Not taking orders anymore, and why.

[Salem Straub]

A dozen emails attached to each knife is right! And, I hate when after those dozen, the customer drops out, never mails back. At least have the courtesy to say you're no longer interested, or the quote is too high for your wallet right now. That happens rarely, but is one thing that bugs the crap out of me.

Not to turn this thread into a rant. But I felt better after making the decision, and I'm not worried about how it will turn out. I don't have a problem selling knives built on spec usually.

It's good to see that so many of you all think along the same lines. But hey, we're knifemakers, right? That's what I like about shoptalk.

 

[james terrio]

A dozen emails attached to each knife is right!

Such is the onus placed on those who accept custom orders. There's no doubt that true customs take up a boat-load of time. After the initial quote, drawings, e-mails, ordering special materials, etc. etc ... takes up time that we could be using to make another knife.

Time is money. That may sound crass, but it's true. No one wants to work for free.

People who want a truly custom knife need to understand that... and most of them do.

Quoting high in the first place helps to weed out the looky-lou's, who probably aren't going to commit anyway.

I've been remarkably lucky so far; only two custom clients have ever backed out on me... one, because he simply didn't have the cash when his knife was ready (on time)... Not my fault. Stuff happens, No problem, I'll try to sell it to someone else.

The other, apparently he just got tired of waiting and said "*^%* it". Refused to respond to my emails. That's my fault, for missing my deadline. It'll either sell on the open market, or I'll have a really nice knife that I don't need.

 

[Shawn Hatcher]

I just closed my order book for the same reasons so many of you have listed. I don't think I'll ever allow myself to get backed-up again.

I actually very much enjoy the creative process of "collaborating" with customers. It helps broaden my skill set and creativity to try things that I otherwise wouldn't do. But, as stated by so many of you, it's terribly time-consuming. Not to mention the overhead of ordering specific materials for that one order.

Another problem I have is the customers order knives that I designed a long time ago, and I want to make the knives that I designed yesterday!!

I think in the future I'll continue to take custom orders, but only on a very limited basis. I like the idea of offering the spots using a lottery, or some other random method.

This has been a great thread. Thank you for starting it, Salem! :thumbup:

 

[Tait]

Congratulations!

I pretty much only make what I feel like making, but it's a hobby for me.

From my limited perspective, the decision to not take orders seems like the mark of the successful artist.