Market research: a beginning knifemaking book?

I think it boils down to interest & necessity. As a kid I was interested in working on my dirt bike, bicycle, etc. It was also a necessity to work with tools because if the bike had a flat or needed a link removed from the chain or whatever, I fixed it or got left behind.
My son is the very opposite. He is not interested in what makes (or fails to make) things tick.
I've learned some things from some of our under 30 techs at work about basic tools I didn't know. Granted, it's usually the other direction. My point is if a younger person is interested or has necessity, they'll learn how to use a hammer. A book about how to do both, boring.
 
I think it needs to be more basic. A few lines on how to use a file properly before you start filing bevels would go a long way. I think that is where the QR code idea could also help the book from becoming too cluttered. The market is pretty saturated with beginner books that don’t offer anything different. A lot of the questions I see on here and get from new makers or would be makers at local shows is all extremely basic and generally below the level most beginner books start at.
 
I think a brief description of how to use tools is good idea. How to hammer so you don’t wear out your shoulder or exhaust yourself. The truth about dragging files “backwards”. How to file inside curves with a square file. How to position and clamp work for safety and efficiency.

However, I hate the idea of QR codes. That will date. The book must be able to stand alone, linked stuff is the icing, sprinkles or cherry, not one of the key main ingredients. I have books on how to make stuff from the 90s and early 2000s, but the web links from the early 2000s are pretty much all dead. If I bought a book that didn’t contain the information, just linked it…and the links broke, I would feel very cheated.

I am not a tech head, so don’t know if there is a way of making QR code access exclusive for those that bought the book, and would stop the links from just being shared.
 
I hate to be a Debbie downer but here's my opinion. I don't know why but I've never taken to repairing my own small engines even though I have 8! I'd just would take to a local person for repairs. I'm retired now and just this winter decided to repair a 2 cycle and a 4 cycle engine that wasn't running right. I didn't go search for a outdated general book on small engine repair. I'll bet I did what 90% folks do now days. I searched You tube. Man blown away with the amount of videos on small engine repair for my EXACT models I had. It was pretty easy to zero in on folks that knew their fit and had excellent well edited and instructional videos. And it didn't cost me a dime and I fixed both my small engines other than parts. I did Like and Subscribed to their channels as I appreciated their efforts even though it cost me nothing. The amount of subscribers is also a huge hint. So I searched how much a person can make on You tube videos. I WAS blown away. One honest lady that didn't post anything educational showed in detail how she makes $84G a year! So based on her subscriber numbers and my favorite small engine folks I'm betting they are making more posting videos than they did repairing small engines. In fact the one lady retired her small engine repair business but is now just posting You tube videos repairing small engines at her home usually pool side! LOL

Now for knife making there's already stiff completion in the knife making videos. I'm sure at least two are making more posting videos than they do making knives. But they are well edited, videoed and very instructional with no blaring rock noise in the background or other distracting noises.

IF I was to start a You Tube video of how to make knives I'd use a name that comes up fast with a search of "making my first knife with NAME". Anyhow wish you luck but I'm just telling you my thoughts on the expense of marketing a book versus You Tube. I'd be willing to bet the vast majority of young people now do a internet search before they ever go looking for a book.
 
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I get what LCoop is saying.
Where I disagree is, on a you-tube video you can learn a specific piece of information, but not a general category. YouTube videos have helped me with my computer more than once. In India there is a whole industry
You can't flip to page 132 and check what the oven setting for HTing of 1084 is. No charts or graphs that can easily be read and referenced. You also get a narrow-focus view of the subject of that individual video, and not a wider view of the topic.
YouTube videos are great for fixing your washing machine or lawn mower, but not a complete field of knowledge learning tool. IMHO.

Another issue would be - When you start you don't know what you don't know. It would be hard to find a video of what you don't know.

Fun Facts:
There are over 200,000,000 people who make YouTube videos to earn money.
2,000,000 people earn more than $100,000 a year doing only YouTube instructional videos
Some earn over $1,000,000 a year.
India has the most YouTube only employed people. Some of these folks create videos 16 hours a day ... mainly short instructional videos on troubleshooting.

Small time creators make an extra $1,000 to $20,000 a year.
Mid-size creators make $20,000 to $100,000 a year.
Large level creators make $100,000 to $1,000,000 a year.
The top-level creators make $1,000,000 to $10,000,000 a year.
The highest earner makes $29,500,000 a year.

Similarly, there are TV shows that make millions doing pretty much nothing. Treasure of Oak Island is one of the most successful. There is probably no treasure there anymore, but if the found chests of treasure it would be small compared to the millions the cast and crew have made going. "Ohhh, that's a Bobby Dazzler", etc. The treasure is the TV show.
 
Youtube is a wonderful tool that shows nearly everything you can imagine, once you find it. I use it a lot. Youtube can be a rabbit hole of wasted time. I had time at the airport the other day and searched "knife sharpening" just for grins. One video was about 30 minutes long and had almost no info about sharpening steel, just a bunch of rambling. People looking to gain info will certainly go to utube but a book is usually a much better source on the subject. I read knife books and watched videos and still do. No one wants to waste time watching a video with a belt grinder and drill press in the background only to hear, "Oh and there's my neighbors cat, she likes to be in my videos too (insert fake laugh). She must have just come from over there and blah blah blah". I think Jason's book could be a great source for beginners and hope he publishes. I'm sure I'll buy one.
 
You can intersperse tool tips along the way pointing out better ways of using a tool (or common mistakes to avoid) for a specific task. Short and sweet gets the point across. Similar, but separate. call outs for safety tips is also not a bad idea. Again, short and sweet. They'll either learn or ignore.
 
I think the content needs to fit the format, and not forcing content into a format. Video doesn't fit a book. Books, articles, YouTube, etc. all have different strengths and weaknesses. YouTube does best with regularly delivered content where each video is relatively standalone. If someone dropped a 3 hour "how to" knifemaking video without any prior content it would likely find a very tiny audience, even if well produced. YouTube creators have to build an audience by releasing many videos and YouTube in turn will promote videos more as more people watch them. Someone who makes videos about BBQ doesn't make every video about how to do individual steps. They make a video about trying out different grills, or trying a "crazy" technique. Often these can devolve into clickbait. They build popularity and then will release a cookbook or do a video here or there with how-to elements.

A book with QR codes or links to videos would be very cumbersome and wouldn't fit the format well. The instructional DVD is all but dead. YouTube isn't great for having a series of how-to videos. You can do a playlist, but it isn't set up for grouping videos for a series. Often when people do YouTube videos that are a series, the first video gets a lot of views and that drops off with the future parts. Also, a video on mundane topics like "how to bandsaw cut a profile" is unlikely to get many views and that halts the momentum. You can try to publish supporting text for the videos but it is really hard to get anyone to click on an article in the description of a YouTube video. People are on YouTube to be on YouTube. And YouTube being free means that there is less commitment from the viewer.

If the goal was text with supporting instructional video it would probably be a better fit to do an "online course." Those can be built for sequential information, text plus video, and with some work various interactive elements can be incorporated. Some even create little communities or live Q&A's, etc. to go with them. And they can be priced more in line with the work involved with creating such a product. As opposed to all of the work of creating video for a book, that few people actually try to watch, and only pay $19.99 for that book that took all of the time of making an online course anyway.
 
Jason Fry said:
I definitely have a great face for radio lol.

I asked Melissa one time what it took to be a youtube success and basically she said you had to be good looking and have been naked on TV lol.
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Check....and, Check......Haha.
 
Seriously....... I'd like to see more belt information. Not grit progression!
What do All those numbers mean? How can I remember that? I need a vendor chart. What's stiff, what's flat? What can be wet?
Hard pressure, soft pressure?

Historical knife design would be awesome. WHY they were done that way, maybe Who came up with it.......and not saying Loveless did....because he didn't.

Handle shaping ideas. I stand at the grinder trying to figure this stuff out.
*I need to start watching these Melissa videos I keep hearing about....is she good at grinding???
 
I'm going to try and bring the group down to earth again.

1) You folks are talking from the point of view of people who are already knifemakers (of varying skill levels).
The book has to be aimed at someone who has little or no experience. It should have information and techniques for those who know the basics as well but can't be all-inclusive.

2) We are talking about a knifemaking book here ... not a degree in knifemaking taught over a year of classes. Even at a knifemaking school you probably will not be taught every tool, belt type, method, and jig. That would likely overwhelm a new maker. That is what Shop Talk is for, anyway. ;)

3) A book should be easy to read and present the information is a way that makes sense to the reader. In a How-To book, it should teach the reader how to do the basic tasks and whet their appetite for more learning. The appendix and back pages can mention other books and videos on specialized tops for their future research. And off course it leaves room for writing future books.

In short, the book should teach you how to make your first knives and prepare you to learn more as you practice the skills in the book.
 
I'll stand by post. MOST folks now days old and young will first You tube for info. Myself included. I'm old and retired. I can't remember when I last bought a book. I do agree most knife makers go from posting about using this jig, this belt sander etc. Poor video production and editing. They do that to keep there page active. But I do think there is a market on You Tube from making a knife for beginners from start to finish. I got to be honest I DON"T follow any knife makers.
As for Stacy's comment turn page 131 for heat treat you can leave a comment that provides a link to heat treating. To be honest I'm surprised anyone buys a book now days. And I have a complete library of books FYI from days past.
 
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Jason,

I'll offer my .02

Every time I'm in a bookstore I head to the hobby section or sporting section to see if there are any new knife content books I don't already have. Sadly there isn't too much of that kind of content, at least in local stores. These days I spend a lot of time on You Tube like everyone else. I have seen tons of videos on all aspects of knifemaking. Everybody has videos about getting into making knives. I think most of it has been covered many times. There is almost information overload by now. Tips, techniques, materials, hammers, anvils, files, grinders, forges, heat treating and on and on and on. It's all out there.

What I think you bring to the table is something very specific and unique. It's your style and vision. Your own approach to creativity. The use of materials and symbology in the context of making knives. Perhaps narrowing your focus to the aspects of designing and building knives that set your work apart from others' would be more compelling? Sure, you could cover basic techniques and tool usage to get folks up to speed in the early chapters but I think an in-depth exploration of your creative thought process and how new (and experienced) makers can tap into their personal histories and interests to best express themselves through their work might be an interesting read.
 
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i4Marc said:
Jason,

I'll offer my .02

Every time I'm in a bookstore I head to the hobby section or sporting section to see if there are any new knife content books I don't already have. Sadly there isn't too much of that kind of content, at least in local stores. these days I spend a lot of time on You Tube like everyone else. I have seen tons of videos on all aspects of knifemaking. Everybody has videos about getting into making knives. I think most of it has been covered many times. There is almost information overload by now. Tips, techniques, materials, hammers, anvils, files, grinders, forges, heat treating and on and on and on. It's all out there.

What I think you bring to the table is something very specific and unique. It's your style and vision. Your own approach to creativity. The use of materials and symbology in the context of making knives. Perhaps narrowing your focus to the aspects of designing and building knives that set your work apart from others' would be more compelling? Sure, you could cover basic techniques and tool usage to get folks up to speed in the early chapters but I think an in-depth exploration of your creative thought process and how new (and experienced) makers can tap into their personal histories and interests to best express themselves through their work might be an interesting read.
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that is a great point.
 
I would buy your book in a heartbeat. As someone who started in the early 90s, books were the only thing to help provide a guiding light. The Barney Loveless is one of my favorite because it gave two different approaches to making a knife, one with sophisticated tools and one with hand tools.

The Tim McCreight knifemaking book by a jeweler helped me get going too. Though looking back realize how ugly some of those knives were! The Boye book didn't do much for me except for a few snippets of information.... Slipjoint making books are even harder to come buy and find the 'right one' Slipjoints my way, I haven't been able to leverage. The Shadley multi blade book is also difficult for me to get benefit.

I'm looking forward to see how you organize and present the information. One thing I've realized over the years of looking at any knifemaking book I could find and bookmarking forum pages, and printing to pdf. web pages, tutorials, etc. Is that a large part of learning knifemaking is collating information and organizing it in a way to meets your own building approach.

Knifemaking as a system includes so many different subsystems from equipment, techniques, heat treating, design, process flow, fit/finish, sharpening, maybe sheaths etc..... So I am really curious to see your take on organizing and presenting in a way that isn't a hodge podge but guides a reader through making their first complete knife.

A printed book with an accompanying pdf with linked annotations to references, or your own videos, etc, broader information would be my desired form factor.
 
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