Sheath or no sheath

C

Cojab

Well-Known Member
Do you sell your knives with or without sheaths. I dont have time to start trying to make sheaths for my knives right now so I took one over to a guy that does great leather work. He wants $50.00 for a pouch style friction sheath. I dont think this is unreasonable at all because I know the quality of his work. I just dont know if I should get these built and include them in my knives or not. Are most knives wold with a sheath or sold as just the knife?
 
The only knives that I sell without a sheath are my kitchen knives. I feel that a sheath is really a part of the package. I do not make my own sheaths but there are many good sheathmakers and I try to match their work to my knives. It has been my experience that the only knives that I have seen selling at shows without sheaths are high end collector knives by very well known makers.
 
When I make Hunter & camp type knives I have usually had a sheath made for them.
But that doesn't mean you have too.

You can try to do something a bit different, You can try referring your customers to a leather worker? It may work for you? The one thing I do see is for most people buying a knife is a bit of impulse buy. Shows in particular, The have a budget of money in their pocket so to speak and they want get their gratification and not have to then shop for a sheath, But shows are not the only way to sell your knives.

You can see if there are enough buyers around you that will take a referral for the sheath? stranger things have happened!

Laurence

www.rhinoknives.com
 
For a user type knife I think a sheath should be included with the knife. I have only sold one knife without a sheath and that is only because the guy who bought it wanted to make the sheath himself. Think about it this way...you are going to buy a new car and you find two cars that meet all your needs and the price is almost the same except one of them doesn't come with a steering wheel. Which one would you buy? The one you can drive off with or the one that was a few dollars less that needs a little work to be usable? There are a lot of sheath making tutorials on the internet and making a simple pouch style sheath isn't that difficult. It only needs to provide a little protection to the edge. If the buyer wants a better sheath that would be up to them.
 
I did my first show recently and madethe mistake of not having a sheath for few knives that woud hae sold from now on I will at least have a sheath for the knife and they can choose if they want it or not.
Anthony
 
I always make a sheath for my knives, unless they are kitchen knives. A nice quality made sheath can be a deal maker. I have had people become attracted to a knife purley because they like the sheath. This has happened quite a few times.
 
I would have to agree with Eric. I WILL NOT sell a knife without a sheath. AND I WILL NOT sell a knife with a crappy looking sheath.
A sheath is to protect the user from the knife and the knife from the elements.
The first thing people see , when they see a person wearing a knife , is the sheath. If it looks like a wall-mart sheath , they will think it has a wall-mart knife in it.
If they see a beautiful sheath , they will automatically think there is a beautiful knife inside, and ask to see it.
Then mabey they will order a knife too : )

Just MHO , YMMV

Dwane
 
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