Knife Blanks

[SomethingMetal]

Had a guy stop by the house tonight and asked what I would charge to cut out some knife blanks for him. He told me he would supply the metal and gave me a blank to go by. I have it drawn up now and it has 15in of cutting. He told be he had some smaller sheets he wanted them cut out of. I think 12in x 24in or something like that. He asked how much would I charge per blank to cut them out. Told me he would need a couple hundred cut and he also has on old saw blade he wants me to cut. I told him I would cut them out for .50 a piece. He acted like that was a little high. I think it is pretty cheap but am I wrong? According to my general pricing sheet I entered everything in and it was calling for 2.29 a blank! What do you guys think?

[mdwalker]

I think if your price is too high he could buy his own equipment & cut them himself!

[zoeconner]

Stick to your guns. That's a good price. Tell him to go down the road and get a quote. I bet he will be back.

[redfarm]

Repeat after me : "Listen buddy you came to me and I gave you a price if you don't like it feel free to pound sand" or something to that effect.

I can't really say. I have done things that I didn't make anything on just because it was something that caught my interest or the customer permitted me to keep for other uses. Just yanks my chain when someone tries to beat me down on price.

Sorry, but I have been around trucks most all my adult life and it as cut throat as it gets and I won't allow it with the plaz .

[WSS]

I would go with 2 bucks a piece. You will probably be working with high carbon steel (saw blade) and/or high carbon stainless. If this guy thinks that is too much, what will happen if you mess up some of his "high priced" steel. Some jobs need to worth the effort or (like was said earlier) do it because it is fun or interests you.

On your drawing, leave at least an .125" extra where the cutting edge will be (sharpened) to allow for the carbon loss at the cut. The maker can grind the low carbon material away to get to the good stuff.

You owe me 2 cents LOL

WSS

edit: If you do 200 blades at 2 bucks a piece, you will make 400 dollars. I bet you'll have 20hrs or more in it. Is that enough? We try to hit 75ph or at least 60ph.

[SomethingMetal]

Thanks everyone. I figured my price was fair enough. He told me he has a guy cutting them for free right now from a town 30 miles away. Says he cuts them when he has spare time. I am figuring that this is going to be a one time thing pretty much. I was trying to be fair and help him out but I am not going to let him beat me down on my price. Not going to make any money on this deal just to help this old fart out.

[CNCCAJUN]

I'm sure I will get blasted for this, but here goes . . .

You have a great deal of money invested in your equipment.

I'm not sure where you live, but my guess is your town is not saturated with CNC cutters . . .

If I walked into a CNC cutters shop here in the Baton Rouge area and asked him to fiddle dick with a bunch of small pieces of material of varying composition for 50 cents a piece they would laugh at me and tell me where to go.

My guess is he has worn out his welcome at "Mr. I Will Cut It For Free's" shop.

That is the type of guy that will eat up your time and then fall out with you when you get tired of messing with him.

Set your prices and stay on them . . . .

Steve in Louisiana . . .

[WSS]

I'm sure I will get blasted for this, but here goes . . .

You have a great deal of money invested in your equipment.

I'm not sure where you live, but my guess is your town is not saturated with CNC cutters . . .

If I walked into a CNC cutters shop here in the Baton Rouge area and asked him to fiddle dick with a bunch of small pieces of material of varying composition for 50 cents a piece they would laugh at me and tell me where to go.

My guess is he has worn out his welcome at "Mr. I Will Cut It For Free's" shop.

That is the type of guy that will eat up your time and then fall out with you when you get tired of messing with him.

Set your prices and stay on them . . . .

Steve in Louisiana . . .

Ditto!

[JJsCustomDesigns]

I'm sure I will get blasted for this, but here goes . . .

You have a great deal of money invested in your equipment.

I'm not sure where you live, but my guess is your town is not saturated with CNC cutters . . .

If I walked into a CNC cutters shop here in the Baton Rouge area and asked him to fiddle dick with a bunch of small pieces of material of varying composition for 50 cents a piece they would laugh at me and tell me where to go.

My guess is he has worn out his welcome at "Mr. I Will Cut It For Free's" shop.

That is the type of guy that will eat up your time and then fall out with you when you get tired of messing with him.

Set your prices and stay on them . . . .

Steve in Louisiana . . .

^^^^^^ i agree 100%. You cant work for peanuts. Everyone tryin to get something for nothing these days. Ive had my far share of pissed off customers that say i charge too much. I simply ask them to walk in my shoes. Ive had ppl come and help with their stuff in the shop. At the end of the process i usually get a "i see why you charge what you charge".

Hold your ground.

[elkriverfab]

I charge around 5.00 to 10.00 a knife blank bottom line!
That is if they bring their own steel.

Extra if I have to supply it.

Some freak out and I never hear from them but.......they were the ones looking for a free deal.

The ones that had no problem were knife makers and they loved the price.
They also come back for more and I do a very nice job for them.

I help them with drawings, designs and even with ideas.

The ones who complain and bitch, I tell them to go to walmart and buy a knife because they have no business making them.

I love to design, plasma cut and weld free for myself but not for a customer.
To this day I have never been able to go anywhere and find a quality service for free or swapmeet prices.

Here is my thinking......Offer a great service, fair prices and follow through no matter what.
A good customer will see that and respect you for it.

[SomethingMetal]

Thanks guys. He is going to bring over some metal sheets today for me to see them. I will talk with him then. I feel the same way though. I am not going to spend my time working and making no money. Simple as that.

[wickedinhere]

Yeah stick to your guns, people will try get over on ya if they can.

[kbenz]

.50 too cheap. I agree with cnccajun. free guy probably got tired of it. doubt he needs a couple hundred either. just wants a quantity discount. Listen to these guys on here, lots of wisdom here

[Bigrhamr]

Fifty cents is pretty cheap to cut much of anything. I'll do simple leaves in large batches for that price if I can either use them for filler between large parts or fill a sheet with them. Nesting parts on his small plates and messing around with them isn't going to speed things up much for you either. A common scenario with guys like that is grumble about the price like you're killing them, then grudgingly say okay. Then when it's time to place the order they'll want the price per part you quoted for 200 parts but they only need 25 now.

[kburd]

no way in hell I would do them for fifty cents. You need to tell him that there is a load fee for all the different sheets of material so on and so on. He is certainly going to be a pain in your ass as a customer. Have dealt with folks like this on multiple occasions. avoid avoid avoid or get absolute top dollar. these kind of folks now deep down inside that they will have to pay top dollar cause they are a pain in the ass to work for.

[mdwalker]

And if he gets mad & doesn't order, consider yourself lucky. Now you can concentrate on paying customers

[aicomp]

I charge around 5.00 to 10.00 a knife blank bottom line!
That is if they bring their own steel.

Extra if I have to supply it.

Some freak out and I never hear from them but.......they were the ones looking for a free deal.

The ones that had no problem were knife makers and they loved the price.
They also come back for more and I do a very nice job for them.

I help them with drawings, designs and even with ideas.

The ones who complain and bitch, I tell them to go to walmart and buy a knife because they have no business making them.
The above is as well put as it gets. A good knife maker will make a huge profit paying 5 to 10 bucks a blank. Custom parts are not cheap, they are Quality.
Mike

I love to design, plasma cut and weld free for myself but not for a customer.
To this day I have never been able to go anywhere and find a quality service for free or swapmeet prices.

Here is my thinking......Offer a great service, fair prices and follow through no matter what.
A good customer will see that and respect you for it.

[SomethingMetal]

He came by yesterday and is an older man who is handicapped. He stayed in the truck the whole time. He gave me some blanks and I drew them up. He wants to trade some things out and told me he didn't expect me to do it for free. He wants to give me some old 4ft tall saw mill saw blades in trade for some blanks cut. Those old blades are hard to find and if you do people want outrageous amounts of money for them. Also told me that he would give me a finished knife or two out of each lot I cut for him. I know if I get my hands on some of those old blades I will be able to make some money off of them with a sawmill seen cut into them. Thanks for the input guys. Anybody want to buy an old sawmill blade? lol

[Russ K]

Go for the blades! I have cut quite a few and people go nuts over them. You can easily cut a scene into a blade and if elegantly done, turn it over for $500 to $1000. Also, if the dropouts are large enough, you can try your hand at knife making yourself..................Russ K.

[stdave66]

Lots of good comments and advice here. The one thing I would do different is SELL the old blades, then cut your own blade out of sheet to put scenes on. You can make the new blades look old.

[elkriverfab]

Not to change the subject........I sure want to cut some blanks out of a nice sheet of stainless.......
I was wanting to get a 4 x 4 piece of stainless and cut a bunch of blanks I drew up.

It sure would make some nice looking knives but man! that stuff is not cheap.........

Last week I cut a bunch of mesquite slabs for scales.
I sure would like to make a few of these knives for myself but at that price, I will have to stick with old saw blades or buy a smaller piece of stainless.....

Hobbies can be expensive.

[WSS]

http://www.knifeandgun.com/

http://www.trugrit.com/knife-steel-pin-stock.htm

Both of these guys should have some small pieces you try. I here the new steels are pretty good but I have not tried them yet. I tend to stick with cpm154 and 440c as far as stainless goes. You may have to call them to see what they have as far as sheets. I seem to remember seeing 12" x 24" sheets of 440c before but did not have a plasma cutter at the time so I tended to stick with bar.

WSS

[SouthernDove]

This Thread Has Been Gr8 To Read!! "You Can't Get Blood From a Turnip!" -Nor FREE Service/Goods From a Wise Man! Wish We Had a "Like It" or "Hell Yeah" Button!
~Jennifer;)

[oldsoulmetal]

here in Oregon saw mill blades are abundant. but the good ones ( with out carbide tips) run about $50 a piece for a 24" at the recycle yard, if they have carbide tips the price is about .45 a pound. or approx $5 a blade for a 24' Having over a hundred knife and ax patterns. I cut and sell knife blanks for about 15-20 apiece for small to mediums and 50 apiece for the axes.
You will hate yourself at .50 cents a piece. especially after the machine drags your saw blade across the table. watch your torch height. if the blade is rusted at all you profit went out the window. but there is one more gem in cutting saw blades that is over looked.set your machine to cut out center arbor (doing only a air cut, with plasma cutter off) that will help your alignment in finding center of blade. then set machine to cut in 3/4 - 1" from ouside of saw blade. after you cut the blades then cut this larger circle. then make a welcome sign to fit in this circle. Sawblades Are our main stay. I make more money selling items made from saw blades then any other material.

[thingadmin]

I know this thread is a little old but just wanted to put my 2 cent in. I have been welding since I was 11 and have done allot of welding jobs for friends and guys in my car club. After I was layed off from my IT job for the 7th time I decided to do something I liked so I went to welding school. When I finished school it was really hard to make them understand that I don't work for beer anymore. Some people understood some didn't. My new philosophy is " Cheap Work Ain't Good And Good Work Ain't Cheap"

I also found an excel spread sheet on this sight that has helped me with pricing. Just estimating an average knife blank You should have charged around $30 for one and around $10 for each additional blade. This spread sheet has taken the guess work out of pricing for me.

CNC Plasma Price Work Sheet 03152013.xls