Crazy wood prices?

Just like belts, the handle has to be figured into the sale price. That means exactly what Justin and others have said- you need to buy wood in the price range that makes sense for the knife. Back when I was selling $150 knives I was super frugal when buying handle material because the handle is already the most expensive part of the knife. A very nice finish on cheap wood looks a lot better than a poor finish on anything, as Ted said.

The wood has to make me money. I now offer exotic handle materials as an optional up charge. Believe it or not, that has been a really good decision because more than half of my customers go for the higher priced option. That’s one benefit of making to order. I don’t have a bunch of finished knives waiting to sell to see if i get my money back on the exotic materials.
 
There are 2 sides of a coin and I can see both Eds and Doyles but like anything else it's supply and demand.
 
Good points all. I try to find nice wood and shop around for best prices. But ultimately it’s my choice to purchase or not. Stabilized wood is all the rage which also adds to the costs.
It also seems like that Forged in Fire and ‘hobbiest’ knife makes receive negative vibes. I wonder why that is?
 
we went thru all this a year or so ago after "Blade" and the wood suppliers flooded us with tears about how much this costs and that costs. do you really need redwood lace burl grown on an eastern slope to make a nice knife? if you are making a knife you plan to sell for $1000, spending $75 on a handle is part of doing business. for a $100 or so kitchen knife, it does not compute. there is nice wood and good prices out there if you look. you are NOT going to find it on a forum or listed as "knife scales". stabilized or not was discussed here last week, do you really want a heavy resin soaked handle for the knife you are making that no longer feels like wood? there are numerous places on line where you can find spindle turning blanks in all sizes in all types of wood. lots of lumber stores sell small pieces of thin "exotic" lumber. but why buy redwood lace burl when i can find spalted maple in my back yard, 100+ year old oak and walnut in the old house next door, most eastern hardwood at numerous lumber yards within 50 miles of house. it is a maker's choice.
 
I have a great deal of blackwood (acacia) and all my knives are offered with that as the pricing point. I offer upgrades with bolsters and or exotic woods or bone, horn etc and even micarta has to be an upgrade simply because the blackwood has a zero cost input so anything else is added value.
 
I need to try some horn material. I haven’t worked with any yet. What would be the best to start with.
 
Setting aesthetics aside for a minute I prefer Micarta or similar handles for working knives. That being said some people want pretty wood handles but as we have discussed it is expensive so what are we to do. I like to get more creative with domestic hardwoods and use other skills to dress them up for the customer without having to pass on too much cost. I am blessed that I have a best friend with a sawmill so walnut, cedar (OK not a hardwood), maple, oak and any other tree I can find are free for me especially in handle sizes because they are waste for him. This will not help the $700 plus knife makers and no, I do not make my living with knives but its my work around to prices. Many of you guys have skills far greater than mine so I would love to see what you could do with domestics perhaps in patterns or pairing. This is one I did a year or two ago (so please ignore the grind and blocky handle) that gives a low level example of what I am talking about. I may never know what it is like trying to make my living by making knives and how material prices effect my family and I acknowledge that openly so please do not get mad at my suggestion I am only trying to help but some of you guys could kick butt with domestic wood handles.IMG_3134.JPG
 
opaul said:
I need to try some horn material. I haven’t worked with any yet. What would be the best to start with.
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Opaul, you want some ram's horn? In horn form, you will have to work it into scales but at least experimenting would be free.
 
EdCaffreyMS said:
I'm gona "throw down" here....... the prices of wood "knife handle" materials is basically nothing more than greed. It's not about what's "fair", it's about "how much can I get away with charging" for it. Once again, you can thank Forged in Fire, along with the vast popularity of hobby level knifemaking. More and more I have become away of hobby level knifemakers who are willing to spend big money on wood handle materials, and then turn around and "sell" what they've made for less than the cost of the handle material.

When I see things like Maple Burl, Walnut, and other common/domestic woods being sold in undersized handle blocks with prices of $50+ I just have to shake my head. Anybody who's been around the knifemaking game for any time at all, knows full well that it's nothing more than price gouging.

The problem is that it all begins at the source..... those who actually harvest the woods know full well that they can get FAR more money by cutting "blocks" or "scales" and labeling them "for knifemaking", versus selling a given wood by the "board foot". So the cost is passed along to the retailers of said woods, and, in turn, to the knifemaker/consumer.

What I find interesting, and the main reason I make the above assertions, is when you start looking outside the usual "knifemaker" sources for wood handle materials, there is a SIGNIFICANT difference in prices. You just have to do a bit of "digging", and you will see for yourself.
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AMEN!!
 
i also do basic wood working, like tables and cutting boards. if I see a potential nice handle in a board, i cut it out. $4 or less a board foot for american hardwood makes it an easy choice. Locally we have Klingspor's Woodworking Store. they carry premium power tools, all sorts of finishing products, and lumber. same Klingspor that makes sandpaper. $3 a pound for Klingspor sandpaper in odd lots(ends and sides of rolls and such) makes good hand sanding cloth or paper. you can also order on line https://www.woodworkingshop.com/
 
Making money on knife making, I have never made a penny, it costs me even though I scrounge as much as I can.
I have just scrounged some more hardwood, 8 pieces, 2/3 feet which I do not know the names of of, the first pieces were horrible, will go for kindling.

While I have a decent quantity I wanna cut 2 diagonal scalesper side,light and dark.
 
Robert66 said:
Making money on knife making, I have never made a penny, it costs me even though I scrounge as much as I can.
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I was in this boat for a very long time. The solution sounds simple, and in some respects it is, but being simple and being easy are not the same thing.

The turning point for me was getting my sale price high enough to be profitable. When I finally got down to brass tacks I discovered that on average it costs me AT LEAST $75 to make a knife. My time is not any part of that. Compounding this problem is the fact that this doesn't mean that a person with $75 can make a knife. Not even close. That is because abrasives, raw materials, etc are purchased in quantity. It is only by dividing these things up into appropriate quantities per knives made that we get to a per-knife cost.

In other words, even as a rank beginner every time I ordered belts it was $200. Ordering steel was $200. Ordering epoxy, handle material, sandpaper- the list is endless and all of it requires you to pay shipping on top. The reality set in that I didn't have to sell one knife to built another, I had to sell 10 knives to afford the materials for the next ten. It was an endless cycle in which I spent every dime I had toward replenishing materials and had absolutely nothing in the end to show for all my efforts.

In my own personal experience, a hobbiest maker can continue to make knives with about $500 in working cash, because it seems that is about what it costs to keep the supplies coming in as the knives go out. How many knives do you have to sell to bring in $500? If $500 of supplies will make 5 knives, then $100 per knife is only breaking even. A penny less means you are paying out. $200 per knife will keep the supplies coming in and allow some extra to put to tooling upgrades or buying that fancy handle material. As you can see, the more cash you have on hand, the better deals you get when making larger supplies orders. (Economy of Scale) Buying tooling helps to make your process faster and more efficient and helps improve quality of your product, which equals higher sale prices.
 
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Very good points.

I am not really interested in making money at the moment as my skills need to to improve.

I have sold some for charity which were passable, raffled 2 and auctioned 2 which made made good money out of embarrassing some monied ladies and gentlemen from the shooting fraternity.

I am hoping my latest and first Bowie will do well, I will let all my knives go at virtually any price, there is not any point in hoarding them, my charity is more important.
 
John Wilson said:
I was in this boat for a very long time. The solution sounds simple, and in some respects it is, but being simple and being easy are not the same thing.

The turning point for me was getting my sale price high enough to be profitable. When I finally got down to brass tacks I discovered that on average it costs me AT LEAST $75 to make a knife. My time is not any part of that. Compounding this problem is the fact that this doesn't mean that a person with $75 can make a knife. Not even close. That is because abrasives, raw materials, etc are purchased in quantity. It is only by dividing these things up into appropriate quantities per knives made that we get to a per-knife cost.

In other words, even as a rank beginner every time I ordered belts it was $200. Ordering steel was $200. Ordering epoxy, handle material, sandpaper- the list is endless and all of it requires you to pay shipping on top. The reality set in that I didn't have to sell one knife to built another, I had to sell 10 knives to afford the materials for the next ten. It was an endless cycle in which I spent every dime I had toward replenishing materials and had absolutely nothing in the end to show for all my efforts.

In my own personal experience, a hobbiest maker can continue to make knives with about $500 in working cash, because it seems that is about what it costs to keep the supplies coming in as the knives go out. How many knives do you have to sell to bring in $500? If $500 of supplies will make 5 knives, then $100 per knife is only breaking even. A penny less means you are paying out. $200 per knife will keep the supplies coming in and allow some extra to put to tooling upgrades or buying that fancy handle material. As you can see, the more cash you have on hand, the better deals you get when making larger supplies orders. (Economy of Scale) Buying tooling helps to make your process faster and more efficient and helps improve quality of your product, which equals higher sale prices.
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John some of the truest advice I have ever heard!!! Thumbs up.jpg
 
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