How long does it take you to make a knife?

L

Lee B

Well-Known Member
How long on average does it take you to make a knife?

Being new to this about the best I think I could do is a knife in a weekend. On my first knife I didn't have a belt finer than 220, so I did a lot of hand finishing on the blade. With my second, I had belts up to 400 grit, so I saved some time there, but spent a bunch of hours on the handle. Because it is handled with a rare piece of wood I didn't trust myself with the belt sander, so I roughed it out and hand finished it. And the seven coats of finish took some time to apply.

Just curious how long everyone else takes...

Lee
 
Lee,
This is one of those questions that there really needs to be more guidelines for.

Customers will ask me this usually after they have heard the cost of one of my knives. It seems they may be trying to figure out how much profit I am making?

I tell then on one of my Rhino 9" Asian Chef knives, that they can take anywhere from 8 hours to four days! Depending on if everything goes right?

This is a true assessment of my just true hours making this knife model providing I don't have any "Design Modifications" to deal with?

I then explain that some days I do nothing but fix machinery, others I spend on the phone ordering supplies and talking with customers, others are spend choosing and cutting up woods to be sent for Stabilization or cleaning up blocks and book matching them for Knife handle inventory.

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Laurence

www.rhinoknives.com
 
Most of the knives I am finishing today were started 30 to 35 years ago. I started at a time when I was in the ART jewelry market. Started in the FINE jewelry market and was there for 30 years while my un-completed knives sat in a box all that time. I am having fun getting all the old projects out of the box (closed my retail studio in June, after 28 years at the same location) and finishing them. When I was re-educating myself on knife making recently, I figured that I could get 3 of the same style knives done in a week, with pouch sheaths.

If you are planning on making your living with making knives, spend some time planning your workflow around producing the style and amount of knives you will need for your inventory.

If you are an old fart like me, time invested in making a knife really doesn't matter. It's the fun that counts....Teddy
 
I now also work in batches of 3. The one ordered and two for inventory. Forged knives with sheathed takes me 5 to 7 days to complete them including the heat treat. Stock removal saves a day or two in the process. If guards are anything other than my standard one I do then add a day or two. I do my heat treat in house and most of my leathercraft is hand sewed by me.
 
I agree with that being a very wide question. There are going to be a lot of factors to nail down, from blade size and style, forged or stock removal, level of final finish, tang type, etc. Some multiple coat oil finishes take days to dry but very little shop time during the process.
I suppose the quick answer in my case is a few a week. If I put in 10 hour days and stay focused, I can produce three or four mirror polished 4" skinners with double mitered bolsters and horizontal sheaths in 5 days or so. That is if all my belts are brand new and sharp and I really push at it. The biggest thing that eats time is chasing scratches in the blades. I can spend half an hour, several times, getting everything just perfect.
Little 3" capers with no real flats to the blade so only the ricasso is hand sanded go very fast as nearly all the blade work is on the contact wheel, and those typically only get bolsters at the ricasso as well. My big bowies, if they're mirror finished, can take an entire week.
 
I made this stock removal knife in 1 day from profile to glue up including heat treat, then the following day finished the handle shaping after the glue setup overnight and made the sheath. The knife is 0-1 tool steel, hollow ground with a scotchbrite finish.
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I am not a professional maker but have been at this a few years.If I doing a custom piece meaning something that I dont normally make it will add a couple days to it which can really draw things out as I am a firefighter and I work for Mrs Kay from Duck Dynasty 2 days a week in addition so I can only work a couple days a week in the shop. With current orders I am about a month and a half out and have begun to work in batches and limited the steels I work with so the heat treats are not too far apart from one another. That said I just finished 4 Doc Trogdon style bowies that are to be rewards to some young men for their Bible memorization for the year. From start to finish it took 2 half days. I received no payment as I was my pleasure to be able to be a part of such a gift, however this was a special case and I had to manipulate everything to have the time to get them done. I also called my customers and asked if they were ok with me adjusting their delivery because of the request.
 
I guess it depends on exactly what the materials are and the specifications of the knife. I can make a hunter in about 6 days. Variations take longer or less time depending on the knife...
There was a mini series years ago called "Centennial" and in that movie the question was asked about time. The man replied that time is not important to the indians because they do not measure their worth by the amount accomplished in a set amount of time, but rather the quality of the finished work. That has stuck with me.
A good movie to watch if you get the time and can find it somewhere.
 
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