Mosaic pins....love/hate?

Smallshop

Smallshop

KNIFE MAKER
I have come to a love hate thing with mosaic pins. You can work on getting a nice design,feel, balance, heat treat, grind, handle, and put bunch of effort into every little detail to make that knife the best you can...

Then you show it to someone and they will be AMAZED by the mosaic pins you installed. That will dominate the conversation for much of the knife discussion....

'bout ready to go to brass and stainless rod....Except...people love the look of those lil' buggers. Lol.

When I was a toolmaker you could spend days grinding in an inspection gage out of heat treated steel and most every custom sliding pin that you would grind to +/-.0001 would have knurling on it. beautiful black oxided gage with white laquer-stik in every stamped letter and the first thing joe public would notice is....the knurling. Took minutes to do...no tolerance...purely cosmetic (well...and the grip thing)

Some things never change I guess.

My knives are real simple (on purpose) perhaps mosaic pins are the proverbial gilding the lily?
 
I think it depends on the knife. Just as with any detail, the choice and selection of the mosaic pins can blend in perfect, or not. But people do pay attention to the details and mosaic pins are in the detail of the knife.
I like them but use them selectively.
 
I say it all the time: "pretty" sells. Look at cars. We're talking purchases in the tens of thousands of dollars for something people know they will replace in several years. For every tech-minded analyst out there who studies performance, maintenance history, etc- there are thousands of people who will buy a car based on the paint job and how many cup holders it has.
 
As designs go, my knives are very basic. Especially the kitchen knives. While the design may be basic overall I put blood, sweat, and tears into the geometry and the fit and finish. I am very proud of how my kitchen knives perform. However, the person buying the knife has no idea how it performs until they've already bought it. The vast majority of my customers are buying it because of the handle. I was shocked by this in the beginning, but I quickly made peace with it and embraced it as a simple truth. When I was really pinching pennies, the most logical place to save money was by ditching mosaic pins. Once I accepted that the mosaic pins were selling my knives, the reality was that ditching them would cost me sales.

You can't step over dollars to pick up dimes. Spending $8 on pins per knife sounds crazy until you consider the cost of not selling the knife because you didn't want to spend $8.
 
Good stuff guys...it sometimes feels like I'm putting "spinner rims" on a pickup....

I do like the look of the mosaics. perhaps I'm reacting to how LITTLE they have to do with the function of the knife. But...yes, if it will help sell one I'm good with it...
 
Smallshop said:
Good stuff guys...it sometimes feels like I'm putting "spinner rims" on a pickup....

I do like the look of the mosaics. perhaps I'm reacting to how LITTLE they have to do with the function of the knife. But...yes, if it will help sell one I'm good with it...
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Maybe, but from the customer's point of view, he's not buying a pickup. A custom knife purchase is a serious indulgence for most buyers. The very fact that it's a custom is the underlying key point of its value to the customer. Mosaic pins and exotic handles are the equivalent of buying the Safari Grade version of the same rifle with the tupperware stock. They are NOT the same rifle in the customer's mind. He's laying out significant cash to get what he has always really wanted instead of settling for the practical.
 
Value is largely a perception. Look at what is really hot in the high end production knives spectrum. Guys are buying production folders in the several hundred dollar range that to me look ultra basic. Then you have the custom folders that are so tricked out with seven different colors of Damascus- which imo are bordering on an eyesore.

An individual's taste is what it is. We can't all make the knife your grandfather wanted- that's my niche!
 
John Wilson said:
As designs go, my knives are very basic. Especially the kitchen knives. While the design may be basic overall I put blood, sweat, and tears into the geometry and the fit and finish. I am very proud of how my kitchen knives perform. However, the person buying the knife has no idea how it performs until they've already bought it. The vast majority of my customers are buying it because of the handle. I was shocked by this in the beginning, but I quickly made peace with it and embraced it as a simple truth. When I was really pinching pennies, the most logical place to save money was by ditching mosaic pins. Once I accepted that the mosaic pins were selling my knives, the reality was that ditching them would cost me sales.

You can't step over dollars to pick up dimes. Spending $8 on pins per knife sounds crazy until you consider the cost of not selling the knife because you didn't want to spend $8.
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Mosaic pins really do sell knives. The last order that I received I asked the customer what handle material they wanted. The reply " doesn't really matter something nice, but make sure it has the really nice pins."
 
Yes or no to mosaic pins really depends on the level of buyer you're dealing with. In my experience, the average person purchasing a USER type knife finds mosaic pins desirable, and I think for that group of buyers, mosaic pins are a "value added" aspect.
When it comes to dealing with COLLECTOR level buyers, mosaic pins are often frowned upon. Before I came to understand that...and several years in my past, I made a few "collector" grade bowies, and used mosaic pins..... those knives did not sell, and I had a couple of collectors say they would be very interested in them, were it not for the mosaic pins I'd used. After those knives sat around for several months, I removed the mosaic pins, and replaced them with 416 pins, and engraved or textured the pins. I then sent pics to the same collectors who had commented about the mosaic pins, and sold the knives right away. Lesson learned.
 
I like them but I've never used them! I'm more a functionality kinda guy! Problem is as I continue down this road it seems your right! Grind even and straight, heat treat is perfect, handle and guard fit great!! And there ya have a knife with half the build quality with some fancy scales and Mosaic pins and it sells for more money than yours!! People like flash!! So charge accordingly!!
 
I'll probably never be dealing with collectors...so mosaics it is...lol.

When I made my skinning knife I wanted it to look like my grandads old boning knife...So I used nice red oak and brass pins and aged the steel except for where it was sharpened....I love that knife! Mosaics woulda ruined the look on that one.

My favorite is just nicely finished stainless steel.
 
EdCaffreyMS said:
Yes or no to mosaic pins really depends on the level of buyer you're dealing with. In my experience, the average person purchasing a USER type knife finds mosaic pins desirable, and I think for that group of buyers, mosaic pins are a "value added" aspect.
When it comes to dealing with COLLECTOR level buyers, mosaic pins are often frowned upon. Before I came to understand that...and several years in my past, I made a few "collector" grade bowies, and used mosaic pins..... those knives did not sell, and I had a couple of collectors say they would be very interested in them, were it not for the mosaic pins I'd used. After those knives sat around for several months, I removed the mosaic pins, and replaced them with 416 pins, and engraved or textured the pins. I then sent pics to the same collectors who had commented about the mosaic pins, and sold the knives right away. Lesson learned.
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Excellent point. I can definitely see that for collectors.

At this point my buyers are asking for them, so that's what sells in my case.
 
Ed I am glad to hear you use the term value added. We use it all the time in the steel service center industry. It's the first time that I have heard it used from a knife maker. Do something small cost wise that gets a customer's attention. A few extra bucks can get more product out the door.
 
I think mosaic pins are very nice. I have put them in many of the fixed blades I have done. The only time I have ever seen people look down on them is in circles of the higher levels of the ABS. It seems like there is where traditional looks are more appreciated. I can unswrstand that. Most people that see my stuff though are just people down the street. To them, mosaics are one of the coolest things they have ever seen.
 
J S Machine said:
I think mosaic pins are very nice. I have put them in many of the fixed blades I have done. The only time I have ever seen people look down on them is in circles of the higher levels of the ABS. It seems like there is where traditional looks are more appreciated. I can unswrstand that. Most people that see my stuff though are just people down the street. To them, mosaics are one of the coolest things they have ever seen.
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Exactly! I think as a craftsman You kinda hope the average joe would find more to appreciate than the cool pins. I suppose after using the knife a while he'll come to appreciate all the effort you put into the subtle details...whether he does that consciously or not. Might just be a..."Man...I really like this knife!" and probably not within your earshot...lol.
 
EdCaffreyMS said:
Yes or no to mosaic pins really depends on the level of buyer you're dealing with. In my experience, the average person purchasing a USER type knife finds mosaic pins desirable, and I think for that group of buyers, mosaic pins are a "value added" aspect.
When it comes to dealing with COLLECTOR level buyers, mosaic pins are often frowned upon. Before I came to understand that...and several years in my past, I made a few "collector" grade bowies, and used mosaic pins..... those knives did not sell, and I had a couple of collectors say they would be very interested in them, were it not for the mosaic pins I'd used. After those knives sat around for several months, I removed the mosaic pins, and replaced them with 416 pins, and engraved or textured the pins. I then sent pics to the same collectors who had commented about the mosaic pins, and sold the knives right away. Lesson learned.
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I agree Ed you can't put mag wheels on a Caddy because they just don't look right nor do mosaic pins look right on all knifes.
 
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