knife to be made and all that really remained was to choose the handle materials.

Then five weeks passed with no updates aside from a response to me asking for an update after two weeks of silence. I was met with a promise of pictures "tomorrow" that never manifested.

Cut to two weeks later, I get a picture of some milling on the handle scales to be.

Ten further days pass. Silence.

I just sent an email withdrawing my commission. Was I out of line to have done so?
 
Some more details:

- It was to be a fixed blade, and just a minor modification to one of the makers pre-existing models
- Blanks were apparently handy, and one was used to demonstrate the requested grind (just adding a clip point)

And here is the email I sent, verbatim:

"I shouldn't have to consistently pester someone to get updates on my commission.

It has been over six weeks since I first contacted you and almost nothing has changed and no real progress made in the last five weeks.

I am withdrawing my order."
 
Depends on the maker and how long their wait list is.

That will vary greatly from a few months to years.
 
6 weeks and you withdrew your order? How long were you originally told?

I'm on a 1 year waiting list right now for a couple slipjoints. I'm not expecting any updates until 1 year passes:D
 
I don't think you were wrong, but six weeks ain't much unless they promised it much sooner. If it's taking too long for you, definitely go elsewhere, but I don't know of anyone that's gonna pump out a custom in six weeks.
 
Insipid Moniker said:
I don't think you were wrong, but six weeks ain't much unless they promised it much sooner. If it's taking too long for you, definitely go elsewhere, but I don't know of anyone that's gonna pump out a custom in six weeks.
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6 Weeks is a very short time frame, I would be wondering why it was that short.... ;)

I normally wait 6 months to over a year depending, sometimes longer.
 
There was no wait list and this is a newer, hungrier maker.

It was the awful communication that did it for me. I was never given a time frame.
 
Not knowing any specifics other than those you've mentioned, it sounds like you're dealing with a relatively inexperienced maker who got overwhelmed. Scheduling out knife builds so that your customers expectations are well managed is a skill that not all artisans have. I would say that once a maker gets to your scheduled build-out, it shouldn't take more than 2-3 weeks to produce the knife. Getting to that scheduled build-out, though, can often take a long time.
 
Did you ever ask or did he ever establish any time period when you first commissioned this project? Custom work for almost any product you can purchase usually entails some additional time. Six weeks is hardly anything at all in fact for most custom work six weeks is a drop in the bucket. With regard to communication most custom makers and especially those who have smaller shops are nortoriously bad because they typically are short handed and devote most of their time to filling orders and not to communication. Sounds to me like you might not have the patience required for custom type projects.
 
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The overwhelming consensus seems to be that I had unrealistic timeframe and communication expectations. I suppose that initial burst of progress and that it was nearly completely designed from the first day had me hoping for faster progress and unprompted updates.

Am I to understand that a fixed blade, in a style the maker does in large batches and with some frequency, should still be expected to not have begun any significant work within six weeks? I may very well not have the patience for customs if that is the case...
 
Comeuppance said:
The overwhelming consensus seems to be that I had unrealistic timeframe and communication expectations. I suppose that initial burst of progress and that it was nearly completely designed from the first day had me hoping for faster progress and unprompted updates.

Am I to understand that a fixed blade, in a style the maker does in large batches and with some frequency, should still be expected to not have begun any significant work within six weeks? I may very well not have the patience for customs if that is the case...
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You'll never know how much other work he may or may not have in front of or more important than yours. Unless a time frame is set prior and even then things can happen which may delay progress. There could very well be other potential factors as well. When it comes to custom work patience is the key.
 
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Dddrees said:
You'll never know how much other work he may or may not have in front of or more important than yours. Unless a time frame is set prior and even then things can happen which may delay progress. There could very well be other potential factors as well. When it comes to custom work patience is the key.
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These are all good points.

I suppose it was less the timeframe and more the lack of communication that caused my impatience. It just reminded me of the six months I waited for Will Moon to send me a knife he had already completed, and I felt so burned after that whole ordeal that I was hot to back out after just a couple months of (very) poor communication.

It would have been in the makers favor, I suppose, to at least tell me what the holdup was, but I realize I also never asked for or about a timeframe.
 
Comeuppance said:
These are all good points.

I suppose it was less the timeframe and more the lack of communication that caused my impatience. It just reminded me of the six months I waited for Will Moon to send me a knife he had already completed, and I felt so burned after that whole ordeal that I was hot to back out after just a couple months of (very) poor communication.

It would have been in the makers favor, I suppose, to at least tell me what the holdup was, but I realize I also never asked for or about a timeframe.
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I've always tried to get a timeline at the beginning of any project. Even when doing so it doesn't always pan out but at least I have a start point. Most of my experience at this point has been with Made To Order shoes and these are mostly from much bigger companies than these custom knife makers. I can only imagine that there are more times when ordering from these much smaller shops where more patience maybe required. Anyway I'm by no means saying my patience hasn't been tested from time to time. One just has to remember why you decided to order a custom piece in the first place. The goal is to get something unique and much better than one can get from Walmart, and sometimes patience will be necessary to get exactly what you want.
 
Comeuppance said:
There was no wait list and this is a newer, hungrier maker.

It was the awful communication that did it for me. I was never given a time frame.
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Not being given a time isn't necessarily a bad thing. People tend to cry a storm when the time frame is passed and still no knife. Now people are complaining that there is no time frame. Some of these makers are damned if they do and damned if they don't. You may have saved the maker all sorts of trouble by cancelling the order, as well as yourself. IN the end as others have said, it depends on a lot of things. Personal life, family, illness, responsibilities, sometimes they get pushy customers, preexisting commitments to other customers, etc. A knife maker won't reveal how busy or not busy they are most of the time, it's no one's business but their own. I couldn't understand why someone would be so open about that anyway. Some folks do have unrealistic expectations and when they get their feet wet for the first time, they end up outing themselves as jittery and anxiety riddled customers with OCD. Nothing cancels an order quicker than a PITA customer. My longest wait for a custom folder was 18 months. In that time, I sent one email, turns out the maker had forgot about my order. He made it within a month after that email and I then proceeded to pay for the item and that was that.
 
Ankerson said:
Depends on the maker and how long their wait list is.

That will vary greatly from a few months to years.
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Couldn't agree more.
A certain maker had a 7 year wait list, that was a few years ago.

He no longer takes orders and the secondary market is your only recourse for his work.

DC
 
I almost said something to the effect of "in my defense, I just wanted a clip point on a fairly straightforward build that the maker already does in batches of 5-10" but then I realized I was using the phrase "in my defense" which usually means what follows is pretty pointless.

I dunno. I felt like I made a reasonable decision at the time when everything's considered, but I have definitely been given a better understanding of what is generally considered a reasonable time frame.

I have another in the works that I now know to be very very patient about. It's not like I have run out of knives and need one specially made just so I can cut things...
 
So, 10 days ago you received an email showing a picture that confirmed that the maker had started work on your knife, and you cancelled after he did that work?

Frankly, that doesn't sound awesome on your part.
 
RX-79G said:
So, 10 days ago you received an email showing a picture that confirmed that the maker had started work on your knife, and you cancelled after he did that work?

Frankly, that doesn't sound awesome on your part.
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He showed me a picture of a small amount of work that had been done on a handle scale that he suggested might be better to scrap and use something else. So, really, we had just discovered that a thing wasn't going to work out.

No need to rub it in that I was being impatient; making me feel bad about what has happened accomplishes nothing but making me feel bad. Remember, I'm not slamming the guy - I just got the feeling I might have jumped the gun, made this thread, and have been more or less unanimously informed that I totally did. No need to start assaulting my character when I'm already asking if I was in the wrong and have accepted that.
 
Comeuppance said:
No need to rub it in that I was being impatient; making me feel bad about what has happened accomplishes nothing but making me feel bad. Remember, I'm not slamming the guy - I just got the feeling I might have jumped the gun, made this thread, and have been more or less unanimously informed that I totally did. No need to start assaulting my character when I'm already asking if I was in the wrong and have accepted that.
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Was I out of line to have done so?
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I'm not sure what you wanted people to respond with. Just agreement?
 
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