Difficult customers and pricing knives.

F&F are an issue if one doesn't stand his ground on pricing. They almost always want FREE, but would settle for materials with a discount. I give them 1/3 off. No family member got one. Friends, yes. And interestingly, more are on the higher end than on the low end. Seems like a 1200€ knife is a bargain for 800€. People are wonderful if you put yourself in a position to treat them well (you are on higher ground).
 
Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith said:
I will point out that the advice on pricing being given is from long established professional knifemakers with good reputations and large customer bases. I seriously doubt they got the prices they are giving when they were a novice.
We don't know how long the OP has been making knives or what his skill level is, but I am pretty sure Pablo, Lorien, and Devin are much more experienced and well known.
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Not even close Stacy LOL I guess my story repeats time and time again with other knifemakers, it started as a hobby and then someone asks to buy that knife you shown, then slowly but relentlessly more knives were made and more were sold until they started paying the bills and the holidays. At the beginning I was happy to recover something of what I had spent in tools and materials.

If I have to tell what helped me the most, is to show what I do well and what I do wrong, help others showing how things are done and answer every single question I get on social networks, and speaking of social networks, posting 2-3 times a week every-single-week-every-month-year-after-year pays on the long run.
Lorien said:
iI recall reading that Bob Loveless honoured his pricing on his multi year waitlist, even when his knives would fetch 4x the price, (I made that number up) at the same time.
Regardless of whether or not this is true, it's always stuck with me.
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I do the same, now that my waitlist is around a month and when it was around six months, the only difference is I always ask for a 50% advance to put any order on my list.

Pablo
 
"we're producing a product that really nobody needs"
 
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Pricing is hard with blade length. Short and long blades don't fit the mold. If I am selling a 3.75 inch blade for $60/inch, which is the norm, a 2.5 inch or 7 inch blade both don't fit well into the by inch pay scheme.
 
Here is a good example. $39/inch from a well know maker.

malanika

Thread '80CrV2 Leuku'

Hello to all.
I have another nice leuku for sale.

Blade - 8"
Spine - 0.177"
OAL - 13.11"
Steel - 80CrV2 (60RC)
Handle - stabilized dyed maple burl, g10 spacers, brass bolsters.
Leather sheath.

Price €270 shipped with tracking number.
If you have any questions, feel free to PM/e-mail me at wmworktools@gmail.com

Thanks for wathcing.

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