Idea?

JK Knives

JK Knives

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Mar 6, 2001
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Since all of my recent designs don't seem to be liked very much, does anyone else have any ideas for what I should try making?
 
From just my perusal of the For Sale sections, it seems that kiridashis, scalpels, and traditional puukkos are fairly popular. For the first two, I see several makers who make a batch of 6-10 dashis or scalpels and sell the majority of them fairly quickly. I think the lower entry price point of them make them move well. I don't know what kind of margin you would have on something like that; so it might not be worth it to you.

For the puukkos, bushcrafting is still super popular, and the fat-handled, 1/8" - 5/32" stock puukkos seem to garner a lot of attention.
 
I like kiridashi knives, I've made quite a few, but not recently. As for Puukos, the only one I made took forever to sell, you can see it on the last page of the Whatever thread. I thought it was cool.
 
That puukko does look great!

On a personal level, I'd like to see some tall, thin kitchen knives, but I'm not in a position to order more than what I've got on the books now. The Kitchen Knife For Sale section seems to be pretty slow, though, so I don't know if that would be worth the investment in taller, thinner stock.
 
I'll have to take a picture of the taller kitchen knife I made for Connie years ago.
 
I'm going to take a gamble and offer a line of "minimal" knives. These will be about 5" overall, (good neck or pocket size), and to start with they will only be offered in tan or black micarta. Price will be $88 shipped with kydex sheath. These will be full height grind.
There will be four styles, wharncliff, semi wharncliff, drop point, and clip point. One of each will be available at the beginning of January.
I figure these might be a good replacement for the old HK series, which seem to be gone.
Thoughts?
 
The price is certainly fantastic! 3/32" O1 or something different? I definitely think those would sell in the Maker's Knife For Sale section.
 
I'm hoping these will provide an entry level model for handmade knives, at a price anyone can afford.
 
Ordered 3/32" O1 this morning, along with black and tan micarta and kydex. It looks like at least a few think this might be a good idea.
 
I think you'll do very well with those too. Another thought that I've had is trying to advertise and promote the Element Outdoorsman model to the bushcraft/outdoors board etc. That knife is very Kephart like and at a very good price. Maybe package it with a fire steel. Seems like a great idea to me. That's still a knife that I really want.
 
I like the idea of the basic line with 3/32 steel, very popular for slicers. I also liked the longer handled workers, just plain handy. What about a puuko in 3/32?
 
I'm working kind of slow on these, profiled them this morning. I'm reserving time to watch Christmas movies!
 
John, I think you have to take the low road and the high road at the same time. I think your idea of low cost EDC knives is great (I bought one already). The low price will get people to at least look at your knives. At that point if they can see everything you offer, they may actually buy up when they see some cooler more expensive knives. I think you need to update your web page (more money - sorry). Show the inexpensive knives and then show better more expensive alternatives. You might want to add a picture of you whacking a knife on an anvil with sparks flying so people get that this stuff is hand made by an artisan. Other pictures of you sharpening knives on a belt and sticking a knife in an oven also will help. This forum, your Facebook page, everything should direct new people to your web site.
 
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