Pricing a knife made from a blade blank, help please

Thanks for the email btw!

I tried, at first, to break it all down and work up a formula but kept getting..what I thought was...very large amounts for the knife I was making. Thats when I talked with a few folks and decided that the 2x materials route was a good place to start.

My main concern is that I didn't want to charge too much and not make any sales...yet I don't want to charge too little and short change myself.

It's like this...if I quote $100 for a knife and the customer jumps at it...the back of my mind is saying "wonder if you could have got 125...or 150...etc"
 
That's actually the beauty of the formula. You've worked up a fair price. Fair for you and fair for the customer. No more wondering could I've got more. And the customers will come back because they know they got a fair price. And what knife guy can get by with only one knife? You will sell them because the customer knows, that you know, what they are worth. Us cowboys have a saying..."If you're gonna be a bear might as well be a Grizzly". Go for it.
 
Thanks :).

Guess I need to start timing myself on these next few knives so I can see how long it takes me. I never really took time into account, I work a full 40 hour a week job and usually work on my knives a little any day I can.
 
Over here in the UK the market is a bit different (no knives on e-bay uk, for a start).
A good rule of thumb as a starting price, is double the materials costs (labour here is expensive).
You have to be a "name" before you can charge a decent hourly wage.
 
Like in any business it also helps to find a niche, a need and fill it. But your time has to count otherwise its not a business. What makes this whole thing so difficult is that it is fun making knives, not work.
 
I'm tied in a mental knot with this. As a capitalist country you can sell your knives for whatever you want. If they are priced too high they won't sell, and if priced too low you'll be losing profit.

But real life is never as simple as theory. How do you place a value on a person's reputation and good name? If you're starting out you have no reputation so how do you figure this into the price? Be scrupulously honest about the blades and charge what you feel you should or can.

In my exultedly humble opinion, starting out with a factory ground and finished blade doesn't make a person a knife MAKER. If you were to take an existing completed knife, remove the handle and put a better one on I think you would be considered to have "modified" the knife, not "made" the knife.

- Paul Meske
 
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