Pricing question...very basic..

[blgoode]

Some of you guys know I am still a beginer...anyways. I have someone asking what I would charge to make him a kitchen knife. I use 0-1 at the moment because I want to learn to HT and this is user friendly. He knows the steel will stain and doesn't mind that...

I am thinking since I am so new I'd be lucky to get $75.00 but I dont want to undershoot my price......

Any advice is great...........

How did you start out setting your price?



p.s. just talked to a leather smith who lives 1/2 hr from me that will show me how to make pouch sheaths.......sweet! I am a happy boy.......

 

[jhiggins]

Brian, if you want to make great kitchen knives, I'd offer a suggestion. Send your stainless blades to Roger Linger. He does a great job at heat treating them, charges a fair price, and has quick turnaround. He just did two ATS-34 blades for me. Excellent work!

 

[Don Hanson III]

I used to make a lot of kitchen knives around 10 years ago. At $25 for parring knives and $50 to $75 for cheff knives they sold very good. I was using saw blade steel and heat treating them myself, to this day I would rather use a good carbon steel blade in the kitchen over a stainless one
I think $75 is a good starting point for kitchen knives, you can always go up as you get better.
Show some pics of your knives when you can.

Don Hanson

 

[blgoode]

The guy who was asking likes the carbon steel. So thats an added benifit. I need to make a forge over the next month or 2 so I dont always have a hammon if someone doesnt want it. Plus I can forge

Don, click on my homepage link in my signature. Theres images of my blades there. There not too bad for just using a scanner.....

 

[chris609]

I have used carbon steel chef knives and they work well. However the blades can stain and discolor when in contact with acidic foods. And the foods will sometimes discolor. Lemons and some fruits can turn grey when in contact with the steel. I liked them because they were easy to sharpen. But used them mainly with meats and other foods that had low acidic content. I made several kithen knives with 440-c, ats-34, and s-30-v. The s-30-v so far beats all on edge retention and stain resistence.

 

[Daniel Koster]

haven't had any problem asking $175 for my some of mine....


But that probably has more to do with the materials....


Work with the best materials you can - you'll get better prices and better customers.

How did you start out setting your price?

From the materials used.



Do I sound like a broken record yet?

 

[Ricky D. Finch]

blgoode

It's hard to decide what to charge, you don't what to be too cheep or they will thing something is wrong with it. Some people will think it's to high if it cost more then what walmart sells knives for. You can educate some, who have no knowledge of what goes into making and why it's price higer then walmarts. I sold my first knife 10 years ago for $28.00. Didn't make anything on it, but it got me started making knives to sell. After talking to some makers, most figure the price of materials and double it, then figure so much an hour for the hours it took, equals the selling price. I still have trouble figuring out what I'm worth per hour .