Rant - Makers Marks and Overdone Embellishment

[Burl Source]

OK.....I am just ranting here. Please just take this as my opinions and maybe food for thought.

I have seen a number of good looking knives where I was annoyed by an oversized makers mark.
My first thought was that looks like a Nascar logo.
When I look at the bigger name makers I see their makers marks are smaller and more conservative.

As for embellishment.
A little bit can be good, but too much is too much.
I am talking about excessive filework, multiple mosaic pins and clashing handle materials. Makes me think of third world made flea market knives.
These all require extra work and expense, and in my opinion can severely limit the market for the sellability of the knife.

My thought is that a well made, clean and semi conservative knife will always be a better seller.
It takes a lot of little things to make a knife look really good.
But just one little thing can make it look bad.

 

[Brisket]

I can tell you that as a buyer, I have passed on knives that I was otherwise drawn to because they had makers marks that I found unappealing. Ironically those makers probably think that same mark is one their strongest selling points when in reality it may be costing them sales. I envision the buyers of those knives with oversized logos to be the same ones that buy those polo shirts with the oversized logos. I have never witnessed any critiques of makers marks among the comments in the knife makers exhange.

I understand what you are saying about over-embellishment. I tend to like my users high performance and low key but have some, mostly collectors and safe queens, that feature damascus blades, filework, mosaic pins and exotic grips (burl of course), etc.. Some out there and please excuse the expression are just flat whored up trying to catch a buyers eye. To each his own I suppose.

 

[Jason Fry]

As a new maker, I wanted a unique mark that said "This knife is cool and made by me". I went with my last name under a jumping fish, since I only had three letters "FRY" to work with and I love to fish. I still like the logo, but it often overpowered my blades. This logo has made it into print, as I got a knife in Knives 2013. Since then, primarily due to reactions like Brisket's above, I've switched to a smaller more subtle mark, just "Jason Fry" over "Abilene, TX". I think the smaller mark fits more with what collectors expect of a fine knife. If Stacy doesn't mind, I can post a couple of pics to illustrate.

 

[Redmeadow Knives]

I'm with Burl, I prefer a clean look. Less is more, that sounds familiar for some reason. As a new maker I don't have a mark yet, but am trying to figure out something subtle. I was going to go with a simple "lim", but that's a little too close to LUM. I have seen some logos that are insanely busy and take away from the "look" of the knife. Only cosmetic, but turns me off quick.

 

[OTK]

Dang Mark, you've got me wondering if my mark is too large/prominent.

As for the embellishment, I'm mostly anti. I mostly make knives much more on the tool side rather than the collector end so that stuff really doesn't have a lot of purpose for me.

 

[oic0]

Devils advocate though, some people do like busy designs! but even those people are probably a little disillusioned now days because of the way cheap Chinese products try to hide poor quality and cheap materials with very busy designs / features. Starts to form that association in your brain.

Personally though, I am in the simple and elegant boat. The only exception being busy handle materials. I don't care for multiple materials, but love crazy burls, mammoth tooth, etc...

 

[J. Hoffman]

OK.....I am just ranting here. Please just take this as my opinions and maybe food for thought.

I have seen a number of good looking knives where I was annoyed by an oversized makers mark.
My first thought was that looks like a Nascar logo.
When I look at the bigger name makers I see their makers marks are smaller and more conservative.

As for embellishment.
A little bit can be good, but too much is too much.
I am talking about excessive filework, multiple mosaic pins and clashing handle materials. Makes me think of third world made flea market knives.
These all require extra work and expense, and in my opinion can severely limit the market for the sellability of the knife.

My thought is that a well made, clean and semi conservative knife will always be a better seller.
It takes a lot of little things to make a knife look really good.
But just one little thing can make it look bad.

I agree with everything you said Mark. In fact it got me thinking, that all these fancy burls I buy are just too gaudy! I'm going to start using stabilized 2x4's for my handle material from now on!

 

[Carl_First_Timer]

I agree with everything you said Mark. In fact it got me thinking, that all these fancy burls I buy are just too gaudy! I'm going to start using stabilized 2x4's for my handle material from now on!

hee hee...

So Mark and anyone else...too much?

 

[Burl Source]

I knew this was going to turn around and bite me in the butt.
It wasn't meant to point fingers at any individual.
Just tossing out my opinion.
Take it for what it's worth.

Bear in mind this is coming from a 50+ year old guy, with long hair, that wears tye dyed t-shirts and lives in a hippie town.

 

[J. Hoffman]

hee hee...

So Mark and anyone else...too much?

On that blade, I think it's a good fit.....now if it were a paring knife??? BTW, I love the way you extended the handle material forward of the rear edge of the blade, and then blended it in. It looks great!

 

[J. Hoffman]

I knew this was going to turn around and bite me in the butt.
It wasn't meant to point fingers at any individual.
Just tossing out my opinion.
Take it for what it's worth.

Bear in mind this is coming from a 50+ year old guy, with long hair, that wears tye dyed t-shirts and lives in a hippie town.

Mark, you know I'm just messin' with you. I'll keep buying your burl!

 

[Karl B. Andersen]

Young fella, I don't think I'd promote that too much.

Bear in mind this is coming from a 50+ year old guy, with long hair, that wears tye dyed t-shirts and lives in a hippie town.

 

[Robert Dark]

An over-sized logo looks a bit gaudy to me. Even the Loveless logo, with the lady, was sized in a way that it didn't distract.

File-Work......... Man, when I started making knives, I thought that once I mastered file-work, I was on the way to stardom. Now, it is one of the most distracting things I see in a knife (especially a fixed blade). Several years ago, I was at a "Bowie's Hammer-in" in Knoxville. One of the demonstrators (my old mind can't remember his name at present) did a session on file-work. His work was very similar to what you see on some of Joe Keesler's blades. A little file-work, and a little engraving.

His work was gave me a hard-slap-to-the-head. I decided that until I could master that style, I would never again put a file to the spine of a knife in an attempt to make it look better.

You can buy "Gaudy" at Trade-Day. Knowing where to carry embellishment and where to stop draws the line in the sand between those who have it and those who don't.

I'm still looking for the line in the sand.........

Robert

 

[james terrio]

Young fella, I don't think I'd promote that too much.

Those of us who still have hair like to show it off

I don't have the exact quote handy, but I remember Nick Wheeler describing some knives as looking like a pimp, with mismatched plaids and stripes and lots of cheap jewelry and a fur coat.

As for the embellishment, I'm mostly anti. I mostly make knives much more on the tool side rather than the collector end so that stuff really doesn't have a lot of purpose for me.

Me too. A pretty piece of wood and maybe mosaic pins is about as fancy as I generally get.

So Mark and anyone else...too much?

Nope! That's a good example. Clear, not too gaudy, easy to read, and would give me a clue who you are, if I wanted to google you and find more of your work. The atom graphic stands out as unique, but it's not overbearing. Mine's even simpler... Ernie Grospitch helped me lay it out when I first ordered stencils from him.

 

[NickWheeler]

My feelings line right up with Robert's and yours Mark!!!

I often think a lot of guys would be better off if they were reminded, "Just because you can, doesn't mean you should."

A lot of the really highly established and respected makers put out work that's like a Ferrari, or a '62 Corvette, or a '69 SS Camaro, or '69 Mustang, etc. They just look "right" even if they were rattle can painted with flat black BBQ paint.... they would still look good IMHO.

I think a lot of guys trying to get placed in the big leagues think that adding a whole bunch of fluff and stuff is going to get them there faster.... but instead they end up making a '84 Honda hatchback with a 6' tall fin, neon ground lights, and a green fuzzy dash-board.

Of course, this is just my opinion and you know what they say about those....

 

[J. Hoffman]

but instead they end up making a '84 Honda hatchback with a 6' tall fin, neon ground lights, and a green fuzzy dash-board.

Nick, you say this like it's a bad thing?

 

[wnease]

Ironically, I've been strongly (but rarely) criticized for not having a prominent makers mark. My argument was that the knife is what I make, an expression of my creativity but not so much my ego... there are my initials on the spine... didn't see any logos on the art at the art gallery!

 

[Carl_First_Timer]

I knew this was going to turn around and bite me in the butt.
It wasn't meant to point fingers at any individual.

I was just curious. My skin is thick so no worries about me.

 

[Robert Dark]

Bear in mind this is coming from a 50+ year old guy, with long hair, that wears tye dyed t-shirts and lives in a hippie town.

Well Mark, that explains the whole problem. You are simply an old geezer left over from the old days. How dare you have a conservative view.

Maybe its time you checked out the possibilities of being a "Greeter" at Wally-World.

I applied for the position, but was turned down because of my views on how folks should look and dress when they go out in public.

Robert

 

[Mudbug007]

But this is the beauty of the custom knife market! What turns one person off turns another on. I don't particularly care for large logo's on a knife or gaudy scales, but some people do. And apparently enough of them buy custom knives that some makers keep turning them out. Just wait until they figure out how to put Christmas lights on 'em! Wouldn't it be boring if we all liked the same style of knife?