My first knife sold!!!!

D

Deveraux

Joined
May 7, 2005
Messages
50
I am happy to announce that I have sold my first knife to Dan Ko. I started making knives in April of this year under Ed Fowler and have finished 3 knives to date. I am keeping the first knife I made and use it as an every day carry knife. The second knife I made is a long Pronghorn style with an approx. 9" blade. My third knife is a smaller knife with an approx. 3 1/2" blade. All of my knives are made in the Fowler style. I met Dan at Blade Show and he came to Riverton to attend Ed Fowlers High Performance knife seminar last week. Upon arriving he told me he was interested in my larger knife. He has since purchased it for my asking price of $1200.00 and has allowed me to keep it for awhile so I may display it at future shows.
I am plannning on attending Blade West and will have it on display at my table with a selection of my knives if all goes well.
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Congratulations! I remember how it felt to sell my first knife :D

Kind of staggering you were able to sell your first sale at $1200 :eek:

Do you plan on working toward your own identity style-wise in the future?

Good job Deveraux :)

-Nick-

http://www.wheelerknives.com
 
If I sell 10 I get $1200, too! :D Congrats! My wife would appreciate my basement time a LOT more if I was selling them for that! :D I'd like to see that knife with carbon fiber scales and a Concealex sheath, now! ;)
 
Good job!

No offense, but I must be really doing something wrong. I sold this one for $1200. I probably made about $9 an hour after materials and overhead:

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Thanks everybody for the terrific feedback. I am very happy with the sale and as you can imagine very happy with the price. I now have 4 more blades forged, heat treated and ready to start finish grinding and testing. None are as large as this knife I sold to Dan but I know I'll be forging her a sister sometime soon.

Nick, I think that most of my knives are going to be made with the sheephorn handle and brass guard because I have carried one of Eds knives for over 10 years(probably closer to 12) and I love the way it works and feels when using it hard. I am sure that as I continue to forge and make knives that I will start to develop some different styles as I go. I am planning on being at Blade West and will hopefully get a chance to meet you there.(I'll look for the table with all the hot lil ladies hangin around it) :D I checked out your website and it looks like you do some very beautiful work. Thanks again, Butch


Will. Thank you, I feel I am very lucky to have Ed as my mentor.

Chiro: not sure when that model will become available. :D

Thanks again to everyone. Butch
 
NickWheeler said:
Do you plan on working toward your own identity style-wise in the future?
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I'm curious on this point also, Butch.
I missed something in Atlanta, if you told me you hadn't sold any knives yet when we were talking. Had I been aware of that fact, I might not be yearning for a second, larger knife now! Being the first purchaser might have swung the deal differently.

Take care and stay safe (and reiterate my wishes for a smooth procedure and rapid recovery on the 8th.)

Larry S.
 
Don't take this the wrong way but getting $1200 for your first knife sounds like it was a fluke. I say that this was a fluke because even though you might make a really good knife, no one knows who you are! You have only been making knives for 2 months. There's still so much for you to learn. You haven't paid your dues. Yes you have a good mentor but it takes more than that to sell knives and pay your dues. Unless your using your association with Ed to sell your knives?

John Young has been making knives for over 8 years and he was taught by Steve Johnson. Up until the last blade issue which listed the top 10 newest collectible makers I had never heard of him. He makes a beautiful knife, fit and finish are almost as good as Steve's, and he's not getting $1200 for his knives.

I think that most of my knives are going to be made with the sheephorn handle and brass guard because I have carried one of Eds knives for over 10 years(probably closer to 12) and I love the way it works and feels when using it hard.
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I also think that it would be helpful for you to develop your own style. There are already a handful of guys who also make knives similas to Ed's. Your knives should be a reflection of your own influences and personality. They could be similar to your mentors but with your own ideas added in to set you apart from everyone else doing the same thing.
Just my 2c
 
C'mon, guys. He has to sell it for $1200 because all of these Riverton boys are running a price-fixing ring if you want forged 52100 with sheephorn! :D Just kidding. I say collect what you can if you feel the knife is reflected in the cost. Based on the ridiculous destructive testing these guys do on their knives, an argument could be made that one of their $1200 knives will be the only/last knife you ever have to buy. I say more power to you. If H can get $700-$800 for chisel ground knives without scales or handle treatments, then I think you deserve $1200 for that knife if it lives up to the quality standards Ed has shared. Again, knives are only worth what the buyer is willing to pay, so I certainly wouldn't downgrade someone because they can and do collect $$$$ on their early knives!
 
I'm pretty sure I've got some sheep horn and 52100 laying around, I think I just found my calling :)

But seriously, if you set the price that high, you'll sell a few knives no doubt, but you'll probably dell a lot more in a lower price bracket.

Tony
 
OK, lets talk a little about dues and stuff.
How does one pay his dues:
Is it by laying in obscurity for years?
Is it through the art of embelishment?
Is it through the art of achieving performance?
Is it by the luck of fame either earned or by chance?

Dues ? My thoughts are that they are earned by seeking to know the soul of lady knife and caressing her from start to finish in complete control and understanding of each and every stage of her development. Commitment to art, any form of art does not know time or speed limits, it is seeking to be one with our soul mate.
Again this post is by
Ed Fowler
 
The above post was by me, Sorry Dan, see what happens when you work on a poor old broken down cowboy's knife making communication machine while you are in a hurry?
 
Ed, paying your dues is much easier than all that. Simply send me a check for $495 (actually, make it a money order) and you're in! :D
 
I am not a knifemaker, but I have made knives.

I have bought and sold knives, for a portion of my life, as a professional.

Ed, I hate disagreeing with you in public, but as long as it is civilized, let the games begin.

"Dues ? My thoughts are that they are earned by seeking to know the soul of lady knife and caressing her from start to finish in complete control and understanding of each and every stage of her development. "

Paying dues is a long and complex process. It begins with the commitment of time, something that you understand. There is very little by way of substitution for the investment of time.

This is time invested on the art and craft of a knife, but it is also time at shows, eating crappy food for days, making your back hurt on the concrete floor, and knowing the feeling of a light income, or none at all.

This is time spent at hammer-ins, swap meets, like-minded people's houses, it is called building and adding to the community. Butch might be a swell guy, but is he going to go the distance, or is he going to (God Forbid) die tomorrow, physically or spiritually, never to make a knife again? If the time commitment is not made, the knives do not hold a REAL value, irrespective of maker. There may be a commensurate asking price, but who will bite? Butch made his first knife, and sold it for $1,200. Great!, and I mean it.

He can do that a few times, but it is not sustainable by copying the style that you created. I do not believe the market will support it. I have written my opinions of Audra's adoption of the Ken Onion Style of Ed Fowler Bladesmithing, but at least, it is not boldface copy, or unimaginative emulation.

There are far too many expressing a truly unique voice in this medium to have the cloning that has occurred in the past, and continues now. I make jokes, frequently, that Jerry Fisk should hand out kit knives for entry into the JS and MS ranks, that is how some of the knives are looking, coming out of the ABS these days.

For someone who speaks SO eloquently and intelligently about Art and the internal voice of emotion, allowing your proteges' to become carbon copies is a disservice to yourself, them, and the rest of us. Paying dues is finding out who you are, singing with your own voice, what value you offer to the world, and never being satisfied with "good enough".


Best Regards,

STeven Garsson

(PS, I also find it quite ungentlemanly that Shane(bein' ANOTHER Ed Fowler protege', put the statement out there like he did, it FEELS like a shill in a game of three-card monty)
 
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