Knives for fun AND profit!

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nitsuj

Joined
Feb 9, 2008
Messages
29
I've only been active here for a short time. I lurked here for quite a while though. I've noticed that a good many of you have your own sites where you sell you're knives. Now, I have no interest in making knives for money. For one thing, I have a hard time imagining I'd make something someone would want to buy. For another, even if I did, I can't imagine I'd could make them fast enough or sell them for enough to replace my day job. But I still have a question:

How many of you are making a living at this? I would assume getting a name established and getting sales numbers up high enough to make a living is a pretty big long shot. I'm seeing some amazing work from ome of you guys. Like really amazing. Are a lot of guys doing only this? Or are more people selling enough to pay for the hobby, while still working a non-knife job?
 
The best way to make a milion dollars making knives is to start with 2 million dollars. There are a few full time makers on here, most are part time makers. It's very hard to make a living making knives but it's the same as trying to make a living as any other sort of artist. Your name as a maker will take years to establish and 1 bad knife to ruin. I figure I make about $8 an hour in most of my knives and most makers would tell you that's very good.

Making the knives you want without worrying about paying bills is great. When people start calling wanting to know about the knives they've ordered for gifts and working to make deadlines and getting a knife almost finished only to find there's a huge flaw in the piece of wood and you don't know if you've got the money to buy another piece like it, well that's the life of a new full time maker.

Best advice I've ever gotten is from my teacher, who's a full time knifemaker, Don't chase the money. He works about 16 hours a day 6 days a week to feed himself and his family.

Be happy for the first few years if you can make enough money to replace materials and save enough to buy better tools. Just make the knife, have fun and see where you go.
 
Oh, I'm not looking for advice! Believe me, I have no illousions about ever making a dime from making knives. Making gifts for friends and family is about all I can aspire to. I just noticed a large number of forum members with sites that offer knives for sale. I was just curious what kind of success they were having.
 
I still can't remember which old maker said it, but the quote goes," If I won the lottery and had a million dollars, I'd still keep making knives.....untill it was all gone."
Stacy
 
Before someone gets the wrong opinion, I would love to be able to be a full time maker. I'm actively working towards that specific goal. My fiance fully stands behind me in this and has a couple of landmarks I have to hit before I can go full time.

I truly enjoy 99% of the knife people I've dealt with, I have some of the best customers in the world and truly cherish them as friends. Several times a year during hunting season some of my local guys will stop by and kidnap me to go "field test" knives. They know I don't have the time to be in a club so they take me to theirs for a weekend of hunting. I love to talk to people in person, on the phone or via email and work together on what they want and when they get it to hear "that's just what I wanted, or it's better than I thought."

I guess I'm half asleep and trying to explain... I love making knives and would make them if noone bought them but my customers make it the enjoyable craft that it is.
 
I've been thinking a lot about this too. I won't ever be fulltime, I don't want to be. But I would like to be able to pay for my materials and a few tools. I know I've got a LONG way to go before I get to that point.
 
think of it like this

rocks bands are out there but there are way more garage bands playing their guts out trying to make it or for the love of the music
and those big bands ask them how long they had to pay there dues before they "made it"
 
naked said:
I've been thinking a lot about this too. I won't ever be fulltime, I don't want to be. But I would like to be able to pay for my materials and a few tools. I know I've got a LONG way to go before I get to that point.
Click to expand...

This is close to what I am. Some people call me a part time maker, some call me a hobbiest. The label doesn't really matter to me. I've been doing this off and on for about 19 years now, but much more lately. I doubt I'll ever be full-time. I'll be much more active when I retire, but I doubt I'll go full-time, because I enjoy other things as well.

My goal is to slowly, but steadily increase my skills over the next 10 to 15 years. When I retire I hope to have built up a good name and reputation, both among knifemakers and knife buyers.

I'm in the learning mode, but am to the point where I can finally feel good about taking my knives to a show or two. I don't have a webpage yet, but am in the process of doing that at this time.

It isn't about the finally destination, but it is about the journey. What a wonderful journey it has been and will continue to be.

I began much like nitsuj. I started making free knives for friends and family. I then sold one or two a year just by word of mouth. It's a progression. I had no plans to sell knives when I began, just a desire to make a tool. As each of us grows and advances, our goals and desires will change to fit what we need from this venture. Some will become full time makers, some will stay hobbiest forever, some will continue making knives and never sell one even though they could if they tried to. Some will lose interest and never make another one. As I said earlier, where we end up isn't what's important, it's about the journey.
 
Ive been at for almost 20 years now. Its just now starting to pay off, and by "pay off" I mean bring an income that doesnt put me in the red. If I didnt have a beautiful, loving, understanding wife with benefits and good pay I think I would be grinding hunting knives in an alley and living in a fridgidaire box.

I am blessed and have a great house and shop. I do however need a manager so I can just make knives and let someone else run the business side. Making knives is soooo time consuming it leaves little time for anything else.
 
This is a skilled craft and many business men make money off the backs of their laborers. This cannot be done when the only one truly capable of making the knives is the owner alone. I asked Nick Wheeler about the time it takes for him to build a knife and he said that it is not uncommon to spend 50 or more hours making one! if you spend that much time building a knife you will have to sell it for well over a grand to make any money. Plus, how many can you make weekly? Not many. I think the only guys truly making a real living doing this are the onles who have huge reputations and get top dollar for their work. Just like everything else in life, if it was easy, everyone would do it. I kind of think that many of the makers we see have decent day jobs in order to afford knife making by itself!

In the end, I suppose that as long as you are enjoying yourself that is all that counts and if you make knives nice enough for people to buy than perhaps you can use that income to keep the hobby going.
 
I make about 15 knives a year and sell most of them.It keeps me in belts and steel plus has bought a few nice tyhings for the shop. What a hobbie, you can't say that about golf.
 
I finally sold two knives, now I can buy some more steel, belts and other supplies. I had been giving them away as gifts and found out people would actually pay for them.
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It's a great hobby when you can get some of your money back to buy more supplies...... but you can't get your time back. Holy smoke, it takes a lot of hours to make a knife!
 
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