What If You Don't Want To Make A Certain Knife?

I have seen the "quote high to chase the customer away" backfire more than once. (Not that your quote was that high, especially considering the R&D you'd have to do to further your skill set and shop resources to accomplish it.) The most awkward time was at a cooperative art gallery I was a part of back in the early 80s in the Southern Appalachian Mountains. We had some paintings by a well traveled and very successful artist from Rio de Janier. One of the pieces we had on display was not for sale. The Lieutenant Governor (at the time) of Georgia, whom came from the town we were in, asked to buy the piece. My friend quoted him what he thought was a ridiculously high price. Good ol' Mr. Zell Miller didn't bat an eyelash and said he'd take it. Well my partner was in a tight spot having agreed with the artist that we would not sell the piece. It took awhile to track down the artist and get the go ahead to sell it.
 
That is a job well suited for David DelaGardelle and Andy Davis..They are very adept at that type of knife/sword..Though they dont work together anymore Im sure one or the other could do it..They made Heimdalls sword for the movie "Thor"..The work these guys do is amazing considering they are in their early 20's..
A note on "overpricing"..Ive lost a few guns from my collection like that..Guys would keep pestering me to "price it,price it"..I said tomyself "self, Ill throw out a rediculous number to chase them off"...Well there are folks out there with a lot of money:p I lost a original marlin 39 with ballard cut rifleing, a custom 1911 and a sweet straight grip remington special field by "overpricing"..:mad:
 
I generally don't make knives that I don't want to make.

"Just say no!"

Knifemaking ceases to be fun when you have to work on blades that you don't care for.

I would give him a quote of $4K for a completed piece.

If he still wants it, make it.
 
My take on this is;
People will see a fantasy sword or knife in a mall shop or online that sells for a couple hundred dollars.
They think to themselves "that is too expensive, but I know a guy who makes knives. He could do it for less"
What they don't know is that it is not a real knife and it was probably mass produced in China.
The way I deal with unusual requests that I might consider is to ask the question "What sort of budget do you have in mind for this?"
Lots of times their answer is not even enough to cover materials. After explaining that I usually suggest they purchase the one they saw at the mall or ???

A problem with quoting high on something you don't want to sell is that it usually turns around and bites you in the butt later.
After they get over the initial excitement of getting what they wanted it turns into "so and so ripped me off and charged me double what this is worth".
Now you are the bad guy instead of the person who parted with something you would have rather kept for yourself.
 
I too would encourage you to just say no if it is something you don't want to do. I have seen the "way too high" a quote backfire many times. One time really stuck in my mind over the years and was a real "life" lesson for me. Had a friend that was a horse breeder. He raised an exceptional stallion. A horse of a lifetime. Built his whole successful breeding program around this horse. Then one day a guy shows up to buy the horse. My friend didn't want to sell of course, so quoted him a price that was "insanely high" as he put it and the guy wrote him a check on the spot. Couple of years later the money is spent, he was never able to replace the horse and he was out of business. Since you know the guy, doing some research and pointing him in the direction of someone who does that kind of work would be a friendly way of saying no.
 
(This isn't directed at the OP, but at the others who've shared there stories in this thread...) Why not just say that the item isn't for sale? Am I missing something? I honestly don't understand it.
 
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I'm no knife maker (yet:D) but if you friend intends to pay for it I'd help him find a descent quality replica.
Just my $0.02 hope this helps.
 
Someone actually did make that final fantasy sword. It seems pretty well balanced, must have a distal taper...

[video=youtube;VNc7kHADtUw]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=VNc7kHADtUw#![/video]
 
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