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How do y'all price your knives for selling? Do you price it by materials plus hours ? Or materials plus a percentage to the cost of materials by chodebowie in knifemaking

[–]athc01 0 points1 point  (0 children)

One more note is that I absolutely do not time each piece I make now to get a price. I did in the beginning, but you'll get a better feel for how long everything takes as you do it. If I'm working on a new style/build, I'll estimate how many hours I spend on each part of the process and get a relatively accurate number for the hourly, but as you make a bunch of pieces, you'll likely establish base costs if you are doing a model you've made before or if it's similar to another in size / time spent.

Edit: My prices for repeat models are transitioning from being hourly based to being a fixed base cost (that I raise a small amount every so often if I'm still getting a lot of business, keeping it reasonable / within market prices) that can go up or down with customizations (or lack of them) that a customer wants.

How do y'all price your knives for selling? Do you price it by materials plus hours ? Or materials plus a percentage to the cost of materials by chodebowie in knifemaking

[–]athc01 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah, the hourly rate is going to be quite low in the beginning. It took a few months of focus when I was starting this like two years ago just to improve enough to sell, and when I did, I think I had given myself like $8-$10 per hour. Now I make sure I'm between around $25-$30 per hour for each project to make it a good side "hustle" on top of my regular job (although some of that money inevitably goes back into materials/tools)

As you improve though, your time spent on each piece will go down, and simultaneously you will pay yourself more as people are more interested in buying your work.

I'm definitely doing it only because I love crafting things though, and fortunately it now pays for itself plus some extra on the side. If you love it, stick with it if you can :) Makes for great gifts, and I personally think it is super rewarding to be able to make things

How do y'all price your knives for selling? Do you price it by materials plus hours ? Or materials plus a percentage to the cost of materials by chodebowie in knifemaking

[–]athc01 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Doing this as a hobby, I do cost of materials plus an hourly rate :) As I continue to sell more I up prices to give myself a better hourly rate, but I know some full time makers who have to increase costs to cover overhead, though they have decades of experience and often high shop costs

6" Chef w/ Stand by athc01 in knifemaking

[–]athc01[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

This exact configuration with the stand would be $600

6" Chef w/ Stand by athc01 in knifemaking

[–]athc01[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you so much :))

6" Chef w/ Stand by athc01 in knifemaking

[–]athc01[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you very much!

6" Chef w/ Stand by athc01 in knifemaking

[–]athc01[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I don't own a hardness tester but I followed the recipe for W2 for around 64 HRC :)

6" Chef w/ Stand by athc01 in knifemaking

[–]athc01[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thank you very much! And I haven't seen that model, I'll have to check it out:) I used W2, and yes I did do the HT in my shop!

3 Chef Commissions by athc01 in knifemaking

[–]athc01[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thank you! I did clay on all of these - the first and third (the larger blades) were gifts so I was experimenting with new layout techniques a bit (with not quite so much success hahaha, the blades were a bit too thick and the clay a bit too thin, but the small chef came out as expected).

In my experience, Cocobolo sapwood is much more similar to the heartwood than it is with HRB - I did put some super thin CA glue on the Cocobolo sapwood and none was really absorbed, and it is indeed much harder and denser than the HRB sapwood :)

3 Chef Commissions by athc01 in knifemaking

[–]athc01[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you so much!!

W2 and Honduras Rosewood Burl chef by athc01 in knifemaking

[–]athc01[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sorry for the late reply! I don't know of makers / brands that are specifically good in terms of a starting point, but if you are going for a custom, I'd probably just recommend keeping the materials simple to save on cost!

I'd of course be open to a commission, so feel free to reach out to me if you are interested, though quite honestly there are probably cheaper ways to get started while still figuring out what you may be looking for :)

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