Does laser engraving a knife (blade or handle) diminish its value?

Z

Zartoon

Joined
Aug 15, 2014
Messages
158
Greetings,

I'm new here, and have a question regarding laser engraving knives in general.
Is the consensus that laser engraved knives have diminished value? (both handle and/or blade)
In my mind, there are a couple of categories of these, but feel free to educate me on this:
1. Laser engrave a logo (armed forces, Law enforcement unit logos, special interest logos, etc.)
2. Initials, Names, employee numbers, badge numbers, etc.
3. Dates, events, etc.

This would be similar to the laser engraving offered by Benchmade or other knife makers, or taking a knife to a laser engraver to have it done.

Thanks,

-Z
 
Anything that makes it uniquely yours means the value is most likely diminished if I am going to consider buying it. In my case, any time I laser engrave a knife I just resign myself to keeping that knife forever.
 
Zartoon said:
Are Daltons laser engraved often?
Click to expand...

Sorry. Old reference. While back, Dalton chose to do some pretty specific engraving which damaged the value of his knives to many, many people. Though not to the folks who appreciated that specific kind of engraving. They loved it! Again, they are a limited market.

It's the risk with engraving. Antique silverware is a good example. You have great old silver spoons all engraved with as "S"? You gotta find Mr. Silverspoon to sell them to. Now if they are engraved with two esses? Market becomes even smaller. See above. Hint, hint.
 
marcinek said:
Sorry. Old reference. While back, Dalton chose to do some pretty specific engraving which damaged the value of his knives to many, many people. Though not to the folks who appreciated that specific kind of engraving. They loved it! Again, they are a limited market.
Click to expand...

Thank God for that! :thumbup:
 
If one is considering resale value, or even desirability, skip the engraving. There are very few exceptions to this, IMO.
Of course, I'm also the guy that won't buy from a maker if I don't like the maker's mark; so place whatever value you want on my opinion/advice.
 
I hate anything that has been personalized. And really if it end up on the secondary market how personal was it?
 
hhmoore said:
If one is considering resale value, or even desirability, skip the engraving.
Click to expand...

If it is a very personal and most likely permanent purchase or gift such as buying your son or younger brother his first knife, I wouldn't consider engraving to be out of place if tastefully done.

I do feel that it can look very out of place if done poorly and unprofessionally.
 
I have only ever engraved one knife with my name because, at the time, it felt like something that I would carry all the time. Anyway, I fully expected to not easily sell it should I wanted to one day due to the engraving. It would surprise me if anyone would pay extra for a knife that was engraved aftermarket especially with another owner's design choice. Don't engrave your knife unless you don't care too much about the resale value of it.
 
Don't buy knives if you're interested in resale value - buy real tangible assets or just save your money instead. IMO.
 
It depends on what you engrave on the knife.

Anything personalized (initials, pet names, to/from, etc.) will end up in negotiation when selling: The buyer will claim it should lessen the price, the seller will claim it to be innocuous and that it does nothing to harm the knife itself. This has been my experience with both private and brick and mortar sellers of such second hand items.

If I liked the deal enough I might overlook a small personalization if I really liked the knife. After all, engraving does nothing to the actual performance.
 
Personal engraving makes a knife next to worthless to me. I'm definitely not carrying a knife around with someone else's name on it. It's like all the poor saps who have something personalized when having an autograph signed, and then trying to sell it on Ebay or wherever.

A picture of a popular actor autographed by that actor goes for big money, however one that says "To Doug, thanks for being a fan!" and then autographed is going to go for a lot less.
 
I don't really want a knife with someone else's name burned into it. I don't even want one with MY name burned into it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top