This document shares my personal journey of how I went from making 20–30 knives a month in my garage while working nonstop, to producing 100–120 knives a month—while working fewer hours.

Why I Did It

Let’s start with why I did it. If you're here, you've probably realized that there’s a higher demand for your work than there is supply. Quality American-made blades are in high demand, and the question of how to make more is something every maker struggles with.

This was a major issue for me in 2018, and I kept thinking, “Is this sustainable?”
I was working my ass off making handmade knives, but earning very little profit. Online, I appeared successful, but in real life, I felt like a fraud because I was still struggling.

I even had to take out a loan to pay off my taxes one year. I did what most makers do and contacted a larger company to try and get a production run going. This is almost always the first step makers take when they want to scale up, and I think it potentially has a place—but in my opinion, it should be done one time and one time only.

Production Runs and Quality Issues

Let me explain.

It can be good to do a large run of a few hundred knives once, to see if you’re able to sell that many, and also to get a large chunk of cash in hand to buy your own CNC machinery. However, I’ve learned that as your output grows, so does your demand—so if you can’t sell a hundred blades overnight, that’s okay. It took me about six months to sell the first run of 200.

I did about three production runs of 100 to 200 knives. Every time I did a run, they had a new issue. Sometimes the handles were messed up, sometimes the blades, sometimes the sheaths. But nothing was ever done right even once—and I was using high-quality American manufacturers. I’m not sure how the quality of the Chinese companies is, but sending thousands of dollars to China should not be your first choice for building your American dream. Eventually, I got to the point where I said, “Screw this, I’m gonna learn to do it myself.”

Starting CNC and Early Automation

I applied for a Citi Simplicity card, got 0% APR for 21 months, and bought an entry-level CNC router. I started using the cheap software it came with to cut out some rough G10 handle shapes that I would hand grind to finish. It was still a big time saver, but not anywhere near what it could have been. I paid the router off in digestible increments over 10 months and paid no interest.

I found another knifemaker who had CNC experience and I hired him to do some design work for me (I’ll refer to him as a “designer”). I was paying him $500 to make a 3D design of one of my knives, $250 to make the file that would machine out finished scales, and another $500 to design a sheath mold file. I would then manufacture the molds and sheaths myself using his files. He worked remotely, so I was just plugging in files he would email. All in all, about $1,250 to automate my handles and sheaths per model—and this was worth every penny.

Results of Initial CNC Automation

This had an immediate effect. By adding a CNC router and machining out nearly finished handles and sheaths (while waterjetting and hand-grinding blades), in one year my income went up 2x and my profit went up 4x. This happened because my operating costs stayed about the same, but my income went up drastically allowing profit to increase faster. And these were rudimentary first-edition-type files—nowhere near optimized like my process is today. This was a great step in the right direction. The obvious next step was to buy a CNC mill and start machining the blades in-house as well.

Investing in a CNC Mill and Challenges

I applied for an SBA loan and was granted $17,000 that I had to pay off over 30 years (it's already paid off). I took that money and bought a Haas Mini Mill, brand new. I financed that as well, putting $8,000 down and getting my first payment deferred for six months. At this point, I had not spent a single dime of my own money, had a brand new machine, and six months to figure out how to use it before owing $800/month. (About four knives would pay this off—I’d be making eight/day by the time I owed my first payment.)

I think buying it new is great because it comes with professional setup, a day of instruction, a one-year warranty, and the option to finance—which was the best part.

I still didn't know how to design or manufacture, so I decided to hire my designer to come into the shop and work full time. He was able to get a single model up and running, and I was paying him around $6,000/month for about two months. That was roughly 50% of my profit, but still a significant improvement over hand grinding blades, and better than relying on a production company.

Unfortunately, we didn’t work well together in person, and combined with the high cost, I decided to let him go. I had the ability to machine out that one model, but no real knowledge of how to design and program my machines. And I had made one huge mistake: I lowered my prices from around $300–$400/blade to $200–$300/blade simply because I was using CNC (biggest mistake ever—more on this later).

Learning and Taking Control

I decided to take a few different classes. I took some online Fusion courses for a few hundred bucks, and a 2-day in-person class that cost about $1500 all in. They taught me the basics of how Fusion works—but nothing specific to knives. No workholding, no machining strategies, nothing. I’d have to figure all that out through trial and error. I had about four months left before my first machine payment was due, and the one model I was making all day, every day, was starting to get old to my customers. 

I decided to hire another designer to replace the first one because I wanted immediate results, but unfortunately he wasn’t working as fast as I had hoped. I couldn’t sleep one night and said, “Screw it, I’ll just give it a try.” I told myself, “If the new designer finishes before me, then great—and if I finish before him, then I’ll do it on my own!”

At 2 a.m., I got up and stayed up all night working on the first iteration of what would become the Henchman. I took everything I’d learned over the past year and started designing the blade, scales, and sheath mold in Fusion—slowly but surely programming toolpaths and developing my machining strategy. That first draft was a joke: wildly inefficient, full of small mistakes. My blade tips were facing the wrong direction (yes, there’s a right and wrong way for your tip to face in your first operations), my workholding made no sense, and I was overcomplicating the whole process. The surface finish was rough, and my programs were clunky. I was machining a single blade at a time—but it was a start.

In April 2021, I started machining the Henchman—and I was incredibly proud of myself. After months of trial and error, and thousands spent on training and designers, I had finally figured it out—and I had done it on my own. No more designers, no more production companies. I was in full control of my future. By combining what I learned in my courses, what the designers had taught me, and advice from a few other makers, I was able to launch the Henchman—and sold 100 units within a few days (40 dropped, 60 custom orders).

Refining Workflow and Scaling

The first versions were rough, but I kept improving my workflow. Each time I introduced a new model, the process got better. It kept getting easier with every design until I had a solid workflow and a reliable system. Sheath molds went from needing 20 iterations—about a week of trial and error per sheath—to fitting perfectly on the first or second try, usually within just 1–2 workdays. Blades and scales started coming out right on the first attempt. Around that time, I also upgraded from my Shapeoko router to an Axiom Precision router. 

This was my Gen 1 work, and the fit and finish were not as nice as my stuff today—but the blades were cheaper, in the $200 range. People loved them. I stopped doing individual custom orders and started doing drops only. People loved the drops because they would ship out the next day—no more lead times. Getting someone to pay hundreds of dollars for a blade that is ready to ship is much easier than getting someone to pay and then wait months. Remember: people have a lot of options!

I also discovered the power of multiple colors/finishes. As you’ve probably noticed, I have about 100 different color combos—some quite wild. By offering a ton of options, I could turn 3 or 4 blade models into hundreds of different products. This approach has led to customers literally ordering 10 of the same model in some cases. This is the superpower of the small shop. Big companies can’t afford to offer so many options at scale. The small maker can. This strategy works. Do it… just don’t copy my exact color combos. Create some that are unique to you and represent your artistic self!

Growing Production and Marketing

I wanted to make more and more blades, so I trained a machine operator. I taught my cousin—your classic San Diego surfer (very smart guy, but no machine shop experience)—to operate my mill in a matter of days and had him working full-time shortly. We were making around 50 blades/week or 200/month. I learned a simple principle during that time:

Make more blades, sell more blades.

That can be taken literally, but it’s also a snowball concept. The more you make, the more they’re out there, the more people see them, the more people want them. So if my earlier drop of 25 blades sold out in half an hour, as we increased the drops to 50, they would still sell in half an hour instead of taking an hour—because there was more demand.

Make more blades, sell more blades.

He was also a photographer, so I had him handle all my content, emails, and marketing—which definitely helped move more volume. He even built a clean, user-friendly website for me. Around that time, I was bringing in $30,000–$50,000 per month in sales. I bought another router and another mill because I thought I was killing it. But the problem was—I wasn’t tracking my expenses closely. I was making money, but barely any profit. Month after month, my bank account stayed the same. Between paying him, operating costs, material costs, and taxes, those $200-range blades just weren’t profitable. I felt like I was on a hamster wheel—burning out and getting nowhere. It doesn’t matter how many blades you sell if they don’t make a profit. And on top of that, I wasn’t developing new models because I was constantly sharpening and assembling everything we were producing. Taking time off to improve quality or grow the product line wasn’t an option, because I had to keep paying him. So I made the decision to go back to doing it all myself. 

I learned his style of photography and continued to do it. I kept using the email templates and website he made. Now that I didn’t have to cover his income, I could slow down, make more models, and improve my process.

Refining Process and Pricing

Over the next few years, I greatly refined my process. Being hands-on with every step again allowed me to identify inefficiencies and fix them. I also broke down the cost of my blades to the last cent for the first time ever (even the tape that goes on packages gets accounted for by the inch). I found out why I wasn’t making much profit: I simply wasn’t charging enough. I wasn’t fully accounting for every expense, and I felt sick to my stomach because I had worked so hard for so little for so long—and didn’t think I could do anything about it.

My grave mistake of lowering my prices by about $100 per blade had come back to bite me. I was basing my prices off marketplace comps. I would look at similar blades and price them like the competition. But I ignored the fact that the competition was operating at scale. They had teams, employees, higher purchasing power—and they didn’t have the owner hand-sharpening one blade at a time. They were making thousands of units a month—I wasn't.

My only option was to raise my prices—and this tore me up inside. But my drops were consistently selling out in 30 minutes to a few hours. That meant demand was higher than supply, so I said, “Screw it, my needs come first,” and raised my prices.

If you think this is doing your customers a disservice—it’s not. Doing them a disservice would be undercharging, resenting your work, and eventually quitting because you could make as much elsewhere with a much easier job. That is doing them a disservice.

I started making a profit—and didn’t get many complaints. Then I bumped prices again. And again—until I got this email...

Dec 2, 2023 

“Order number 3332.

Hello.

First of all, thank you very much for a quick shipping.

However, I am disappointed with the workmanship of the knives and want to return entire order for a full refund.

Reasons.

1) Knives were crammed in a single cardboard box and they were bumping into each other during shipping transit. For $345 dollar per a knife, this is not acceptable.

2) There are visible machining marks and flaws from CNC.

3) Blade grinds were uneven. 

Please send me instructions on how to return them. Please provide a shipping label.

Thank you.”

I was mortified — and he was 100% right. I accepted his 3 knives back and fully refunded him $1,035.

This was also around the same time that Instagram really started restricting content, and my sales plummeted. I had my most popular models sitting on my website and nobody was buying. I said screw this — I’m going to figure it out. I switched from 3V to MagnaCut, since that was a request I got daily, and I committed to making the best knife I could — even if it meant more work — and just charging whatever I needed to in order to be happy.

Improving Quality and Marketing

Over the next year, I changed up my machining strategy and focused on finding the right tooling to get perfectly smooth bevels. I also added customer reviews to my website so I’d be publicly held accountable if my quality started slipping. I began branching out to other platforms besides IG — Facebook, TikTok, X (Twitter), and YouTube.

The new blades took longer to make, had more hand-finishing, and the new machining strategy was tough to set up. But the results were worth it. My Gen 2 work took off — and people loved them.

I kept refining my website, increasing the quality of my content, posting on five platforms, and making the best blades I could. And it worked. My drops started to sell out again. I was proud of the knives, and my customers were happier, too. I kept slowly increasing quality and gradually raising prices — never raising prices without improving quality.

Current Status and Future Plans

Now I’m comfortably making and selling 100–120 knives a month, with nearly double the profit compared to my Gen 1 blades. I only work about 30 hours a week in the shop and still have plenty of time for my life and my family. I don't have a brick and mortar storefront, and I have never gone to a knifeshow or tradeshow. Everything is done online. 

I could hire and expand, but honestly, I prefer to work alone. I’ve got a vision for what’s next and will continue refining my workflow to make more blades, and better ones. But right now, I want to help you go on a similar journey and avoid the mistakes I made. So I’m laying out this blueprint to help you grow your knifemaking business…

Step One: Automate Handles

Everyone wants to jump right into blade milling, and for some people that might be the right first step, but if you don't want to overextend yourself I recommend starting with a small router first and automating handles. Whether you have the cash or need to take out a loan or use a credit card, buy yourself a CNC router. There are literally $300 routers on Amazon. I don't have first-hand experience with them, but I have seen them used by other knifemakers. You can realistically get your foot in the door and get something decent for $1,000 to $1,500.

Remember, this is a profit multiplier — don’t think of it as an expense. Does it still sound expensive? Consider this: if you're hand-grinding knives, you're currently “biking.” Remember as a kid, biking and walking everywhere, and then eventually getting a car and going “holy shit, this is so much better — I'm never going back to walking everywhere”? That's what automating feels like.

Learn to run it however you can. You can spend months toying with it like I did, or if you want a proven system that can get you making parts in 1–2 days, I’ve got an online class with downloadable templates to walk you through it. I used to send hundreds of dollars per model to a designer, only to get barely usable files I couldn’t even edit. For a one-time fee, I’ll teach you how to design and manufacture your own handles — no need for a designer — and I’ll show you the strategies I’ve optimized over years of work, not some first-draft junk.

It’s a small investment that will greatly increase your profit. You’ll also save wear and tear on your body from grinding G10 — and avoid the mess. Even if you don’t sell more blades, you’re buying back your time, which is crucial to a happy lifestyle.

Step Two: Automate Sheaths

Same concept — except now with sheaths. You can do it on the same CNC router. This can increase your profit even more. Imagine Kydex sheaths taking just a few minutes to make, with no mess, and working perfectly every time. I do this every day. I can teach you exactly how I do it.

This is by far the most difficult piece of the puzzle to solve because it requires test-fitting sheath molds. But I’ll give you the exact offsets, spacing, and workflows that I use.

Step Three: Save Up, Buy a Mill

This is the game-changer. Going from a router to a mill is like going from a golf cart to a Mercedes. Any trouble the router gave you will be gone once you move to a mill. The router leads you to the mill.

Take the extra cash you’re making from your router and put it toward a down payment on a mill. You may need to move out of your garage at this point. Even if you have the cash to buy the mill outright, finance it. Keep your cash on hand.

Just like with the router, learn any way you can. It took me a year to figure it out, but I had paid thousands of dollars to designers who gave me a foundation to work from. You probably don't have that foundation, so it may take you a few years to learn… or, if you want to do it in a matter of days or weeks and don't have a few years to play with, you can trade time for money and go through me. You’ll have my proven systems ready from day one. Don’t fumble through it, burning thousands in materials and endmills — or worse, crashing your machine. Take what I’ve learned through struggle and build on it.

My whole system costs approximately the same price as five knives. You're trading five knives to gain the knowledge to literally "print" your handles, sheaths, and blades.

At this point, you may even consider selling your router and running everything — blades, handles, and sheaths — on the mill. I still use my routers, but I’m in the process of moving everything to the mills because, frankly, it’s just a better way to work. The parts come out cleaner. But that’s up to you. Better yet, keep the router as a backup. (I rarely sell equipment — I prefer to upgrade and keep the old gear around because shit happens!)

Alternate Route: Combine Steps 1-3 (Skip the Router)

If you know you want to go all-in on in-house production and want to skip the router completely, there’s no reason not to. If you can afford a CNC mill (or at least the down payment), go for it. You can make your blades, handles, and sheaths all on one CNC mill. You don’t need a router at all. I just recommend a router because it’s a cheap starter machine that will send you down the right path.

My recommendation for a mill is to buy one new, and buy a good one. My HAAS Mini Mills always included transport and install. If you do buy a used one, just make sure to factor in the costs of transport, rigging, install, and operating instruction. Manufacturers usually get better rates on this, so definitely run the numbers before making a final call.

If you take my course, you’ll still need to know the basic operations of a CNC mill, like changing a tool or calibrating your probe. These are different from machine to machine. When you buy new from HAAS, they send someone out to train you for a day on the simple operations you’ll need to know. These basics vary between machines and brands, so you’ll need this foundational knowledge before any advanced blade-specific training can be useful.

I personally love the HAAS Mini Mill. I’ve never wished mine did anything different or needed more power. I get no kickback from HAAS — this is just my personal experience. Sure, a VF-2 would be nice, but they’re much larger, much more expensive, and require 3-phase power. I know Tormach prices are appealing (about half the price of a HAAS Mini Mill). While I haven’t used them, I’ve heard mixed results. Things are cheaper for a reason, and I like to follow the mantra “buy it nice or buy it twice.”

You might notice some old dinosaur CNC mills online for $5,000 from the ’90s or early 2000s (look up FADAL on eBay). Here’s my take on them: unless you’re an experienced machinist who knows how to fix and diagnose them, don’t waste your time. They’re going to cause you more headaches than they’re worth. CNC mills weigh thousands of pounds. You have to pay a ton to transport and install them. If you buy some trashed dinosaur and can’t get it working, you’ll have to sell it, move it twice, etc.

The only reason to even entertain this is if you’re not an established maker. Maybe you’re brand new and looking to get into this as a hobby with the possibility of a career. In that case, you might be able to get by with a dinosaur — people certainly do. But I wouldn’t recommend it as a first choice.

If you are established and have people ready to buy your knives, buy a brand new (or like-new) machine with a wireless probing system, a Pierson pallet system, and a decent laptop for Fusion 360, and you’ll be setting yourself up for success.

Step Four: Grow

Now you’re in control. You’ll be able to refine your own style, improve your designs, and increase your quality. Take what I’ve taught you and make it work for you.

You can train and hire operators — or not. If you’re happy running solo and making good money, there’s no pressure to expand. But if you do want to grow, you’ll have a game plan. Buy more machines. Train more people. Make better blades.

Your future is yours.