Making Knives for a profit

T

tom mayo

Joined
Jan 27, 1999
Messages
6,277
well you have been thinking about this for a while...and hopefully you have a job already so you can go out and buy some equipment. first you are going to want a good belt sander (i recommend a variable speed burr king..its what youre going to end up with anyhow)..then look around for a good drill press...a big old delta that weighs about 600 lbs would fit the bill well...as well as an old 3 horse buffer....so youre making knives...maybe even selling some by now..but looking around you know they have to be better...and what you really need is a mill, and a bandsaw.....and then a metal cutting bandsaw...and then a lathe..and a sand blaster and.....well..by now you have so much money invested you cant turn back... and hopefully youre selling some of those knives to your friends so that you can pay for all those belts and exotic steel that youre buying...so you go along for a little while and have a good show and decide, man, its time to go full time...so you go for it and go broke and have to sell all your equipment and move in with your in laws. by the way...i forgot a very important part.. to be a true knifemaker you have to have serious brain damage from the start....good luck....

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http://www.mayoknives.com


 
Tom, I didn't know we had to make a profit. I thought living with the relatives and buying equipment was the idea. Hmmm, I better research this a little further.

You're right though. Seen it happen way too often.


 
Sell the knives???? Now there is an interesting concept!! I like to make them, someone that likes or needs a knife might buy one........
I think we may be on to something with this!!
Thanks for the idea Tom!
Neil
PS I've been there, except for the moving in with the inlaws thing. The O2 bottle might ingnite from the grinding sparks and take us all out!!!!!

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Update in process! New knives, pictures, Sheaths!!
http://www.geocities.com/Eureka/Meeting/5520/index.html


 
in actuality...butch beaver told me to go out and get a lobotomy cause i was a little too sharp to be a knifemaker....maybe just stick the point of my head on a 36 grit belt.
 
One time when I had this really good gold mining job that I quit to make knives full time, this guy asked me what I would do if I won the lottery. I told him I would make knives till it was all gone!

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www.simonichknives.com
 
did i hear, GOLD? hehe, i'm not selling them for a profit til' i have the machinery and time to make over 100 knives per year. ans still have a job, forget about free time.
 
George-
Bet you'd like to have a nickle for ever time you hear "Welllll...I've got a knife....."
& pick one-
"my grand-daddy give me..."
"I bought at Wal-Mart..."
"That has skinned and gutted more animals than any knife ever made..."

"AND will do anything your high-priced knife will do!!!"

Harry
 
Well, I guess now is not the time to be serious...but hey; why not? I'm not ready to go full-time; but I plan on doing it someday. Right now I am trying to find someplace to sell my knives, other than my friends and family.

I need people to use and abuse my knives and tell me what I've done right and more important, what I've done wrong. I'm not interested in making a profit, I just need to offset the cost of 1095, maple burl, brass, belts and propane. I figure $25-30 is fine, maybe $35-40 with sheath.

Any ideas?

As it stands now I'm going to rent a booth every other month at the flea market and maybe get a table at the gun and knife show when it comes through. Other than that I'm open to advice. Any ideas?

Hey, I'd just be happy to hear that someone else is trying to figure this out too. I love making knives. I don't make the best, but I've come a long way and I want to make better. I can't do that unless I can offset the cost. I figure I've got a learning curve of maybe 60-70 average blades before I can produce a fine blade. I have to find something to do with those average blades and I need the feedback from their use to improve.

What to do, what to do. That's what keeps me up at night......other than the brain damage.

MMM
 
Yakiba, back in '79 I worked pretty cheap also. A 4" hunter with a brass guard and stag, went for $65.00. It was amazing just how many friends I had then.

One thing you might want to consider is, donating one or more of your knives to some kind of charity. The last one I gave to the County Fire Dept., and it was raffled off at $5.00 a pop. The Fire Dept. ended up with $1,700.00 and I got a lot of free ink.

Word of mouth is the best and least expensive way to let people know about your knives.

Good Luck!

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A.T.
http://www.customknives.com
AKTI #476



[This message has been edited by A T Barr (edited 06 December 1999).]
 
you are on the right road...just need to keep walking down it...one step at a time.. and about the learning curve...bob loveless said you have to make about 200 knives before you even know what you are doing.. thing i agree...more like 1000 in my case.. but the main thing is....never never give up. there were lots of times when i thought about it...even hardly made any for a few years there...but little by little we get where we are going....if we want to... that is the key factor in live....a desire and persistance..they say the people that succeed in life are not often the best and the brightest...but the ones who try the hardest. end of soapbox mode.

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http://www.mayoknives.com


 
Yakiba,
Hey Email me and let me know what you have for sale. I am always interested in helping a newcomer out (Besides I always need just one more). Please send Pics. or very detailed descriptions.

pamhankins@uswest.net
 
Yakiba.... it sounds like I am just barely ahead of you. The flea markets give good exposure, but, not many there to buy custom knives. At the flea market people are looking for stuff dirt cheap. ( at least thats what I found).
If you know any hunters, lend them or give them a knife to try out. They will let you know how it holds up. On the down side I lent 2 knifes to a guy I had met that was going elk hunting to evaluate for me, they must have been good because I never heard from him again

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There is no such thing as "good enough", either your work is good or it is not. How is your work?
 
sorry to hear that, but you just can't trust some people. i don't lend out to people unless i'm guaranteed that i will get it back, buy that i mean the person lives near buy and i trust them (i.e. my next store neighbor, who i'm gonna lent i few knives to try out during hunting season.
 
Thanks for all the encouragement and ideas. I definitely need to checking into donating a blade or two. No that I think about it, lots of groups need donations for christmas raffles.

Thanks again.

MMM
 
About 11 years ago, I used to set up at flea markets to try and sell knives. In my opinion, that is the last place to go for knife sales. Gun Shows are better than flea markets, and Knife shows better than gun shows. you mention 35 to 45 dollar knives. That reminds me of an old song that my mother liked, "Work your fingers to the bone, what do you get? Boney fingers"

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Lynn Griffith-Knifemaker

My website
GriffithKN@aol.com


 
I do not want to add up what making knives actually COST me. I enjoy it and usually find it somewhat relaxing (?). However, if I went in on the weekends and worked at my actual real job I would be way ahead of where I am making knives.

Put it this way, If for some reason I lost my real job and had to get out of my paying proffession - I would have to take up ditch digging (as well as welfare fraud - if I wanted to eat 3 times a day)and still only make knives in my spare time.
 
it seems the market is there for custom knives, so if you work a full time job and make knives part time you should be doing fine. as long as your knives are good.
 
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