Social Media and Custom Knives

김원진

김원진

Joined
May 4, 2011
Messages
1,405
So i've been thinking about this lately and there's almost no presence on social media(Facbook, twitter, IG, etc) for a lot of custom/ABS/art knife makers.

With the tactical market since last year there have been a lot of folks that jumped from the forums onto Facebook, i'm curious to some insight as to why others may not? I've seen talk before about some makers needing to put themselves out more as the crowds/collectors aren't really there like they used to be at shows. A lot of the young money is going to the "hot" tactical makers.

One of the benefits i enjoy of social media is the ease to connect or share with others. With the forums(not just BF) uploading media and navigation is a little cumbersome. Then again, the forums do help weed out some of the non-sense you get with social media and the people who probably shouldn't have air to breathe.

I wish there was a facebook page, that was just like this forum. Mostly it's folks that just talk about how smooth a flipper flips, and there's nothing that i've come across yet that has this level of knowledge in the art and experience as this forum does. I had thought about trying to start a page up, but i'm nowhere near the level of years/experience in this form, as most of you all are.

Would love to hear your thoughts on this, makers/collectors. There are some i've seen on IG, and a very few on facebook. What keeps you away, even though nowadays everyone has a smartphone?

-jeremy
 
I'm on both Facebook (business page) and Instagram and actually, most professional Knifemakers are also on both of these platforms. I don't understand your saying there is almost no knifemaking presence on social media. I'd say just the opposite is true. Check out some of the groups on FB. They are huge.

My FB business page has become indispensable, I use my personal FB page to keep in contact with old friends and do not add business connections there as friends. I will be expending my IG activities as time allows. What I really need is a full time employee to handle all such marketing and promotion tasks, and if I had the money to pay anybody, I would hire them.

I'd say that over the last year, FB and IG have become as important as all the forums combined and have started to make many individual forums obsolete. Bladeforums is one of the few that remains active. A lot of Makers have begun spending very, very little time on forums.

One reason is cost: most forums charge money; FR and IG are free. The other reason is control: Forums are often heavily moderated. Not so FB and IG.

The downside are FB and IG scammers, who are basically free to rob and rip off at will, deleting any posts to their pages they don't like. Buyers need to be very careful who they do business with on social media. Good, Bad and Ugly forums are now often the scene of "I was ripped off on IG" posts.

This business is changing rapidly and I think forum owners and software developers need to get on the ball and figure out how to keep their platforms viable in the face of FB, IG, Twitter and all the others.
 
i agree. most of the facebook knife pages are geared toward newer makers. the facebook page 'modern custom knives' has some good stuff on it.
 
The custom/ABS/art knife makers are out there on social media. The more you hang out there and explore other peoples connections the more you stumble upon. A number of people who have been active here have migrated to other places but I don't think it's necessarily a death knell for BF. It does cost something to be here (above a basic membership) but I think you get what you pay for. The interface may be cumbersome at times but the moderators keep the substance of the content on point. The quality of collectors as well as JS and MS level makers that frequent BF is significant. And while some of the established people have left or scaled back their activities here there are also new members who regularly join. And particularly in the Shop Talk section, the vibe has been "pay it forward". The amount of selfless knowledge exchanged on BF is staggering. Whether it's an explanation of technique, an in depth discussion of metallurgy or one of the many enlightening or provocative threads here, I'm hard pressed to think of another resource as valuable as Blade Forums. There is certainly a place for social media and it can be highly advantageous but it's not either/or. We can have it all.
 
Kevin Wilkins said:
This business is changing rapidly and I think forum owners and software developers need to get on the ball and figure out how to keep their platforms viable in the face of FB, IG, Twitter and all the others.
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i4Marc said:
The custom/ABS/art knife makers are out there on social media. The more you hang out there and explore other peoples connections the more you stumble upon.

The amount of selfless knowledge exchanged on BF is staggering. Whether it's an explanation of technique, an in depth discussion of metallurgy or one of the many enlightening or provocative threads here, I'm hard pressed to think of another resource as valuable as Blade Forums. There is certainly a place for social media and it can be highly advantageous but it's not either/or. We can have it all.
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Personally, hands down BF is the best out there for custom knives, and knowledge exchange. Like Kevin said, i share those thoughts that i wish the web developers/forum owners would revamp a skosh to make things a little more accessible/ease of use with todays technology.

There are individual makers that have either their personal pages or a business page, but again, the amount of traffic seems to be more towards the tactical makers that i've seen. And instead of only one makers page, having the conversation/picture exchange of multiple makers just like this sub-forum in a more accessbile format would be great.

One thing that i've always wanted to see would be to have live-casts of WIP's(like twitch but for forging). I don't feel like there are that many videos out of bladesmiths foging or just some shop talk out there.
 
One Facebook group I joined recently is called "Only handmade knives from the entire world." If you are not already familiar with them, give it a look and let us know what you think.
 
I see TONS of custom knife presence on Facebook - and I'm not into tacticals at all.
 
facebook and instagram cannot replace forums such as this. They are completely different platforms and the fundamental difference is due to funding models, imo.
This is why it's important to help subsidize forums that you value by paying a membership fee.
 
I agree with Lorien, that FB & IG cannot replace forums such as this at all!! Forums such as these are invaluable to the knife community and the custom knife community. It is very important for members to support the forums that they love, to help keep them going.
 
FYI, I spoke with Spark at the SHOT Show, and BFC has not had a downward turn in ACTIVE users since inception.

Best Regards,

STeven Garsson
 
I'm old fashioned. Don't like Facebook or "social" media. Busy enough without it. Most of those programs are just for showing off and wasting time. If it works for someone, good for them, I just don't care for it.
 
flatgrinder said:
I'm old fashioned. Don't like Facebook or "social" media. Busy enough without it. Most of those programs are just for showing off and wasting time. If it works for someone, good for them, I just don't care for it.
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But you do have a nice website and blog :)
 
flatgrinder said:
I'm old fashioned. Don't like Facebook or "social" media. Busy enough without it. Most of those programs are just for showing off and wasting time. If it works for someone, good for them, I just don't care for it.
Click to expand...

I'll echo what AVigil said, website and blog are nice :thumbup: I actually prefer reading blogs as opposed to facebook or IG, since it gives a little more of the maker, their thoughts, etc.

I did notice there were some makers i like i hadn't known were already on facebook, so it's nice to go through those and see previous work i hadn't seen through the forums. While facebook predominantly is folks just showing off/vanity, it's very easy to limit the nonsense and keep a friends/family bubble

This wasn't really about an either or, just a selfish whim on wanting to have this community more accessible/convenient and wondering if there was something close enough to it out there. Past couple years i haven't had the time to really sit down on a desktop and enjoy the commentary like before. Being in a ridiculously large metropolitan, you really appreciate the time you have when you have less of it.

Thanks for all the comments so far folks
 
True, but no Facebook. That's the main one I'm not fond of.

I think every maker needs a website these days (I wouldn't call a website "social media" -websites were around years before social media appeared), the blog is just an easier way to upload new work. It's not easy updating websites on a regular basis.

:thumbup:
 
김원진;15924687 said:
I'll echo what AVigil said, website and blog are nice :thumbup: I actually prefer reading blogs as opposed to facebook or IG, since it gives a little more of the maker, their thoughts, etc.

I did notice there were some makers i like i hadn't known were already on facebook, so it's nice to go through those and see previous work i hadn't seen through the forums. While facebook predominantly is folks just showing off/vanity, it's very easy to limit the nonsense and keep a friends/family bubble

This wasn't really about an either or, just a selfish whim on wanting to have this community more accessible/convenient and wondering if there was something close enough to it out there. Past couple years i haven't had the time to really sit down on a desktop and enjoy the commentary like before. Being in a ridiculously large metropolitan, you really appreciate the time you have when you have less of it.

Thanks for all the comments so far folks
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Facebook, Instagram and Twitter have all become huge when it comes to marketing and selling products, not to mention building Brands. The knife business is no exception.

The problem for small business like me (one person businesses to be precise!), is the amount of time all this consumes. I spend easily 25-30% of ALL my working time answering email, packing and shipping orders and handling marketing on the two forums I still use as well as my blog, FB and Instagram. And I'm already working 7 days a week.
 
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