How to get Dealers to carry your blades

Hankins

Hankins

Joined
Dec 7, 2008
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Wondering who here is having a dealer distribute there blades for them and how does that work?
Recommendations...
 
Hankins said:
Wondering who here is having a dealer distribute there blades for them and how does that work?
Recommendations...
Click to expand...
You need to make phone calls to the dealer/distributor and start the discussion with them. It’s not just them buying your knives though. You need to bring more to the table than just knives. Example, a website/social media that links to theirs as a dealer/distributor. If they post your stuff on social media, you repost their post to yours. Stuff like that. Also, a dealer typically takes 30% off the top. So, they need to be priced in a way that Youre ok with your own take home pay for each knife.
 
I have heard it said, "Anyone can make a knife, but to make a knife that someone wants to buy is something else."
Your knives need to be good enough that others want to buy them.
I sell my knives at a local gun store. They get $30.00 for each knife they sell. That way I can keep my prices low and sell a lot of knives. If they got 30% for each knife I would need to raise my prices and not as many knives would sell.
In the long run they make more money by getting $30.00 a knife.
 
Tom Lewis Tom Lewis
Anyone can make a knife....
I'll go as far as to say, that it's easy enough to make one that others Want.

What I don't understand is how to make enough knives to sell for profit, And to make an actual living???

I have a sporting goods store(s) owner wants to start selling my knives at his 3+ locations. I'm a little afraid that I won't be able to keep up. I haven't decided if I want to yet?

I'm guessing simplifying, and streamlining Everything in batches is paramount.
 
Crag the Brewer said:
Tom Lewis Tom Lewis
Anyone can make a knife....
I'll go as far as to say, that it's easy enough to make one that others Want.

What I don't understand is how to make enough knives to sell for profit, And to make an actual living???

I have a sporting goods store(s) owner wants to start selling my knives at his 3+ locations. I'm a little afraid that I won't be able to keep up. I haven't decided if I want to yet?

I'm guessing simplifying, and streamlining Everything in batches is paramount.
Click to expand...
My batch size is 30-100, for some steps I focus on 10-20 at a time but I’ve made a living from knives for 4 years now. Being able to meet and speak with dealers in person can really help, bladeshow is a great place for this, have someone with you that can run the table and go around making connections. It’s easier at bladeshow to walk up and say,”hey do you have a minute to see some of my work I’m at this table” making friends with people that have been in the industry for awhile and have connections that can vouch for you also makes a big difference.
 
Crag the Brewer said:
Tom Lewis Tom Lewis
Anyone can make a knife....
I'll go as far as to say, that it's easy enough to make one that others Want.

What I don't understand is how to make enough knives to sell for profit, And to make an actual living???

I have a sporting goods store(s) owner wants to start selling my knives at his 3+ locations. I'm a little afraid that I won't be able to keep up. I haven't decided if I want to yet?

I'm guessing simplifying, and streamlining Everything in batches is paramount.
Click to expand...

Easiest way to see if you can keep up, IMO, is see how many you can make at desired level of finish and quality in a week. I recommend trying 80% of max capacity so you're not a slave to your biz and have time to handle defects, sick days, etc.

Adjust as needed if you're doing everything: sales, distribution, r&d, design/engineering, accounting, etc.
 
To make a buck making knives, you have to get faster. Every grind has to be precise, blade and handle. Strive for machine finish that's acceptable to your standards. Minimize hand sanding. Make batches of the same knife profile to minimize setups. Buy steel and abrasives in larger quantities to minimize shipping costs. Buy large blocks of wood and dry/ saw them yourself for stabilization.

I've been working on all these things for a few years. I estimate I'm up to $3.00/3.50/hr now. I'm rolling in dough!!! 😀
 
Some dealers also seem willing to take batches of knives as a sort of test-the-waters for both of you. DLT Trading has done this for a bunch of makers - announcing a release with some pre-publicity photos and then dropping a dozen or so at a time. Many of these have done quite well. I believe Empire Outfitters and USA Made Blade have done something similar. I would guess a lot of that is getting five minutes to show your knives to the dealer at a show or in person at some point.
 
I was at the Miami Gun Show and had a batch of my knives with me to show to some folks. One of the dealers took an interest and has them on display for sale now. Sometimes showing some of your work to interested parties helps get your work in front of others.
 
Unless you're making 100's of knives a month I don't really see the need to go through a dealer. Whatever the dealers sell your knives for is what you could be earning if you simply sold the knives yourself. Do you really want to take that 30 or 40% hit? Set yourself up with a good website that includes commerce, then get yourself and your knives known on forums , facebook, etc. If the knives are good and people like them they'll come to your site. I drop 40-50 knives on my site roughly every six or seven weeks and they sell out within two minutes so it definitely works. Good luck!

Eric
 
ea42 said:
Unless you're making 100's of knives a month I don't really see the need to go through a dealer. Whatever the dealers sell your knives for is what you could be earning if you simply sold the knives yourself. Do you really want to take that 30 or 40% hit? Set yourself up with a good website that includes commerce, then get yourself and your knives known on forums , facebook, etc. If the knives are good and people like them they'll come to your site. I drop 40-50 knives on my site roughly every six or seven weeks and they sell out within two minutes so it definitely works. Good luck!

Eric
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The thing people don’t often think about is the time it takes to do just that, how much time does it take to photograph each knife from multiple angles to put up on your own website, then how much time to actually put the item on the site, then the time to put it out to people. Then shipping individual knives to people, I recently shipped an order of 95 knives for about $600 through ups insured. Shipping individually would cost me $10–$15 per knife so I saved potentially 500-700 on shipping alone. If I billed my shop time for all the back end work to sell direct I’d be making less than giving a dealer 30-40% I don’t enjoy the back end work so for me going through dealers is ideal. For someone else though you may enjoy selling direct and if that’s the case good for you and if it works it works.
 
Joshua Fisher said:
The thing people don’t often think about is the time it takes to do just that, how much time does it take to photograph each knife from multiple angles to put up on your own website, then how much time to actually put the item on the site, then the time to put it out to people. Then shipping individual knives to people, I recently shipped an order of 95 knives for about $600 through ups insured. Shipping individually would cost me $10–$15 per knife so I saved potentially 500-700 on shipping alone. If I billed my shop time for all the back end work to sell direct I’d be making less than giving a dealer 30-40% I don’t enjoy the back end work so for me going through dealers is ideal. For someone else though you may enjoy selling direct and if that’s the case good for you and if it works it works.
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Joshua I don't pay for any of the shipping, the buyers cover that just like any other web sale. I ship with small USPS Priority Mail boxes (free from the PO) so the shipping cost is the same for each sale. Takes me about a full day to box up, pack and label 50 knives. If I make 20 of the same pattern with the same handle material I only take 1 or two photos for the website sale page. No need to take a picture of each knife if they're all uniformly the same. If a run has three different handle materials I take a max of six photos. It would take me a couple of hours to photograph, process, and put them on the site.

With all the time and effort I put into the knives in my one man shop, taking a 30% cut so the dealers can make their profit would basically put me out of business.

Eric
 
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