Recommendation? Making Knives for clients

[Diego_B]

Hello everyone, I hope that everyone is doing well today and that you guys have had a better Monday than me. Hopefully I can create some discussion here from some of the more experienced knife makers here, especially those that may be doing this full time or as a big side hustle because my question goes out to you guys that are making custom knives for clients. I am still far off from producing some of the work that I have seen here but I am still confident and proud of some of the work that I have done and I am starting to gain attention in my area that I am producing knives. What started out as a request from a friend from him just simply sending me a picture of something asking "can you make this?", has now led to the creation of several more knives just like it and several more knives that I have sold to people. It's amazing how fast something can blow up and spread on social media.
But my question here is how do you guys create custom knives for clients? What I mean by this is how does the custom knife business really work? Does the client come fourth with a image of a knife and asks "can you make this?" or do you usually have templates of knives that you have already produced and let the client pick whatever template he desires? It seems to me that having templates of knives that you have produced already is a smart choice because if you made it once you can make it again, but I feel that this limits what you can do to what you have already done and and for a client picking a knife out of your existing designs doesn't necessarily make it a custom knife does it? I know this question may sound like I'm already trying to get into this fulltime but that's not the case, I'm just curious on what defines a custom knife and I just want the few knives that I make for friends and other people to be what they think they are. I am mainly forging knives BTW but I do take on stock removal projects as well. I just enjoy swinging the hammer more than grinding all day.

 

[HSC ///]

The simple answer is .....all of the ways you mentioned.

Harbeer

 

[Joshua Fisher]

Hello everyone, I hope that everyone is doing well today and that you guys have had a better Monday than me. Hopefully I can create some discussion here from some of the more experienced knife makers here, especially those that may be doing this full time or as a big side hustle because my question goes out to you guys that are making custom knives for clients. I am still far off from producing some of the work that I have seen here but I am still confident and proud of some of the work that I have done and I am starting to gain attention in my area that I am producing knives. What started out as a request from a friend from him just simply sending me a picture of something asking "can you make this?", has now led to the creation of several more knives just like it and several more knives that I have sold to people. It's amazing how fast something can blow up and spread on social media.
But my question here is how do you guys create custom knives for clients? What I mean by this is how does the custom knife business really work? Does the client come fourth with a image of a knife and asks "can you make this?" or do you usually have templates of knives that you have already produced and let the client pick whatever template he desires? It seems to me that having templates of knives that you have produced already is a smart choice because if you made it once you can make it again, but I feel that this limits what you can do to what you have already done and and for a client picking a knife out of your existing designs doesn't necessarily make it a custom knife does it? I know this question may sound like I'm already trying to get into this fulltime but that's not the case, I'm just curious on what defines a custom knife and I just want the few knives that I make for friends and other people to be what they think they are. I am mainly forging knives BTW but I do take on stock removal projects as well. I just enjoy swinging the hammer more than grinding all day.

I do both I have stock templates that I design and create, I usually have several ready to put handles that people can choose from and pick custom handle materials. Or I work with a client to design a custom blade either based of a photo or general description. Drawing skills are in my opinion very important you should be able to draft functional and smooth designs either physically or digitally to be able to show a client a potential idea. When I do a forged blade usually it’s either a one off piece or I forge for effect and will over size in all dimensions so I can put a template on the forged piece and grind it down to the exact profile while keeping the forged texture on the flats.

 

[Diego_B]

I do both I have stock templates that I design and create, I usually have several ready to put handles that people can choose from and pick custom handle materials. Or I work with a client to design a custom blade either based of a photo or general description. Drawing skills are in my opinion very important you should be able to draft functional and smooth designs either physically or digitally to be able to show a client a potential idea. When I do a forged blade usually it’s either a one off piece or I forge for effect and will over size in all dimensions so I can put a template on the forged piece and grind it down to the exact profile while keeping the forged texture on the flats.

Yeah this is probably what my process is going to be which most of it is already. When I forge my knives I usually have a template already that I roughly forge to shape and trace my template out on my forged blank, usually leaving the forge finish on the flats to show that it was forged. But I think that if a customer really wants a knife to his specs working with him and drawing it is probably the best option for me.

 

[Diego_B]

Also I don't mean to go off topic on this thread but I would also like to ask how do most of you guys test your knives before delivery to a customer? I know that testing will vary from knife to knife because a kitchen knife isn't going to hold up like a camp chopper. But I do have a set of HRC files that I use and lately I have been using the brass rod test a lot but, besides doing a brass rod test how are you guys testing your knives? And what is a satisfactory test?

 

[Joshua Fisher]

Also I don't mean to go off topic on this thread but I would also like to ask how do most of you guys test your knives before delivery to a customer? I know that testing will vary from knife to knife because a kitchen knife isn't going to hold up like a camp chopper. But I do have a set of HRC files that I use and lately I have been using the brass rod test a lot but, besides doing a brass rod test how are you guys testing your knives? And what is a satisfactory test?

I test using hardness chisels that have a tighter range than the files, I have chisels in 58, 60, 62, and 64 to see where a batch is after heat treating and I have some chainsaw files that I’ve tested at 62 that I use for quick checks after quench. That gives me a tough starting point to shoot for from there I dial in the geometry, for Edc knives I expect no damage chopping through 1/8” brass rod and for camp knives 1/4” brass rod, either knife I expect to pass hard chopping on antler. I hollow grind all of my blades so I have measurements that I know are as thin as I can go and pass those tests, above all a knife is made to cut so for an Edc knife or kitchen knives I go as thin as I can and take reasonable abuse. On camp knives or larger knives I design them to be tougher but still great cutters. I also do destruction testing seeing how much abuse tips can take for Edc and camp knives, bend tests to see how much I can flex certain knives depending on how thick the steel is. I do edge retention tests using cardboard to see how a geometry performs for cutting tasks and I do take kitchen knives and hack through 2x4s

 

[Diego_B]

I test using hardness chisels that have a tighter range than the files, I have chisels in 58, 60, 62, and 64 to see where a batch is after heat treating and I have some chainsaw files that I’ve tested at 62 that I use for quick checks after quench. That gives me a tough starting point to shoot for from there I dial in the geometry, for Edc knives I expect no damage chopping through 1/8” brass rod and for camp knives 1/4” brass rod, either knife I expect to pass hard chopping on antler. I hollow grind all of my blades so I have measurements that I know are as thin as I can go and pass those tests, above all a knife is made to cut so for an Edc knife or kitchen knives I go as thin as I can and take reasonable abuse. On camp knives or larger knives I design them to be tougher but still great cutters. I also do destruction testing seeing how much abuse tips can take for Edc and camp knives, bend tests to see how much I can flex certain knives depending on how thick the steel is. I do edge retention tests using cardboard to see how a geometry performs for cutting tasks and I do take kitchen knives and hack through 2x4s

Thank you Joshua for the input, I will be taking not of everything that you have told me. You have been a major help and have given me a better understanding.