Determining prices of knives

dan van

Well-Known Member
Hi all, i hope this is the correct forum. What criteria do you use to determine a price for your knives? Thanks, Dan
 
Well, just starting out it can be tricky due to experience and quality issues. It can take much, much longer for the first few knives to get them presentable than later works. I find that a handmade knife even if it's got some rough spots but no outright problems - edge centering, blade straightness, gaps etc. will usually go for $50 to $75 regardless. That being said, I do it this way-

Monthly shop expenses, additional electricity, advertising, rent, everything you use's cost divided by the number of knives you'll make. If you spend an extra $40 a month to make two knives you'll need to recoup $20 each.
The knife materials and consumables, belts, glue, including shipping for them, final shipping and packaging for the knife, and your hourly labor. A few of us guys started by figuring just one or two dollars an hour for our time.

Right now it can take me $65 for the knife's materials (fraction of a larger order typically, now) plus $20 to ship it insured, then there's around $50 for the shop expenses to make it. Figuring it that way, the knife costs me around $135 to make, I then can be as optimistic as I want about the realistic price it will sell at :). My labor was stuck at $8 an hour for years, and I sold a lot of the knives along these lines for $200 total...didn't make much per knife and less after I paid the shop but it was a start.
 
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