Getting impatient...

Jeremy Reynolds said:
What happens if you fly in from across the globe, to get a specific design from 1 maker. The maker doesn't pre-sell anything. You are first to his table. The maker decided to try 3 new designs and doesn't have the one you want. None of the new ones appeal to you.

So, even if you are first to his table with money and every knife he brought is still for sale, you wasted your money and time because you didn't make sure the knife would even be there.

If everyone followed the path, we wouldn't have all this whining crying right now.
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If the customer already knows exactly what he wants, "a specific design", he can place an order, just like anybody else. However, this only applies to those makers who produce homogenous, repeated models, and does not apply to makers who create one-of-a-kind knives, of which there are very many in the world of custom, handmade knives.
 
Jeremy Reynolds said:
So you don't think these makers get trouble with e-mails daily from people wanting their knives? Get serious.

The point of contacting a maker pre-show is to 1.) find out if they are bringing anything you are looking for, and 2.) attempt to secure your purchase.


JR
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This is not the question of how many emails they get. I would not want to be in the position of receiving emails from 20 good, repeat customers all inquiring about the same model "xxx" that you will have at the show and then deciding who gets it.

I wonder if Jerry Fisk will reserve me a Sendero for Blade next year? LOL!

This practice may work in certain cases, but it is in poor taste for maker's to be playing favorites. If I have an order with a maker and am a year out on receiving it, I certainly would frown upon a maker preparing a blade for a show and then just preselling it because someone asked. I am sure the next guy on the waiting list would just as soon have his built than have one built for a show that never makes it there. What's the sense of even making a knife for a show if it doesn't make it to the show?

Most maker's are upfront about the need to prepare knives for shows and this lengthens the waiting period, I fully respect that. The key is that they say "for shows", not "for pre-selling before a show". This is akin to moving someone's order ahead of your own. You are looking at this from the perspective of someone who successfully obtained a knife this way, there are two sides to every coin.
 
Show inventory doesn not interefere with your order. They are done on a seperate basis.

Once the maker arrives at the show (even 3 days before it opens) he is there to sell knives. Period. When and where is up to the maker.

So, this is not moving an order ahead. They have nothing to do with each other. The show inventory doesn't take away from your order.

JR
 
Guys-

It looks like it's time to agree to disagree :D

It would be nice to hear from more makers on this one, but they're probably smart enough to know they'd end up sticking their foot in it like I did ;)

It has been very interesting to hear so many different views on it though...especially since many of the fellas are much appreciated customers of mine! Accept for maybe that Danbo character ;)

Thanks for the good read guys! :)
Nick
 
I can understand someone being upset when a maker has already missed his delivery date and then he puts you on the back burner while he makes knives for a show. This has happened to me. The maker was good enough to call me and tell me that if I wanted he would make my right now, but that he had a show coming up and only had one knife ready to take. I told him to put his time into making knives for the show and that he could get to mine when he got back. Though he didn't have to, the maker thanked me by doing something a little special to my knife.

One thing that would upset me is if I had a certain model knife on order for a year and somebody managed to call that maker a month before the show and arranged for the maker to bring him the exact same knife I had been waiting for. Not the fault of the person that called, but I would think a whole lot less of that maker if I ever found out something like that had happened.
 
keith,

you must have missed the previous 18 times it has been said...

Show inventory takes nothing away from the orders. It is calculated in to the time, as well as makers taking extra time on top of existing orders to prep for a show.

From your post, you are basicly saying it is wrong for a maker to take knives to a show when he has pre-existing orders to fill. I know you don't intend for that to be the case, but that is exactly what you are saying. Especially concerning makers who have specific models/designs they are known for.

JR
 
Jeremy, if I didn't know better I would take that first sentence of yours as a bit of a dig, but then I know you would never do something like that. Would you?

Actually, I read that comment and agree with it to a point, but if you would have us believe that all makers are organized enough to schedule things that well then tell me this, why are so many makers late with delivery? My guess would be that in the case of many makers their estimated delivery dates are rather a crap shoot. Some estimate a completely unrealisticly short period so as not to put off a customer that they think would not order if they knew the actual time that it was going to take. Others underestimate because they don't take into account intangibles like possible illness or injury. Other makers give an estimate that is twice as long as they think it will take just so that they will be sure of not being late.

As you can tell by my comment about telling a maker to push making my knife back so that he could make knives for a show; I have no problem with makers that have orders taking knives to a show. Let me put it a little differently than I did the last time. Lets say that I was told that I would be receiving a knife in 6-9 months. A year later I am still waiting for my knife and the maker takes that exact model to a knife show to sell. Obviously he couldn't have calculated that knife show into my delivery date, because the latest the knife was supposed to get to me was 3 months before the show. Is it ok for him to do that? Personally, I don't think so.

Now, if I have a knife on order with a delivery time of a year and 6 months after I order that knife the maker takes the exact same model to a knife show, I have no problem with that. It is only when my knife is past due that I think I should get first dibs when one is available. Maybe that is selfish of me, but I don't think so.
 
Keith,

thanks for clarifying. If a maker is 3 months behind, and has the exact same model at a show, I'd probably be upset too. So i can't really say i disagree with that aspect.

JR
 
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