What's the best way to sell knives as a hobbyist, not as a business?

Goot

Goot

Well-Known Member
I'm a police officer and a hobbyist knifemaker. I've made a bunch of kitchen and camp knives with sheaths, and gave them out as gifts to my coworkers. They liked them enough to the point of showing others, and I'm starting to get some interest from folks within other precincts in my department. I'm beginning to feel that a website showing a gallery and a few completed knives for sale might make sense, because I'm limited when providing face-to-face encounters.

However, after reading a bunch of posts about the risks of using certain online payment providers which regard knives as "weapons", I'm not quite sure what the best route is to take in order to make it easier for coworkers to purchase what I have listed. Should I just stick to personal emails and checks?

I have no intention of turning my craft into a business or make a profit; my main salary is good enough and I don't want to be bogged down by orders. This is solely recreational. My goal is to help mitigate material costs. Obviously, the IRS plays a role in deciding the "business" aspect -- I plan to talk with my accountant about this but I wanted to see if you guys/gals could provide me with any operational details of establishing an online presence, and discover any "lessons learned" of listing low-inventory knives for sale.

Would a simple private online gallery with my email/phone number suffice?
 
I am on instagram and facebook, I tell everyone for paypal never mention knife during transaction. I also take checks or moneyorders. I do this for pure fun and try to make hobby pay for itself. If I was honest, it has not paid for itself, close though, lol. I am retired law enforcement so have a pension to not rely on knife sales, my mortgage is almost paid off but use what is left for tax reasons.
Once you attempt to make it a business, it will not be fun in my opinion. Keep it simple.
Possible bonus, doing an LLC or business license can be tax heaven, ask your accountant according to your state tax laws.
The best advice I will key you on is this, while employed and making decent salary, invest in tools that you believe will benefit you after retirement.
I was fortunate where I had bought tools for hobbies, love working with metal and welding, this comes in handy with knife making. Just wish I had bought an awesome anvil prior to retirement. Those effers are not cheap.
 
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scherf68 said:
I am on instagram and facebook, I tell everyone for paypal never mention knife during transaction. I also take checks or moneyorders. I do this for pure fun and try to make hobby pay for itself. If I was honest, it has not paid for itself, close though, lol. I am retired law enforcement so have a pension to not rely on knife sales, my mortgage is almost paid off but use what is left for tax reasons.
Once you attempt to make it a business, it will not be fun in my opinion. Keep it simple.
Possible bonus, doing an LLC or business license can be tax heaven, ask your accountant according to your state tax laws.
The best advice I will key you on is this, while employed and making decent salary, invest in tools that you believe will benefit you after retirement.
I was fortunate where I had bought tools for hobbies, love working with metal and welding, this comes in handy with knife making. Just wish I had bought an awesome anvil prior to retirement. Those effers are not cheap.
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Hey! You're where I'll hopefully be in about ten years (if I can convince all my kids not to go to college)! Thanks for the advice about the tools. I'm doing that very thing, albeit slowly.

So you don't have a gallery or personal website, and all your sales are done on Instagram and Facebook? Your personal Facebook page? I thought they didn't like that.

If I could put a Paypal link in a gallery that would be ideal, but you would suggest them doing it manually sending money as a gift to your personal email?
 
I am actually switching payment gateways now to something that is knife friendly. If it pans out ill post all the details. What I have learned is if you get legit make a business, taxes etc. There is a minimum cost of operating. I would guess I spend a few thousand at least every year just to facilitate my own existence. At a certain point you have no choice or you will hear from the government but at a small scale its nice to hold off a bit if you can. There are definitely advantages to being a business but at a very small scale they don't really help. Im in canada so it may be different but thats what I have found out thus far.
 
Stang Bladeworks said:
I am actually switching payment gateways now to something that is knife friendly. If it pans out ill post all the details. What I have learned is if you get legit make a business, taxes etc. There is a minimum cost of operating. I would guess I spend a few thousand at least every year just to facilitate my own existence. At a certain point you have no choice or you will hear from the government but at a small scale its nice to hold off a bit if you can. There are definitely advantages to being a business but at a very small scale they don't really help. Im in canada so it may be different but thats what I have found out thus far.
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Hey Derek, I was just watching some of your YouTube stuff yesterday. Did you look into operating as a sole proprietorship or a limited company? From what I read on the CRA website years ago, there were not many benefits to being just a sole prop...I had one here on Ontario years ago for my CAD work.
 
Adam Pound said:
Hey Derek, I was just watching some of your YouTube stuff yesterday. Did you look into operating as a sole proprietorship or a limited company? From what I read on the CRA website years ago, there were not many benefits to being just a sole prop...I had one here on Ontario years ago for my CAD work.
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Hey, Props for making it through any of my youtube stuff (its a little rough around the edges...). I made a limited company based on the recommendation of people who know more about these types of things. I am no business expert so I just followed the advice I was given.
 
Goot said:
I don't want to be bogged down by orders. This is solely recreational.
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My suggestion, then, would be to not waste time in trying to develop a website. Instead spend the time developing your craft and style. Make what you want to make and if the quality is there, you won't have any difficulty getting rid of them via word-of-mouth.
Make a website, and you could very well end up with 10 people who want to order knives at the same time. Now you are under a deadline, so as not to disappoint anyone and your recreation turns into work.
Personally, I will start thinking about creating an online presence only when I have an inventory built up of knives that I haven't sold and that I want to get rid of.
scherf68 said:
Possible bonus, doing an LLC or business license can be tax heaven, ask your accountant according to your state tax laws.
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Perhaps, but on the negative side, this action will most likely ensure that the bank, insurance companies, etc, will know that you are running a forge (assuming your forging) in your home and good luck affording the increased insurance premiums. That is, if you can even find an insurance company willing to insure this activity.
 
billyO said:
My suggestion, then, would be to not waste time in trying to develop a website. Instead spend the time developing your craft and style. Make what you want to make and if the quality is there, you won't have any difficulty getting rid of them via word-of-mouth.
Make a website, and you could very well end up with 10 people who want to order knives at the same time. Now you are under a deadline, so as not to disappoint anyone and your recreation turns into work.
Personally, I will start thinking about creating an online presence only when I have an inventory built up of knives that I haven't sold and that I want to get rid of.
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good advice
 
IG or FB will keep you busy if you're low volume. You can post all the knives you want in either, but might have issues if you promote it as a business acct. I use PP exclusively with no issue. "Handmade cutlery" does not violate any standards. "Warfighter" knives or "battle axes" probably do.
 
In regards to the payment processors, definitely follow the advice about what to call your transaction, but also be sure to transfer the money out of those accounts. Several knifemakers have had their accounts frozen and that money is gone. I actually do several transfers as I've heard the horror stories.
 
Excellent advice from all of you, thank you!

billyO said:
My suggestion, then, would be to not waste time in trying to develop a website. Instead spend the time developing your craft and style. Make what you want to make and if the quality is there, you won't have any difficulty getting rid of them via word-of-mouth.
Make a website, and you could very well end up with 10 people who want to order knives at the same time. Now you are under a deadline, so as not to disappoint anyone and your recreation turns into work.
Personally, I will start thinking about creating an online presence only when I have an inventory built up of knives that I haven't sold and that I want to get rid of.
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I think you're absolutely correct. It might be tricky to avoid getting more work than I want to handle by putting myself out there -- if I make it seem like I want orders.

What I might try is putting up a gallery with no payment links (which would take me 15 minutes), and just an email link and disclaimer that I only occasionally take custom requests. And use Paypal for the rare sales, labeling it as "custom cutlery". Eventually going with an Etsy storefront might be the answer in the long run.
 
Most of my sales have been word of mouth or via social media- gives me all the work I can handle currently. FB and IG have been great for showing my work. I'd recommend IG as a place to direct folks that want to see pieces you've made, but wouldn't necessarily rely on it for sales.

I've been using PP and Venmo with no issues so far, but I agree with Chris- don't leave the money there for long, and don't have your PP account connected to your regular bank account for the same mentioned reasons.

BillyO has good advice for looking into a website after having inventory built up that would be available.
 
Goot said:
Hey! You're where I'll hopefully be in about ten years (if I can convince all my kids not to go to college)! Thanks for the advice about the tools. I'm doing that very thing, albeit slowly.

So you don't have a gallery or personal website, and all your sales are done on Instagram and Facebook? Your personal Facebook page? I thought they didn't like that.

If I could put a Paypal link in a gallery that would be ideal, but you would suggest them doing it manually sending money as a gift to your personal email?
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I just put my knives on Instagram and facebook, don't offer for sale, do build-alongs. People like and contact you. I make to order, not make and put up for sale. It lets me personalize their sheath.
 
tkroenlein said:
IG or FB will keep you busy if you're low volume. You can post all the knives you want in either, but might have issues if you promote it as a business acct. I use PP exclusively with no issue. "Handmade cutlery" does not violate any standards. "Warfighter" knives or "battle axes" probably do.
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Where do you setup on FB or IG? Do you just use your personal acct and start posting build alongs with contact info? How do you improve the chances of folks finding your build-alongs?
 
On FB, you'll need first a personal account. If you don't want to "use" it for any other purpose, you can practically hide it from public view. But from there, you can create a "Page." That page will have lots of options, and you can promote it (pay money for views) within defined demographics. You can select demographics within geographical regions. For $20, you can get 1000's of views on the page. The caveat for knifemakers it is pretty difficult to promote sales posts because knifes are bad I guess. But you can post a bunch of stuff on your page and promote that, and get a bunch of likes and follows, which will keep your page popping up. I'm horrible/terrible/inattentive and still get some sales via DM. I would personally never operate through the FB pay mechanism, so I'm not sure how that works.

IG, IMO, is a much better platform for most purposes. I have a personal acct (non business) which works just fine for me. It's set on public, so you get some chat requests from naked girls and paki trash peddlers, but just delete them and go on. It takes awhile to build a following, but hashtag usage can get you lots of views in short order. #kitchenknife or whatever will pop up in anyone's feed who follows that hashtag. I make zero "for sale" posts. 100% of my sales from either platform come via DM request. I'm sure I could sell a lot more if I made sale posts, but I can't make more knives, lol. I just post already sold stuff. That drives enough interest to keep me busy.

Oddly enough, I believe that what drives the sales is the maker. People are always buying the maker, just like in person.

And one word of advice- just like country music singers and Hollywood starlets, avoid political debate on the accounts you use for sales. I refuse to hide my faith anywhere on any platform, and I'll post whatever pro America stuff I want, but flaming things you disagree with is sure to alienate half the people that you could do business with.
 
OK, I've spent the last hour playing around with IG and find it's darn hard to post from a computer. A emulation has to be added, read thru that and and "finally" got it sorta figured out. I even created a new IG acct for me, KenHol5 was as close as I could get. Maybe as I play with it I can come up with a better name. I think it said I could change it later?

Boy, this computer stuff is time consuming!
 
KenH said:
OK, I've spent the last hour playing around with IG and find it's darn hard to post from a computer. A emulation has to be added, read thru that and and "finally" got it sorta figured out. I even created a new IG acct for me, KenHol5 was as close as I could get. Maybe as I play with it I can come up with a better name. I think it said I could change it later?

Boy, this computer stuff is time consuming!
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The best way to post on Instagram is from your phone. Both Apple and Android have Instagram apps. It's fairly seamless to post from the phone. You can do some minor editing of your photos in Instagram, but what I do is download the images I want to post to my computer first. I then make any changes I want, and then load them back onto my phone and then post from there. Kind of cumbersome but it works well for me.

Of course now that you have the emulator added it might be simpler for you to just post from your computer.
And yes, you can change your name later.

**************Correction***********
I don't believe there's a way to edit your photos directly in Instagram after all. I think I was doing minor editing with my phone software and then posting
 
KenH said:
OK, I've spent the last hour playing around with IG and find it's darn hard to post from a computer. A emulation has to be added, read thru that and and "finally" got it sorta figured out. I even created a new IG acct for me, KenHol5 was as close as I could get. Maybe as I play with it I can come up with a better name. I think it said I could change it later?

Boy, this computer stuff is time consuming!
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Yes, you can change your display name, at least.
 
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