Internet Influence on Custom Knives?

[steelshaper]

I whole heartedly agree with all the positives that have already been stated. I would like to try and express some negatives that I perceive to be here now or coming soon due, at least in part, to the internet.

Conformity: Quick access to answers, opinions, and techniques has been exchanged for slow trial and error, and a natural development of tastes. It also is much easier for those who wish to encourage conformity to do so. Actually the worst case scenario would be a respected purveyor manipulating the market.

Cult of personality: It is much easier for those who are internet savvy opinionated and eloquent to sway the masses with rapid and personally directed propaganda. The stars will be bigger and the average will become ever more average. This too will lead to more conformity.

Segregation of knife enthusiasts: I would think you folks have noticed that the lines between types of knife enthusiasts have grown due to the forums. Again this will lead to conformity, this time inside sub cultures.

Finally
Excessive part timers: Those folks who have no intentions of ever going to shows and have no desire to make any profit from their knives can severely undercut struggling low level full time makers.

If you disagree with these ideas I would think you have more faith in humanity than I do. On the other hand those with alternative views, methods, style, and ideas can be heard and have exposure without being a member of any organization or having an affiliation with a magazine.

Thanks

 

[Bushman5]

I rely on the internet because there simply is not any blade shows or makers in the immediate area where i live, and i cannot afford to spend $1000+ plus another $500+ for a plane trip and hotel across country to Toronto to go to a blade show.

I have had excellent experiences buying both productions and customs (handmade) from makers i have never met and only "talked" to via email. dont get me wrong i would love to mee them, but the finances say no to travel.

:thumbup:

EDIT: sorry,i should add that i'm not a knifemaker, just a buyer and user of blades!

 

[jdm61]

I whole heartedly agree with all the positives that have already been stated. I would like to try and express some negatives that I perceive to be here now or coming soon due, at least in part, to the internet.

Conformity: Quick access to answers, opinions, and techniques has been exchanged for slow trial and error, and a natural development of tastes. It also is much easier for those who wish to encourage conformity to do so. Actually the worst case scenario would be a respected purveyor manipulating the market.

Cult of personality: It is much easier for those who are internet savvy opinionated and eloquent to sway the masses with rapid and personally directed propaganda. The stars will be bigger and the average will become ever more average. This too will lead to more conformity.

Segregation of knife enthusiasts: I would think you folks have noticed that the lines between types of knife enthusiasts have grown due to the forums. Again this will lead to conformity, this time inside sub cultures.

Finally
Excessive part timers: Those folks who have no intentions of ever going to shows and have no desire to make any profit from their knives can severely undercut struggling low level full time makers.

If you disagree with these ideas I would think you have more faith in humanity than I do. On the other hand those with alternative views, methods, style, and ideas can be heard and have exposure without being a member of any organization or having an affiliation with a magazine.

Thanks

The "cult of personality" seems to really be an issue in the world of "tacticals"
As for the "part timers" I think that the shear number of makers around today, part timer and serious makera alike, has caused the prices for the aforementioned low level makers and many others to stagnate or at least not keep up with everything else. Looking at the Jerry Fisk JS brochure from 20 years ago, you realize that the price for a carbon bowie from a newly minted JS has not gone up nearly as much as a lot of other things and the price for a basic damascus bowie may actually be the same.
The segregation of knife enthusiast is perhaps a symptom of a larger segregation. Go look at the magazine stand at Borders. There is a mag for everything and sometimes multiple mags for the same obscure area of interest.

 

[Will Leavitt]

I know that I don't charge a lot of money for my blades because I feel I'm paying my dues, I may have paid them in the past but I'm paying them again because I'm shifting directions. I don't mean to undercut full timers but then again I don't generally make knives of the same genre as full timers. Joe and others I hope you don't feel that I'm undercutting you.

 

[Lofgren]

I would say as a knifemaker living in the scandinavia I am bound to use internet and I would be having a lot of problems to achieve buisness without it.
But I also think the most important thing about buisness either You are maker, purveyor or collector are the meetings where You get to "know the man behind the mask" but also be able to feel, see and sence the object You are interested in.

Myself I have been doing shows in both America and Europe for about eight years and everytime I am struck by how important the meeting is, not only to sell but to build relations to others that may in the future come to buisness.

I have heard many makers talk about internet and it´s fantastic results for the personal buisness, some even stating (sometimes) that they are considering not going to shows because as they say "I´m selling my works over the internet anyway"....
Well here is a trap, the question one must ask is for how long will buisness work without the personal meeting? Am I that well known so that I do not need to go for shows?

I would say what stops growing will soon be dead...

What do You others think..

_________________________________________________________________
- I will buy the best because I am not rich enough to afford the luxury of spending less-
www.lofgrenknives.com

 

[RogerP]

I have heard many makers talk about internet and it´s fantastic results for the personal buisness, some even stating (sometimes) that they are considering not going to shows because as they say "I´m selling my works over the internet anyway"....
Well here is a trap, the question one must ask is for how long will buisness work without the personal meeting? Am I that well known so that I do not need to go for shows?

I would say what stops growing will soon be dead...

What do You others think..

I think you are absolutely correct.

Roger

 

[betzner]

I would say as a knifemaker living in the scandinavia I am bound to use internet and I would be having a lot of problems to achieve buisness without it.
But I also think the most important thing about buisness either You are maker, purveyor or collector are the meetings where You get to "know the man behind the mask" but also be able to feel, see and sence the object You are interested in.

Myself I have been doing shows in both America and Europe for about eight years and everytime I am struck by how important the meeting is, not only to sell but to build relations to others that may in the future come to buisness.

I have heard many makers talk about internet and it´s fantastic results for the personal buisness, some even stating (sometimes) that they are considering not going to shows because as they say "I´m selling my works over the internet anyway"....
Well here is a trap, the question one must ask is for how long will buisness work without the personal meeting? Am I that well known so that I do not need to go for shows?

I would say what stops growing will soon be dead...

What do You others think..

_________________________________________________________________
- I will buy the best because I am not rich enough to afford the luxury of spending less-
www.lofgrenknives.com

I also concur. And just like a salad, it's the right mix that's makes the best result.

 

[Lorien]

When i read the term "virtual" here, I mistakenly read it as "visual". Knives are increasingly a "visual" expression. At least, this is the way they derive importance- as an "art form".

? Where is the interest in discussing testing methods employed by makers to improve "custom" knife performance?

This is an afterthought? Or no one finds interest in actual comparative studies. What makes a better knifemaker and why?.. Or, Miss America 2009.

Internet dating.
David

I almost used the term 'internet dating' in my last post. Good one, David. Also a good point re; performance, although conversely, the internet also provides the means by which one can broadcast their performance ideals when it comes to anything, including a knife.

Conformity, Cult of Personality and Segregation are all human things, which I don't think even the internet can cull from our collective psyche, but that was a good post, steelshaper:thumbup:.

Like Lofgren stated, without human physical interaction, human constructs die away. It is my hope that the internet will eventually bolster the communal nature of the custom knife by way of introducing more people on a physical level to custom knives through shows and other markets of that ilk. Especially when those shows are not resolutely about knives themselves but also other forms of Art and Craft. For example, there is a public market on Saltspring Island, (here on the coast of B.C.) where a knife maker, Seth Burton- www.cosmoknives.com- sets up a booth every Saturday. Likewise I was introduced to Scott and Aki at the Filberg Festival, from www.caribooblades.com. An ABS MS, Mick Langley, had a table at a local Christmas Fair...
And on and on.

If the internet has the effect of bringing more knifemakers to the table, then perhaps we will have more access to custom knives in a broader context, such as I described. Mundane? Sure, but I'm ok with that. It is up to the vanguard, the custom makers and designers, to make knives more accessible to the general public. In my view, they are the ones who can steer us away from Knives as Weapons, and reintroduce them to people as the simple, but potentially beautiful, tools that they are. This will be dictated mainly by social circumstance and the (changeable) rules of Law, but also by feedback from the market.

 

[Kevin Jones]

I would say as a knifemaker living in the scandinavia I am bound to use internet and I would be having a lot of problems to achieve buisness without it.
But I also think the most important thing about buisness either You are maker, purveyor or collector are the meetings where You get to "know the man behind the mask" but also be able to feel, see and sence the object You are interested in.

Myself I have been doing shows in both America and Europe for about eight years and everytime I am struck by how important the meeting is, not only to sell but to build relations to others that may in the future come to buisness.

I have heard many makers talk about internet and it´s fantastic results for the personal buisness, some even stating (sometimes) that they are considering not going to shows because as they say "I´m selling my works over the internet anyway"....
Well here is a trap, the question one must ask is for how long will buisness work without the personal meeting? Am I that well known so that I do not need to go for shows?

I would say what stops growing will soon be dead...

What do You others think..

_________________________________________________________________
- I will buy the best because I am not rich enough to afford the luxury of spending less-
www.lofgrenknives.com

I think you are right. :thumbup:

 

[Keith Montgomery]

I rely on the internet because there simply is not any blade shows or makers in the immediate area where i live, and i cannot afford to spend $1000+ plus another $500+ for a plane trip and hotel across country to Toronto to go to a blade show.

There is a pretty good knife show in Kamloops.