Do you charge more for a hand rubbed mirror finish?

J

JDW

Well-Known Member
After finding no faster, easier way to mirror finish, other than a few tips to speed it up a little. I got to thinking about pricing for a mirror finish, I have always charged a few dollars extra for a mirror finish, but not nearly enough to cover the extra time and paper cost. So my question is, do you charge extra for that hand sanded mirror finish, or just eat that time and extra paper? Pricing is the hardest part of making and selling knives for me.
 
I recently asked this same question. I got many different responses. But the general answer was simply charge as if you were doing a mirror finish for all the knives and that way you will not have to charge more.
 
I would. In fact I would charge more for anything that took more time, attention to detail, skill, etc....

Not that you're trying to make so much per hour, but you do want to make something.... especially if you use more consumables to do it. I.E., sandpaper.

I think a there's a general rule of thumb for what to charge for a knife. Something like for what you sell one knife for, you should be able to make at least two more just like it? That includes material (steel, wood, micarta, pins, kydex, rivets, leather, or whatever...) as well as consumables (sandpaper, grinding wheels, electricity, gas, drill bits, epoxy, etc...) Time is rarely factored in, as it might take you 8 hours to make a type of knife, where another maker might be able to make one in 4.

That's not to say you should eliminate it from the equation, as some things do inherently take more time than others, but just make sure you're not losing money at the end of the day when all things are considered.

Another thing is that obviously the custom knife market will dictate prices to an extent based on the type of knife, fit and finish, materials, etc... but you should still be able to make money on it when all said and done.
 
Getting carried away with the got to make the money and get paid for all the work I do aren't you? I encourage you to center on QUALIty on all aspects of the making. I don't charge more for a polished blade than a satin hand finished on. Is the knife what it should be with the polished finish or is the satin, or bead blasted, or acid washed or hey even Damascus a better choice? Frank
 
Frank Niro said:
Getting carried away with the got to make the money and get paid for all the work I do aren't you? I encourage you to center on QUALIty on all aspects of the making. I don't charge more for a polished blade than a satin hand finished on. Is the knife what it should be with the polished finish or is the satin, or bead blasted, or acid washed or hey even Damascus a better choice? Frank
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When I start making $1500 dollar folding knives, I doubt I'll charge an extra $20 for a mirror finish either.... ;)
 
Getting carried away with the got to make the money and get paid for all the work I do aren't you? I encourage you to center on QUALIty on all aspects of the making. I don't charge more for a polished blade than a satin hand finished on. Is the knife what it should be with the polished finish or is the satin, or bead blasted, or acid washed or hey even Damascus a better choice? Frank
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I do center on quality on all aspects of each knife! And my knives are working knives for hunters, and sell in the range of $100.00 to $225.00 at the high end, and that is using Cpm154 steel, and stabilized wood on handles, so at those prices when you throw an extra $10.00 in for sanding supplies and an extra couple of hours work to get a scratch free mirror finish, that the customer wants, I think that it should be charged for. Now if I were getting $500.00 dollars for a knife, of the same materials, I probably wouldn't even be asking the question. Also if all I was concerned about is making money, I wouldn't be making knives. Sorry if this offends anyone.
Dale
 
It's not the mirror finish - that I don't use- that creates the higher values. And I sold hundreds of hunters at $175 and much less with mirror polished blades and never concidered that should increase their value. Frank
 
I think some knives look better with a mirror polish and some with satin. I do not believe in price points for either.
 
That is what, I'm saying. Do your best work on every one and when the knife if finished decide by the overall quality of materials, styling for it's application and qhality of finish , what it's value is. Frank
 
I guess I don't agree with anybody on here *maybe one. I say if you think you're spending that much extra time, then charge for it. I know it takes me between 2 and 4 EXTRA hours for a decent size knife to be hand rubbed. This could be because I don't have much of a grinder/tooling to get it to the stage it needs to be. I know a local that's been making knives for 40 yrs, exclusively out of 440C, almost exclusively with stag handles(that he gets for free) and only goes up to 400-600 grit on a disc sander. Then buffs and such. His cheapest knife is around 200 dollars and people are beating his door down to get them.

Some people have 5k worth of tools that takes them to a point in the finish where the hand rubbing only takes another 30 mins. Most of those folks won't understand why you would want to charge extra. When I can make a necker in the time it takes me to hand rub that one, I'd rather make a necker that I could get 75 more dollars than sand on one that's already basically done. I basically figure my time at 15-20 and hour, and if I can't make that I'd go work one of my other jobs. If your work comes out to $5 an hour, it matters not how pretty your knives are, cause you're dead of starvation!!!
 
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My local butcher charges more per pound for neatly wrapped steaks, roasts and burger than he does for an uncut side of beef. It's the same amount of meat, from the same animal. No one complains about that!
 
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After quite a bit of study and debate, I decided long ago to charge by the hour for my work... there was just no other practical method to use to put a price on my work.

Because of this, the amount of polish I put into a knife is one of the most, if not the most important factor in how much I charge for a particular knife.

If it takes longer, I charge more.

(often I find myself charging by how long is should have taken as opposed to how long it did take)
 
I don't do mirror polishes anymore because I like the looks of a satin finish better. I think a good straight satin finish just adds to the look of a knife
 
Boy am I glad I don't have to charge by the hour. If you are the only one selling knives locally, you can ask any price you want and still sell. When and if you get to a show or sale where others are there selling you may get a big surprise how over priced you have made your work. As a person needing to earn a living you may have to try to get the maximum for each knife made. I still don't see how this is going to make it any better or worth any more . You can spend endless hours polishing a blade that was poorly ground to begin with. Asking more for the time spent just isn't right in my opinion. Frank
 
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