How to Price a Custom Knife

Undercharging is the single most common mistake makers make when they start selling knives, mostly because it’s easy to price for materials and forget to price for time. Here’s a practical way to actually land on a number.

Start With Real Material Cost

Add up the actual cost of everything that goes into the knife: steel, handle material, pins or fasteners, epoxy, sheath materials if included, and a reasonable share of consumables that get used up making it (belts, especially, wear out fast and cost real money per project, see Belt Buyer’s Guide for what these actually cost). This is your floor, not your price, materials alone rarely reflect what a knife is actually worth.

Price Your Time Honestly

Track actual hours on a few builds, from profiling through final sharpening and finishing, most new makers are surprised how many hours a single knife really takes. Multiply that by an hourly rate that reflects the skill involved, not minimum wage. This is where most underpricing happens: makers who price materials plus “a little extra” instead of materials plus real labor value consistently sell themselves short.

Account for Overhead

Equipment costs (grinder, belts, heat-treat setup), shop space, tools that wear out and need replacing, all of this needs to show up somewhere in your pricing over time, even if it’s not itemized on every invoice. A simple approach: estimate your annual overhead and divide it across your realistic annual knife output to get a per-knife overhead figure to add in.

Factor In Design and Skill Premium

A knife with a hamon, complex handle construction, integral bolsters, or other advanced techniques justifies a higher price than a straightforward stock-removal blade with simple scales, not just because it takes longer, but because it represents skill that took real time to build. Don’t price advanced work the same as a first-few-knives build.

Research What Comparable Makers Charge

Look at what makers with similar experience level, similar steel and material choices, and similar construction complexity are actually charging, knife shows and maker social media accounts make this easy to research. Pricing far below the going rate for comparable work undersells the whole maker community, not just yourself, and pricing without any market reference at all is a guess, not a strategy.

Common Pricing Mistakes to Avoid

Pricing only for materials and forgetting labor entirely is the biggest one. Discounting heavily for friends and family without a clear boundary is another, it sets an expectation that’s hard to walk back once you’re selling more broadly. And pricing every knife identically regardless of steel, complexity, or time invested ignores real cost differences between a simple 1084 knife and a MagnaCut integral build.

Should I charge less when I’m just starting out?

Charging somewhat less while building a portfolio and reputation is reasonable, but “less” should still cover real materials and a fair (if modest) rate for your time, not just materials alone. Chronically underpricing makes it harder to raise prices later and can undervalue the whole craft in a local market.

How do I price a knife with a customer-supplied design?

The same way, materials, time, and skill still apply regardless of who came up with the design, custom design work from you specifically can justify an additional premium on top of the base build price.

Should sheaths be priced separately?

Either approach works as long as it’s consistent and clear to the customer, some makers bundle a basic sheath into the knife price and charge extra for premium materials or complexity, others itemize the sheath entirely separately.