Taking a break

Gliden07

Gliden07

Well-Known Member
Haven't felt like making any knives lately! Everyone that's asked me for prices think pricing is to much! I havnt changed pricing!! If anything they should go up due to material costs!! Been making scales lately nice break from knives but I'm still involved in the Knife making community. Anyway here's a few pics of scales I've been doing. Let me know what you think! All of the wood components were stabilized prior to epoxy.
 

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Very nice! I think I know what two of them are, but could you tell us what all three are anyway? And about your process for making them?

Thanks. :)
 
First pic is stabilized Spalted Maple the second pic is stabilized Pine Cone, third pic Desert Iron Wood (not stabilized) All where cast with Alumilite Clear resin (faster setting) colored with Mica Powder, and, put into pressure pot after pouring to mitigate bubbles in the resin. Prior to casting the Maple and Pinecone were stabilized in Cactus juice dyed Green in a vac chamber, then baked off per Cactus Juiceinstructions One set of the Pincones will be used on a project I've been wanting to make ( just need a little motivation!)
 
It’s always good to take a break from anything. I was semi absent for a year while building our home. I think the break did me good.
You have contributed positively to this forum for a long time. So don’t stop that activity.
As far as pricing and selling. You set the price and if they sell they sell. If not you are building up your inventory for a future sale.
I remember on this forum a discussion about pricing our work. Don’t under value your talent or work.
Don’t get me wrong, I like to sell my knives but that’s secondary to the pleasure of making them.
Hang in there - don’t get discouraged.
 
Thanks for the nice comments I appreciate it! Now you guys can't get rid of me that easy! Just havnt been building. So I'm expanding my base with the scales. Working on all kinds of knife related stuff. Ribbon Burner. Need some tooling arms for a couple attachments I'm acquiring, surface grinder for the 2x72 too.
 
opaul said:
It’s always good to take a break from anything. I was semi absent for a year while building our home. I think the break did me good.
You have contributed positively to this forum for a long time. So don’t stop that activity.
As far as pricing and selling. You set the price and if they sell they sell. If not you are building up your inventory for a future sale.
I remember on this forum a discussion about pricing our work. Don’t under value your talent or work.
Don’t get me wrong, I like to sell my knives but that’s secondary to the pleasure of making them.
Hang in there - don’t get discouraged.
Click to expand...
Thanks opaul! Your right I had a Master Smith tell me once "you can be cheap but you don't have to be the cheapest"!!
 
Gliden07 said:
Haven't felt like making any knives lately! Everyone that's asked me for prices think pricing is to much! I havnt changed pricing!! If anything they should go up due to material costs!! Been making scales lately nice break from knives but I'm still involved in the Knife making community. Anyway here's a few pics of scales I've been doing. Let me know what you think! All of the wood components were stabilized prior to epoxy.
Click to expand...
Do you sell them? Looking for some pinecone scales.
 
I feel your pain on pricing! People seem to want us to give the knives away. They don't realize how much time and effort go into making a knife.

I posted a huge layout of exactly what material cost are and how much time goes into every knife on my Facebook page. It equated to me making about $5 an hour. It didn't help or hurt sales, but I just felt I had to put it out there.

My skills have improved tenfold over the last year and people still expect entry level prices...I'd rather give knives away to great friends and family!
 
I do not debate pricing any longer. It was detracting from my enjoyment and driving my blood pressure up. I am not a jerk about it but my attitude is, This is the price, someone will pay it or not. When they argue about the price, I am rather like the "soup nazi" "NO KNIFE FOR YOU."
That is one benefit of only selling my knives in a local store now. No price debating.
 
Taking a break is ok. I got tired of hearing things cost too much too, so I roughly tripled my prices, and quit taking orders. Now I make what I want to make, and sell them for what I want. Now that I’ve made them MORE expensive, there hasn’t been a peep about it. You could always try that approach too :) Weeds out the tire kickers.
 
It seems like I'm more efficient after a good break and not as tied to old unfinished projects.

But during my breaks I'm still thinking about making knives and try to pick up materials, ideas, contacts, tools - stuff that's still related.
 
soundmind said:
It seems like I'm more efficient after a good break and not as tied to old unfinished projects.

But during my breaks I'm still thinking about making knives and try to pick up materials, ideas, contacts, tools - stuff that's still related.
Click to expand...
Yeah, same with me. In the middle of making a surface grinder for the 2x72
 
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