Real money making/selling custom knives?

I see a lot of knives selling here for what I would think is anywhere from a $100-450 profit (usually liner locks or slip joints). Many sellers seem to average 1-2 knives per week sold just on Bladeforums. I would imagine it would take at least a dozen or so knives before selling that kind of qty consistently(?). Am I right on this?
 
I think that it has to do with quality more than quantity. It might take some a dozen or two it might take others many more before the quality is there.
 
I have to ask.... how many knives have you made and sold? Do you have any pictures of knives you've sold? I'm not being rude just wondering your experience making knives. A good folder is difficult to make outside the mechanical issues you have the tactile "walk and talk" that makes a fine custom folder worth the money.

The makers selling weekly have it nailed and there's no question about their quality. You'll need to make and sell more than a few knives to establish your name. It only takes 1 "oh s###" to ruin years of reputation.

The best advice is to do it part time, make your plans for full time, build your customer base and reputation then jump in.
 
You're getting a lot of good advice on here. Particularly the one about turning a hobby into a job. I know there is that saying of "find something you love and you'll never have to work a day in your life". In reality ANYTHING that is a job eventually becomes exactly that... some thing you HAVE to do to make money. Once you're in a position you HAVE to do something day in and day out the joy of it tends to lose a bit of it's luster. It's like anything else, you might love Porterhouse steaks (and really.... who doesn't?) but if you ate one every day for the rest of your life for dinner you'd eventually start to hate it. Might take a few weeks, few months, or even a few years but eventually it will lose it's appeal. There are some things to seriously consider, for example:

-How many knives do you realistically think you can make in a day/week. Then figure how many of them are the quality that someone would pay decent money for them.
- How much of that is pure profit? (figure the sale price minus, steel, handle material, belts, shipping, HT if you farm it out, etc) basically everything that goes into a knife.
-What type of knives are you looking to make? Are you going to try to go with quantity or make high end knives? Remember high end ones get scrutinized to the smallest detail and as a result will require more of a time investment.

This is just some of the things to look at in addition to all the advice given here. The first step before you make plans to become the next big name is see if you can get yourself to the point where you're able to sell enough knives to support your habit of making them. I'm just a hobbyist and have been so busy with pesky life things the last several months I haven't even had much time to dedicate to making a knife. But getting back to my point, If you can get yourself to the point where you can break even using your profits from knife making to not have to dip into an outside source to fund your habit then you're ready to start to pursue the possibility of making it a living. Good luck regardless, but don't get deluded into thinking you can get there without truck loads of dedication, time, blood, sweat, and tears....literally.
 
Rick - I was responding to his two not necessarily related requirements for his knifemaking career:


But my first reason for doing this would be to do something I would honestly enjoy doing, the money is second.
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But this is a business first, and if its going to go anywhere it needs to be treated as such.
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Placing business first can often drive someone to become disenchanted with their "passion". It's not going to be easy to reconcile these two things at times. The point is, if you find a hobby that you enjoy and decide to turn it into a job, you have a very good chance of not enjoying it anymore. Much better for some folks to find a job they enjoy and finance their hobbies.

If I needed to put food on the table and couldn't find work in my field, I'd go full-time making knives, because you use whatever skills you have to get by in life, but I wouldn't change career paths to make less money and possibly ruin another thing I enjoyed.
 
A good folder is difficult to make outside the mechanical issues you have the tactile "walk and talk" that makes a fine custom folder worth the money.
The makers selling weekly have it nailed and there's no question about their quality. You'll need to make and sell more than a few knives to establish your name. It only takes 1 "oh s###" to ruin years of reputation.
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Agree totally, this is what I was getting at. The people who sell regularly here have been at it for a bit and have proved their work. -Burton
 
I've been making knives for years, quit my day job about 3 yrs ago, haven't looked back.. I average around 140k a year and only work about 3 months total, when I want to.. I like waking up at 9am with coffee and maybe a bagel, then maybe when 10am rolls around I may get out and start slapping some scales on, or maybe I'll go fishing.. who knows?? its a good life and I love it, most everyone here has bought at least one of my knives at one point or another..

ok back to reality........

as with any business or really anything in life, you get out of it what you put into it..

myself I have been gathering materials for a long time now with the hope of maybe someday making a few knives, I enjoy knives and the artsy part of it.. I actually just cut my first blank yesterday!!! I'd love to do this for a living, but won't hold any hopes... but who knows..
 
Will Leavitt said:
I have to ask.... how many knives have you made and sold? Do you have any pictures of knives you've sold? I'm not being rude just wondering your experience making knives. A good folder is difficult to make outside the mechanical issues you have the tactile "walk and talk" that makes a fine custom folder worth the money.

The makers selling weekly have it nailed and there's no question about their quality. You'll need to make and sell more than a few knives to establish your name. It only takes 1 "oh s###" to ruin years of reputation.

The best advice is to do it part time, make your plans for full time, build your customer base and reputation then jump in.
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Will,
This post will be a little long winded, bear with me!

I've completed two splipjoints, but I would rather stay away from em for a while. I have three fixed knives I'm currently working on, just need to finish off the handles.

Let me try to make a long story a little shorter. I started off about 30 years ago collecting pocket knives. Then I started to get a few knives that I wanted to clean up. That eventually morphed into repairs, then replacing blades (modifying existing blades), and then making completely new blades, springs, and a few replacement handles (all for slipjoints). I managed to copy off a couple of knives and make two slipjoint folders. Man, what a PIA. I don't like making slipjoints, or at least not from scratch (might if I had the parts waterjet cut next time).

About a year after I started to get somewhat serious with the repairs and knife making I had to leave my job and move back to Long Island. Well, here I couldn't afford a house with a big shed in the back on 3 acres like I had in Vermont. So, I had to settle for a nice little apartment for almost twice the price and put most of what I owned into storage. That was the end of my knife making for a while.

Fast forward about 7 years later, I finally got a home of my own with a garage and some space for knife making. So now the journey begins... AGAIN.

I was planning on getting at least a dozen knives out, maybe make a few slipjoints again, and give away a few "practice" knives to relatives, friends, etc for "free". I'm sure you're right on about making the quality count. I was in the mortgage business for a while, you could have 10 good loans in a row, as soon as you got a bad one you could kiss that account goodbye. We had a saying: "You're only as good as your last loan". Making knives I would imagine you could kill most or even all your business with a few bad knives.

What do you think, go back into the mortgage business or hit the knives? I'm wondering if the knife making would be easier now!
 
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AcridSaint said:
Rick - I was responding to his two not necessarily related requirements for his knifemaking career:
Placing business first can often drive someone to become disenchanted with their "passion". It's not going to be easy to reconcile these two things at times. The point is, if you find a hobby that you enjoy and decide to turn it into a job, you have a very good chance of not enjoying it anymore. Much better for some folks to find a job they enjoy and finance their hobbies.

If I needed to put food on the table and couldn't find work in my field, I'd go full-time making knives, because you use whatever skills you have to get by in life, but I wouldn't change career paths to make less money and possibly ruin another thing I enjoyed.
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I hear what everybody is saying about killing a good hobby. I once made almost twice what I am making now, and made the biggest mistake of my life by quitting a very high paying job because I hated it. Didn't believe in it, it was a crooked business, and I no longer wanted to be associated with it. I moved to another state and took a job making less than half of what I made before that I thought I would really enjoy. Well, I hated it even more. When I used to be unhappy at work and wealthy, now I was unhappy at work and almost broke.

Trust me, there is no way I will make that mistake again. Besides, I got loads of other hobbies I can still love. I like knife making a lot, but hunting, fishing, and camping I still like better. I know there's plenty who have killed a fun thing turning it into work, theres plenty who have continued to turn their hobby into work and enjoy it. Hopefully I can wind up like one of the happy ones!
 
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I fully understand about the mortgage business... wife is an originator, brother is in real estate (only thing that keeps him paying bills is doing BPOs.)

I asked to see your knives because I've never seen one of yours and wanted to get an idea of where you are.

Most of the folder makers either get their parts cut or have a really good saw to blank them out.

The main issue to COMPETE in the knife world is to gather customers. Without name recognition you'll have to turn out a better product at the same or lower price than known makers. Make no bones about it, when it's full time it's competition and you're going to have to figure out how to carve your spot into the customer base.

The ability to repair folders should help your business model a lot. I get requests to repair or mod folders even though I've only made a few friction folders in my career. Diversity is the key to any business as you know.
 
and then if you really want to make the big bucks start engraving in your spare time along with making knives - if that doesn't put you into the nut house or bankruptcy - you will have it made -
 
Will Leavitt said:
I fully understand about the mortgage business... wife is an originator, brother is in real estate (only thing that keeps him paying bills is doing BPOs.)

I asked to see your knives because I've never seen one of yours and wanted to get an idea of where you are.

Most of the folder makers either get their parts cut or have a really good saw to blank them out.

The main issue to COMPETE in the knife world is to gather customers. Without name recognition you'll have to turn out a better product at the same or lower price than known makers. Make no bones about it, when it's full time it's competition and you're going to have to figure out how to carve your spot into the customer base.

The ability to repair folders should help your business model a lot. I get requests to repair or mod folders even though I've only made a few friction folders in my career. Diversity is the key to any business as you know.
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Geez, sounds like my family! I did real estate before the mortgages, my dad just sold his real estate office a few years ago. Wish I could go back to it, but definitely not in New York.

I got to figure out how to post pictures. The folders I made were nothing to write home about, but the fixed ones are coming along nice. If I can get the handles done right it should come out great. I'll shoot you a pic of the fixed blades I got going (all 3 are very similar).
 
I have seen people posting "Don't do something you love, because you will end up not loving it any more" or somthing like that, quite a bit latly. My grandfather did what he loved. He started out dirt poor and built it into a big corperation. He always said that he didn't work, he played for a living.
Jay I am still quite new at knife making. The point that a lot of the guys have been saying about "building a customer base" is spot on. As you get your knives out there weather they were sold or given away, the more customers you will get. It does take time though. I think it would be really hard to say "I am going to be a full time maker" without a lot of customers.
 
I'm new to this... not even close to selling a knife yet. But when I do... I'm sure my "profit" will just go to more supplies or tools for making more knives. I don't think I would count my "labour" as a cost, because I do it in my spare time... I don't consider any hobbies or things I enjoy doing something I should measure in $/hour. If a knife took me 20 hours to make of spare time... that's time I would spend doing something else anyways, not $200 of work at $10/hour.

That being said if you decide to make a profession out of this by going full time, my point of view is totally null because you would have to factor in labour costs :D

I don't think it will kill your hobby or passion. I've had people pay me to do woodworking on a smaller-scale than a business, and it wasn't any less fun to me even though there were deadlines involved. I'm sure there will be times where it will be frustrating, and you feel you can't just take it easy because there are orders that need to be finished in x amount of time. But really... if it is truly your passion you should be just fine. Good luck ;)
 
If you've only made a few, and repaired a few, I think you should stay in the shallow end for the moment. Develop the knife business on the side, and when it is generating enough work that you need to no longer have the day job that is when you should go full time. I need health insurance at my age and state of disrepair so I will always have a day job except when my wife has one with great benefits. If you can't turn $1000 per week in average sales you will not live well and one injury will cost you your business. How do I know this? my average week when I am doing the full-time business is $200.00-$400.00 which is not enough to get health insurance, pay someone else to fix the broken stuff that needs fixing and consequently takes time away from production which limits effective shop time into a vicious cycle, then you have the time put into selling (once again that eats shop time) the time spent building tools you can't afford (munch) and most important, keeping the wife happy (munch munch munch) suddenly you find that the most unbroken production time you are able to sustain is 20-30 hours per week and you still are not sleeping more than 5 hours per night. Throw in a major injury (I had a torn rotator cuff which the doctors would not let me use that arm for almost 4 months) and things can get dire pretty quickly (especially if you do not have health insurance, my last hospital stay cost over $28,000, thank goodness for insurance)

You can do whatever you want, but smart money always hedges their bets

-Page
 
Part of Making a Living at anything is "What do you need to live the way you want?"

If your kids are grown or non-existent, you don't owe any money. Don't need new cars, own a small house and shop with low up keep, buy most of your tools and materials before you leave the day job and think spending a month or so a year tent camping, fishing and hunting close to home is paradise, you can be rich on about $20,000 after taxes a year.

In my case I can make the 20K quickly working short term jobs, so I still make knives for my own enjoyment and some extra cash for things like extra jetboat fuel. I believe, I could make it all as a maker. I am just to lazy and love free time too much.
(when, I work, I work about 13hrs a day, 7 days a week, but 1 week= over a month of cash needs)

Point is: "Its not what ya make, its what ya spend and how you live life."

Enjoy your life, don't hate it. You didn't make a mistake leaving a job you hated, you only made a mistake by not finding the right path for you afterwards.
 
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I once heard Gene Simmons say "I love my work, I never take vacations. If you love what you do, then it isn't work". Thats what I want to say!
 
I worked in tool&die for 14yrs and made 3x the amount I make today(not including my wife's job) and lived barely within my means. We now live at a fraction of the cost we ever did... new house, 2 cars, camper, bikes, snowboards, drums, landscaping, playset, swimming lessons, soccer, etc...

We play close attention to what we buy and how we pay for it. The only debt we have is our mortgage and that is only half the value of our house, at this point. We are looking to move again and planning to downsize even more. We are more involved with our kids, need less, spend less..... and are exponetially happier. If I told my wife I was going back to a "normal" job... I reckon she would kick me in the nutz.

Get your spending under control... Learn the value of quality investment with regard to your daily life. Buy less... be happy with what you have and you won't need to ask as much from your income.

It may sound off-topic but it directly impacts the potential success of a personal business. Once you start moving away from the consumer mindset, you'll find you have more money and time to spend doing the things you love.

Sorry for the sway but I feel it is related.
Rick
 
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I suppose there is another approach... you could contract with Shop At Home network to have them sell your Katanas... ;)
 
I tried that tryppr.... the sales host broke my blade on national TV.... apparently he was being viciously attacked by a display table and had to defend himself.... luckily my blade held together long enough to thwart off the attack... yet I still receive criticism.:grumpy:

[youtube]v2EQWCpnIR8[/youtube]
 
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