Starting out making knives.

[dougluvn]

 

[rockstar.esq]

dougluvn

I appreciate your effort to help others to pursue their goals.  There are a few points in your commentary that I'd like to address.

First off, you made an almost off-hand comment about a day job during your explanation of how to start a business as a knife maker.  This is a huge truth that your audience may overlook. There is no consistent and profitable market for most people's first attempts at knife making.  Material cost alone are more than the price of mass-produced knives.  Making knives is a common and popular hobby among working people, so you'll have to sink a lot of money into your hobby before your skills will permit a viable commercial enterprise.

Second, you made some points recommending that people gradually acquire tools, so that the knife sales can fund the enterprises growth.  This was presented in opposition to an example where an individual took out a loan to equip their shop. You made a significant comment at the end "...it's like it becomes a job or something". If the goal of the whole thing is to make knife making your new job, your advice seems counter-productive.  If profitable sales truly are stacking up faster than production, it would be much better to finance expansion to meet the market need before clients find a competitor who will.  Sadly, very few new knife makers will ever find themselves in this position because they start out competing against efficient knife making factories, and hobbyists who literally work for free.

Third, you recommended that aspiring makers should avoid working when their tired, even if this means a delayed delivery.  This sentiment was reiterated later in the video where you advised against spending too much time in the shop.  All of this would be fine advice for a hobbyist, but it's a very different situation for an entrepreneur.  Dithering dilettantes are rarely acceptable in the working world.  It's always disrespectful, and often unethical to break promises to the client.  A whole lot of businesses ultimately fail because they just aren't capable of meeting real client needs.  If that tends to look like longer hours than you competition works, odds are good that you're not as efficient as you should be.  

Finally, I think it's important to highlight something that went unmentioned in your commentary.  Entrepreneurs do not create clients.  If there is little to no barrier to entry in a given market, odds are beyond excellent that you're in one of two circumstances.  You're either the first business selling something completely new, or you're jumping into an over-crowded market which will not provide enough market share to support your fledgling business.  Knives aren't new, so most aspiring knife makers should give some careful consideration as to how they intend to secure a client base. 

Who and where are the buyers? What matters to them, and what is the trading value for what they seek?  Once you know all of that, ask yourself if you can profitably meet their demands?  See this is the thing, most business advice works in the completely opposite order.  Everything is about gradually growing things like a nut to a tree.  Nobody thinks about where to put the nut in the first place.  There might not be light on the forest floor (like a crowded market).  There might not be water in the desert (like opening up shop where nobody lives).  It's absolutely amazing how little business people concern themselves with basic market research.  

That being said, I think I know the reason why.  I think people are afraid they will discover that their dream isn't viable, so they prefer to place their faith in chance.  Just about everyone has a success story involving a stupid and/or lazy person.   

While I have a lot of faith in the goodness of others, I look both ways at roundabouts.

 

 

[Buzzkill]

28 minutes ago, rockstar.esq said:

It's always disrespectful, and often unethical to break promises to the client.  A whole lot of businesses ultimately fail because they just aren't capable of meeting real client needs.

This is true, but he is correct as well.  If you try to push too far and your accuracy suffers and/or you begin to create additional unnecessary safety risks, you don't do yourself or your clients any favors.  If you make a mistake which is unrecoverable you will have to start over, further delaying the delivery of the product, or you will have to deliver a substandard product.  Neither of those options are beneficial to the paying customer, and both become significantly more likely the longer you continue to work after your performance starts to deteriorate.

In the extreme case if you injure yourself pushing too long and too hard you will delay delivery of the product, have an additional medical expense, and possibly significant recovery time and/or reduced capability for a while.

A solution may be to sleep a short time and get back to it, but I agree with him that it is better to stop before making big mistakes or causing injury than to try to meet a deadline.  Anyone consistently in that predicament has either taken on too much work in too short a period of time or has been unrealistic with clients about how long it will take to make the product(s) - or they haven't managed their time well.

I can't argue with anything else you mentioned though.

[George N. M.]

Doug, welcome aboard from 7500' in SE Wyoming.  Glad to have you.

You have given some good advice, particularly not to try to power through and finish something when you are tired.  That is a good way of making a mistake and either injuring yourself or damaging a knife.  

Also, keeping your business and personal money separate is excellent advice that many folk do not heed.

However, more important than this is, IMO, the decision of what you are doing.  Is it a hobby where money is not a consideration and you will gift your output to family and friends or is it something that you are try to make a living at and support yourelf and your family?  Or is it something in between, a hobby that pays for itself or a supplemental income.  If it is truly a business, either self supporting or a primary income generator a person MUST recognize that the skills of running a business are very different than the craft of knife making.  It is a completely different tool box and many, if not most, folk who are good crafts people do not have the skills to run a successful business without training.  And most people with a craft, skill, or profession do not like the down and dirty job of running a business.  There are many, many people who have decided that they do not want to work for "the man" and hang out their own shingle, mechanics, knife makers, lawyers, doctors, etc. and discover that running the busness side is not something they like or that they are good at.  Withinn a few years they are back working for a wage or salary.

Also, everyone should recognize that the market for custom knives is limited.  If someone wants a blade to cut string or boxes or dress a deer they are probably best served by a decent commercial blade.  However, the number who are either collectors or are willing to pay for the special, custom blade, not because it does its job any better, because it is hand made or made to their specifications and who have the disposable income to pay for the time and effort it takes to produce such a blade is limited.

Any way, glad to have you and I hope you keep posting.

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

[George N. M.]

PS  There is a lot of good advice about running a business in the "Business Side of Blacksmithing" topics.  I suggest that you or anyone else thinking of making money from a craft review them.  Open your favorite beverage, sit in a cmfortable chair, and spend several hours reading through them.  Take notes.

GNM

[rockstar.esq]

Buzzkill,

You and dougluvn are correct about rest as it applies to safety and/or quality.  I have no disagreement with either of you on that point.  

In the context of providing business advice to entrepreneurs, it's important not to conflate a cause with an effect.  The whole idea here is to point out avoidable pitfalls.  Underestimating the amount of time something needs to take is the cause, which leads to the effect of breaking a promise to the client.  

I think it's also worthwhile to consider what drives the risk of any particular option.  Yes, being tired makes it harder to focus.  A lack of focus could absolutely lead to mistakes or injuries.  That being said, there might be ways to reduce the cognitive load of whatever you've got to do.  There also might be ways to isolate, protect, or better control whatever work poses the greatest risk of ruining your piece.

Fixtures, jigs, and self-registering tools are common for a reason.  I've personally seen lots of shops where some daily process is performed with a slapped together jig or fixture which shows evidence of hasty patch jobs all over it.   When asked, the maker says something like this:

"I made this one night when I almost couldn't save a piece in time to deliver the job, it worked so well I just kept using it.  It saves me so much time that I never get around to building a better one, I just patch it again and move on."

The old expression "Necessity is the mother of invention" exists for a reason.  

 

[dougluvn]

Gentlemen thanks for your input and comments.  You all point out some good points.  If I were to get into all the "yea buts" or "in this case" in the video it would have been a very long video and folks would have tuned out.  I also offered advice from my own personal journey and experience.    I was careful to no give bad advice and I am confident that what advice I did offer would be helpful to someone.

Thanks for watching my video, its appreciated.  I going to start a series of videos where I build a weapon that had an impact on history then talk about it .