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Old 10-26-2016, 01:37 PM
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Andrew Garrett Andrew Garrett is offline
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The Death of Tactical Folders...

So, Blade magazine has declared that tactical folders are out and forged knives are back in!

Time to see all those tributes to Scagel, Moran, Goddard, Fowler, etc.

It seems that the market is saturated with all things 'tacticool'.

On a related note, other than Bob Loveless and by association Steve Johnson, and maybe Jay Fisher, are their any primarily stock removal makers out their who have achieved large scale commercial and collector's success? Sorry for my ignorance.


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Old 11-03-2016, 07:08 AM
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Ed Caffrey Ed Caffrey is offline
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It's just the "cycle" that happens in custom knives. I've been at this long enough to have seen the complete "cycle" several times.

Tactical isn't going to die, but what I do see happening is that the era of many "Rock Star" tactical makers having a tougher and tougher time selling what should be a $300-$400 Ti folder for $1,000+ is coming to an end. No disrespect to anyone, but for a LONG time I've watched many makers sell completely machine made Ti folders for huge sums of money, based solely on the fact that it was the "cool" thing to own a folder with a given name on it. Nothing at all wrong with that, it's just something that is changing in the custom knife market.

Another contributing factor to forged blade being the "in" thing, is the TV series Forged in Fire.... I would have never thought that a reality show would have so much impact on custom knives, but it has.

You actually hit the nail on the head with your statement.....
Quote:
It seems that the market is saturated with all things 'tacticool'.
Historically, anytime that happens within a given segment of the custom knife market, things tend to swing to another segment.
In reality, the only people/makers this sort of thing effects dramatically are the "Bandwagon" crowd....those who see what's selling at a given point in time, and try to "jump" on board.... putting all their eggs in that particular basket.

The solution for any maker is to make the knives that are "you"....not copies of something that's "hot" at the moment.

Custom knifemaking has always been a tough way to make a living. Let's face it...NOBODY NEEDS a custom knife, it's a luxury item. Really no different then any other item(s) a person can buy.....you can get by with a base model of something, or you can pay more for something "nicer".

After seeing the ups and downs for the past 30+ years, and although I try to keep an eye on the customer knife market, I don't let it overly affect what I do, or how I do it. I guess I'm fortunate in that longevity in custom knives is sometimes a sort of shield from many of the market aspects that effect many other makers.


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Old 11-04-2016, 11:24 AM
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Well said Ed.


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