Pay per HOUR....

FOG2

FOG2

Joined
Nov 1, 2007
Messages
2,412
A recent thread here started me thinking about how much a knifemaker get,s paid per hour.Minimum wage at best for myself i,m guessing.And what a fantastic deal the purchaser of a custom/handmade knife is getting and probably doesn,t have a clue.

This business is probably a lot like when i owned a sportfishing charterboat
and charged an average of $800.00 for 8hrs of fishing.I had LOT,S of people
comment on how much money i must be making ! But they had no clue how little in fact i was making after expense,s.

Ok, say for example i sold i knife for $100.00 Now i,ve never timed how long it take,s for me to make a knife but it,s probably ohhhhhh i don,t know 10 to 20 hour,s or so. I have very limited power tool,s compared to most and not a whole lot of experience so it probably take,s me longer than a lot of you folk,s.

Anyway it,s ez to see i/we in general aren,t makin a killing on a knife we sell !
And i haven,t even factored in the cost of material,s,supplies,tool,s,electricity
etc.

I only do stock removal at this point and if your someone who forge,s blade,s
i,m thinking OMG your cost,s for the above mentioned stuff is WAYYYYY higher than mine.

It,s a good thing i/we LOVE making knives eh ?
 
You get PAID!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! What a fabulous idea. When I started I did an awful lot just to get the material back out of them so I could buy material for the next one. The more knives you make the longer it will take you if you are serious. Equipment will let you shorten the time frame but being more particular will equal it out. Minimum wage I wish
 
Bryce,
I believe knifemaking to be a labor of love and little more. If $$$ is the object and it's not all about THE KNIFE then the efforts it takes to learn to make knives could better be spent learning to do just about anything else and be more profitable. I think it is entirely possible to earn a buck making knives but to get there takes dedication to making the best knife you can make and making very little per hour for as long as it takes to GET THERE. At the end of all this is the pleasure of working very long hours to make a decent living doing something you love to do.

This is how I see it currently, but I reserve the right to be completely wrong ;) -Josh
 
I can think of at least two makers, who are not big names, that average around $20. But they have paid some dues, and they know what they're doing.

There are other endeavors one could pursue that doesn't require any more skill or investment that pays more. The constant stream of folks who are entering into this keeps prices down, which is good if you are a buyer because you get quite a deal.
 
Nathan the Machinist said:
I can think of at least two makers, who are not big names, that average around $20. But they have paid some dues, and they know what they're doing.

There are other endeavors one could pursue that doesn't require any more skill or investment that pays more. The constant stream of folks who are entering into this keeps prices down, which is good if you are a buyer because you get quite a deal.
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and they probably have 20 grand in equipment so it all works out to about 4 bucks an hour . Heck , I could flip burgers for more than that and get health Ins. to boot .
 
After almost two years of hard work I think it's costing me about $3.50 an hour to sell a $200.00 knife. Which I think is a good deal, I'd pay twice that much.:D:D;)
 
Don't depress yourself by doing calculations like that, lol. I think of it this way... I get to play, and then they pay me at the end. That, and I thank the Lord I don't have to do it for a living.
 
ONeill said:
and they probably have 20 grand in equipment so it all works out to about 4 bucks an hour . Heck , I could flip burgers for more than that and get health Ins. to boot .
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I do this for a living now, but before this I worked for BK and believe me I would much rather do this and I make more now than I did working for them.
Very few positions in BK at least will allow you insurance, in fact thats part of the reson I left. They cut mine and paid vacation after 10 years of having it.
Del
 
delbert ealy said:
I do this for a living now, but before this I worked for BK and believe me I would much rather do this and I make more now than I did working for them.
Very few positions in BK at least will allow you insurance, in fact thats part of the reson I left. They cut mine and paid vacation after 10 years of having it.
Del
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British Knights shoes?

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I gross $55/HR restoring and repairing knives. I gross about $20/HR making knives. I don't make a lot of knives. Now you know why.
 
delbert ealy said:
I do this for a living now, but before this I worked for BK and believe me I would much rather do this and I make more now than I did working for them.
Very few positions in BK at least will allow you insurance, in fact thats part of the reson I left. They cut mine and paid vacation after 10 years of having it.
Del
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very interesting . Back in 1972 I was sub-contracted out to install and set all of BK's equipment in south Cal . for the franchise buyers . We did all the HVAC& R maintenance work for that company out of Florida . How the past comes back .
 
Well being only 15, I can't get a job anywhere, so I just think: Any money is better than no money!
 
Here is my $.02. Im a new maker so I cant in good conscience charge someone for my learning curve. I try to cover materials.
The time I spend making knives is my time, by that I mean it is for my own enjoyment and my desire to learn more about this addiction I have to turning a piece of steel into a tool.:D
I dont expect to ever make a living at this, unless I put in the time, and hard work it takes to try to master the craft.
BTW I highly recommend, that if you are able, build yourself a forge. There is a lot of pleasure that comes from beating steel into a usable knife. There are several plans out there that are relatively cheap and easy to build. Indian George has one on his site.
 
Bill DeShivs said:
I gross $55/HR restoring and repairing knives. I gross about $20/HR making knives. I don't make a lot of knives. Now you know why.
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I don't command anywhere near the prices you do (with good reason) but I've also noticed that mods/repairs are more profitable than actually making knives.
 
I have been a full time maker since last November. I could not imagine doing anything else for a living. I do OK making knives. I am not getting rich. But it does pay the bills.
I have been places and met people because of knives. I never could have imagined meeting. Knives have been the most rewarding thing I have ever done.

So how do you put a dollar amount on that.
 
BlackToe Knives said:
So how do you put a dollar amount on that.
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Good point. This certainly isn't a get-rich-quick business. I made more $ running printing presses but the whole punch-clock factory thing was driving me crazy.

The only thing I've done that I truly enjoyed more was playing guitar in a band... good lord, you wanna talk about getting depressed when you compare hours to pay, join a band! :rolleyes:
 
A lot of makers resent these conversations but I like em. By now you know that I think anyone who doesn't know the value of their time is missing something important! I keep a record of the time I spent in my shop - what I was doing, any supplies I used. I can pretty accurately tell how much it cost to make a given knife and how long it took me.

I figure I'm doing a good job if I can earn $10 an hour for making knives. I'm not very good at it and my shop practice is probably not the most efficient. I'm still trying to learn how to grind, so I'm probably a whole lot slower than anyone else. :)

Sometimes though everything comes together and I feel okay charging enough for a knife to have earned myself $12 an hour. But those are all balanced by the ones that suck so bad I almost give them away, so it balances back out to about ten bucks.

That's a lot more than I'd make working in a bookstore or flipping burgers, and no one's telling me what to do or how to do it, or when. Just me. I dig it. I look forward to my time in the shop each weekend and frankly I'd do it for nothing; I'd do it if no one ever bought my knives and I had boxes full of them stacked everywhere. Wild horses couldn't keep me from making knives.

:D
 
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