At the very first knife show I ever attended in Missoula, Montana, in 2010 I had four knives on my table.
I think they were all hunters. I had a blackwood and ivory handled one, one with redwood burl and bronze guard, and one with ironwood I think.
Then I had one that had bright lime green maple burl. I loved the color and look. Thought it was very cool. It had a real mother of pearl inlay and thorn and vine filework all the way along the spine of the blade. Not something I would necessarily carry myself, but thought it was really cool. I thought maybe a guy would buy it for his wife or some woman at the show (very common actually) would see it and love it. It was slim and elegant and sort of meant to be a ladies knife.
Anyway, it was a pretty busy show, attended by lots of men and quite a few women. My other three knives got handled by almost everyone that stopped at my table and I sold 2 out of those 3. But that bright green handled knife never even got touched, not one single time by even one finger. It never even got mentioned in fact. It was like it was invisible to the public. I had a hard time getting rid of that one after the show too. Finally I did sell it many months later to a lady for her kitchen.
I learned right then and there that some handle materials, in this case green maple burl, are pure poison to many buyers. I'm in this to sell knives and I want to sell as many high end knives that I can so these are sometimes hard-learned but valuable lessons from a strictly selling standpoint.
Mark, it's very important to me that I stress this again- I am REALLY impressed by your work here and not knocking that at all. I believe you know that from your statement that "This is how we learn." You're absolutely right about that. I pay particular attention to what the higher end prominent collectors want and try to catch their eye every chance I can. I see real potential here for you and so just wanted to pass along my insights. I DO NOT know it all or have all the answers.
There is someone out there who would just absolutely die to have this knife exactly the way it is and love the handle too. In fact, the way my luck goes, after I've spouted off about it, someone will post on here right behind me and say "I'd like to buy this knife if it's available."
There is a buyer for every knife, they just may not be in the vast majority and will take more looking to find them. Even my toxic knife with the 'kiss-of-death" green maple eventually found a home.
Also, I was not aware of any agreement to use and show kirinite prior to this thread so my apologies if anyone was offended. My feeling on the material has not changed so I don't want to seem wishy washy. There is something for everyone. That said, this material will never be desired among most serious knife collectors.
I actually like the cross hatched filework on the frame of the handle. I think it looks neat and well done and the finish on your frame looks great. I really want to see one in blackwood (or ebony or rosewood). I think the workmanship is fantastic and this is all meant to be an encouragement.
Sorry for the long post.
