Mixed Feelings about an upcoming local show -- UPDATE/RESULTS and pic.

Col Defender

Col Defender

Joined
Nov 11, 2011
Messages
1,398
Well many thanks to all of you who provided me with the benefit of your experiences about arts and crafts show. The consensus opinion that I needed to be prepared for a zero sales day was spot on. I spent 6 hours there and sold absolutely nothing. My table had lots of traffic, lots of oohs and aahs and every sort of favorable comment. But as most of you said, it was fun and great experience, got lots of exposure, gave away a ton of business cards and there may be some takers down the road. Not sure I will do this type of show again, but maybe a gun show will have more "outdoor guys". Thanks for all your input - now what to do with all the inventory I developed for the show!!

Here's a pic of my table - does not show too much though.







Maybe some of you have been through this... but it's my first time. A few weeks ago a leader in our little town asked me to set up a table at the upcoming arts and crafts fair this Saturday. At first I said no, nicely I think, because I never have any of my knives. So far in my career as a novice knife maker I have made onesy twosy mostly as ordered from friends, hunting buddies and other locals who have heard of me or seen my knives on facebook and as soon as they are done, they are gone. But I relented, ordered a bunch more steel, belts etc and have been going hard at it overtime. Not really sure I like this - there is the pressure to produce a bunch of knives which may or may not sell, and because of the time crunch I have to guard against rushing a knife to completion and compromising quality. Often I think I will never do this again since this little business is not something I need to pay the rent.

Anyway I am closing in on the goal and will have a little over 20 knives on the table; some are for orders I already had so they will be there to show folks the type of work I do but at least a dozen will be for sale that day and I can take orders if anyone wants to order a knife. I have imagined several possible outcomes - I could sell out in a few hours or I could spend the day in the park with no sale whatsoever; I have no control over who will come to the show and I suppose many of them know that they can buy a knife in Walmart for $10 and that's all they care about.

OK - I'm done venting. Any thoughts or perspective you guys have will be most welcome! Maybe after I lay everything out on the table Saturday, I will post a pic here!
 
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The first show I entered back in 1980 I didn't sell one single knife. But, I did get exposure. I met a lot of people, and tried to educate them about hand made knives. You need to be friendly and very patient answering the same questions over and over. I hope you sell out, but even if you don't, you will get exposure. A show is a good way to advertise your knives.
Listen to what prospective customers have to say about your knives.
You also need to keep going back to the show. If people see you as a regular knifemaker they will be more likely to buy from you.
A show is a good way to hone your selling techniques. I went to a lot of shows before I attended the Blade Show. My experience in shows helped make my first Blade Show a big success.
Last year the local museum bought a large Damascus knife from me to put on permanent display. That would have never have happened if I had not entered that first show.
 
DevinT said:
Please post some pics of what you are taking to the show.

Hoss
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Will do - some of it is packed now though so I will take a pic of the table and everything on it Saturday and maybe a pic of an empty table later that day???
 
Tom Lewis said:
The first show I entered back in 1980 I didn't sell one single knife. But, I did get exposure. I met a lot of people, and tried to educate them about hand made knives. You need to be friendly and very patient answering the same questions over and over. I hope you sell out, but even if you don't, you will get exposure. A show is a good way to advertise your knives.
Listen to what prospective customers have to say about your knives.
You also need to keep going back to the show. If people see you as a regular knifemaker they will be more likely to buy from you.
A show is a good way to hone your selling techniques. I went to a lot of shows before I attended the Blade Show. My experience in shows helped make my first Blade Show a big success.
Last year the local museum bought a large Damascus knife from me to put on permanent display. That would have never have happened if I had not entered that first show.
Click to expand...

Very helpful and thank you Tom. One thing I am doing is putting some heat treated stainless steel blanks, just back from Peters, on the table hoping that some will want to pick out their own handle material and then I finish the knife partly to their specs. I will have samples of most of the wood I use also.
 
Col, hopefully you'll sell out. You will spend a bunch of time educating folks about knives.

Hoss
 
Col, I am in a similar situation around my location as well. I'm not expecting anything crazy since most of the people there are buying Halloween decorations, candles, and jars of apple butter.
Keep the expectations realistic. I wouldn't compromise quality if I were you. If I show up with one good knife that I did to the best of my ability then that's enough. Don't pressure yourself! Maybe take some pictures of the past knives you've done
so people can look at them if they want and have some business cards or brochures to hand out.
Just my 2 cents.
Good luck!
 
There is a certain pride factor in selling out at a show, but in my view selling out usually means a miscalculation somewhere. It's a lot of time and pain in the butt to attend a show to run out of inventory in the middle of it.

If you go into a room full of folks who want something like you make and you have what they're looking for they'll buy it. But there are some shows without those people, and you can't control that. You might sell well or you might not sell one knife, and it won't necessarily have a lot to do with you.
 
I did a local craft show with my wife this summer. She normally does craft shows. I had a lot of non-knife people see my knives, and it gave the husbands that got dragged to the show by their wives something to look at. If you are going to do a non-knife show, I would recommend having a fair number of kitchen knives (everyone needs them) and make sure to advertise your sharpening skills, because everyone needs their knives sharpened.

I didn't sell any knives at the craft show, but did get some local exposure, and I will likely do it again next year.
 
I am heading to my first show in Oct. I also am feeling a little pressure. I feel confident in my knives but still a little nervous. I almost feels like a job and I already have one of those. Anyway, im looking forward to it and talking with folks. Also getting firsthand opinions of my knives. I will have a few kitchen knives and big and small hunting/utility knives. This is a gun and knife show. Good luck buddy!
 
Nathan the Machinist said:
There is a certain pride factor in selling out at a show, but in my view selling out usually means a miscalculation somewhere. It's a lot of time and pain in the butt to attend a show to run out of inventory in the middle of it.

If you go into a room full of folks who want something like you make and you have what they're looking for they'll buy it. But there are some shows without those people, and you can't control that. You might sell well or you might not sell one knife, and it won't necessarily have a lot to do with you.
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Well said Nathan!

Col, hope the best for you man and I hope you sell out but if you don't do not let that discourage you. My mom makes and sells custom silverware jewelry and some shows she completely sells out at and the next weekend she may barely sell a thing. She just knows not to attend that particular show the next year. Certain shows have clientele that other shows don't.

Jay
 
Congrats at being asked! That's huge!

Go and have fun. You'll get a lot of people who just want to look at your pretty knives. Enjoy the looks on their faces.
 
Matt R said:
I am heading to my first show in Oct. I also am feeling a little pressure. I feel confident in my knives but still a little nervous. I almost feels like a job and I already have one of those. Anyway, im looking forward to it and talking with folks. Also getting firsthand opinions of my knives. I will have a few kitchen knives and big and small hunting/utility knives. This is a gun and knife show. Good luck buddy!
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Thanks to everyone for the great advice and encouragement. Matt R you and I are exactly together on this. Yes kitchen knives and large and small hunters and even a bear bone handled damascus blade. :-) It would be better I think if this were a gun and knife show because of the type of people who would attend. But with kitchen knives and like someone said, there will be husbands who got dragged along, it could still work out well. And I do understand the intangibles like exposure and all I will learn about selling or trying to sell to non-knife guys and girls. Looking forward to it. I just put a little 4 " hunter through heat treat and it will be ready for the show but I think I may have to keep it for me - turning out really well. Of course my wife says I say that about them all (keeping it for me). :)
 
Go in knowing you are more likely to not sell a single knife than you are to sell out. No matter how the sales go, you will get exposure. As others have said, sales or the lack thereof aren't always about you. Sometimes, customers just don't make any sense. Sometimes people just won't buy from someone the first time they've seen them. They need to see you enough to know you are serious about it.

I wish you the best of luck and hope you do sell out, but don't get discouraged if you don't.
Chris
 
I find it's hard to tell who might buy a knife. I have sold several to "little old ladies" . Don't compromise your quality, bring what ever you have, don't rush. Have fun. It will be successful even if you don't sell one knife. Really successful if you sell more. I have done quite well at a local craft show.
 
Good luck Col. Craft fairs have been terrible for us but as mentioned thats gonna depend alot on who's there which you can't control. I really like your idea of having the HTeated blades there for folks to pick handle materials, clever. I'm curious to see how that works out.
 
Since you are planning to bring HT blanks, you may also want to bring a bar of raw steel and preHT stage blank so you can further discuss/explain the process to those seeming to want to know about custom knives. And if you don't have time for that, you can put them in a box under the table. I have had friends and family ask, what do you mean you "made" it? Assuming I used a premade blank of some type, but were surprised at the Bar-PreHT Blank-HT-Finish-Adding handles process.
 
It's a worthwhile experiment, but I've never had much success selling knives at a show that wasn't dedicated to knives. I split a table at local gun shows for half a year with another knifemaker. This included a monthly show and one that came through quarterly. Lots of folks, lots of questions good and bad (no, I didn't make these out of an old _________), lots of "That's a knoife!" in bad Australian accents. Very few sales. Folks were there for guns and ammo, and they though that big money on a knife was $45.

Try it out, see how it does, don't have expectations that will get dashed. Evaluate afterwards if it was a good use of your time. I was at a show once that had been a standalone knife show but had gotten combined with a big gun show. None of the knife guys were selling much. A fellow I knew from earlier had his table there (I believe it was his first time having a table at a show). He didn't come back for the second day. Like he told me the first day, if he had posted what was on his table on his website, it all would have already sold. The show was not a good usage of his time.

Your experience may be different.
 
".....One thing I am doing is putting some heat treated stainless steel blanks, just back from Peters, on the table hoping that some will want to pick out their own handle material and then I finish the knife partly to their specs. I will have samples of most of the wood I use also. ."


This is not a good idea in the beginning. You want to sell what is on the table. You want potential customers to see what your finished product is. It will make any sales discussion diverge with partially make products or materials on the table.

Custom orders are a painful path you want to avoid as much as possible. It is the single thing that make many makers quit taking orders...and some quit doing shows altogether.

Even when you are well known and have thousands of customers and a full time business, blanks and wood on the table still would be a bad idea.
 
Custom orders are a painful path you want to avoid as much as possible. It is the single thing that make many makers quit taking orders...and some quit doing shows altogether.
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Gotta echo Stacy on that. He said it well, and it's true. For me, at least, it made knifemaking dangerously close to a J-O-B for a while. I did get something out of it, and a lot of makers seem to thrive on it, but be careful of it is all I can say in the end.
 
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