Where to sell?

We are TOLD that they put their best effort shinto forging the blade. That may be so but the insistence on sticking with old traditional methods may not always be a good thing. Its like when I visited Lombardi's pizza in New York. Sure it may have been the first pizza parlor in the US, but some improvements have been made int eh ensuing 100 plus years. ;) Point being that some of the best Japanese smiths arguably produce a superior product in SPITE of their methods. I'm gonna get struck by lightning for saying that!!!:p
 
Sidehill Gouger said:
My problem with most of the American custom kitchen knives i see at shows is the makers put most of their effort into a fancy handle. You don't cut anything with a handle. The classic Japanese smith puts all his talents into forging the best blade he can and then buys very plain handles in bulk from a handle maker. But if this is only about having fancy things on your counter to impress guests you won't be selling me much.
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i agree, but there are senior makers telling newbies to add the fancy handle to increase profit. "son, you add this $50 set of scales I'll sell you and you can get $300 for that knife instead of $150." my thoughts have been make the best blade possible, whether forged or stock removal, then add a handle that makes the blade easy and comfortable to use. it seems a lot of Japanes knives use Ho, a magnolia variety that is in the same family as yellow or tulip poplar.
 
I completely agree with that sentiment Sidehill Gouger, and there is nothing wrong with doing a complex handle with high end materials either. Lots and lots of people expect that on a $500+ knife.

But even if a knifemaker does a simple handle, it should still show good workmanship. Huge epoxy joints, and asymmetry are going to look bad no matter what the price is.
 
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jdm61 said:
We are TOLD that they put their best effort shinto forging the blade. That may be so but the insistence on sticking with old traditional methods may not always be a good thing. Its like when I visited Lombardi's pizza in New York. Sure it may have been the first pizza parlor in the US, but some improvements have been made int eh ensuing 100 plus years. ;) Point being that some of the best Japanese smiths arguably produce a superior product in SPITE of their methods. I'm gonna get struck by lightning for saying that!!!:p
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Yeah but they also have access to cleaner steel. I would LOVE some white paper or 1.2519 for some chef knives. But I agree with mr Carter's statement. Of course I'm new at kitchen cutlery and my opinion doesn't mean anything ;):p
 
Whats wrong with say 52100 or Don Hanson's W2? BTW, you do know that some of the top Japanese knives like Shigefusa actually use steel from Sweden, right? ;)
valknut said:
Yeah but they also have access to cleaner steel. I would LOVE some white paper or 1.2519 for some chef knives. But I agree with mr Carter's statement. Of course I'm new at kitchen cutlery and my opinion doesn't mean anything ;):p
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Absolutely nothing wrong with them. From my understanding the HT is just much more simple and you can actually quench in water that will give you a harder knife. No I didn't know that at all.
 
valknut said:
Absolutely nothing wrong with them. From my understanding the HT is just much more simple and you can actually quench in water that will give you a harder knife. No I didn't know that at all.
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HT of O1 or AKS 52100 or 1.2519 couldn't be simpler. 8 to 12 minutes at 1500F, quench in oil, temper at 300F for Rc65. and you will probably never hear a "Tink". really don't have any more ideas for selling other than a place like Etsy or craft/knife show. folks will spend $45 for a fancy salad spinner but freak out when you want $100 for a paring knife to cut up the salad.
 
Yeah, same with a Viking range which can cost anywhere from $5000 to $20000 plus that have a block set of "pretty" German knives sitting next to them. My brother and I have joked around for years about what percentage of those expensive kitchen appliances do little more than prop up take-out cartons most of the time. ;)
scott.livesey said:
.....folks will spend $45 for a fancy salad spinner but freak out when you want $100 for a paring knife to cut up the salad.
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I made my cousin a paring knife and all her friends threatened to steal it. Then I made her a kiritsuke, and now she locks her doors at night in rural Virginia. Women have been really responsive to kitchen knives, in my experience, and we're not talking traditional housewives either. These are people who love food and good tools.

The nice thing about this market is that we don't have to appeal to EVERYBODY. Just the one's who care. Finding those right people is the trick. We can't compete on price - that's a race to the bottom that is won by economies of scale and marketing, not a surplus of performance or craftsmanship.
 
I started full time in January making kitchen knives and all my sales (say 95%) are from Instagram, online,
 
jdm61 said:
So where in the heck are people selling custom kitchen knives? There isn't much action on here and the specialized forums seem to have continued their historical trend of self destructing because of butthurt, etc. Where are the really successful makers that aren't named Kramer getting their product out in the public eye?
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To directly answer your question about where people are getting exposure and selling, I think social media is playing a big role at the moment. I'm personally on Instagram a bunch and have a lot of people following me (as well as following other makers myself, always wanting to learn from and be exposed to everybody). Although I have an Etsy store, I get random inquiries all the time and haven't had anything in the store for a year, half because I'm a hobbyist that never has inventory and half because people ask for dibs on anything I post on my social media so everything basically is presold. If I was making 10 knives a month instead of a year, then maybe that wouldn't be the case (although this year is even less knives completed by far unfortunately :poop::().

In person, you might do okay at arts and crafts fairs/shows depending on the clientele; tire kicking shows not so much, shows where people with disposable income are magpies would be better especially since you'll probably have less competition. Somebody who sees a cool knife you have at your table have few other choices in knifemakers to distract them versus pottery and wood workers who would be a dime a dozen in comparison.

I wouldn't necessarily poopoo the enthusiast kitchen knife forums. You can gain some traction there if you catch some interest. KKF has pumped up Joe/Halcyon Forge within the last year as well as others but it's a bit of luck depending and the members tend to be biased towards Japanese styles. However, other kitchen knifemakers like Don Nyugen, Ian Rogers/Haburn Knives, Mareko Maumasi, Bryan Raquin, the Bloodroot knives boys, and more are never having problems selling $500 to $2000+ knives, only problems keeping up with demand. However, the vendor subscription cost at KKF is way too expensive IMHO (think it's $750/year). On the other hand, you can get a free subforum at the Chef Knives to Go forum and could send out a passaround knife to promote yourself. At least it's free, and if you post attractive knives, people will see them...

One thing about the kitchen knife enthusiast forums: if you would make custom Japanese styles wa handles and possibly custom sayas, you could potentially rake in some nice cash. The same people who won't take a chance on a custom kitchen knife by a western maker will still happily drop $100 to $200 or even more for a new handle on their Japanese kitchen knife. :rolleyes: Personally, I'm only interested in making my own knives, not rehandling other makers' knives, but if I was in business full time, it's definitely a revenue stream I'd consider pursuing.
 
The reason that I mentioned Bloodroot was that they were rocking before they ever signed up for KKF as best as I can tell and post very infrequently. Yet they have a multi-year waiting list last time that i heard unless you luck into one of their raffle knives.
milkbaby said:
To directly answer your question about where people are getting exposure and selling, I think social media is playing a big role at the moment. I'm personally on Instagram a bunch and have a lot of people following me (as well as following other makers myself, always wanting to learn from and be exposed to everybody). Although I have an Etsy store, I get random inquiries all the time and haven't had anything in the store for a year, half because I'm a hobbyist that never has inventory and half because people ask for dibs on anything I post on my social media so everything basically is presold. If I was making 10 knives a month instead of a year, then maybe that wouldn't be the case (although this year is even less knives completed by far unfortunately :poop::().

In person, you might do okay at arts and crafts fairs/shows depending on the clientele; tire kicking shows not so much, shows where people with disposable income are magpies would be better especially since you'll probably have less competition. Somebody who sees a cool knife you have at your table have few other choices in knifemakers to distract them versus pottery and wood workers who would be a dime a dozen in comparison.

I wouldn't necessarily poopoo the enthusiast kitchen knife forums. You can gain some traction there if you catch some interest. KKF has pumped up Joe/Halcyon Forge within the last year as well as others but it's a bit of luck depending and the members tend to be biased towards Japanese styles. However, other kitchen knifemakers like Don Nyugen, Ian Rogers/Haburn Knives, Mareko Maumasi, Bryan Raquin, the Bloodroot knives boys, and more are never having problems selling $500 to $2000+ knives, only problems keeping up with demand. However, the vendor subscription cost at KKF is way too expensive IMHO (think it's $750/year). On the other hand, you can get a free subforum at the Chef Knives to Go forum and could send out a passaround knife to promote yourself. At least it's free, and if you post attractive knives, people will see them...

One thing about the kitchen knife enthusiast forums: if you would make custom Japanese styles wa handles and possibly custom sayas, you could potentially rake in some nice cash. The same people who won't take a chance on a custom kitchen knife by a western maker will still happily drop $100 to $200 or even more for a new handle on their Japanese kitchen knife. :rolleyes: Personally, I'm only interested in making my own knives, not rehandling other makers' knives, but if I was in business full time, it's definitely a revenue stream I'd consider pursuing.
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