Hi. New member here.
Yes I think we are having to compete with some very good factory knives.
One of the problems is that much of this is sold as 'handmade', when, judging by the quantities and appearance, it likely isn't. I've seen 'hand forged' blade blanks that were clearly stamped out in a press. Having said this there is still a solid market for things deemed 'authentic', and many buyers will want to know they are getting knives from a trusted source. In Europe and UK there is a good market for mid-price 'bushcraft' knives right now.
The whole "hand forged" thing can be a problem. You see makers calling themselves such and such forge who are making blades that have been "textured" on the flats with a ball peen hammer, dies or, in some cases, merely by leaving the mill scale untouched. They are NOT forged blades and sometimes, the makers never actually say that they are, BUT there is an implication.
You also have people doing the Scandinavian thing of handling bought blades and calling them "custom" "handmade" or, on occasion, "
mid tech." Once again this can be a tad misleading as we in the US do not typically spike out the job of "knifemaker" and the "bladesmith" like they do in say Sweden or Finland. As for blanks, they don't have to be "stamped." The can be waterjet, laser or plasma cut too. But this is not just a problem for the "handmade and custom" knife biz. I love how you still see people o Youtiube telling you how much better these "forged" kitchen knives are than the cheap "stamped" ones. In fact, almost all of those "forged" integral bolster kitchen knives began their lives as a giant roll of strip steel and had the bolsters forged welded or soldered to the STAMPED blank. Some of the "intrgral" bolsters in Japanese knives, even some fairly good ones, are soldered and may actually be hollow. I have one like that. Good knife but not "forged" in the manner some might think. Last time that I checked, there one like maybe one of the German makers still drop forging SOME of their knives. IIRC, a number of the REAL Sabatier knives are still drop forged.