Jim March
Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
- Joined
- Oct 7, 1998
- Messages
- 3,018
To those making a living in the blade biz:
Let's say a custom maker has a particular design that he sells in nice, handmade form for, say, $500 round numbers. He also licences the design to a name-brand production maker to be made in a decent steel, usable form but "not quite as nice" for, say, $150. Somebody along the lines of REKAT, Benchmade, Spyderco, etc.
How much should the custom maker get for each production specimen sold? 5%? Is there any sort of average? These deals are *extremely* common in the industry, I see them as a really neat deal for all involved if done right.
However, Larry Harley came out of his deal with Paragon very bitter, apparantly over very low production runs as they concentrated on other stuff. Is the practice of specifying a minimum production run fairly common, or is it "total risk"?
Finally, one solution to the "low production" and hence low royalties thing is, if a production maker didn't produce enough (pre-specified minimum in a certain time) the original contract could have specified that the maker could try to cut a deal with another factory with no penalty?
Jim March
Let's say a custom maker has a particular design that he sells in nice, handmade form for, say, $500 round numbers. He also licences the design to a name-brand production maker to be made in a decent steel, usable form but "not quite as nice" for, say, $150. Somebody along the lines of REKAT, Benchmade, Spyderco, etc.
How much should the custom maker get for each production specimen sold? 5%? Is there any sort of average? These deals are *extremely* common in the industry, I see them as a really neat deal for all involved if done right.
However, Larry Harley came out of his deal with Paragon very bitter, apparantly over very low production runs as they concentrated on other stuff. Is the practice of specifying a minimum production run fairly common, or is it "total risk"?
Finally, one solution to the "low production" and hence low royalties thing is, if a production maker didn't produce enough (pre-specified minimum in a certain time) the original contract could have specified that the maker could try to cut a deal with another factory with no penalty?
Jim March
