Mystery steel and ROI

J

Jason Fry

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Jun 5, 2008
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About a year into making knives, so about 6 years ago, I was in the stage where I was scrounging around for "free" "knife" steel. One of the things I found was a tooth off of an old drag harrow from my great grandfather's farm. Thinking it was cool to have steel that worked the ground on my family farm, I took it and added it to my pile. I didn't have but a pile of bricks and charcoal, nor a suitable anvil, so it sat on my bench. Fast forward to last November... I had finally built a forge, finally got an anvil, so I forged a blade from the harrow tooth. I have forged maybe 15 knives at this point, tops. I heat treated it and got it to 58 RC. It's finish ground and ready for polishing, sort of a long hunter/small fighter shape. Here's my dilemma. I can make a good knife out of this blade. It's hard enough, ground well, will finish nicely, etc. On the other hand, it's a drag harrow tooth, not 1084, 1095, etc. I'm having a heck of a time deciding what to do for the handle. Part of me thinks I ought to just put a single guard and handle on it and keep it simple, a $275 or so knife. The other part of me wants to do an oval guard, fluted spacers, stag, and a fileworked butt cap, somewhere around a $500-600 knife in terms of parts and labor. I'm having a hard time convincing myself to go large, because of the provenance of the steel. What are your thoughts? Any suggestions?
 
I'm relatively new to everything in the knife-world, but I'm just going to state the obvious; figure out what the makeup of the steel is. :D

Any places nearby that you could send a sample to without spending a fortune to have it tested?
 
There is a drag harrow that belongs to my BIL setting out my back door. I have often figured that a 'nostalgic' knife. One up until the 40s would fit the origin of the steel. You can be fairly confident that it is somewhere between 1070 and 1084.
 
If we learned anything from the thread about Chelsey Miller, it is that a good story sells knives as much or more than the technical specs of the knife. Maybe not to us, because we "know" too much about the technical points. But knife makers aren't your customers. It has a known hardness from an established and respected maker which is probably enough for most buyers. I remember being confused by the contradictions of advice from Stacy with what I would see selling and wonder who is right. Turns out both are. Stacy has science and experience on his side while the makers producing things like Tracker style knives have sells on their side. I know which side I fall on but I don't care about selling anything at the moment. In short I think you could go either way and have a success but since it is a special piece of steel with a good story I think I would go all out. Coin and or flute those spacers and make something that is deserving of the legacy of that piece of steel. Just my opinion though. (Please excuse the including of myself in the above "we", I am not a knife maker yet but I'm learning and I have now learned too much to like many of the things I thought I liked before. i.e. I used to love looking through Lynn Thompson's Cold Steel catalog but now it's kinda painful. Oh, I still like the look of the kukri and the master hunter but I don't have any aspirations of buying one these days.)

An afterthought is that you could tell the steel's story and include pictures of the homestead that it worked. Maybe even black and white photos to emphasize the age. Okay, I'm done, carry on. :D

Brad
 
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I'm with DHIII on this one. Finish it the way you want. Just call it what it is a harrow tooth. Look at Ray Richard's work. He uses a lot of found material and calls it what it is. And old Edsel spring, a piece of 60 rebar whatever. His prices range from sub $500 to over $1K. You have to decide how fast you want ot move it unless you already have an order with a quoted price. Do what you feel it right.
 
Thanks for the perspectives, gentlemen. Most of the folks so far have encouraged me to go for it, not to undershoot. In keeping with the rustic origins, I'm tempted to go with browned fittings and 1950's oak. Or maybe I'll go with the stag... or maybe... back to regular knifemaker ADD.

I know what several of you mean about stories selling. Every once in a while I'll make a knife with a story and put it on my table. I bet I told this one story 50 times in a weekend, but I ended up selling the knife on Sunday afternoon. You never know how it will turn out.

Chuck, thanks for the perspective on moving product. I have thought about pricing/complexity vs. whether a knife is likely to sell quick or hang around, but I've never thought about approaching each knife that way. I routinely do about 40% of my knives as orders, so that I have a bit more flexibility on the one-offs. I ought to stop undershooting alltogether, with the exception of orders and of a few for shows where I'm shooting for a price points.
 
I'll echo the other guys' comments. Just tell the story with the knife. Some folks that are "steel snobs" will be turned off, others will get a kick out of the history. Somewhere in that mix, is a very happy buyer. :cool: :thumbup:
 
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