BLADE Staff

How Much is a $75,000 Knife Really Worth?

Does it need to be said this $75,000 pocketknife is a William Henry? Because it is. It’s so pricey, Forbes featured it here.

Comments on social media asked how it’s possible to know the price of a knife before it’s sold. Who’s to say it isn’t $50,000? After all, it’s not like a $75,000 knife is mass-produced. It’s unique.

Three things:

• High-buck knives are usually commissioned before they’re made.
• The market-rate for the materials and labor are easy to price out.
• Something’s price is always what someone else is willing to pay for it. That someone else might not be you.

Disruptive Model Emerges for Financing Knife Start-Ups

Knifemaking start-ups face a tougher time securing financing because of backers’ leeriness toward “weapons.” Crowdfunding, where companies appeal directly to consumers for backing via pre-orders, is one way around this. Kickstarter is the best example of this approach.

Bolstering this business model are affiliate programs that dole out a cut of pre-order sales. This is sometimes disguised as editorial on news sites. This sort of backdoor marketing offers a pay-as-you-go approach that is appealing to start-ups with limited advertising budgets.

There’s nothing wrong with this approach. It’s just different, and worth considering if you’re starting a knifemaking business.

Here’s an example from Business Insider.

Quoting “Crocodile Dundee” Lands Restaurant in Lawsuit

You know the line, but here’s the clip anyway:

Best not repeat that line in formal marketing if you want to avoid legal trouble. Australian restaurant Grill’d allegedly used the famous utterance on its knife sleeves. From The Daily Telegraph:

Hogan claims the “knife line” — as it’s referred to in the claim document — is valuable because it has been “heard by the many consumers in Australia who have seen the Crocodile Dundee movie” and “has been featured, mentioned or referred to on television, in print, on the internet, and in popular culture”. He claims Grill’d has used the line “without the licence of either of Rimfire or Mr Hogan”.

Read the full story here.

United Kingdom Sentencing More Minors for Knife Possession Crimes

I’ll let this quote from The Guardian article do the talking. Read it carefully if you don’t get it at first.

The number of 10- to 17-year-olds cautioned or sentenced for knife possession offences has risen by 16% since this time last year.

Read the full article here.

Video: The Knifemaker Supplying the World’s Greatest Chefs

Business Insider profiled Chelsea Miller, a knifemaker cranking out blades for “name” chefs around the world.

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This is the first installment of the Knife News Wire, a regular series that takes a wide look at the world of knives.

Regulations Hurting Traditional Swordsmiths in Japan

The centuries-old tradition of sword making in Japan is under siege by Japan itself. As a result, the swordsmith trade is nearly extinct. From the Gulf Times:

One reason for their dying art is that swords are today officially regarded as dangerous weapons, falling together with firearms under Japan’s Weapons Protection Act.

By law, the swordsmith featured in the article can only sell two swords per month. Without taking off my shoes and socks to count on my toes, that sounds like a hard way to make a living. 

Read the full article here.

Is It Time to Repeal the 1958 Federal Switchblade Act?

With nation-wide concealed carry reciprocity under consideration in D.C., are switchblades about to get the same treatment?

The American Tool and Knife Institute (AKTI) seems to think so. It’s put together the Freedom of Commerce Act as a model for legislators to work from. The goal is simple:

This legislation will repeal the Federal Switchblade Act of 1958, and allow consumers to purchase any automatic knife legal in their state.

To be clear, the Switchblade Act only impacts interstate commerce, and does not supersede state laws. Some states already decriminalized switchblades separately.

Knife Rights is also pursuing similar legislation.

A Second BLADE Show?

In the Everything Old is New Again Department, it looks like BLADE Show West is making a comeback. Due to the incredible popularity of the BLADE Show, organizers are looking to add a second show somewhere on the west coast.

BLADE Show staff kindly requests you fill out this survey.

Total Ivory Ban in China Goes Into Effect Next Year

While the knife world continues to wrestle with the ivory issue, and the uncertainty of the ivory issue, the end of 2017 marks the complete shutdown on the stuff in the People’s Republic of China. 

From the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post:

Under the ban, 67 of the country’s 172 accredited ivory stores had to shut before March 31 this year with the remaining ones forced to shut by the end of December.

This is significant because the PRC is one of the world’s largest consumers of ivory. The ban marks a leap forward in the push for world-wide ivory prohibition.

That means the ivory issue in the United States, regardless of who is president, isn’t likely to go away any time soon. Stay tuned.

Are Knifemakers Too Secretive?

Most knifemakers are happy to share tips and offer guidance for newbies, but not all. That’s the problem Jared Williams, of Salt Lake City, ran into when starting out. From KSL:

“There was a bit of a thing with knifemakers that was still kind of secretive, almost,” Williams said. “It was like ‘No, these are my trade secrets, I don’t know if you’re worthy of it.’ There’s still a little bit of that in parts of the industry. Not all of it, and maybe it was just kind of a hard thing to find and maybe I just met the wrong guys.”

Williams got the last laugh when he appeared on Forged in Fire. Read the full story here.

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