Thread: hand made goods

There is a market for quality hand finished goods but it is a very small one.
In the UK we are bombarded by consumer programmes, magazines and newspaper articles exhorting us to drive a hard bargain. This is leading to a situation where people often think you shoud be virtually giving them stuff.
Very few folk have either the experience of running a small enterprise and all the costs that it entails, or any idea how time consuming some jobs are to do properly.
I got annoyed yesterday watching a 'consumer champion' on the TV. There had been some tragic cases of people being electrocuted by cheap Chinese imported electronic transformer units.
My thoughts are that if he and his colleagues hadn't constantly encouraged people to believe that cheaper stuff is just as good and that companies charging a fair price for quality items are 'ripping us off' less people would by this junk in the first place.

I started making knives in 1980 and found that there was no money in it. When I went to the gun and knife shows it seemed that some people were willing to pay hundreds of dollars for a kinife made by a famous maker but mine would not sell for fifty dollars. Most of the people there were just lookers. Something to do on a weekend. I worked five days a week and went to shows on the other two. I was getting nowhere.
My wife told me to raise my prices and when I did, for some reason there were people who thought, that if I valued them higher, then they must be worth it. I sold less knives but made more money. Every once in a while someone would call me who had my card and would buy all that I had.
You just never know. I still can't mak a living at it but it is a fun hobby that pays for itself. I do not have the money to invest in the $ 3,000 dollar knife grinders or milling machines, etc. and never will but It is still fun and a little profitable now. I am a good knife maker but there are guys out there who can make my knives look very plain. But then that is what I make. A good working knife and I am happy doing it.

Originally Posted by mackie

that if I valued them higher, then they must be worth it. I sold less knives but made more money.

In the words of a famous german brewer: "Reassuringly expensive"

Part of it is also the amount of pleasure you get from generating the item. If you are building an item by hand and having trouble getting a decent price for it you are probably either building the wrong item or marketing to the wrong people.

I've sold a couple of razors in the classifieds, but I usually dont make more than a couple of bucks on each razor. Its not about the money for me, its about getting 1 razor out of the house so that my wife doesn't give me a hard time when 2 or 3 more come into the house. Especially if I make a big deal about how much I sold the first one for, and don't mention how much I paid for the new ones.

Have any pictures to post of your finished products?

People, given the choice, will in general pay the least amount of money required to get what they want/need. With regard to pens, most people just want a pen that will write adequately, they do not care how it looks or what it is made of. A plastic disposable works perfectly well for these people and they are unlikely to pay $20, or even $5 for a pen.

There are of course people who also want a pen that looks good, feels good in their hand or possesses some other property other than just adequate writing. If this were not so, there would be no market for all the moderate to high priced pens out there.

Then there are fountain pens, but that is a whole different story.

hardblues;
Here is a pic of one of my pocket knives I made and dit the engraving on. I am not a good engraver though.

Looks like a nice knife. I imagine folders are a bit of a challenge to fit up to where they open and close properly. I wouldn't have a clue on how to make something like that.

Jball, do you have any pictures of your work?

I agree that making fare wages for your hard work is all about capturing the customers to appreciate the work. Hand made pens are a niche item, so the average idiot looking will think " what a nice looking pen" as if they were shopping at a staples for a bic.

The hardest part my be figuring out a way to reach those people who would see a $20 hand carved pen and think it was a great bargain.

good luck. I would personally be interested in seeing some of your work. maybe you could post some pics in the thread.