full time makers job costing

H

HSC ///

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Nov 7, 2012
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I'm into my second month of giving this a go full-time
I'm not terribly concerned about pricing or costing at this point.

But I'm curious for the full-time makers, If you sell something for $300 or $400, how much materials allowance do you have? I'm asking in specific about steel and handle materials.
I realize there are many variables in the type of knife and materials used....and of course our labor is the most valuable and costly component.
But I'm just curious to get a sense of the what costs you allow for and how much.

thanks
 
What I did was follow three batches of knives. I wrote down the amount of time for each step and divided that amount of time by the number of knives in the batch. I then took the average of the three groups and used this to determine how much time I had in each knife, including sheath making. Actual material cost was much easier to track. Thats an absolute, you know how much that is. Buy steel, make knives, divide cost of steel by how many knives ya got. Same thing with handle material. Do this several times so you get an accurate figure. How much for bolster material if you use it. What are your costs for pins or corbys, epoxy, leather or kydex for sheaths thread etc. Then add in how much time you have per knife at your determined hourly shop rate and there you have it. I did add about 10% to material cost for all the little things you forget and also postage in getting supplies.

I use to work with a ratio of materials versus cost of finished knife like you are talking about. After years of doing this I realized it wasn't very accurate. I even had some knives I was paying people to buy, I was literaly selling these knives at a loss and didn't know it. Fortunatly it was only on a couple of my lower end knives but still. Not good business.
 
Ah heck yeah, all the time:

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Just finished some off and have four more on the bench right now.
 
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Man that last ine by TK is awesome!! As someone who was airborne and served in 5th group (thr crest on the sheath is the special forces crest) that one really hits close to home.
 
Thanks for your service Justin Schmidt Justin Schmidt Couple of pair of spur straps with conchos made from challenge coins:

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For this last guy I also made four legal size notebook pads with the crossed arrow emblem. They were pretty darn cool but the pics were on a nuther putter that blew up.

Sorry for the drift @HSC///
 
I can't think of a harder way to make a living than knife making and I have had conversations with at least two professionals who nearly had nervous breakdowns from trying. Both suffered exhaustion and severe depression from pressure and finances. Please give a lot of thought to this before committing to full time work. If you want to make knife making no fun then depend on it for a livelihood. That is my opinion for what it's worth. Larry
 
Don't forget that old joke
"If you want end up with a million dollars by making knives you need to start with two million. "
:D
It's a labor of love.
 
There's a saying in Montana, "Behind every rancher in Montana, there's a wife who works in town." I don't make knives for a living, but when people ask if that's my plan, I tell them "The best way to make a living knifemaking is to to have a wife with a good paying job."
 
I was just going to say "behind every successful knife maker is a wife with a good job"
 
It’s one of the hardest parts of knife making to figure out how much to charge for your work. Overhead, consumables, materials, equipment, maintenance, taxes, insurance, r&d, etc., can drive anyone crazy.

Most knife makers try to find a comfortable price range for their knives and make few knives outside that range.

Try not to give away extras/upgrades, that’s what eats at your time and profits.

The lower the price point the broader the customer base.

Most makers make knives or art pieces, it’s rare for a maker to do both.

Don’t take deposits. There are no knife emergencies.

Hoss
 
My opinions about professional knifemaking are unpopular, but here goes:

You need to look at the big picture, which means the question isn't 'how many hours am I spending per knife?' - it is 'how many knives do I want to make per month/year?'.

You won't have an accurate answer to that question until you have some REAL financial reports or tax returns to examine (e.g. some Schedule Cs).

Don't work for free. Your time posting here, reading and researching is work. Your time shopping for supplies is work. Your time maintaining social media accounts and responding to customer inquiries is work.

Set a benchmark - for example, start working at 8am, take a lunch break, and stop at 5pm. That means no material shopping, no social media activity, nothing after 5pm. Don't forget about a 1-week vacation, and a few sick days. That will give you an accurate picture of how many knives you can realistically make in a week/month/year. If you want to stay up until 1am finishing a handle - great, but this should be putting 'overtime' in your pocket.

There is a great quote I read about life/work balance - I can't find the exact quote, but essentially it says the following. If you are a workaholic, then you are incompetent at managing a life/work balance. If you are incompetent at managing a life/work balance, then there is a strong argument that you are incompetent at managing your business.

The final thing I'll mention is set backs. You will constantly hit delays and errors that are either your fault or your vendor's fault. This is a real cost and shouldn't be discounted. It is very tempting to tell yourself 'this got messed up and cost me a lot of money, but next time it will be better. So I'll just eat the loss'. Next time won't be better - if you continue to eat the cost of setbacks, you'll go under.
 
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