What price to sell your knife

Burchtree

Burchtree

KnifeMaker & Moderator
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I've said before that I'm just a hobbyist, but I really want a new grinder, and I'm thinking about selling a knife. How do you judge how much you're going to sell your knife for? I don't want to overprice it; if anything, I'd rather it was underpriced. It's the Turkish damascus knife that's giving me etching problems. I think I'm going to bring it in and put it in the scanner (I think that works) so you guys can see it and hopefully help me out on a suitable pricetag for it.
 
Interesting, but I doubt it would work for me. I've spent a lot of time on it due to lack of good equipment. Plus, all my etching problems.
 
Put a price on that you think is fair. See if it sells. If it doesn't, lowre your price. If you get 32 emails and 10 phone calls all wanting it at that price, might consider raising it. :)

Something I've been struggling with too, esp. as people I have sold to(my best friend) and guy I am planning on selling to next(a full custom for friend who got my started in shooting by GIVING me my first two rifles), sort of get extra points towards lowering the price, if that makes sense. But I think my advice up there, as rough as it is, really is way to go until you get more experience towards setting prices and stuff. I also have same problem of knowing I take longer doing the stuff then someone else might. Heck, I've watched speed increase greatly on certain things even just in the middle of a single knife, as I learn more tricks from on here.

One thing, is never sell knife for less than the materials you put into it. You can talk yourself(though it's unwise) into not charging for the labor here at the start, but never take a loss on the materials. Like I can tell you right now that I will NOT sell one of my knives for less than $30 or so(and that'd be a basic small tactical). Now no, my materials technically aren't that high, but I send them out for sheathes right now, so I ahve to cover the cost of that. But I'd say my advice up there should be a rough help. And start low with your hourly costs. Next batch of knives I make up(if I don't have all these stupid things come up), I'mhoping I can get between $5-10 an hour for them. This depends on the knife, and includes fact that sending out for sheathes instead of making my own cuts into possible profit margin(not complaining, just a fact). But something like you mentioned, out of damascus, and a fancier knife, will tend to make more profit then one of my tactical type ones. Takes longer to make the fancier ones(remembering time spent doing the hand rubbed on my last one) but you can make more on them. Just something else to consider. I dunno, I'm done pretending I know how to price knives. :)
 
Similar to what etp777 said, but with no experience as a knifemaker or appraiser, I would say sell for at least the price of replacement parts (steels, quenchant, polish, money towards new tools, beer, drawing paper, grease pencils, cigarettes needed to time temper) plus how much extra chicken scratch it would take to tempt you to run out and plan and create a knife on top of those materials.

hth
 
Using cigarettes to time the temper, and I've been informed I need to drink a 6pack while sandblasting. Explains what my knives are missing. ;)
 
Well, I stuck it in the scanner, so here is a very rough idea of the knife:

damascus.jpg
 
Well, i am not an expert by any means, but this is what I have been told in the past. Take your hours into it, multiply by 5, add your material costs, then multiply by 2.

For example:

$30 for materials
10 hours labor

Selling price: (30 + (5 x 10))* 2 = $160

I have only sold two knives so far, and have given away two, soon to be 5.

Here is what they looked like:

Blade

Handle

Triplets

I sold each of these for $250 and each came with a hand tooled hand made sheath. Each knife took me about 9 hours to make which included the sheath. Four knives came out of the damascus billet, which took me 10 hours to make.

Looking back, I would rather have charged $275 or $300, but hind sight is 20/20. However, I am in a very good position for pricing high. I don't need to sell knives to make a living, which is nice in many ways, but also does not leave me as much time to work on them either. Freakin' day jobs anyway:D

I would strongly caution you against selling at too low of a price. It can be very detrimental to you and to other custom makers. I would just do a gut check and set the price on what you would be willing to buy it for if you didn't have an emotional attachment to it.

Just my $0.02

What kinda grinder you lookin' to buy? Just curious.



Edited to add:

Here is a link that might help too.

http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=235363
 
Those are nice-looking knives -- what system did you use to get your good etching?

I'm looking to get the 72-inch Coote, but might go cheap and get the 48.
 
If at all possible get a 72. a 48 coote would definitely be better than some kidna 48 from sears or something, but Ithink you'll really like the 72. extra length makes a difference, keeps things cooler, gives more room for working, and gives you a MUCH better choice of belts, at better prices, that last longer to boot. And yes, I know other people already told you this in another thread, I just wanted to remind you.
 
That's the plan, but my poor Tahoe needs some new shoes too. Damn bills.
 
If it was me I would go a head an get a grinder
from Rob. Yes it a little more then the Coote
but I think you would be much better off. But
what do I know
 
Who's Rob? Do you have a website for the grinders you're talking about?
 
What's the etching trouble that you are having? Are you losing the pattern after it turns black? I use Delberts damascus a lot. To get the best etch I mirror polish the blade, then make sure it is clean and then etch for 5 min. Then take a piece of 1000 grit sandpaper and lightly go over all the blade surfaces, then dip in etchant and rinse till you get the darkness you want. Her eis a pic of a dagger I did with Delberts turkish. I think it came out pretty good.

As far as pricing, you can never get back all of the hours you put in. Sometimes I have more than 50 hrs involved in a knife, but if I charged by the hour they would all cost thousands of dollars. Account for your materials, some of your time and compare your knife to similar work by other makers work and their prices. I judge my knife prices by the best and worst knife on my table. The best gets the highest price and the worst the lowest. The rest fall somewhere in between. Just keep at it, it gets easie rand you learn more with each knife.
 
Rob's websites is here:

www.beaumontmetalworks.com

I used the about same etching process that Bruce Bump Described in your other post. I use my ferric at 7 to 1 and use straight vinegar for 5 minutes to neutralize.

Hope that helped.
 
It's just getting a dull glaze. I'm going to go through the whole process tonight again. I will whip that turkish's ass!

Thanks for all the help everyone.
 
Bob Engath suggested for makers starting out to multiply their materials cost by 4.

That doesn't do much for your hourly rate. Seems the longer I make knives, the longer each one takes! My price is going up a bit more quickly, so that my hourly rate is getting better, but it's still under $10.

Why is each one taking longer? Because I do more by hand, working toward a better finish. Some things you just can't do with a big power tool...

Dave
 
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