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You do realize how capitalism works right? Even if people only bought certain popular knives for their looks (a proposal I respectfully disagree with, I think it has more to do with performance/brand), that doesn't matter. The system doesn't care why people buy a product. When people decide to stop paying way over cost for a knife, then the system will "correct" itself, IF it needs correcting. Honestly since buying any knife over 15$ could be called excessive, paying any amount over that could be criticized.
Do I think it's silly to pay thousands for a knife? At this point in my life yeah I do. So I don't buy them.

However, more power to whoever wants to pay that for a knife. I don't care how or why or when they pay for it.

Innovation is NOT A guarantee of more profit. As well, "innovation" is subjective, that's why the innovative flying car never "took off"(see what I did?:D)
 
Customs are fine, but I wouldn't think of paying more than $600 for one. There are just so darned many GREAT mid-techs and production knives that are super.
 
I've been pressing some of the high end standard models, and was getting ready to pull the pin on a popular mid tech. As an aside, I purchased a GEC single blade #55 because it reminded me of a knife I carried as a kid, and it hit me: What the hell am I doing? Why am I considering spending $500, $1000+ on a pocketknife?

I have high quality firearms, tools, and motorized toys, and a pocket knife costs as much or more than they do? Really?

Now, before someone set's up a 5' ladder to set fire to the sparse hair on my 5'6" frame, I know that there are some very high quality, well considered blades out there, and they're built by some of the finest and artistic craftsmen going, and that they have hours and hours devoted to the design and construction of their work. I own one custom knife, crafted by a very well renowned blade smith right here on blade forums, and it's quite well made, but for my needs, it doesn't do anything any better, with any more style than that little, unassuming GEC.

I understand that you may well be referring more to the collector rather than the user crowd, but growth trends in all items superficial seem to be moving downward. People are starting to lean more towards high quality with high value, imho.
 
Another facet of the "issue" might be that the things that made these customs worth so much money are now being used by manufacturers. Look at Zero Tolerance/KAI as an example. I dimly remember custom makers charging several hundred dollars or more for knives that were essentially ball-bearing flippers with titanium scales and a blade of a good or high end steel.

Well, today, you can tick off every single box by buying a ZT (or Spyderco as another example) knife. Same materials, a super high level of fit and finish, and so on.

I've held many custom knives at knife shows, made by people I don't know, where the asking prices seem vastly inflated. I understand that knives take a lot longer when every single part is made by hand. The issue for the knife-maker is that he's got to be able to sell that fact as something of worth. If you can get a great knife with amazing quality, with now ubiquitous features for a third or less of his asking price, a lot of people won't pay that, which is what you're starting to see now.

In this day and age where so many beautiful, strong, finely made knives are made by reputable companies, I think customs become something of a hard sell. That's just my opinion.





* As I am not a collector of custom knives costing thousands of dollars (and won't ever be), this market correction doesn't bother me in the slightest.
 
I already have a grip...

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I think it is just a down turn in the economy, a well crafted custom will always be in demand but the price will fluctuate wildly depending upon the number of bidders and supply from the maker. Look at Hinderers (their mid-tech XM-18 and not full on customs), they can be had NIB at less than the Ranch price if you are patient but were $100's over a year ago. They upped their production and there is only a limited base of buyers than will pay $400+ for a "pocket knife" so their price has gone down (not flaming on Hinderers, they have just been one of the most prominent and largest price dropping that I have noticed and Striders are starting to get hit, too).

The economy and plethora of better, high-end production knives like ZT, ZT LE's, Kizer, new Spyderco's, etc. in the $200 - $300 range (as Quiet posted while I was typing) using top end steels with excellent fit & finish seem to have altered the knife community's choices.
 
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Despite what your being fed by the media the economy both here and abroad is hanging by a thread. That might be a big part of your observation about the market as opposed to some of your other assumptions about vapid greed and not concerned about quality. I think it's the economy nothing more nothing less. People by and large are just as superficial as they have always been, it's just now everyone is broke and credit is maxed out.
 
MikeC said:
Despite what your being fed by the media the economy both here and abroad is hanging by a thread. That might be a big part of your observation about the market as opposed to some of your other assumptions about vapid greed and not concerned about quality. I think it's the economy nothing more nothing less. People by and large are just as superficial as they have always been, it's just now everyone is broke and credit is maxed out.
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This exactly.
 
Quiet said:
Another facet of the "issue" might be that the things that made these customs worth so much money are now being used by manufacturers. Look at Zero Tolerance/KAI as an example. I dimly remember custom makers charging several hundred dollars or more for knives that were essentially ball-bearing flippers with titanium scales and a blade of a good or high end steel.

Well, today, you can tick off every single box by buying a ZT (or Spyderco as another example) knife. Same materials, a super high level of fit and finish, and so on.

I've held many custom knives at knife shows, made by people I don't know, where the asking prices seem vastly inflated. I understand that knives take a lot longer when every single part is made by hand. The issue for the knife-maker is that he's got to be able to sell that fact as something of worth. If you can get a great knife with amazing quality, with now ubiquitous features for a third or less of his asking price, a lot of people won't pay that, which is what you're starting to see now.

In this day and age where so many beautiful, strong, finely made knives are made by reputable companies, I think customs become something of a hard sell. That's just my opinion.
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This,

Also a lot of new custom makers that jumped on during the boom with a bunch of hype have some personality issues with poor customer service. Combine that with a very small customer base, Prices fall dramatically.
 
Collectors value things at their own merit. You may value craftsmanship. But if somebody buys a knife because of the name, looks or prestige then that's a decision they make based on their desire. I honestly couldn't tell you why someone would pay that much for knucks with no practical use, but then again it's always been that way. People have always paid obscene amounts of money for things they want. That's why value is subjective. Someone may pay thousands of dollars for a diamond ring but refuse to pay 2 bucks for a bottle of water. But that same person dying of thirst in the desert would pay any amount of money for that water and completely disregard the diamond. Knives are no different than art...why pay millions of dollars for a famous painting when you could print a copy off the internet? Because the consumer values the painting at that amount. For some reason unfathomable to me somebody values those knucks at that price
 
i think the overall improvement of production knives would be the biggest reason for the lower desire for customs (if such a lower desire actually exists, i dont have any information on the subject so i cant say for sure if its true)
It used to be that to have a knife made out of s90v/s110v zdp189 m390 were only available as customs. now you can get a s110v knife for $100. with being able to get a knife almost as good as a custom people feel less need to spend large sums of money on customs. with improved machining processes that can hold tighter tolerances production knives are now very close to midtech quality and performance.
I have seen and checked out my fair share of customs and midtechs and i feel most of my Zero tolerance, Spyderco, benchmade knives are just as good and in some cases better than a lot of midtechs. they just arent quite as "personalized" as most customs are. They need to appeal to a large cross section of the market in order to sell well so they tend to be more plain looking. other than looks i cant tell much of a difference between my high end productions and customs.
The gap between midtechs and high end production knives will continue to shrink as better methods of production are implemented.

realistically there isnt much improvement in performance when you buy a custom. you may be paying 10 times more but that does not get you a knife thats 10 times better. people wanting customs has more to do with pride of ownership and aesthetics than any gains in performance. once you get over $150 you wont see that many gains in performance when you buy a $500 knife. The difference in performance between a $20 knife and a $100 is much larger than the difference between a $200 knife and a $1000 knife. This is called diminishing returns and is seen in almost (if not all) every product
 
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100% agree with everyone citing the economy, supply 'n'demand and current quality of production folders

I'd like to throw in the addition of patience, or lack thereof being a factor.....We've got a lot of people out there in the world now used to instant gratification and a 'want it now or not at all' expectation

Why wait months (years!) for the custom maker to produce the S30v flipper in a titanium frame-lock that's tuned to your tastes at $800 when $200 lets you buy the same basic knife from a manufacturer today?- albeit not tuned to your tastes but then paying 1/4th the price will take the sting out of that.

That's maybe a factor too....Expecting a 'Dominoes Pizza delivery time' from a one-man-band knife maker turns off the 'instant gratification' crowd.

Addendum:
I'd also add that this points to the inherent volatility in the reputation-based price of custom knives.
My wife's a jeweler and I'll borrow an analogy from her:
In 1920s jewelry people know Faberge as a 'touchstone' of quality- and they still fetch high prices on the name as well as the item itself.
Same goes for Lalique in glass- it's a bankable name and worth rooting out in thrift stores

But there were myriads of jewelers and glassmakers making stuff of identical quality at the time- some famous, some long forgotten now but many of whom had nearly as high a standing as Faberge & Lalique at the time
When these pieces from forgotten makers come up at auction they do well- but they don't fetch Faberge prices.
Fundamentally- there's no way to tell if the piece you are buying today is tomorrow's 'Faberge' or destined to be forgotten?.....Going back to 1960s knives: how many custom knifemaker's work from the time still command the big bucks- and how many are even remembered apart from to one or two aficionados?....

(and this is in the pre-Internet days, where things like catalogues, print ads in magazines and hard copy records were non-volatile data!....A big-name custom knife maker today may only have documentary evidence of their product on a website. When they retire from the game, there may be little to no provenance available for the future buyer to value their custom knife with!)
 
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asdf12345 said:
I agree with these assessments 100%. It is worth noting that certain knives still sell nearly instantly for as high prices as they have ever been, such as the CQC-6 and certain Rexford or Barker pieces. So it seems that knives which by their own merit never warranted the inflated prices in the first place are being devalued, as the maker's name & hype are no longer sufficient to give them a high value.

What still mystifies me is that CNC milled Andy Frankart knuckles and Burnley bottle openers are still selling for $600-1200, while incredible custom knives with dozens of hours of hand work go unsold at that price. If that isn't an indicator of how little these knife collectors actually value quality and craftsmanship, I don't know what is.
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People pay that sort of money for "knucks" and bottle-openers primarily because they look good in Instagram photos. :thumbup:

LOL
 
Quiet said:
Another facet of the "issue" might be that the things that made these customs worth so much money are now being used by manufacturers. Look at Zero Tolerance/KAI as an example. I dimly remember custom makers charging several hundred dollars or more for knives that were essentially ball-bearing flippers with titanium scales and a blade of a good or high end steel.

Well, today, you can tick off every single box by buying a ZT (or Spyderco as another example) knife. Same materials, a super high level of fit and finish, and so on.

I've held many custom knives at knife shows, made by people I don't know, where the asking prices seem vastly inflated. I understand that knives take a lot longer when every single part is made by hand. The issue for the knife-maker is that he's got to be able to sell that fact as something of worth. If you can get a great knife with amazing quality, with now ubiquitous features for a third or less of his asking price, a lot of people won't pay that, which is what you're starting to see now.

In this day and age where so many beautiful, strong, finely made knives are made by reputable companies, I think customs become something of a hard sell. That's just my opinion.





* As I am not a collector of custom knives costing thousands of dollars (and won't ever be), this market correction doesn't bother me in the slightest.
Click to expand...

Very well said. It's all about supply and demand. The supply of quality knives is increasing, which means that the market will flatten. People will pay less, and you can't blame them for it.
 
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