Finished this one yesterday...

Phillip Patton

Phillip Patton

Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
Joined
Jul 25, 2005
Messages
5,362
...and finally got some pics uploaded today.
The steel is L6 (REAL L6) :D the handle is black micarta with nickel silver and micarta spacers. Guard is stainless steel. I bead blasted the guard and handle, and the blade is hand rubbed.
What do you all think, and especially what do you think is a reasonable price for this? I intend to put this one in the For Sale area, and I'm not very good at pricing my knives. I'd appreciate any help.
 

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I don't know much about pricing, but that is a gorgeous knife! I'm sure it will be snapped up quick. You can always start high, and lower the price if it doesn't move.;)

BTW, the second pic is kinda blurry - you might want to get a better one before posing in the "for sale" area.
 
Thanks!
Sounds like good advice. Maybe start at $300?
The second picture is blurry because I wasn't using a tripod. At least, I hope that's why. It could be because I'm a lousy photographer. I'll try to set something up before I put it up for sale.
 
Looks real nice. I'm curious, how many knives have you made?

For the pricing issue, thats a stuff one, all I can say is ask what your willing to part with it for. If it sells really quick, you may have nailed the price people are willing to pay for your work or you priced it to low, if it just sits there for weeks/months you may have priced it to high. Knife sells can be a hot/cold issue. You may ask x for that knife now and it not sell, but in 3 months that knife might bring your price in a reasonable time. I've seen to many people price their work very reasonably and if it didn't sell in a few days they'd drop the price, then drop it a few days later, then finally end up selling for almost nothing. If you teach the public your willing to take less then many will just wait for the prices to keep dropping. Pick a fair price according to what other makers are getting in your talent/popularity range and stick with it. Every knife is a learning experience, from making to selling it.

Good luck

Bill
 
I've been dabbling in knifemaking for about seven years. This is the 105th knife i've made. The vast majority of the other 104 were terrible. Very few are in my opinion good enough to sell. This is one of my favorites.
I wish I'd kept track of the time I'd spent on it. That would give me something to go on.
 
I totally agree to what Bill B says. I am fortunate that I have a knife retail shop in a seasonal area and draw higher prices there. I offer some knives on the forum at lower prices to build a new client base. My experience is that this will take some time since we are marketing to those that can't touch and feel the product. HTH.

Jim
 
Phillip - I think the knife looks great. I particularly like the blade with its sexy curves and its very assertive profile. From the pictures it looks like your fit and finish are of a very high quality as well.

Personally, I would probably have liked the guard a little slimmer, and the butt a bit more flared with perhaps a slight drop to the handle. This is just my personal opinion on aesthetics, balance and flow, but a slightly dropped handle would also make the knife a bit more powerful as a chopper.

Anyway, like I said I think it's a superb knife. Really well done. And I think $300 is a very reasonable price. The same knife from a slightly more known Journeyman Smith, for example, would probably command $450 or more. That's a lot of knife for $300.
 
Thanks everybody for your input. I spent all morning trying to get better pictures with my cheapie digital camera, and gave up. What I decided to do is take pictures with my old Minolta SLR camera, and get them digitized. It only costs $.29 per photo to get them put on a CD. I hope to get some better pics uploaded later today.
 
Phillip Patton "I wish I'd kept track of the time I'd spent on it. That would give me something to go on."

I don't know Phillip, if I tried to charge an hourly price, some of these $250 knives would be priced about $1000. :D For me it just works better to price the piece so the people that would be most interested will not shy away because of price. Then adjust your prices with each knife until you find the best price and still sell in a reasonable time frame. The time frame is up to you, a week, month, 6 months. Sometimes it just takes the right person to see it and that can take several months.

Good luck,

Bill
 
Price for that L6 sweetheart? How about cheap to me and around $350 for everybody else? ;) :D Actually, $350 would be the range I'd expect to see this one in.

Size, method, and maker can make a difference in price. Larger knives (requiring more material & longer concentration to make), forging (vs stock removal), fame of maker, or fancy materials can raise the price. For a forged blade, don't forget to include the voodoo magic factor when justifying a higher price to a potential customer. Sometimes how you sell it is more important than what it is.

As for the design of this knife itself, I like it overall. There's lots to like in the knife IMHO (material choices, fit 'n finish looks good, size of blade (looks like about 7.5" or 8"), recurve edge for chopping, robust tip not inclined to breaking). As for what I'd change, my preferences line up with Wulf's -- smaller guard and dropped handle.

I also prefer guards that tip forward at the top for two reasons.

(1) In the usual "thumb braced on top of the handle" grip used for a draw cut, the ball of the thumb falls naturally ahead of the rest of the fist holding the handle. Having the guard canted forward at the top of the handle gives room there for the thumb and facilitates this grip. Having a very small (or non-existent) top quillion on the guard is also a good thing to me. (My knife uses are civilian utilitarian, not combat/fighting so that biases me away from blade-stopping size guards.)

(2) IMHO a guard canted forward at the top helps a viewer's eye to flow along the knife. A physically prominent guard at 90-degrees (right-angled, as this one appears to be) to the handle tends interrupt that visual flow, as does a visually arresting guard with strong colors or pattern on an otherwise plain knife. A smaller or canted guard will create less visual obstruction to the visual flow of a knife design. However, to show the exception to this, consider the wonderful flow that can be achieved on some S-guard bowies where the massive guard is easily the most prominent feature of the knife. But the shape of the guard eases the viewer's eye over and across the knife.

That's my $0.02, so YMMV.
 
Thanks everbody for your input and tips!

Wulf and Rokjok,
When you say you would like to to see the guard slimmer, which dimension are you referring to?
I admit having the guard slanted forward would look better, I haven't tried it yet because it looks difficult. But I'm working on a couple more of these, and I'll try making the changes you guys have suggested.
I'd considered having just a finger guard on this, rather than a double guard, but for some reason it seems like it just wouldn't look right. I'm going to draw it out on paper and see what i think.
I got some pictures developed and put on CD yesterday, here's a few of them. I was using 400 speed film, so the pictures are a little grainy, but still better than I was getting with my digital camera.

4-7-06-11.jpg
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4-7-06-04.jpg
 
Beautiful job Philip! I like it just the way it is. Nice fir and finish, the lines flow well, looks like it'd take a real beating and give out more than it got.
Ed
 
Thanks, Ed!
Wasn't it you who just passed his JS performance test? If I'm remembering correctly, congratulations!
 
That's a real sweet piece of iron there! As for price I think you should just trade it to someone for testing some steel.... Wait a minute... I guess I should have thought about that BEFORE I tested your steel!
Shucks! Maybe next time,
Matt Doyle:thumbup:
 
:D Thanks!
I could send you one of my older knives. You want one? I'm serious. I really appreciate you testing the steel. It made up my mind which L6 to use. :D
 
Phillip,
I was just kidding about sending it to me, tho it is nice. I appreciate the offer but if I didn't screw it up myself, no matter how beautiful it is, it just doesn't interest me. Really glad to have been of help. Just keep posting pics so I have something to shoot for! I have a small one I just finished a couple days ago for a coworker. Maybe I could talk the wife into putting the pics on the computer so I can post em. Sucks being so gd computer illiterate!:o
Matt
 
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