I'm a 18 year old knife maker need advice

All of the above posts were made with your best interests in mind. Take them to heart. A number of people including me have tried to take a hobby into a business. Of course some make that work. I couldn't. It turned a great hobby into another job with all of the drudgery that comes with it and of course all of the headaches of running a business. I'm retired, I make knives and I sell them but I couldn't support a family doing it. My advantage is my money comes to me every month. If I'm tired or bored I do something else and you can't make a living doing that. Life is great.
 
P.Brewster said:
Think like a businessman. Make cold, heartless decisions. Leave the emotion in the actual craft. Be mentally/emotionally willing at all times to let it all go and close shop - in other words, be fearless of the possibility of failure. Separate your personal sense of worth from the success of your business - if you don't, it can only hurt you, because it will impair your ability to make smart business decisions. Learn how to say no to both your customers and yourself.
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My hobby was custom made drums for about 10 years. Had a lot of fun for about 7 and made beautiful one of a kind rock and roll drums. Then I started selling a few and taking a few orders from people I knew and pretty quickly it became a job with deadlines, tough decisions and stress involved and lost the creative zen that it had been for me. Eventually I decided to quit doing it. Finished up my final orders and quit. Make the odd snare for myself now.

My suggestion is to only do this if it is bringing you life. Otherwise go back to having fun with it.
 
Samuel Riner CustomKnives said:
Thank you all for all the advice. I'm extremely stubborn so I'm not going to give up. we'll see what happens in 5 years. Thank you all again and God bless!
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The Best advice I can offer is....Go to "Blade" the annual Knifemakers show in Atlanta. At Blade you get a good look at the thousands of knives you will be competing against it's a very humbling experience. Talk to Makers ask questions understand that many of the Best Makers had your Dream. There is a lot of valuable information offered up so far in this thread pick out parts you might want to improve upon and set realistic goals.
 
Samuel Riner CustomKnives said:
Thank you all for all the advice. I'm extremely stubborn so I'm not going to give up. we'll see what happens in 5 years. Thank you all again and God bless!
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I say go for it !Everyone start from zero........ Soichiro Honda start as mechanic in garage...making piston ring for Toyota :D Enco Ferrari ..................... :p
If you don t try you will no know :thumbsup:
 
Ajack60 said:
Nice knives !!!!!
There's more to being a full time maker than just making the knives. Adopt a business plan, know your limitations and if you haven't already some of the issues with makers in GB&U, do so. That will prevent you from becoming a thread topic.
Like most small business, start slow as in knife making being a second job. Slowly turn your income around to where you are making decent money and when you can absorb your total income from knife making, do so.
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Drew Riley said:
A lot of full time makers are retired from other careers, have homes and shops paid off, or spouses that work full time, if that tells you anything. Not saying it’s impossible, but there’s a lot of hustle involved. Many offer other services and products besides just knives. Going into ANY business on your own is tough, and most every business owner I know puts in 80+ hours per week. Benefits and retirement plans are gonna be up to you, as will taxes, payroll, customer service, etc...
Probably wouldn’t be a bad idea to enroll in some business classes, or at the very least, start reading some books. Talk to some full time makers.
Seems like a lot of full time makers are going the cnc/“mid tech” route now days, along with handmade goods. You have to cater somewhat to the market if you don’t want to be left behind, or at least offer something that enough people want.
Looks like you make some great stuff, so you have that going for you. There will always be a market for pattern welded billets and such.
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Some really good advice in the first 2 replies. The biggest thing to remember if you wanna make a career outta knife makin’ after honing your cutler skills satisfactorily enough to produce a consistently good quality blade.

Learn to make 1 blade great before you move on, there’s a lotta makers who have a wide rage of mediocre knives. Those guys won’t stay in business long. On the other hand, the guy who makes 1 or 2 patterns exceptionally will probably make a marginal income outta makin’ knives.

Reputation is paramount when breakin’ into the business and having a good one is the only way to keep people comin’ back for more knives.

Never take money for future orders that you can’t easily make in a timely fashion. Nothin’ drives away business than having paid for something years ago and still not havin’ KIH (Knife In Hand).

Last bit of advice I have and this comes from 45 years as a fabricator, always finish the job.

Even if you’ve messed up, the practice you get finishin’ the knife anyway can only add to your skills, you’ll probably learn a new workaround to fix a problem and best case scenario is you still wind up with a quality knife to sell or give away. It just might not be the pattern you started makin’

The only bad knife is the one you don’t make, because all the rest you’ll learn something from finishing them anyway. Even if the only thing you learn is how “not” to make the same mistakes again which eventually leads to better knives.

Good luck to you and I look forward to seein’ more of your work Samuel, you’ve got some fine lookin’ blades already.
 
You have had some excellent replies.

I am not a knife maker but I have been collecting custom knives for over 35 years. I have seen new makers start and become successful and others fall by the wayside.

One thing I can say about the business of business is treat your customers as you would like to be treated if you were the customer.
Remember that reputation and quality is everything. It takes a lifetime to build up a name but you can destroy it very quickly with poor service and poor quality (even faster today with social media)

There are some wonderful makers here of BF whose business models you could emulate. Ben Tendick, Matt Gregory and Carothers Performance Knives come immediately to mind.
They make knives with absolutely no compromise to quality and performance and they treat their customers with respect and care. Excellent role models for any new maker.

I like your knives and wish you everything of the best for the future.....:thumbsup::)
 
How do people get to selling 2 or 3 thousand dollar knives I wonder? that would seem like the bar to reach to ensure prosperity.

But yea, it seems to me that making money off of crafts is really difficult and more so if the time and effort put in is higher than other crafts. Knife making seems like a lot of work and for little pay.
 
slyraven said:
How do people get to selling 2 or 3 thousand dollar knives I wonder? that would seem like the bar to reach to ensure prosperity.

But yea, it seems to me that making money off of crafts is really difficult and more so if the time and effort put in is higher than other crafts. Knife making seems like a lot of work and for little pay.
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I personally know a maker who sold knives for 5000+ dollars and he retired from it and moved onto other projects partly because he makes more money machining custom grips for pistols and doing engraving. He also worked as a tool and die maker during his knife making career. There is a limited market for high end cutlery in that price range.
 
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Ocelot85 said:
I personally know a maker who sold knives for 5000+ dollars and he retired from it and moved onto other projects partly because he makes more money machining custom grips for pistols and doing engraving. He also worked as a tool and die maker during his knife making career. There is a limited market for high end cutlery in that price range.
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That is an important aspect of "Cottage Crafts" Do you wait on ONE buyer at $5000 or 100 sets of custom grips at $50...you will stay busy keeping up with orders for grips.
 
Busto said:
That is an important aspect of "Cottage Crafts" Do you wait on ONE buyer at $5000 or 100 sets of custom grips at $50...you will stay busy keeping up with orders for grips.
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He's very busy making grips, that's for sure. That's why I suggested perhaps the OP should broaden his skill set, so incase things don't work out he won't be totally unprepared and ruined financially. I wish him luck though, and hope he succeeds.
 
Only bit of advice I can give from experience is get a big stock of materials and set aside as long as possible at least a couple of weeks and work at knives everyday until late at night and if you still want to make knives go for it
 
slyraven said:
How do people get to selling 2 or 3 thousand dollar knives I wonder?
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By building a brand/reputation, and by keeping your supply less than the demand. Easy money....

Start building that Instagram hype and you'll be set for life!
 
slyraven said:
But yea, it seems to me that making money off of crafts is really difficult and more so if the time and effort put in is higher than other crafts. Knife making seems like a lot of work and for little pay
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John mc c said:
Only bit of advice I can give from experience is get a big stock of materials and set aside as long as possible at least a couple of weeks and work at knives everyday until late at night and if you still want to make knives go for it
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People don’t stay in knifemaking for the money, it’s a labor of love, they stay in it because they’re usually karazy, you know, koo, koo 4 coco puffs?

The real crazy ones sometimes find they can eek out a comfortable existence catering to the end users today. Whatever his reasons I wish him luck.
 
All the above replies are great advice. If you want to only make knives, and not pursue another career to supplement income (and let's not forget about the health insurance benefits of a full time job) I'd suggest marrying into money.
 
It has been mentioned about not taking money up front ... That is generally good advice but sometimes you need to. But when you do, stick it in a savings account until the work is done. It keeps you motivated and if something happens and you can't complete the project you can always return it to them - no harm no foul.

I have done full time knife modding for about 4 years now, but it's a frugal life style (if you have a family to support). I do have a goal to be fully converted over to knife making and manufacturing in 2-3 years though.
 
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