knife buyer

[canid]

i'm a little encouraged at the moment. i have had two promising inquiries about my knives in the last week, and the day before yesterday while perusing craigslist i saw an ad from a local person who buys [i presume resells] knives and is very interested to see some pictures of my work with pricing.

just sent an email, and i'm hoping for a favorable reply by monday.

[Winter]

I hope you make enough to move out of Cali.

[canid]

thank you.

not to move out, but to get out for a short time. have to visit my mother and get into the woods for a bit if i have the opportunity. first comes the power bill and such.

[Winnie]

Good luck, hope the deal goes through, Canid.

[crashdive123]

Good luck.

[COWBOYSURVIVAL]

Canid, Check with privately owned lanscaping supply stores. It is what I did, made small talk with the owner about his business and now I have a case in the store. Might be something to think about. His reply was I get people asking for knives all the time. Makes sense that a landscaper will carry a knife to me.

[panch0]

Congrats Candid! I hope you get the deal.

[canid]

he likes what he saw, and picked no bones with my asking prices, and asked some questions about my techniques.

as long as he doesn't mind my improvised methods, i think it looks promising.

there is a sporting goods store here which is willing to carry some of my knives as well.

[crashdive123]

Awesome. Congratulations and good luck.

[doug1980]

Good job man, that's awesome news. Was this something you wanted when you began making knives or did it just kinda lead to it?

[oldtrap59]

Good luck canid. Hope this works out for you. Got to tell you that the knives you've pictured on the forum should be retail hotcakes. You do good work man.

oldtrap

[canid]

i'm not out to make much, but i gotta eat and afford to resupply the shop from time to time, so i'm happy to try to sell some. so far almost nobody with any interest has followed through.

i don't know how well business with this guy will work out yet; he seems to have his own ideas of what i should be making, but time will tell. he sells at knife and gun shows and likes to buy wholesale.

[Winnie]

i'm not out to make much, but i gotta eat and afford to resupply the shop from time to time, so i'm happy to try to sell some. so far almost nobody with any interest has followed through.

i don't know how well business with this guy will work out yet; he seems to have his own ideas of what i should be making, but time will tell. he sells at knife and gun shows and likes to buy wholesale.

If he's wanting wholesale prices, could you not go to these shows and sell direct to the public instead of a middle man making the money?

[canid]

not conveniently.

[Camp10]

Dont compromise on your knife styles for this seller. There is nothing more frustrating than making a knife that isnt the way you envision it. You can play with your price some and the size of his inventory but it is hard to get into making a knife that looks wrong. I hope you can find some good buyers Canid!

[Rick]

For another view..... You are the manufacturer. The manufacturer provides products to the customer's specifications. Ya'll can be a starving artist if you want but if you plan to sell volume to a customer then you pretty much have to produce what he and his customers want. Otherwise, it's a product looking for a market.

Customer: I need a metal box 14X12X12 made of # 13 steel.
Metal Shop: Sorry, you'll take a 15X15X15 and like it.
Customer: Huh? (putting money back in pocket)

[Camp10]

For another view..... You are the manufacturer. The manufacturer provides products to the customer's specifications. Ya'll can be a starving artist if you want but if you plan to sell volume to a customer then you pretty much have to produce what he and his customers want. Otherwise, it's a product looking for a market.

Customer: I need a metal box 14X12X12 made of # 13 steel.
Metal Shop: Sorry, you'll take a 15X15X15 and like it.
Customer: Huh? (putting money back in pocket)

That's not exactly what I meant. I dont know is Canid is trying to make a living with knives or just make the hobby pay for itself. His answer might be very differnt than mine if he is after a career as a maker but I will answer this from my perspective.

I had a guy draw me the most ridiculous picture of a cutting tool...I cant call it a knife. I agreed to make it and I just couldnt get into the design or materials he wanted used. I think it is an awful thing, I doubt it functions right and worst of all, it has my name on the side of it. In all honesty, I would rather have never made that knife and never made that money.

If the guy just said, make me an upswept knife with a 5" blade and put cherry on it for a handle, he would have got a much better knife. If he asked me to design it and he would decide for himself by the paper pattern, he would have got a better knife.

IMO it is impossible for one person to make knives by hand (one at a time) and fill a volume order. Just my heat treat on most knives takes 3 days. For me it isnt about selling volume, it is about selling one knife. Then its about selling the next one.

[canid]

yeah, i'm not out to sell any great volume of knives as things stand now. heck, $50-100 would keep my shop in abrasives and such for a month and allow me to pick up a handy tool or two as well.

for some examples: i'm hoping to replace or re-wind the motor on my table saw. that isn't a big expense, i just can't do it right now.
i've got to replace the drive belt on my sander [$12] and pick up a couple new 4x36" abrasive belts for it [$5].
i go through about a dozen 6" sanding disks in a month, and they are 3-5 for $5.
the only thing keeping me from trying the kiln for controlled heat treatment is a new 30 amp fuse. and possibly some wiring repair [it's old]

pretty much just small beans at a time.

if this guy wants to suggest "such and such a style of knife will sell better and i'll buy as many as you care to make", because he has a load of experience selling knives then it's good for both of us. if he wants to tell me "make this design, and i'll need 20 of them by the next show or we cant' do business" then it might not work out.

[Rick]

Since he was going to knife shows I "assumed" he wanted more than one or two. Maybe a wrong assumption.

Having your name on a bad design (in your opinion) is certainly a valid consideration and one you have to weigh for yourself. You may well be right that a sale like that is not good money in the long run. I can't argue with that at all. In fact, the customer may NOT be happy with their own design and you wind up loosing future sales to that customer for doing precisely what he wanted you to do.

[canid]

yeah, my impression is he wants me to be churning them right out.

without extra cash to begin with, i haven't got the means or materials to do so, much less do i want to make a dozen or two of the same knife.

i'd rather be making the knives i want to make as a learning experience, and still be willing to make some of the knives people want, but i'm not running a factory here; i've got a work bench, a handful of hand tools and 4 power tools, with my eye on a couple others.

[canid]

speaking of having my name on, i need to start either etching in a trademark, or make up a stamp.

[Justin Case]

Yes you should !! Leaving behind Knives that will be treasured and passed down through generations would be a pretty damn good legacy if you ask me :)

[canid]

if it's about legacy then the tool will speak for itself. for me, the trade mark is about speaking for me while i'm trying to sell a product.

[Rick]

Yeah, legacy is great but being alive and collecting money is a lot better in my book.

[Justin Case]

Whats wrong with doing both ? :)

[crashdive123]

speaking of having my name on, i need to start either etching in a trademark, or make up a stamp.

I'm going to try my first makers mark this evening, after work. I'll be using stencils and the electro-mchanical thingie I got last weekend. All I have now is a plain jane typewriter to mark the stencils. I'll eventually come up with a better design (open for input) and have them made.

[Camp10]

speaking of having my name on, i need to start either etching in a trademark, or make up a stamp.

I bought my stamps through Buckeye engraving. They were great to deal with. They e-mailed a preview of what the stamps would look like and were willing to change any part of it if need be. I liked the first design and went with it. They arrived about 2 months later. Not bad IMO.

I also have a personalizer plus to etch. I like it and use it on my stainless knives but I paid way more than I needed to for that..my friend made his from a model train controller and it works great.

Adding your name really increases the price you can get for a knife. If you build a reputation as a maker of solid, well build knives then the benefits of a brand are obvious. There is the collector market also though..even if the buyer has no idea who you are, they will take a chance because if you make it big as a maker, it might be worth something someday.

[canid]

one sold [pending payment].

now i have one more single piece sale to try to close, another one to look into and to see what this knife-show buyer is interested in. i hope this trend continues :D

[Rick]

Congrats!! Here's to many more.

[canid]

thank you.

i can't say how much i'm looking forward to being able to do more, and start some more bows. if i'm to have any sort of business, however small, they are a fair return on investment as well, and an immense fun to make.

i just got another inquiry. i suppose when it rains it pours. i've had part of that offering up for two weeks. i put the rest up, and now i'm getting several inquiries in 48 hours.

[crashdive123]

Congrats Canid.