How many knives in a month?

strategy9

strategy9

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Apr 27, 2015
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My wife and I were just talking, just hanging out enjoying the day, and knives came up; me loving knives and she loving me, and my recent little spending splurge, and she asked a question and I had no idea the answer, so I want to ask you knife makers out there...

An experienced knife maker, with a full arsenal of all that he needed at his disposal; (materials, equip., space, hardware), being able to work on multiples at one time, with no other job but knife making... How many knives, working say 10-12 hrs a day, (a normal full time schedule + some overtime), how many quality fully fit & finished knives would you say one person can reasonably produce start to finish on avg. in one months time without rushing the process?
 
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Say all edc fixed blades in basic steels
Vs all modern folders in exotic syeels
Vs all slip joints...

I know, it's a very loaded question... She asked and I just looked at her dumbfounded, figured I'd ask the experts for what their consensus was...
 
I don’t think there is a general answer as every knife needs different amounts of work with so many variables possible. Some knife makers take months to do one knife. If you have ever done work on a knife, it’s very time and effort intensive. I give credit and my admiration to those people that are knife makers. It’s very very difficult.
 
depends on how much you do in house and how much you contract out... you can do a run of 200 fixed blades relatively cheap and definitely could hit that every month. If you do it right you would only be handling qc and final assembly. However, if you are talking about making one off knives then it will take much longer. This is a one off folder I'm making (my first one) that I have at least 20 hours into so far, probably closer to 25 and I still have to do the grind. Fixed blades are far less labor intensive, and slippies could be even more than this one. It also depends on the maker, the skill level, the design, and materials used.

i-zXj6JTg-X2.jpg
 
I have a well tooled, comfortable shop with central heat and air and I have no interest in spending that kind of time in there. If I could find 40 hours a week to spend in my shop working on knives, I could probably produce close to six knives a month. As things are, I get about two.

Bob
 
i4Marc said:
Not to derail the thread but ....

Josh, What is the white handle material you used?
Click to expand...

White Juma... Machines really well and is easy to work with Now I'll get to see how it holds up just finished the grind on this earlier tonight
 
Probably at least 20 and closer to 200 with lower standards and a lot of outsourcing.

I think a single person making quality fixed blades might land somewhere around 40 if they're doing most of the work and have their process dialed in.
 
11 kitchen knives is the most I've done in a month, and that was my first month, Each one was different which matters alot IMO.
since then I've encountered the French girlfriend and the production has gone done 50%..... and I'm only full-time this year so just a few months.

I could do 4-5 a week, hand forged and still have time for golf.
If you wanted to make the same standard inventory, you would be alot more efficient.

Real forged production would require a power hammer and a different end result product that is produced in "production" manner, more batch processing, no hand sanding etc.

If the requirement for money forced my hand, I would say stock removal is most efficient.
 
68 knives that I am making sheaths for right now. 54 of which I made.

sOrZDRR.jpg


Jqz6XyX.jpg


The sheaths:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BjA922hh64Q/?taken-by=horsewrightclothing

https://www.instagram.com/p/BjQb8uWhIXJ/?taken-by=horsewrightclothing

The wife helps quite a bit on certain parts. We try to have 4 "batches" in process at any given time. So for instance today I have steel enroute from a supplier. I have a batch that needs just one last blade cut out on the bandsaw before I start grinding (the wife does all the bandsawing these days) and getting them ready for HT. I have quite a few blades back from HT (Peters btw) awaiting post ht grinding and we have this batch that I am finishing the sheaths on.

We could easily double this number of knives a month if knives were all we did but it isn't. I also have 8 pairs of leggings (chaps) to build, a martingale, a rifle scabbard, four holsters and several other misc projects. The wife also helps with all the leather work along with items that she makes. In our spare time we run a cattle ranch too. Helping at a friend's branding is Nichole my wife: So we made her silk wildrag (scarf), her wool vest, carved belt, knife and sheath, charmitas leggings, spurstraps, rein connectors and the headstall holding the bit in the horses mouth.

D6daQXe.jpg


The two of us working on this big calf.

PCKV7yN.jpg


We have often talked about cutting back on the leather work to devote more time to the knives but aren't quite there yet. We average a thousand knives a year. Pretty well known in the cowboy/ranching/roping world. Not unusual to go to a roping and see folks I don't know wearing my knives.

KG2FFaW.jpg


dxQ078A.jpg


Kinda cool.
 
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Horsewright said:
68 knives that I am making sheaths for right now. 54 of which I made.

sOrZDRR.jpg


Jqz6XyX.jpg


The sheaths:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BjA922hh64Q/?taken-by=horsewrightclothing

https://www.instagram.com/p/BjQb8uWhIXJ/?taken-by=horsewrightclothing

The wife helps quite a bit on certain parts. We try to have 4 "batches" in process at any given time. So for instance today I have steel enroute from a supplier. I have a batch that needs just one last blade cut out on the bandsaw before I start grinding (the wife does all the bandsawing these days) and getting them ready for HT. I have quite a few blades back from HT (Peters btw) awaiting post ht grinding and we have this batch that I am finishing the sheaths on.

We could easily double this number of knives a month if knives were all we did but it isn't. I also have 8 pairs of leggings (chaps) to build, a martingale, a rifle scabbard, four holsters and several other misc projects. The wife also helps with all the leather work along with items that she makes. In our spare time we run a cattle ranch too. Helping at a friend's branding is Nichole my wife: So we made her silk wildrag (scarf), her wool vest, carved belt, knife and sheath, charmitas leggings, spurstraps, rein connectors and the headstall holding the bit in the horses mouth.

D6daQXe.jpg


The two of us working on this big calf.

PCKV7yN.jpg


We have often talked about cutting back on the leather work to devote more time to the knives but aren't quite there yet. We average a thousand knives a year. Pretty well known in the cowboy/ranching/roping world. Not unusual to go to a roping and see folks I don't know wearing my knives.

KG2FFaW.jpg


dxQ078A.jpg


Kinda cool.
Click to expand...




Please don't take this wrong because I mean it with the utmost of respect....

...how to say this tactfully...

Your wife is super hot.
 
If I was regularly doing more than 2 per week I would probably increase the complexity and novelty until I got back to 2 a week.
 
Thank-you sir, I think so too, Nathan the Machinist Nathan the Machinist . She was a model before we met. Moved to the mountains and was having trouble with her horse. Her neighbor said go see the guy down the road, he can help ya with that horse and here we are. She is also a talented craftswoman in her own right. She did all the carving on this BBQ set for a fellow BF member in OK., knife by TK. I did the construction.

8vNjg3O.jpg


Sporting Classics magazine described her wool vests as "Simply the finest hand made wool vest, on the planet. Period". She's a talented horsewoman and cowgirl (not necessarily the same thing), a great roper and a good business partner and she does run most of the business side of things of Horsewright as well as Rancho Dos Marcos our cattle outfit. Can handle the groundwork as well.

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Almost all my knives have lanyard thongs on em and she does that too.

3fhNy0I.jpg
 
Dave, don't you go making that woman mad, I 'spect you might have your hands full! :)

I have two lines of knives. a basics line, which I make 5 of per week and a high-end line, of which I do one per month worked in among the basics.
I am old and slow.
 
Horsewright said:
Thank-you sir, I think so too, Nathan the Machinist Nathan the Machinist . She was a model before we met. Moved to the mountains and was having trouble with her horse. Her neighbor said go see the guy down the road, he can help ya with that horse and here we are. She is also a talented craftswoman in her own right. She did all the carving on this BBQ set for a fellow BF member in OK., knife by TK. I did the construction.
Click to expand...

Horsewright, I've been reading bf regularly for 4 years now and I've always been fascinated with your posts and more so with your lifestyle. I never grew up on a farm but I was a country boy and the city grew up around me. While living in the concrete jungle I always admired the way you lived and your amazing ranch. Until this post I never really paid attention to your wife, sorry :), but I have to agree with Nathan here. You're a pretty lucky guy, good on you! Clearly a lot of hard work has paid off! And just for the record, I bought a house out in the country with a big shop last year. Time to get back to my roots!

Back on topic, this is a loaded question. A lot of guys, the better they get the less knives they make. Most start out making user knives that don't have a lot of embellishment or hard to work but fancy materials. You can pick almost any high end maker from Nick Wheeler to Buster Warenski and if you dig you will find they started out making simpler knives that took less time and now make more difficult knives that bring more money but take more time to make, well made in the case of the late but great Buster. RIP buddy, wish I got into this early enough to meet you...

Conversely there are guys out that started out making users knives and years later continue to do so but much more efficiently as their skills and equipment grows.

This is just my opinion but knifemaking to me is like making functional art. Think custom hot rods, you don't have to spend 100k to have a cool hotrod, but at the end of the day its functional art. So peoples tastes change as their abilities mature. You may get to the point that you can crank out 10 a week of what took you a month to do before, but upon reaching that level of skill you decide to use precious stones or mammoth tooth and go back to making one or two a month. If you want a good example of someone that did that in short order, at least in my opinion, look at the amazing stuff Bob Olehmann is putting out. Another maker I've followed early on! Btw, good to see you on here again Bob.

Sorry for the book

-Clint
 
I think it really depends on the type of knife. Something like a simple neck knife with basic scales? I think it'd be pretty easy to batch out 10 per day or more with a relatively basic shop. If outsourcing heat treating and blanks, I think it could jump up considerably from there, especially if you had a CNC mill that could rough mill scales for 12 hours a day.

Then again, it all really depends on what kind of fit and finish you're after, setups and jigs, size and style of knife, etc...
 
Well, mine must be pretty special cuz I've been working on my first 20 all year long. Decided I wanted to give em a try now the kids are going to get some special knives, lol. Some of them are shorter than when I started out, some have little different shape than intended, but I only have one that I consider unusable, got it too thin. Been a fun trip and I'm making plans for the next batch. Hoss, you must be part machine. You have a great partner there and I really enjoy watching your work. Best to you.
 
Answers are great fellas, very enlightening to the whole process... feel free to keep 'em coming... the banter is great too...
 
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