how long have you been making knives for and how many do you do at a time?

I do one at a time...............Been at this for 20 yrs....................................Retired and loving it..............Try to make each one a little different........carl
 
I've been making knives about a year. Pre heat treat I'll grind on 10-20 at a time, after that it's 3-5 at a time.
 
I just finished my 20th knife for a Feb. wedding (outdoors), and I made my first real knife in 2005. Although breaking my legs/school/kids always seem to limit my working time. I'm fairly attention deficit, and have 20-35 different projects on the go at any time, getting finished usually when some sort of deadline is approaching! My poor selection of tools do not help finish faster either. But I'm in this for life and am trying to find my style, so I'm just deciding to have fun when I get the chance!
 
I've been making knives full-time since 2008. I've made whatever reputation I have by going a little sideways from what everyone else was/is doing, and by taking on the custom work that no one else wants to do. I see no future at all in being a copycat - there are just too many hobbyists and out-of-work machinists who are willing to crank out the same ol' stuff with "kinda-sorta" quality for dirt-cheap prices. My job is to be as good or better than the best, and that's a long hard row to hoe.

I'm extremely grateful to be very busy and I have more work than I can complete in a reasonable time-frame. The downside of getting a lot of orders is trying to get them all done in a timely and efficient manner. I've been playing catch-up for the last year, while new orders continue to come in. That can be stressful, especially for my clients, who naturally want their knives ASAP.

I will be caught up on my backlog within a few weeks, and then I'm going to try a new strategy: I'm going to accept a very limited number of custom work per quarter, so as to reduce lead times and give me more wiggle room to work on my own designs.
 
Last edited:
I have been making knives since 1980, I currently have probably 15-20 in process at any given time, I am much happier making blades than I am handles so I have a bunch of blades that will eventually get handles, but right now I am backed up with other orders so they wait

-Page
 
I sold my first knife in 1977, off and on ever since. About 12-13 years ago I began
making slipjoint folders. This month makes it 5 years full time. The pic is blades and
springs I have cut out and heat treated ahead of myself, orders and will be up for sale.
I hate running out of blades and springs. Ken.
103_0347_zps8b2e35d0.jpg
 
I've been making knives seriously for about 8 years. I make mostly folders now and I usually do two at a time.
 
I've been making knives for 10 years. I estimate I've made 2,000 knives since starting. Could be more or less, lost count. I work on 4 to 8 knives at a time depending on my work load. Right now I've got 37 knives in the works for the Blade show plus current orders.
Scott
 
It has been 4 years off and on for me. I currently have 6 in various stages of completion. I have started to also do a little bit of leather work and just finished my first sheath, for the first knife that i ever made. the sheath and the knife are kind of crude but they are usable, I will post pics as soon as i can find my camera ( just moved to a new shop still working out of boxes). Good luck to all.
 
Made my first in 1990 and have steadily increased production to the point where it now consumes my free time. I have only sold one however, at a charity auction. The others I have given away or kept. I generally work on 3 or 4 different ones at a time, each at a different stage in the process.
 
I started making knives one year ago almost exactly. I have 9 under my belt and five more on the go right now. I still don't own one of my own knives! Lol
 
Been at it for about a year. I've usually got a knife in each step of the knife forging process. As of right now I have a couple rough forged, 1 annealed but not filed, 3 annealed and filed 70% to shape, 1 ready to normalize/harden. I like it like this because I always have something to do :0)
 
metal99 said:
I still don't own one of my own knives! Lol
Click to expand...

It's always surprised me, how many makers don't carry and use their own knives. One of the smartest things you can do is make yourself a basic utility knife and use it for basically everything from food prep to yard work to opening mail to general shop chores, for at least a few weeks. Don't sharpen it until you absolutely have to, give it minimal if any cleaning and maintenance, use it for stuff you really shouldn't... you know, like most customers do ;)

You'll have a very good understanding of what works and what needs improvement with your design, alloy selection, HT, edge geometry, ergonomics and so forth after a month or so. Plus, clients just like to know that makers honestly rely on their own work.
 
james terrio said:
It's always surprised me, how many makers don't carry and use their own knives. One of the smartest things you can do is make yourself a basic utility knife and use it for basically everything from food prep to yard work to opening mail to general shop chores, for at least a few weeks. Don't sharpen it until you absolutely have to, give it minimal if any cleaning and maintenance, use it for stuff you really shouldn't... you know, like most customers do ;)

You'll have a very good understanding of what works and what needs improvement with your design, alloy selection, HT, edge geometry, ergonomics and so forth after a month or so. Plus, clients just like to know that makers honestly rely on their own work.
Click to expand...

I Carrie one I made a few months back, love it! Also when I first started making knives I would give them away usually to friends and family and tell them to, use it! because I need feedback. Feedback has been good.
 
I have been making knives for 5 years. I went full time on May 1 2009. In 2012 I made 16 knives every week except in the runup to Blade Show, when I did 20 knives a week minimum. I took Thanksgiving week, Christmas week and the week after Blade Show off.
 
james terrio said:
One of the smartest things you can do is make yourself a basic utility knife...
Click to expand...

I read the words but for some reason I don't understand them. ;)

Been making knives for roughly 4 years now as a hobby aka part time maker. I usually have a couple in the works at the same time. With the time it takes me per knife, that usually keeps me busy for 6 months. :o
 
I've been making knives for a little over 2 years.

I generally make knives 3 - 5 at a time.

It's not really time/cost effective to make them one at a time.
 
Patrice Lemée;11887447 said:
I read the words but for some reason I don't understand them. ;)
Click to expand...

It's not my fault you barely speak English :D Just teasing, friend. :)
 
I started making about a year ago probably and I havent finished any yet. I have about 20 or so I am still working on getting heat treated lol. Right when I think "ok this is it i'll send them out" I draw up another design and can't help myself but to buy more steel.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top