How are Sales?

Several things:
1) Money is tighter since the pandemic
2) People got used to using what they had and feel that they don't need "new knives"
3) The "Handmade Kitchen Knife" bubble may have burst.

I am honest with people when they ask what the difference is between a $100 Global/Wusthof/etc. knife is from one of mine for $250-300. I say that mine is made from a hot new steel (like Magnacut); the HT is as good as I can make it, yielding a harder edge than the commercial knife; and it is a custom knife ... but both knives will cut a tomato. I also say that I can't understand why anyone would pay $700 to $1000 for a knife that is pretty much identical to mine, just because it has a fancy name. I seriously doubt that I have ever used more than $75 in steel and $30 in handle materials on a standard kitchen knife. Many have less than $30 total materials.

I'm going to call out a selling falsehood some makers have used to sell ridiculously highly priced knives. They say, "My knife is much harder and cuts better than any knife you can buy." It is very doubtful that is really true. To start with, hardness has noting to do with cutting. The real truth is that most peoples knives are poorly sharpened and have the wrong edge angle for kitchen work. A custom knifemaker usually sharpens his knives at a lower angle, and they just seem better. I resharpen friends commercial knives all the time and they say it never cut like it does now. They are right. It never had a "Custom Knife" edge.
 
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BA Shredder sales are up quite a bit. So there has to be some knife makers having good years. I think the online knife market might be getting saturated. Maybe local shows are were it's at? Just a theory. ??
 
I was thinking the US since this is a US forum, but the same applies up here
 
I was in Texas for 3 weeks in May. This was my first trip back in 2.5 years. Consumer prices in the grocery stores and restaurants south of Dallas were so high it made my eyes water. A $50 bill is the new twenty. Even fast food was crazy expensive. A simple Barbeque sandwich at HEB was $9, no fries, no drink, just the sandwich. Prices for electricity, construction costs, insurance on property, taxes on property and rents were all nuts. For the first time, even prices on clothing and other consumers goods at the mall were pretty much as high as here in Germany. The days of cheap jeans are gone. Gasoline for the rental car at around $3 a gallon was still reasonable compared to Germany. Folks told me they were working 7 days a week and barely making ends meet and I believe them.

So now I see why my orders from the USA have dropped off to next to nothing: People do not have any money left over at the end of the month for things like knives they can do without. All the cash goes for food, rent and housing. And health insurance, if they even have any.

Prices here in Germany have also risen substantially, but not as bad as in the USA. One example, a package of 6 English muffins in a German supermarket costs €1.79; at HEB in Texas it was $5.26. English friggin' muffins! I know Whole Foods has been called Whole Paycheck for a long time but I didn't even go in one of those stores.

Look up consumer spending overall in the USA and you'll see it's way down nationwide. The EU is in a similar situation. I can't go into the reasons for that without getting into politics, so I'll say no more.

But yes, I can say that knife sales are way down across the board. If you follow the used market, it is also down.
 
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