Knife Making Startup Costs....Need Input/Help

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madupree said:
Well for S&G I called Jeff Mutz and was surprised at the coSt for him to getting the bevels and heat treat my blades. It's actually about the same price for him to do both steps than for Texas Knife supply to just do the heat treating, looks like I'll be sending the blanks to him and when I get them back 'they'll be ready for handles' as he said.......
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Smart move! :thumbup:
 
Brian.Evans said:
1. Even if everything else goes right, Marshall's handles are likely to be blocky. This will especially be true if he uses a round over bit in a router. (HORRIBLE idea, by the way.)
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How is it any different to the handles on an ESEE?
Might not be your or my idea of ultimate comfort but theres nothing offensive about it and it works for a lot of people.

You can add me to the 'dont really need a bandsaw' camp, in this case.
Buying one 'just in case' is pretty dumb
 
FTO_dude said:
How is it any different to the handles on an ESEE?
Might not be your or my idea of ultimate comfort but theres nothing offensive about it and it works for a lot of people.

You can add me to the 'dont really need a bandsaw' camp, in this case.
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Re:ESEE. Very true. I cede that point to you. Not a custom knife, but a lot of knives have been made with blocky handles for lots and lots of years. ESEE, Ontario, Schrade, lots of big names. I sometimes wonder if all the handle shaping we do is for naught. Seems like an ovoid cross sectioned, mostly straight/ever so gently curved handles would work better for 95% of things we do with knives.

In this particular case, I agree with the no band saw. Attention aspiring knife makers that read this thread later: I think a bandsaw makes life easier. Absolutely necessary, gonna die, not going to be able to ever make a knife if you don't have one, no. But I love mine and wouldn't go back to cutting out blades with chain drilling and angle grinder if you paid me to!
 
FTO_dude said:
How is it any different to the handles on an ESEE?
Might not be your or my idea of ultimate comfort but theres nothing offensive about it and it works for a lot of people.

You can add me to the 'dont really need a bandsaw' camp, in this case.
Buying one 'just in case' is pretty dumb
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Yea nobody that handled my prototype once said that the handle felt 'blocky' or that it needed to be rounder. If it comes down to it and I really need to cut a piece of metal right then and there, I have 2 hacksaws......
 
madupree said:
Yea nobody that handled my prototype once said that the handle felt 'blocky' or that it needed to be rounder. If it comes down to it and I really need to cut a piece of metal right then and there, I have 2 hacksaws......
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Prototype? Can we see some pics?
 
madupree said:
Yea nobody that handled my prototype once said that the handle felt 'blocky' or that it needed to be rounder.
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Would you consider any of the people you showed it to 'knife guys'?
We're all commenting based on our market. Selling to knife guys, where handles have to be better than just 'no complaints'.
If you've got a table full of flat/corner rounded handles and the bloke next to you has a hand filed, contoured and sanded handle, guess who's getting the sale?

Your way is no doubt going to achieve your goal but we all want to aspire to more, and not get by on just the bare minimum
 
NC Biker said:
If you have never made a knife, what was the prototype?
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jobasha11 said:
Prototype? Can we see some pics?
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FTO_dude said:
Would you consider any of the people you showed it to 'knife guys'?
We're all commenting based on our market. Selling to knife guys, where handles have to be better than just 'no complaints'.
If you've got a table full of flat/corner rounded handles and the bloke next to you has a hand filed, contoured and sanded handle, guess who's getting the sale?

Your way is no doubt going to achieve your goal but we all want to aspire to more, and not get by on just the bare minimum
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No but the people I showed it to is going to be the same type of people getting the knives in the end, I'm also not gonna have a gent next to me trying to sell his knives too, also, being as how I'm taking out the process of grinding the blades, still purchasing a grinder, might take the extra time to perfect the handle more, make it slightly 'rounder'
 
Im with you on that, catering to your customer base. Just trying to explain why these guys arent keen on it.
 
In the end, if will be the decision of the guy paying me for the knives, if he wants the handle rounded more, it will be, if he likes it like it is, that's what it'll be
 
One other thing that's been 'brought up', what classifies or doesn't classify a custom knife?
 
I really like that design. Can you show the prototype instead of a cad rendering?
 
as well as unnecesarily difficult to clean up. same goes for the triangle lanyard hole at the glass breaker
 
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