Helping Knifemakers spot trends.

Jim Adams Customs

Jim Adams Customs

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I am starting this thread to help us keep up with the trends in the market. So we can sell more knives and in turn make more money. Take this with a grain of salt. This is only as guide. I am going to list my top three knives That I sold at my last show. Don't discuss price.

Last weekend show

1. Damascus Tactical 6'' blade with digital camo canvas micarta handle.
2. Damascus Bird and trout with Sambar stag handle with nickle pins.
3. 1911 pistol grip black powder coated tactical.

Show in Feb and Mar

1. Damascus Chute Fighter with digital camo canvas micarta handle.
2. Damascus Bird and Trout with Ebony handle

so this weekend I am going to take a 440c chute fighter with camo micarta,
1095 bird and trout with sambar stag. I have a damascus western dagger adding a nickel boster and stag handle. This one is because I want to make it.
 
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If you're trying to get knives to market, it's not a bad idea to know what's popular. You don't have to do it, but it's good to know.
 
I started this as tool. Like any tool you may not need it, trust it or use it.
I can see from just my sales in last month. What my customers want. :)
Just letting everyone that might find this useful to use it. By the way email me I send you the patterns I used. My patterns are free to anyone that can use 'em. Just email me.
 
I'm not one to bandwagon w/ trends either, But I think this is a very helpful tool for all selling knifemakers. I think this thread is a great implement for market research, and exactly the type of thing the BFC community needs! Bravo! My latest sale was a tri-edged tactical spike.
So far the words tactical and damascus carry some success. I hope the rest of the members find this worthy of contributing.
 
I want to add to this one. I was at national gun days in Louisville few weeks ago. There were five of my knifemaker friends there. We had a mimimal success except for one gentleman, the only knives he was selling was stag handle, brass guards and plain blades.
They were not highly polished, but sanded and not polished. He sold his knives 5 to our 1.
 
BlackToe Knives said:
I want to add to this one. I was at national gun days in Louisville few weeks ago. There were five of my knifemaker friends there. We had a mimimal success except for one gentleman, the only knives he was selling was stag handle, brass guards and plain blades.
They were not highly polished, but sanded and not polished. He sold his knives 5 to our 1.
Click to expand...

Maybe price had something to do with his success?
 
James_Terrio said:
I distrust trends of any kind. That's about all I have to say on the subject :)
Click to expand...

James , I just love your new avatar . It makes me go cross eyed .:D

back to the subject . If I made my knives to follow a trend I would have quit along time ago . Some trends want to make me puke and therefore I would not enjoy it anymore .
 
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You have to include priceranges. Otherwise its like saying "I went to a car show and saw people buying lots of white cars but not as many black cars" without mentioning the black cars were all Ferraris and the white cars were Civics.

If five knifemakers all made the same knife, they would be received in vastly different ways depening on their level of fit and finish, their choice of materials, their reputation and experience, and the price they put on the knife. Im not sure you can study one aspect without the others. I think a useful note might be something like:

-Sold well: Tactical basic three piece contrustion knives with synthetic materials and kydex sheaths, working finish, 1-200$ pricerange, established maker:
-Sold poorly: Art knives of unknown construction, 3-500$, unknown makers
-Sold well: Art knives made by well-respected makers, stag, SS fittings, 4-800$
 
I am not a knifemaker, but I am a business owner and have been for some time. And in the end, it's all about being successful, right? You won't be making knives long if you cannot support yourself, your family, and provide some kind of future for them. No one likes to live in poverty, and that means keeping up with successful marketing of your product and talents.

OK... set aside the guys with successful wives that let them make knives and be independent as hell. Set aside the semi or full retirees that don't need the cash. For someone making a go of it, this seems to be an important thread.

Need proof? Look in your knife box(es) with your old knives. How many designs and makers stood the test of time? Sure we all know a few, but how many along the way have died out? How many went away because they didn't give public what they wanted, even if that was a return to the classic designs and materials of decades ago?

I will be interested to see where this thread goes.

Robert
 
G L Drew said:
Maybe price had something to do with his success?
Click to expand...

Drew I think it was more with the stag than anything else. His price point where over 100 plus. We had many different price points at the show. They didn't even give my lower prices point a second look. Same with the rest of us, there were five of us.
Thing I have noticed. The guys that use to buy our lower price point knives are holding on to that money. I find that my 150.00 plus knives sell. They walk past my 60.00 knives, horn and burled maple. They don't even bother picking them up.

I also have found that I have two 440c Chute fighter eveyone picks them up.
one has horn and the other has green micarta. They love the style but at 100.00 they wont take them home. But if I make the very same knife in Damascus which I did I can sell it all day long at 250.00.
 
David Schott said:
You have to include priceranges. Otherwise its like saying "I went to a car show and saw people buying lots of white cars but not as many black cars" without mentioning the black cars were all Ferraris and the white cars were Civics.

If five knifemakers all made the same knife, they would be received in vastly different ways depening on their level of fit and finish, their choice of materials, their reputation and experience, and the price they put on the knife. Im not sure you can study one aspect without the others. I think a useful note might be something like:

-Sold well: Tactical basic three piece contrustion knives with synthetic materials and kydex sheaths, working finish, 1-200$ pricerange, established maker:
-Sold poorly: Art knives of unknown construction, 3-500$, unknown makers
-Sold well: Art knives made by well-respected makers, stag, SS fittings, 4-800$
Click to expand...

You may have a point. But if we add the prices. It could construed as price fixing.
 
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"I am starting this thread to help us keep up with the trends in the market. So we can sell more knives and in turn make more money. Take this with a grain of salt. This is only as guide. I am going to list my top three knives That I sold at my last show."

One way to find out realtime trends in the market is to ask an established dealer/purveyor. They usually attend multiple shows across the country and sell worldwide.

Basing a trend on a ones own sales, in a limited locale, may be fruitless. You know what they say, "GIGO".

Al P
 
Garbage In = Garbage Out ?

I thought shows were discouraging a lot of folks these days especially with the sharpened scope (gun) crowd. Larry
 
Location, location, location. How many times have you heard that. I have a retail shop in a very small tourist town and it keeps me and others busy making knives. If my shop were on Rodeo Drive I would need to hire people if selling at the same price. Or raise the heck out of my prices of today. Location, location, location.
 
Here's my .02 worth. I have found that trends come and go. The tried and true hang around. That being said I see a benefit to knowing what sells at what show. Also knowing what is new and popular couldn't hurt. I do see it varying from place to place.
 
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