Commencing in about 1978 I was involved in the making of custom knives.
I made a few complete knives, but was not fast enough, nor good enough to make more than about $2.50 per hour for my work.
I was pretty competent at making blades though, and I made a lot of damascus and nickel damascus blades for other makers.
I made billets, blanks, and completed blades.
These blades were all forged by hand with a hand held hammer, and the blades that I took to finished stage were made using hand tools, not machine grinders, linishers, and the like.Effectively I was working the way traditional smiths worked prior to the industrial revolution.
I did this work as a hobby, and I enjoyed it. I also became pretty fast at turning out blades. So fast that I was able to base my prices on $10 per hour.
The custom makers that I sold my blades to mostly worked to extremely high standards and tolerances.They invested very large sums of money in equipment that enabled them to turn out knives that were technological works of art. Fit and finish taken to the highest degree and the closest tolerances.
Many of these makers were machinists, tool makers, die makers, or other metal workers.One or two were jewellers who concentrated on lavish adornment. They were for the most part, skilled tradesmen working with their trade skills at a hobby.
Whenever the subject of remuneration for the work we did in making knives came up, it invariably came around to how little we could make on an hourly basis, compared with what we could make at our regular jobs. When the cost of equipment was factored in, it was obvious that many, if not most of these custom knife makers were not making any money at all from their work, but were in fact paying for the pleasure of pursuing a hobby.
My situation was a bit different:- I was working with low tech equipment, mostly stuff I'd made myself. The most expensive thing I had was the anvil, and that had cost me $120. My forge was built in an old truck wheel, and my blower was an old vacuum cleaner. What I made from making blades was pretty much all clear money.
I was able to turn out a useable knife from motor vehicle coil spring in about 40 minutes---straighten the coil, forge to shape, hoop handle, clean up, heat treat.
However, I also made a number of keris blades.
The shortest time a keris blade ever took me to make was 16 full working days.
The longest time a keris blade ever took me to make was 47 mandays, including 6 mandays working with two strikers in the forging.
Making a knife, or a dagger, or a sword is no different to any other work. It is simply work, that dependent upon the technology used, and the standard of the work, takes part of a person's life to complete.
When you buy a custom, or hand-made, knife you are paying for that part of a human life used in the production of the knife you have bought.
At what price do you sell your life to your clients, customers or employers?
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