Here's the update. To get an idea of my conversion ratio, throughout the show I counted foot traffic, looks, likes, cards given etc. and am really impressed with the overall weekend. I directly sold 2 knives off the table, had sufficient "Dang those are nice I'll be calling you!" conversations that if 1/3 come through it going to bury me again. One gentleman came and talked, left and came back from 30 minutes away to bring me some blades he had CNC'd out for me to finish, even. I also picked up a custom "Build me this, I know someone who has one of your knives already" commission from another individual in Billings. Very good weekend, so now I'm going to double down and add the show circuit to my regular routine.
My takeaway is that you can do very well even in the current economy by selling tightly detailed and conservatively priced handmade knives that are practical even at a "non knife" venue. By detailed I mean that you just can't have anything going wrong with them, your finish has to be consistent, grinds 100%, handle shaping identical side to side and knife to knife if they're a particular model. They can be working grade, no mirror polish or ivory handle required - just nothing obviously "wrong" with them. That was one of the most commonly said things was that a lot of custom knifemakers are excusing away possible flaws and worksmanship issues with "Well it's handmade, what do you expect?" That was brought up by a good half dozen people I spoke with, that they like the custom knives but the makers they've seen just aren't making that clean of a product to justify their pricing.
Other notes -
I met a couple of other knifemakers at the show and we all followed different disciplines and game plans. I have mostly some very good and a few not so good things to say about some things I encountered with that. I learned a lot. We all go about our business differently but I'm convinced that the way I'm doing things is going to work very well in both the long and short terms and keep my integrity intact.
People like black handles. The natural micarta sold but it wasn't picked up nor asked about nearly as much. The general public doesn't care about what the stag is made out of as long as it looks like stag for a user grade knife, I'd sensed this before and it won't affect my higher end handle decisions but regular jigged cattle bone is a good product to provide contrast to your black handle choices and gets handled almost as much.
The customers also like seeing multiples and models. I got a lot of conversation out of having 4 combat grade patterned the same with handle material variety to them, the same with the "Rimfire" of which I took 6 in black and natural micarta. I suppose it gives a sense of confidence in the maker's ability to get several finished, more or less identically, with options available for the handles and sheaths.
There's a polishing wadding product called "Nevr-Dull" that is excellent for outright removing grey early rust from the logo side of your etched blades when you apparently didn't get all the oxides off with Windex because you were in a hurry at 3 AM the previous morning. It's great, leaves a oily film that's not attractive but is obviously corrosion resistant itself and easily removed with a dry tack cloth. I had some shiny blades and was happy with it.
I think getting a knife + sheath combo that's got a utility or camp/hunter style to it for around $100 is a sweet spot. A company out of Escanaba Michigan is doing very well at the "Factory" end of this. Plenty of room underneath for us solo makers.
I've got a lot more to say, the majority of which is very old news to anyone who has done shows before. Overall I'm very glad I jumped on this and will be doing it again.
