Custom Knives Quality determined by Price?

[wolfspirit]

I have what may seem like a silly question.  A friend and me got into a discussion about custom knives and quality.  We were looking at custom knives and the prices.  I showed him Marvin Poole knives on his website and then we looked at other custom knives to compare prices.  He felt that because the other knives were considerably higher price they must be of higher quality and wondered if Poole knives were high quality why is his knives lower priced.  I love my Marvin Poole knife and never had any problems with it.  The discussion got me to wondering do people who buy custom knives judge the quality by the price of the knife?  I'm curious as to other people's thoughts on the matter.

[Joel]

That's a pretty good question, and one that has sort of bothered me over the years.  As far as I'm concerned, the answer to that question is NO, you can't always judge the quality of a knife by it's price. .....you judge the quality of a knife by it's quality.  There are too many makers out there, especially some of the new ones, who seem to think that if they make it it's got to be worth at least $300; after all it's HANDMÅDE(sorta).  An example  I ran accross a few years ago while reading a copy of Blade magazine showed one of the new makers showcasing a small drop point hunter ground from 440C with black micarta scales.  The guy was a NYC Cop and parttime maker and wanted $325 for it.  I was a trifle irritated by that, since I was making almost the exact same pattern using 154CM(a more expensive and, to me, much bettre steel), using the same black micarta and selling it for $135.00!!!  I had , in fact, designed the knife to cost around that much.  Another problem you run into, from what I've read, is with the guys who forge/hammer knives.  They are almost always more expensive to buy from, the justification being they are handmaking the blade almost from scratch, so to speak.  I"ve no problem with that, except that many of the new guys/girls who are using coal as their heat source don't always have their forging techniques down just right.  Some of them don't quite have the ability to properly manage their fires and convert that coal into coke before forging.  Since coal almost always has sulfer in it, and sulfer,except in minute amounts, will really weaken a blade so it will snap quite readily and not hold an edge more than a minute, is NOT desireable.  Definitely not worth the price they will be charging.  In the case of the forgers, the Guild system using the Journeyman  and Masters tests can help there.  One who has passed through that rigourous exam process probably knows what he/she is doing.
      Another factor that affects the price on a knife is the reputation of the Maker.  A well known maker often(but not always) will charge more for a given knife even though it's quality may be no higher than a less well known maker.  Bragging price."Yeah, see this, it's a .......... Paid$.......... for it and it's worth every penny.  Maybe.  An example, again in my way of thinking, is say the difference between a master maker like Bob Dozier who is certainly well known for the quality of his impeccable D-2 blades. His prices are quite reasonable for what is a guaranteed high quality hunter.  They are working knives, and not fancy but the workmanship is among the best.   On the other side of the scale is a Loveless drop point.  It'll cost you 4/5 times what a Dozier blade costs, and is not neccessarily made by Loveless himself.  He has a guy(Jimmy something or other) working with him now who does a lot of them.  They are great knives, but you are paying an essentially astronomical fee for his Name on the blade.   Is the Name worth it to you???.....then buy it.  Won't cut any bettre than a Dozier, or any of the other solid makers around who don't get all excited about what they make(as far a price goes), but it is COLLECTABLE.  Collectable knives are in a class of their own, there is often no rationale between the quality of the knife and the price charged.   My advice is this...
A.  Shop around.  Look at a number of knives that are made in the style you  
      are interested in.  Learn the difference between maker quality and maker
      vanity.
B. LEARN something about knives.  Learn to tell good steel from bad steel and
     quality handle/bolster/pin/bolt material from the tons of junk that are
      floating around out there.  Learn something about heat treating and
      tempering.  A 154CM blade is OK...one that has been cryogenically
       processed is worth more than one that hasn't.  An informed/educated
      person understands the nature of what they are reading/looking at and
      can(usually) make the best choice.
C.  Ask questions if possible.  Most makers are happy to explain their methodology and why they go that way.  Expect a lot of variations here, but the variations should be understandable.  The thing here is , you have to
understand what they are talking about.  

I could go on and on here, but I'll stop at this point, since I think you get my drift, and perhaps others here will add their hard learned viewpoints also.

[Will52100]

What Joel said.

A lot of it's name, and how well they are known.

Also a full time maker will amost always sell for more than a part time maker simply because he has to make a living.  A full time maker also generial makes more knives and therefor is better than someone who only does a few now and then, or at least that's the thinking a lot of times :lol:  There are part time makers out there that are everybit as good as full time makers, but since they don't make as many, and aren't as well known or visible as some full time makers they can't charge as much.  Also a lot of part time or fairly new makers feel that they don't deserve to charge as much as some of the long time makers, regardless of quality.  

One thing I would add, steel is secondary, the heat treat and testing are the most important.  If the steel is a lower performer but heat treated right and has a good edge geomitry for the job, it will out perform a super steel that has not been heat treated right and has too thick or thin edge geomitry and design for the job it's designed for.  I would suggest asking any maker you are thinking of buying from how they test there knives, if they don't test to some degree they don't know how it's going to perform, and neigther will you.  

Good steel, good design, and most importantly good heat treat are the hallmarks of a good knife, no mater the price or name, or how fine the fit and finish.