That's a valid POV - and I don't fault you for it.
And it was a valid question. No offense taken or intended.
The short answer is, there's a reason why overseas factories churn out thousands of cheap blade blanks, and almost no US knifemakers or factories do.
I reserve judgement on the topic of offering certain very basic blades for sale as blanks to be built/finished by whomever. There's no doubt that at least initially, that would be a smart business decision. More product out the door with less work... sure, why not?
Well, when you really get to thinking through the "why nots" from my POV... there are a
whole lot of "why nots". I'm not a factory and I most likely never will be... and the numbers just don't add up for a one-man shop cranking out ground, HT'ed blanks at a lower price-point for someone else.
In my mind, you getting 2/3 the price of a complete knife & sheath for 1/2 the cost of time and materials makes for a higher profit margin.
Utter fantasy. It just doesn't work that way... I wish it did; I'd be a much richer man if that was true. Not only is no one gonna pay 2/3 cost for a blade with no handle or sheath, your figure of 1/2 cost is way off-base.
Trust me, I've explored that avenue before, on a contract basis... it simply doesn't work for anyone involved unless you want the very cheapest steel and the half-assedest HT possible. That's why most of the knives on the planet today are made in terrible working conditions by people making slave wages.
A proper THK blade with no handles or sheath would be a
heckuva good bargain for the cat who wants a pro-level blade at a steep discount, that's for sure.
Not much of a deal at all for the guy (me) buying the steel, grinding it, having it HT'ed, etc. It's basically a wash, minus my time. So, that's a net loss. I'd be better off tending my vegetable garden, in terms of actual food on my table.
What folks don't understand is that a guy like me barely breaks even on just grinding and HT'ing a blade... the overhead, consumables, electricity, and so forth eat up all the cash on the table before I even begin to think about paying myself any kind of hourly wage. So by asking me to make top-notch, professionally-ground blades out of the best steel I can get, then have it HT'ed well beyond the norm and let you or someone else "build" a knife around it... you're basically asking me to work all day for free and pay you some extra for the privilege.
Not gonna happen.
The only way that sort of idea makes financial sense is to go full mid-tech and have a boat-load of steel waterjet cut, CNC ground, and HT'ed in large batches, then pay barely-skilled wage-workers to either ship 'em out one-by-one or assemble them. There's nothing "wrong" with that, of course; plenty companies do exactly that... but it's not what I do.
And that's not what people expect when they get a knife with my name on it.
It also depends a lot on whether a person is thinking of making a quick buck this month, or trying to build a lasting career over the next 20 or 30 years. Personally, I'm a 20-30-year guy.
A big part of why I'm growing towards a certain level of success is that my grinds are different from most other makers'. I grind 'em thin and tapered and light
so they cut better... that takes more time, more belts, more skill, and requires more care in HT. It also requires better steel and greater attention through the entire process, so my thin high-performance edges don't chip or roll or wobble in use. It ain't magic, and it doesn't "just happen". It's hard, time-consuming, painstaking work. Work that most makers and definitely most manufacturers don't even try to do... because frankly, doing it sucks pretty hard and the additional payoff is very slight.
My other "claim to fame" is that my handles are among the most comfortable in the business. By far, most of my clients gush about my comfy handles before they even cut anything with my knives.
I take a great deal of pride in that.
That doesn't happen by accident either, and I'm sure not gonna trust someone else to put "their" handles on my signature blades. At that point, I'd have completely de-valued everything that makes a Terrio knife, a Terrio knife, and completely cut myself out of my own market. Career suicide...
Every bit of that costs a great deal of money and time, and I'm just not willing to turn that kind of attention over to anyone else.
As for me making and selling blanks of my own favorite signature models like the SideKick, Strix, Growl, Ma Deuce, Fugitive, my favorite kitchen knife design, etc...
no, that's just not gonna happen.
Those designs are the result of
my lifetime of research and development. I realize that sounds weird, even oddly ego-centric or arrogant... so be it. I'll say it again... anyone who wants a real Terrio knife is gonna have to get it from me. (or maybe a dealer who sells real Terrio knives for me).
If by some bizarre stroke of luck, a major manufacturing facility wants to build one of my signature designs for mass production, I'd be a fool not to consider it. But I'm not holding my breath waiting for that to happen, and neither should anyone else.