What do you consider a reasonable wait time on a custom knife?

2 years is the most I'll wait. Hmmm. Darrel better get on it since I commissioned my piece from him in January of 2011. Something tells me I should give him a call. hah.

Hey, CM, post a pic of the Weiland fixed blade tanto. Would love to see it.
 
I waited 18 months for one commission,when it arrived I could not take to it, moved it on.
 
Four long years, from maker Mike Hensley out of the NC mountains. Have another on order that my dad placed on my 15th birthday, I turn 18 in a little over two weeks and the knife has not even been started. Fine with me because I know how high the quality is and that only a handful of other people own his knives.
 
I'd say that within one year is what I would consider "reasonable". Any longer than that and I think, if I were making knives, I would probably stop taking orders for a bit. I agree that I'd rather have the maker making my knife to as close to perfection as it can get than shortening my wait time. I don't mind waiting if the final product was worth it. But after that long, so to not drive away potential customers and to avoid errors in my own work, I'd give myself a little time to catch up to the orders I'm already working on. I'd also be afraid that my customers would lose interest in the product in the time it takes me to make it haha.

By the way, is Demko still taking orders? I'd love to get in line for an AD10.
 
If it's a one-off I've commissioned, or something really unusual or special, up to a year. If it's a maker's standard piece, six months. Maybe in the case of illness, or other special circumstances, I'd be prepared to wait longer. I've been on the receiving end also, I know some people expect to have a custom knife sent out even before their cheque has cleared, and can behave like real idiots. However, particularly for guys working on their own, as has already been said, once the waiting-time backs up to over a year, it's maybe time to think about stopping taking orders for a while.
 
All I can say is that some of you guys have the patience of a mountain. I doubt I could wait a year or 8 months, I'd find somebody else to make my knife. For me, a three month wait seems reasonable. If it goes over a year, I might be inclined to think I was going to get burned but then on the other hand, I never know what I'll be doing next year anyway.
 
My longest to date was 1yr 3mo for my Turkey Mountain Chopper from Tad Lynch. Well worth the wait.

For me it just depends on the maker and how bad I want the piece.
 
Exactly, I have taken as long as 9 months. I made a Damascus bladed skinner for one of the local patrolman here in Las Vegas. Once his turn came up, it took me 6weeks with the sheath. He was patient and that always makes the job faster.
 
2 Months is my maximum. I rather spent +30% of the price than waiting for years, I probably lose the interest been waiting for that long, my life is too short. YMMV.
 
The great makers all have long waits. It's the nature of the game. Not hard to imagine why, if a man's work appeals to you because of its quality it stands to reason that it will appeal to others for the exact same reason. I'm not just talking about knives either. Some day I hope to have a custom 1911 built by Ted Yost of Heirloom Precision. IIRC the wait list is at five years and counting.

For most makers, I'd be willing to wait a year. That's a long time, but it isn't too bad because I'm a knife enthusiast, I already have several knives to tide me over. I'm prepared to wait even longer if we're talking about a knife made by an ackowledged "master." I'm not talking about ABS mastersmiths, although several would undoubtedly fall into that category. I'm talking about legends such as Bill Bagwell, whose wait list is currently at two years, Tony Bose or Vince Evans. In the case of the latter two, they don't even have a wait list that you can get on. They make what they want and when they do offer something up for sale you had better be quick on the trigger because you will be competing against several others to buy it. If they ever open up a list I am pretty sure that there is a long line of people willing to endure the years-long wait for one of their wares.
 
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marthinus said:
Then you have makers that do everything from scratch. Cutting with a grinder, sawing by hand, using minimal power equipment. Then the waiting time goes up....a lot.
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I'm exactly what you described.
 
RevDevil said:
Zookie, that is pretty good for wait time. I had to wait 18 months for a custom from another maker. I must have fallen theough the cracks. :(
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Rev,

Wow that is quite a wait time, must be worth it though! I'm way too impatience to wait for a custom, and I thought 6 to 8 weeks was long ;).
 
I ordered my first custom 2 days ago and he said about Sept 10. Only because he will be away on his boat for a few days. That is Robert Carter Knives. He is a very nice guy-made my first custom knife order easy.
 
Whatever the maker tells me. But then he needs to make that deadline. Don't tell me 3 months and then expect me to still be waiting 6 months, a year, two years later. A good maker should know how long it takes him to do the job, should know how many orders he can handle, should have reliable equipment, etc. One reason I don't pay up front for customs any longer is because of my first, an 8 week order that turned into two years, followed with the maker skipping out on a lot of customers. If I'm told up front that it will be a few years, then I would wait a few years. But I won't wait a few years and "just another couple of weeks, hurt my back, the dog got sick, truck won't start"
 
all this complaining!? obviously no one here's on scott cook lochsa waitlist :p
I'd love to get on his list if someone dont wanna wait:D
 
PassinBy said:
all this complaining!? obviously no one here's on scott cook lochsa waitlist :p
I'd love to get on his list if someone dont wanna wait:D
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I would be except he closed it a while ago... If you guys wanna start with those, I will wait for a Les George, Jeremy Horton, Ernie Emerson, Scott Cook, to open their lists back up and that damn list of makers goes on for a LONG time....
 
harkamus said:
2 years is the most I'll wait. Hmmm. Darrel better get on it since I commissioned my piece from him in January of 2011. Something tells me I should give him a call. hah.

Hey, CM, post a pic of the Weiland fixed blade tanto. Would love to see it.
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