knife making lessons

C

Chuck Cook

Guest
Ok, I’m a part time maker and I get 6 to 10 hours a week in the shop, I just received an e-mail from a guy I meet from a forging demo I gave back in October asking him if I gave lessons and offering to pay me. The question is what do I charge, and what does he get? I know one maker who gets $500 a day, but I’m not him so?

My first thought was $200, I will give you 6 or 8 hours, feed you lunch, all the coffee you can drink, and you set what you want to learn and do.

What do all of you say
 
Hi Chuck!

Here's a link to the classes I offer, including the costs, and all the details.
Classes

I always have coffee and doughnuts every morning, and keep the fridge stocked with bottled water. Lodging and meals are not included. I learned early on that you need to keep the schedule you set. From a teaching point of view, I find that although I have students that I would love to have stay at our place, after a day of teaching, your brain is oatmeal, and you need to unwind and rest, because its gona be the same thing the next day.

Teaching is without a doubt my favorite part of knifemaking. Nothing gives me more personal satisfaction than when I see "the light come on".

I think the most important part of teaching, especially if your getting paid to do it, is to ensure that the student walks away, feeling like they go more than their money's worth.
 
Right on Chuck! A waiver of liability is a MUST! It's way too easy for someone to get hurt, and if that happens, you could loose everything!
 
Thak you both for the info. I had figured on the waiver, I hut myself enough.

all help welcome.
 
another potential thought is a pricing schedule based on teaching curriculum, this would work best if the student lives nearby and can come for a day or two at a time (it's HARD to cover an entire knife from start to finish in two days)

if it's an 8 hour day and you cover whatever the student is struggling with price = $A

if it's an 8 hour day and you work on forged finish techniques price = $B

Heat Treat, in a propane forge, in a coal forge, with an oven. Differential heat treat with clay, differentially tempered with a torch, fully hardened etc.
Price = $C

blade grinding, Polishing (Satin, Mirror, Etched, Patinated, etc) = $D

Guard styles, fit, embellishment = $E

handles, frames, takedowns, texturing, stag techniques, Micarta techniques, Wood techniques = $F


I would think any one of these topics would EASILY fill a day's worth of curriculum

It would be very very nice (and I'm sure appreciated) if you had some printed material and a list of good books pertaining to the material covered that day.

these are things you should think about a lot before charging for teaching services.

I've taught several people but have never charged, not because I don't feel my knowledge is valuable, but because I didn't want to go down that path until I had the pieces in place to do the job properly.
 
I can agree to that in theory, but it often doesn't work in reality. I've always been a K.I.S.S. kind of person, and with that in mind I chose to estimate what I COULD make in my shop in a typical 8 hour day, and then adjusted based on experience with students. Obviously if your going to teach, you have to charge enough to pay the shop expenses, plus enough to make it worth you efforts.

I have taken some "guff" from other makers who thought I wasn't charging enough, but what I charge is what I believe is "fair" for my time and experience level.
I think that if an individual maker enjoys teaching, and has some aptitude for it, it can be an enjoyable diversification for your business. I've made a number of very good friends as a result of teaching, many of whom I've learned as much from as I have taught...which is something that is priceless!
 
Most of the instrument building classes I've seen run approx $3,000.00 per week minus travel, food and lodging and they fill up every time. We tend to sell ourselves and our abilities short sometime.
BB
 
The waiver of liability that I use came about through an incident.... An individual came to my shop out of the blue and asked if I could sharpen his knife for him (a buck 110 folder). I did, and as he was leaving I jokingly said "I'm not responsible if you cut your fingers off with that thing!"

Next afternoon the shop pone rings....I answer, and it was a lawyer on the other end, asking me if I had sharpened a knife for XXXXXXX. When I said that I had, I was told that a law suit had been filed against me for medical bills/pain and suffering. At first I thought I was one of my knifemaking friends playing a joke on me...but no. I was so scared I didn't know what to do. The fool whom I had sharpened the knife for, had been drinking, and for whatever reason had sliced all the way across his left palm. 14 stitches and two weeks off work.

My wife plays sports on many city leagues, and had a volleyball game that night. Unknown to me, one of the high end lawyers in town was on her team. She played that night, and before she got back home the phone rings, and its the lawyer she played ball with.....after asking many questions, he told me that he would take care of it for me, and would call me the next day. He did, and two days later I was sitting in his office, writing up a Waiver of Liability. It gets signed by any student who walks into my shop. He told me that what saved my bacon was the statement I had made about not being responsible if the guy cut himself with the knife.

As for 100% coverage....not gona happen. In our type of situation nothing is going to be fool-proof. All we can do it cover as much as we can. As for liability insurance.....if you can afford that, then you can afford to have your bulter, gardener, or personal assistant make knives for you. The last time I looked into liability insurance, most companies just flat said NO when I mentioned knifemaking. The ones that said they would provide the insurance were smoking crack! The lowest premium I could find was more per month, than all my household bills (including the mortgage) combined. They were just fishing for a sucker!

The only place that I was able to find shop insurance (non-liability) was through ABANA, which has a deal with the Hartford insurance agency out of New York for it's memebers. It's still rather pricey, but for a shop that contains a forge, they are about the only game in town.
 
Ed

Thanks for sharing. That's an interesting story, it's good to have friends in all professions and walks of life.

It's hard to tell if some people are just stupid, or downright dishonest.
 
EdCaffreyMS said:
Hi Chuck!

Here's a link to the classes I offer, including the costs, and all the details.
Classes

I always have coffee and doughnuts every morning, and keep the fridge stocked with bottled water. Lodging and meals are not included. I learned early on that you need to keep the schedule you set. From a teaching point of view, I find that although I have students that I would love to have stay at our place, after a day of teaching, your brain is oatmeal, and you need to unwind and rest, because its gona be the same thing the next day.

Teaching is without a doubt my favorite part of knifemaking. Nothing gives me more personal satisfaction than when I see "the light come on".

I think the most important part of teaching, especially if your getting paid to do it, is to ensure that the student walks away, feeling like they go more than their money's worth.
Click to expand...

Wow, I just read through your classes.......... Do you ever offer Full paid Scholarships??? LOL j/k
I would love to be able to afford to take all the classes you offer.

sorry to hijack!!
 
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