BlackthornForge Posted June 30, 2015 Share Posted June 30, 2015 Hello, I need help with pricing this knife. I was asking $800 but I think I may be way overshooting the value of the knife.440c Stainless steelNickel silver bolster and pommelMammoth tooth handleRoughly 10-15 hours of work.Material cost and heat treat was around $300, and I usually ask $20/hour for labor, which brings me to $600-$800 for the knife. I know there are some minor imperfections in the blade and accents, but I don't know that they drive value down a whole lot so I'm looking for some pricing advice. Did I waste my money/time/effort by putting a mammoth tooth handle on a 440c blade? Am I even in the right ballpark with pricing at $800?If I'm in the right price range, what can I do to move this thing? If not, where should I be?Thanks in advance. Sorry if this is the wrong board for this post. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Sells Posted June 30, 2015 Share Posted June 30, 2015 What have your other blades been selling for? Price is what ever people wish to pay for it, demand increases perceived value. I have never seen a modern mounting on a kriss style blade, I have no idea if there is an market interest for that, I do more historic styles.Trying to sell your ideas at an hourly labor rate normally does not work for blades, maybe for a commission you can try to bid that way. I bid by sq inch of finished blade plus hardware. As you do more of one style you will get faster and better, so your analogy of $20 per hour states the newer/better blades will cost less than the first one with more mistakes. Also remember that while you and I know what mammoth scales cost, the end buyer may not care about you using mammoth scales as much as your failure to match the pins to the bolsters. Not to step on your feelings but if you want $800 for a knife you need to clean it up the lines, watch for color matching and make the effort to finish it. People expect a lot more out of a $800 blade than just expensive handle material. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted June 30, 2015 Share Posted June 30, 2015 (edited) Steve covers it fairly well; also half the price for a high end blade is the reputation of the maker; what's yours like? Might be able to ornament the pins so it looks like they were chosen off color for a reason. Minor imperfections in items that are expensive are not minor. Edited June 30, 2015 by ThomasPowers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
j.w.s. Posted June 30, 2015 Share Posted June 30, 2015 Haha, welcome to the Dragons Den of Knives.. Allow me to give my own, very humble opinion, and I assure you I mean no disrespect but I wont hold anything back either. I see a few issues: First though, it's a nice knife, it's obvious that you put some time in it. Clean lines but could be better, looks like a decent polish, a few deep scratches here and there, but in general - sloppy (and I make a living with "sloppy" so I'm not saying it's a bad thing, but your using the wrong canvas for your paints if that's where you want to go). I can still see your pins on the bolsters, Steve got his reply in first so I wont say any more on that. I like the mammoth, but if you're not going to be 110% on your fit and finish your customers aren't going to care about the fact that you used an expensive handle material. I'm not a huge fan of mirror polish, and most of my customers are moving away from it too. 440C is not a huge selling point in my own opinion, matter of fact, that goes for just about any stainless for me, and I know a lot of my customers feel the same - let's face it, you can find a blade out of 440C for as little as $9.90, and while it's considered one of the best stainless varieties out there, people still equal it to kitchen knives, folders and sport knives in general. In their minds, it's a decent steel, but that 440 number they typically equate to "wall hangers" when it comes to larger pieces and those customers want the most bang for their buck - $800 could outfit the entire man-cave with all manner of swords, knives and implements of destruction. My biggest issue with the entire piece is the composition. Steve summed it up pretty well with "modern mounting on a kriss style blade" It just doesn't work. I can also show you very similar pieces with 'rosewood' handles that used to flood the $20 market from Pakistan and India in just about every flea market in the 80's. My final thoughts: Composition, composition, composition. If you're going to mess with a design that hasn't been market tested you're just going to waste your own time and money. Salvage the mammoth, rehandle the blade with some cheap wood, put an $80 price tag on it and kiss it goodbye, never think of it again except as a learning experience. Then take your $250 mammoth scales and save them for that piece that just screams for a little more than the usual, but don't go off trying to make that piece, let it come to you.-J Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlackthornForge Posted June 30, 2015 Author Share Posted June 30, 2015 Thanks for the advice. I had a feeling the minor things might kill this one. I rather like the modern-historic crossover so maybe I'll just keep this one both as a personal favorite, and a reminder about how important the small stuff can be in our art.I really like the input you guys had for me, and I think most of the critique was stuff I had identified too. It's definitely good to get an outside perspective. Thanks again! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlackthornForge Posted June 30, 2015 Author Share Posted June 30, 2015 (edited) J.w.s, can you elaborate a bit more on the "sloppy" comment? Are you specifically talking about the finish and scratches or is there more to it? Not offended or anything-I want honest and brutal feedback.Also what can I do on future projects to fix "sloppy?" Edited June 30, 2015 by BlackthornForge Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LastRonin Posted June 30, 2015 Share Posted June 30, 2015 As a consumer, not a maker; I just don't think that blade shape goes well with that handle shape.but, that is just personal preference. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
j.w.s. Posted June 30, 2015 Share Posted June 30, 2015 I had a huge reply written, and then it went poof. A quick re-type: I see scratches, I see unsymmetrical curves in the profile, your center line is off at the tip, the bolsters appear to be rounded where it meets the mammoth instead of seemless and the pin issue for a start. In the market you're shooting for, people expect you to be a machine, or even better than one. I know a few knife makers who go that direction and they live quite nicely by selling 2 dozen or less knives a year. Personally, that's not my market. When I'm making a prop piece, I can't have it look like it was just taken from the plastic, it needs to be aged and distressed. When making a tool like a hunting knife, I still take my lines to where you have them, then I booger them up - my market is small and niche, but my customers want a piece that looks like their grandfather trusted it for 50 years and passed it on to them to use for another 50. It's the difference between Piet Mondrian in his grid period and Jackson Pollock - both used the same colors but obviously their styles yielded vastly different results.-J Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted June 30, 2015 Share Posted June 30, 2015 Thanks for that artistically precise analogy! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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