Originally Posted by
Mike Blue
There are several good points that follow mine. Ray has a good handle on it because of what he does for knifemakers and his example of the market for custom knives is excellent. I would say that the same rules are true in the knife world. I know very few who do this without some other form of support. It used to be true that you were no body in the music business until you got your picture on the cover of the Rolling Stone and the blade mags function in the same way. Ray is in a perfect place. When the market for knife engraving dries a little he can flex his business over to other objects in metal and continue to do business. A knifemaker only makes knives.
Once the market likes your blades you have two choices. Either you go very high end and cater to the collectors or you go low end and find an offshore company (Brian's large volume) who will manufacture all those parts of your now famous design and you become a knife assembler. But you won't be able to handcraft the numbers needed to support daily living if you don't. If you go high end and make one or two very expensive items a year, you price yourself out of even wishing range for most people.
The next thing that happens is your designs start showing up on the market without you being able to control the contractor who was the brother-in-law of the guy you have only a little control over. The knife market is also heavily dependent on disposable income. Theoretically you could only use two knives at a time, so you only really need two at most. Beyond that you buy them because you like them and rotate them. But you stop buying when the market is down, or a home project comes up, or at the high end your investments aren't doing so well, something to drain away that little extra for toys.
I suspect these factors apply just as easily to the ebay market when the old razors that the membership here recycles so diligently and effectively. But the prices are rising as well, when the old stocks are being consumed and becoming scarce. Folks grumble about how much the custom jobs cost. And those of us custom guys struggle with not pricing ourselves out of the market but we have to account for the price of everything as Bruno succinctly did the math. Realistically, I've never recovered the cost of the learning curve, the tools or the time.
I really hope the razor market grows. If there was one feature of craftsmanship that I could influence this segment to acquire, I would have the idea of collaborative efforts take a firmer root. All other markets in the world depend on multiple craftsmen/women who become very good at their particular talent. Then they combine to make something really cool. This also means more crafts types can be supported by the market, more families fed. I love making steel and heat treatment. There are a few here grinding those steels and doing the finish work that I don't like much. Someone else could take a blade like that and scale it, not much different than doing a restoration. If I could remember to leave a clean piece for Ray to scribe on, that'd be very cool. The price of each segment of work would remain relatively low but the whole would take on a larger value for the combined best works of us all. The idea of sole authorship is a uniquely American driven problem. I'm not sure it supports a craft as well as a consortium of efforts.
Bruce, I would be wholly encouraging of your desire, but not at the expense of giving you an unrealistic dream either. If you're going to learn this, do it because it's fun and you're going to learn something cool. The rest will make you crazy. ;)