Marketing to knife makers, what do you look for?

E.Carlson said:
I don't want to derail Ben's thread, but I will respond briefly. I respect your opinion and input, but not everyone does this for a living. I have only been making knives for about a year and a half and still am amazed how much I learn with each new knife. I make knives because I enjoy it. Almost everything I have made I have given away to a friend in excange for their input after hard use. I'm now getting requests from friends of friends and other people I haven't met, so at this point in my hobby I feel like 100 bucks is resonable. As my skills and confidence in my product increase my prices will also.
I do not sell on this forum or anywhere online, and I don't believe I'm taking money from you or anyone else's pocket.

Erik
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Respectfully, you are missing what I'm saying....

I think you are under valuing yourself and your time. That's all. If giving away, fine. If to a family member, fine. But if you're selling to some stranger who requested your work, you must have a viable skill and viable style. So value yourself as such. It will help you, and help others in your same bracket.

Cheers. If you read something from me, it is usually with positive intentions. I come from the 'say something nice... 'school of life.

-Eric
Overmountain Knife and Tool
Overmountain.us.com
 
Hey Guys, so I took your advice.

Along with lowering all the prices on my site, I busted out my old light box and got it set up. I also photographed some smaller hunter blocks in the size range of 1.5-1-5. I also will be expanding the bargain section, I already added wenge blocks for only 5 dollars, so I hope that is something well within the reach on any knife maker who is just starting out.

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I have also added a checkbox next to each block of wood that lets you select if you want it cut into scales or not.

I hope these changes can make my site something more people would like to use.
 
I make mostly folders these days and I currently have several drawers full of beautiful, highly figured blocks but, if I see something interesting I will still buy it. For me, a $50-60 block on a $350 fixed blade is just about right. It needs to be a pretty nice block for that money because it is the focal point of the knife.

I sometimes put wood on folders. I like ironwood and Blackwood and I have some really tight figured, stabilized Snakewood I'm itching to try on something. A slicing/resawing service would be ideal for me as I can get a lot more value out of a nice block than most. That service would of course require some know-how to ensure the leaves come out uniformly. I would also need to see all four sides of the block to determine which way I want it cut.

Also, if the photos above are with your light box, you need some serious photography help. People are looking for beautiful detail in their blocks and you are not showing it well. Your pics are soft (out of focus), poorly exposed and badly lit. You cannot take professional quality photos with a cellphone but, you don't need to spend thousands either. You do need manual control and some knowledge. I believe Coop may have written a thread about photographing knives, it would apply to your product as well.

I wish you luck,

Bob
 
I'd suggest adding some kind of banner on your homepage that suggests custom cutting is available, even as part of your welcome banner.

Apart from that, keep it simple. Everybody wants to feel like they're getting a deal or a bargain, no matter what it is. Whether that's just for the product itself, or the service behind said product.
 
I can't add much other than what everyone else said, but as for getting your name out there there are quite a few ways to do it. I have the largest base on Instagram so I'll try to give you a few tips that I know and have seen from other people:

1. Make a real Instagram profile with something like "greenbergwoods" as your username and pretty much only post stuff that's interesting and relevant to your business and craft. Showing your process and some examples (good pictures) of what can be made with the woods are all interesting content. People don't really care that much about what you ate for dinner (just making some examples, it's not a bad idea to give some insight into your personal life) and that stuff.

2. Do a giveaway for some scales or something. Make people re-post your original picture and follow you. That'll at least get your name out a bit. It sucks to not earn money, but sometimes it has to be done.

3. Contact some makers and tell them that you will send them a block/scales of your product if they will make a knife out of it and say that it's your wood. That's what one wood dealer did and he already has around 9k followers.

Let me know if you have any questions! :)

Benny
 
Good Product.
Good Pictures.
Good Prices.
Good website.

Being a close knit community if you sell mainly to knifemakers people will find out. I can't even count how many times folks have asked me where I buy my wood from and I do not consider myself a "big name" maker. Personally, I do not mind paying a little extra for PREMIUM blocks and agree heavily with what Bob said earlier about usage of materials at a particular price point. You are very active in promoting your product/business and that is a good thing. But, if you are getting very low returns in regards to purchases per site viewer then there may be reasons beyond a lack of exposure that are resulting in sluggish sales. Good thing about wood is it is just about as good tomorrow as it is today. Its all a learning process and good on you for being open to opinion. Anyways, that is my $0.02
Blessings,
Joshua
 
Ben, I have purchased literally hundreds of pairs of scales and have them sorted and labeled. After close up inspection I know that I will probably not use about one third of them for one reason or another. I like nice wood like everyone but I rarely pay more than $40 for scales. It's all about price for me. Most of the wood I have bought has been around $15/pair and my knives sell for $200 to about $450 each. (most around $350) I sometimes buy stag, bone, or horn if wood prices are too high. You are doing the right thing by discounting your prices in my opinion. My suppliers give me good prices and in exchange I buy multiple pieces at a time. Good luck with your business. Larry

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Hey Ben I started here with intentions of only selling wood but quickly fell in love with making knives so I closed my shop before I had listed half of my wood. I kept right at 1000 very nice pieces for myself and sold the rest so I dont really need any wood any time soon but will give you my thoughts

NC Biker said:
I don't want a block of wood with a lot of checks
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This is something I agree with. Some of the pieces that I remember seeing you list had cracks that could be cleaned up with a little sanding. The wood was not sanded smooth so it would be real hard to see exactly what you were buying. If I bought wood that had cracks that was not disclosed that would probably be the last time I would buy from that seller ( it has happened to me and now I look a lot closer if I am going to buy wood online) IMO sometimes it just belongs in the firewood pile if it has bad cracks. I just looked at your store and 2 of the 3 pieces of walnut I looked at had bad cracks ( if those were mine I would try and cut/grind all the cracks away and maybe end up with a set of thin scales of good wood?)

Good pictures will help. I have built 5 different light boxes and they all have ended up in the fire box. I just cannot get a good picture from one YET lol. My best pictures for getting the figure in wood to show has been direct sunlight. :o

But the biggest thing I learned selling wood here is figure, the more figure the wood has the easier it sells. Plain grain wood is hard to give away but strong figure sells itself. Pieces that has some nice figure on some parts sold ok but when a piece had strong figure end to end ,front and back it would sell quick.

I think you will build it up it will just take some time. I wish you all the best of luck.
 
Ben, one thing I see in you is a desire to learn. Pretty cool coming from a young guy or for that matter any person. A lot of people ask for feedback and do little to nothing with it. You are on the right track because you are trying to make the feedback yours and are acting on it. You are getting a lot of info here. I would suggest taking the ideas, prioritizing them, and then putt a few things in at a time. Like what you have done with your prices and adding the "custom cutting" option first. Then learning a bit more about pictures and cleaning that up. You might not be able to do it all at once, but add a bit at a time. Make the changes and it will all grow.
What these guys are saying about checks and quality is important too. I know drum makers that won't sell their seconds at any price because they see the importance of maintaining a certain standard of quality that has their name on it. You may want to consider what you spend your time on. Like should you even bother to cut up low quality, cracked or unattractive pieces? You will be known somehow. But do you want it to be for having the odd gem and deal on your site, or for having quality wood at a reasonable price?

Other thing I would suggest is getting your name out there on as many forums and platforms as possible. More people know of you should translate into more contacts for sales.
 
Not everybody makes 10" bowies all the time.
I buy wood from an Ebay seller that sells all different kind of sizes. I've bought as small as 1"x 1,125" x 3" for a combined handle or even smaller as a spacer in a hidden tang.
I buy it if the wood "speaks" to me and put it away in my collection. Sooner or later it will inspire me to do a certain project.

I don't want to spend premium money for a perfect size block if I end up cutting it down to do a knife like this:

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Just my 2c
Plus good photo's! I hardly ever buy wood if I don't get good pics. I has to be very cheap for me to buy it blind or from poor pics
 
There is a good thread stickied in the Chris Reeve's section on here about taking good pictures and how he set up his light box.
 
Something I would like to point out about blocks with super high quality photos, blocks sanded to 400 grit and all cut and sanded perfectly square.

You are paying for that. I have done test runs to get that level of finish on my blocks, and the time it takes would be adding about 5-10 dollars to the cost of a block. And the thing is, I dont know if I would get the return on that. I im not sure whether or not people would buy those more finished blocks enough to make it worth the additional work, and at this time Im not ready to gamble that much time.
 
Greenberg Woods said:
Something I would like to point out about blocks with super high quality photos, blocks sanded to 400 grit and all cut and sanded perfectly square.

You are paying for that. I have done test runs to get that level of finish on my blocks, and the time it takes would be adding about 5-10 dollars to the cost of a block. And the thing is, I dont know if I would get the return on that. I im not sure whether or not people would buy those more finished blocks enough to make it worth the additional work, and at this time Im not ready to gamble that much time.
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I was about to talk about this. Your prices are competitive to just a little cheaper than the market. Whatever you need to do to take better photos, you need to do it. Take a class, buy or build the right equipment. Something. I have no doubt your products are in line with other high end suppliers but, and I mean no offense here, your display of your stuff sucks. I've been on your site several times and the photos just don't look good. I find myself questioning each time I'm about to click buy and so I don't buy. You have direct competition that I've bought from before and wouldn't buy from again because the quality sucked. You also have direct competition that have priced themselves beyond ridiculous. You're one of the guys standing there with good wood at reasonable prices. You just have to spruce it up. Presentation sells as much as reputation and quality. Keep your prices in check and if you need to raise prices by 5 or 10 bucks a block, then do it. But most guys would rather buy crap from woodcraft for 10 bucks than a nice block for 35 UNLESS when the person looking has no doubt about the quality they paying extra for.

You may not need to go to 400 grit and spray lacquer on the blocks, but you need to sound down below the checks if possible and up to 120 grit or so and spray with some water or something. Other than that it's getting the right lighting and other photography skills.
 
everyone is right about the presentation photography of your product. So enough said there. However for what it's worth, i never noticed the photogtaphy and it wasn't a problem for me since I've met you personally, visited your shop, had conversations with you and used your wood products. I've never had any problems with your wood except for what I already mentioned, large block size, not split halves, higher prices. But I can see how others are buying remotely and can only judge by your images

Fellow makers, I would say try Ben out, I've never had a problem with his wood.


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I dont think its needed to sand to 400 and put a finish on it. I used a 6x48 sander with a 120 belt and made a jig to keep the block square and I could clean a block from K&G in about a minute.

Not trying to knock you around at all , I am actually proud of what you are doing at your age. Keep your head high.
 
Like others that have bought and used product from Ben I have zero complaints on quality. Prices maybe higher than others but to me it's worth paying to get someone who is passionate about what they do into the fold. Like HSC I haven't paid much mind on the photo quality. Keep up spreading the word of good wood, hone your business and above all be patient.

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Ben reading your PM I dont mind sharing at all. I disassembled the jig when I quit selling wood but I threw together some scraps to show something similar. You need a table thats at 90 degrees to the belt for starters , Something that slides good is a plus ( sink cutout from a cabinet shop?) and then I used a jig that was a little narrower than the block I wanted to sand so I could hold the wood with my fingertips but the jig made sure it stayed square to the belt. I have also done this on the 2x72 so you dont really need a 6x48. Here are some pics

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