Well I've been getting more use out of this blog than I thought I would, so I might end up using it more often than originally planned.
A few things of interest today. The main thing is I added 20 new colors of 1/8" paracord to the store. As with all of our supplies I will be using it on both our custom knives, and supplying it to other makers.
The second piece of news is we are making headway on the emails. When we started the battle to clear our inbox we had upwards of 1,000 pieces of mail. Not all of which needed a response, but a lot of it did. (btw thats not including the spam mail which is a seperate folder) Now the mail is down to 290. We hope to have it done soon.
For those of you waiting for custom pieces...we are making headway on them too and hope to have most of them finished within the week.
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Update on our status
I just thought I would stop in to let everyone know our current status.
I'll be in Michigan until mid August(ish) trying to tie up some loose ends, sell my car, answer emails, and finish some knife projects. I'm hoping to move between the 10th and 20th but thats not set in stone.
Right now we are quite behind in emails....the email volume has been high for the last few weeks and we are playing catchup. If you sent us an email and we haven't replied please feel free to email us again....you can send a carbon copy of the previous email or title it "answer me you son of a $^#*!" :D I know a few of you have been waiting awhile. We are digging through the pile of emails and should have everyones questions responded to within the next 2-3 days.
We've been getting questions asking what kinds of knives we will have available before the move. Our first priority is finishing some designs that were requested awhile ago by various customers. The customers that will be receiving their knives first are Ben (you've been very patient my friend), and those that are members of the military, police, and security forces. I tend to give members of these groups priority because there is a greater probability that a life may depend on their tools.
After these designs are done I will be working on the other orders, and also finishing up items to list for sale in the store. Items planned for the store are hamon sized neck knives, various Kiridashi, oddball pieces that I started and never finished.
If there is something you wanted to see made feel free to request it. I may not be able to finish it before the move, but I will give it my best try.
Thanks,
-Jason
-Hazel
I'll be in Michigan until mid August(ish) trying to tie up some loose ends, sell my car, answer emails, and finish some knife projects. I'm hoping to move between the 10th and 20th but thats not set in stone.
Right now we are quite behind in emails....the email volume has been high for the last few weeks and we are playing catchup. If you sent us an email and we haven't replied please feel free to email us again....you can send a carbon copy of the previous email or title it "answer me you son of a $^#*!" :D I know a few of you have been waiting awhile. We are digging through the pile of emails and should have everyones questions responded to within the next 2-3 days.
We've been getting questions asking what kinds of knives we will have available before the move. Our first priority is finishing some designs that were requested awhile ago by various customers. The customers that will be receiving their knives first are Ben (you've been very patient my friend), and those that are members of the military, police, and security forces. I tend to give members of these groups priority because there is a greater probability that a life may depend on their tools.
After these designs are done I will be working on the other orders, and also finishing up items to list for sale in the store. Items planned for the store are hamon sized neck knives, various Kiridashi, oddball pieces that I started and never finished.
If there is something you wanted to see made feel free to request it. I may not be able to finish it before the move, but I will give it my best try.
Thanks,
-Jason
-Hazel
Saturday, July 18, 2009
Survey Results...
Thank you all for taking the time to take the survey!
Here are the results of the survey, and our answers to the results and comments. The original question will be listed, along with the results. Multiple choice questions will list what percentage of the vote each choice received. Fill in the blank questions will be listed with the customers answer first, then my comment to some of the answers.
#1 Which designs would you be interested in seeing more of?
23% More self defense knives
19% More EDC knives
16% Karambits
16% Combat knives
14% Hunting knives
7% Kitchen knives
5% Swords
(These stats match the exact direction we plan to take the business)
#2 Are there any designs not listed that you would like to see made more often? If so list what they are.
“would like to see more personal size Tantos in the traditional curved blade style. Not the truncated armor piercing point style that is so popular today. I seldom find the need to pierce armor these days.” --More of this design will definitely be coming. It is a type of design we currently make, but usually isn't seen up for sale because they sell fast. With the added production we expect this year you should be seeing a lot more of them will be offered -Jason
“theyre probably difficult to make but i love balisongs and your sort of neo-tribal designs would probably make an amazing final product!” --I've always been a fan of balisongs but I haven't made one to date. This is something I would definitely like to get into but it will be a bit of a wait...at least 6 months I expect, maybe more. Before I offered any for sale I would make myself and my testers some to see how they hold up. Balisongs are notorious for loosening up and becoming sloppy and I want to make sure our designs would be as strong as possible. -Jason
“Longer blades/handles proportionately thicker with an integrated quillon to keep the hand from slipping” --More large knives are on the way. We will first be working on building our inventory of smaller knives up (they are faster to make since there is less material to work) then start on some larger blades. The knives you will see up for auction in the next week(and last week) are some examples of some upcoming designs we have been developing. -Jason
“folders” --I've made a few Linerlocks in the past, and plan on making more. We will first be building our inventory of fixed blades before starting on folders. We will concentrate primarily on Linerlocks. -Jason
“bolos, camp knives, machetes” – Camp knives, and Bolos are definitely on the way (probably 3ish month wait before you see many in inventory). Machetes are something I have considered but I'm not sure how they would sell. Many people prefer just buying a $5 junk machete, but I do on occasion get troops in areas such as South American jungles wanting a top of the line machete. So we will probably make a few for sale and see what the response is.....but after working on building the camp knife inventory. -Jason
26% S30V
19% O1
15% A2
15% ATS-34
15%
11% 52100
#4 Any other types of steels you wish to see us use? If so list below.
“154CM is my personal favorite, also had good experiences with ZDP-18” --154CM is a very nice steel, very similar to ATS-34. We will probably be offering one of these two steels later in the year. We think a high quality stainless would be a good addition to the line for those of us that work in hot, humid, acidic, etc situations. I have heard good things about ZDP-18 but I have never worked with it so I would need to do some experimenting before offering it for sale. -Jason
“AUS-8 has served me well, but i see its limitations.” AUS-8 has some good qualities to it...it's fairly stain resistant, it is available in a wide variety of sizes, it is pretty affordable(thus making the knives affordable) and it's relatively easy to sharpen. This is also one of the few decent steels that I can purchase right in the
“d2” Nice steel, great edge holding. Not sure about offering it though. It falls between a high carbon steel and a stainless steel....it's not quite stainless, but definitely more stain resistant than something like 1095. The problem is I don't get many people asking me for it so I'm not sure how the customers would like it. But I do like this steel. I may order a small quantity of all my favorite steels and start making occasional batches of various steels for those customers wanting to try it. I would love to offer a wide variety of steel but at this point we lack time to try and keep more than a few types of steel in inventory. Perhaps we can incorporate more as we grow. -Jason
“L-6” Decent steel, not available in a wide range of sizes though. We may or may not offer this steel. If we do offer it one of the first things we would do is use it in a
#5 We use many types of handle materials but lately most of our work has been wrapped, or with our own composite handle material. We have experience with the following material and we are wondering which ones you might like to see us use more often.
23% Carbon fiber
17% More leathers used with handle wrap (stingray, frog, ostrich leg, lizard, snake, shark,
etc.
13% Silk cord handle wrap (imported from
13% Stabilized wood
9% Exotic Hardwoods
6% Anodized Aluminum
4% Titanium
4% Lapidary materials
4% Giraffe Bone
2%
2% Camel Bone
2% Mammoth Ivory
First a note on handle materials... we definitely will be offering more leathers. We plan on offering more exotic hardwoods...but we will have to look at import/export laws regarding woods. We may offer anodized Titanium/Aluminum simply because I enjoy doing it (I used to have a jewelry business using these materials and lately I've been missing the colors it offers). Lapidary materials I hope to offer on pricier models...simply because I enjoy the color/pattern available in stone. Carbon fiber I have mixed feelings about.....it's a superb engineering material but it is pricey (thus raising the price of the knives) and it is a royal pain in the butt to work. It leaves tiny splinters all over in your skin making you itch like mad (ever roll around in an attic of fiberglass insulation? Same feeling except for worse) and is very, very bad to breathe so we would need to work the material wet, which creates a huge mess, and clean the shop every time after using it. But we may start using it since people want it. Silk cord will be offered in the next few months.
The following are customer choices:
“G10” Nice material. Similar to the composite we offer but with a fiberglass base. Nice and strong and affordable. The fiberglass pretty much only comes in white though so any coloring has to be done by dying the epoxy....so we wouldn't be able to offer the patterns available in the composite lines. It also has the same health hazards as the carbon fiber. We may or may not offer it. -Jason
“Stabilized belly button lint?” Unfortunately due to personal hygiene my belly button harvest is low. I talked to Hazel about me cleaning less often to up my lint harvest but she shot that idea down. Too bad the survey was anonymous because I would have grabbed some dryer lint to stabilize and send to you labeled as “stabilized belly button lint” just to freak you out a tad. -Jason
#6 Before I started Ecos Knives I made a lot of knives geared more for collections than hard use. They were of course usable but they often featured more expensive materials, and finer finishes. Customers started asking for models with more user-friendly finishes, and reduced cost so they wouldn't be afraid to use them....and thats been our goal with Ecos. High performance handmade knives at an affordable price. Now that we offer primarily these types of knives we have some customers requesting pricier knives with finer finishes and more expensive materials for their collections or as gifts. While we fully intend to keep most of our line affordable using knives, we are curious how many people would be interested in more expensive models.
60% Says “No we shouldn't”
40% Says “yes, we should”
#7 I've been planning on making limited and serial numbered pieces with the date and number etched onto the knife for those of you seeking collector pieces. These pieces would be limited to no more than 20 of them a year, and maybe even 10 per year. They would use the best of materials and finishes and would often feature unique designs (although some will be upgraded “standard models”) Is this something you would be interested in seeing?
64% Yes
36% No
36% Yes
36% Maybe
29% No
(Better ratio than I thought since many customers are not knifemakers nor want to be. I'm an avid reader and have wanted to try making a book for years so I may start one after the move)
#9 What types of payment options would you like to see added to the store?
85% Direct credit card payments (bypassing Paypal, done directly through us)
8% Google Checkout
8% Money Orders
(I will have to check into the logistics of offering these payment methods through our site. I want to make sure its secure, affordable, and easy for both us and our customers)
#10 In the near future we will be setting up relationships with various knife dealers, are there any knife dealers you may have good experiences with that you think our knives would be a good match for? If so list any.
“personally i like buying straight from you or your ebay store. its a much more personal feel.”“ I agree with you there. I would like to keep the business as personal as possible (which is often hard due to lack of time) but one advantage to using dealers is they do a lot of the legwork for us, which saves us time. They also work as a marketing tool which will help expand our customer base. One more benefit is it is much easier/faster for us to send a whole batch to one dealer than to send/communicate with a few dozen customers. While these may sound like nothing but cold business reasons, it is very hard to offer custom knives at these prices so we do have to look at it from a business aspect sometimes just to ensure we survive. I want to make sure that 30yrs from now we are still here to provide for our customers and not just be a distant memory.
“Bladeforums.com. It's a forum, but it would be a great place for advertising and sales on higher priced, more customized pieces.” We agree. In the past we sold/advertised some pieces on the forums (we are a member of several forums including bladeforums.com, britishblades.com, knifenetwork.com, knifeforums.com, etc) and plan to sell more there soon. I just haven't had time to participate on the forums much of late and feel guilty “trying to make a buck” on there while not offering advice and help to other makers. Hopefully soon I will have more time to be a more active member. We will also be pricing banner ad's. -Jason
(several knife dealers were suggested to us, and we will look into them. Thank you for the suggestions)
#11 What other changes should we make to the business?
I was surprised that not a single critical and/or negative comment was left in this area. As the saying goes “you can't make everyone happy all of the time” and I know there are areas we need to work on......such as more prompt email correspondences, and more prompt shipping(we used to have very fast shipping but we have been lagging lately, sorry!) Hopefully we can be more prompt in these areas soon....we are making changes that will help.
With that said we really appreciate the comments left! Even though these are made to be affordable tools, a part of me goes into each knife and we do our best to keep our customers happy. It's a good feeling knowing that so many of you are. If it wasn't for wonderful customers such as yourselves I would be stuck in a more mundane job instead of being able to move overseas to explore different cultures, and do the work I've enjoyed so much over the last 18yrs. Thanks all!
I won't bother posting your comments here....many of them are personal, and besides when I see businesses posting “customer comments” I often think the business could be creating the comments to make themselves look better. Thats one thing we like about Ebay...the feedback system. If anyone wants to check out our customer feedback they can check our profile there.
Saturday, July 11, 2009
New Ecos Blog
Hello all and welcome to our new Ecos Knives blog. I want to start off by saying this won't be one of those blogs with daily updates, it will just be used on occasion to fill people in on news updates.
This post is divided into several areas (denoted by the bold title) The “about the move” is mostly personal, while the “what does this mean for Ecos Knives” and “what changes will be made” are mostly business related.
Take the Survey
Want to help shape Ecos Knives? Then please take our survey to let us know what direction you would like to see us go in the custom knife world. Click here for our survey.
I'm sorry!
First off I owe some of my recent customers an apology for being slow in shipping their order and replying to emails. After the end of my school semester I had planned on getting back to shipping items the same day but I recently moved into a temporary residence and it's been more problematic than anticipated. Mainly I had to switch from my cable internet to mobile broadband and it is a royal pain in the butt. Bad reception, slow transfers, modems dying, poor customer service through Sprint, etc. It's taking me much longer to get my online activities done and I'm very sorry about that. The bright news is after my move (more about that below) my father will be taking over the shipping which will make things speedier and also free up more time for me to do other knife related tasks.
Thank You!
Secondly I want to thank all of you for doing business with us. I know the term “we value you as a customer” is said constantly in business (often repeated over and over when you are stuck on hold for an hour with a company that is screwing you over) but we truly do. You, the customer, is what makes it possible for me to do what I love doing. This isn't a large corporation, this is a small company run by two individuals with the help of family. Almost all of our sales are from repeat customers and word of mouth....we couldn't survive without our loyal customer base and we really do appreciate you all.
About the Move...
Many of you have been asking about my upcoming move to Asia. I just thought I would take the time to fill you all in on the details. The first question people ask is where am I moving to..... the location is the Cebu area of the Philippines.....land of the karambit, barong, bolo, escrima/kali/arnis, etc. The second question is “why?” Well there are a myriad of reasons. This whole idea started around 5yrs ago. It was a cumulation of a few things hitting me at once. I had always been interested in travel, but it seemed like something (usually my job or money situations) were getting in the way so I kept postponing it. Then I started listening to my elders making statements how there are things they wanted to get done in life that they never did. I did not want to one day find myself looking back over my life and regretting not doing the things I wanted to do.
That is what gave me the drive. But where to go? I've lived in Michigan my whole life so there is a lot of world to explore...so I made a list of requirements. I wanted warm weather, sunny skies, nice beaches, affordable, English speaking, and possibly somewhere I might want to retire to someday. The search began. I started researching different countries...Mexico, Panama, Cost Rica, Thailand, Dominica, Belize, etc., etc. Well to make a long story short someone suggested Philippines to me and after researching it, thats where I decided to visit first.
And now the plot thickens... In my online research I made a good friend from Philippines named Hazel(many of you will recognize her name because she helps with the business a lot, responding to emails, etc). We got along good from the very beginning since we share common interests, and the same sense of humor. After months of friendship I started my campaign of trying to talk her into a relationship with me. Fast forward 2yrs later and I finally talked her into meeting me....that was the spring of 08. So I flew over there and stayed for 3 weeks. Two things happened on my 3week stay there. One, I realized I really enjoyed the country, and two I enjoyed my time with Hazel in person even more than online (and she didn't run from me in fear.....much) I also managed to talk her into being in a relationship with me. I returned home where I finished another year of school. During this time we decided we are a good match and will get married.
So after last school semester I planned on going to stay for another month or so. Then I said “screw it” theres no better time than now to start having adventures so I decided to put school on hold (again) while I move over there, concentrate on custom knives, and get married.
I find this situation kind of comical since I used to good naturedly make fun of people getting into online relationships or getting together with someone on the other side of the planet (are they so ugly they have to fly 3,000miles to find someone?). Now I am one of them. Life has a ironic sense of humor.
What this means for Ecos Knives.
This means major changes will be taking place over the next year. In a nutshell Ecos Knives has been “me” for the last few years. I do everything from find suppliers, website design (I'm still learning), responding to emails, shipping, product design, testing, photographing, etc.....not to mention making the knives too. For the last year Hazel has been a major help with the business end but it's still been just me doing the majority of the work. Obviously this does restrict growth of the business.....one person can only do so much(and what happens if that person gets injured?) I found myself at the point where I had to do one of 3 things....start outsourcing my work, raise prices, go with CNC machinery. I do believe in knife collaborations between makers, but I did not wish to outsource my work. CNC is very efficient, and would help keep prices low...but I don't like it for two reasons. #1 I feel doing the work by hand gives the project more “soul” or “personality”, and #2 is I believe people need jobs more than cnc machinery(unless the cnc mill has 7 starving kids to provide for). And lastly I really didn't want to raise my prices. I enjoy offering knives that are affordable enough where the average person won't be scared to use them.
So what changes will be made?
First off I won't be attending school fulltime so that gives me much more time to work on knives. Secondly after the move I will be setting up my workshop and making the knives over there, but I will be shipping them in batches to my father who will then ship them out from Michigan as they are sold....which saves me time, and saves our US customers the hassle of international shipping. Hazel will also be coming to work for Ecos fulltime (right now she also works fulltime as a legal secretary) helping me with the business end and she also wants to try her hand at the actual knifemaking process. I will also have her brother lined up as a fulltime employee and I will start training him in custom knifemaking...starting with the basics. All of which will free up more time for me to concentrate on product development, and growing the business.
I plan on building up inventory of our current designs, develop new designs, and for the first time ever....work on marketing! Marketing will consist of expanding the website quite a bit, perhaps some further online marketing,set up dealer relationships (so if you are a custom knife dealer feel free to contact us), and buy ad space in magazines. Currently our only marketing is occasional pieces on Ebay, and word of mouth through our much appreciated customer base.
When will all of this occur? I am aiming at moving by the 10th of next month....but thats not concrete. I need to get things wrapped up here (bags packed, shop cleaned, items shipped, car sold, etc) But the move will be asap. It will take a month or so to find living/shop space to rent and then things will get started. I expect very noticeable changes by the Christmas shopping season.
Now I need to get in the shop and get some knives made so I will leave you with a few photos I took of the area I am moving to. I hope I didn't bore you and thank you again for your support!
-Jason
www.ecosknives.com
This post is divided into several areas (denoted by the bold title) The “about the move” is mostly personal, while the “what does this mean for Ecos Knives” and “what changes will be made” are mostly business related.
Take the Survey
Want to help shape Ecos Knives? Then please take our survey to let us know what direction you would like to see us go in the custom knife world. Click here for our survey.
I'm sorry!
First off I owe some of my recent customers an apology for being slow in shipping their order and replying to emails. After the end of my school semester I had planned on getting back to shipping items the same day but I recently moved into a temporary residence and it's been more problematic than anticipated. Mainly I had to switch from my cable internet to mobile broadband and it is a royal pain in the butt. Bad reception, slow transfers, modems dying, poor customer service through Sprint, etc. It's taking me much longer to get my online activities done and I'm very sorry about that. The bright news is after my move (more about that below) my father will be taking over the shipping which will make things speedier and also free up more time for me to do other knife related tasks.
Thank You!
Secondly I want to thank all of you for doing business with us. I know the term “we value you as a customer” is said constantly in business (often repeated over and over when you are stuck on hold for an hour with a company that is screwing you over) but we truly do. You, the customer, is what makes it possible for me to do what I love doing. This isn't a large corporation, this is a small company run by two individuals with the help of family. Almost all of our sales are from repeat customers and word of mouth....we couldn't survive without our loyal customer base and we really do appreciate you all.
About the Move...
Many of you have been asking about my upcoming move to Asia. I just thought I would take the time to fill you all in on the details. The first question people ask is where am I moving to..... the location is the Cebu area of the Philippines.....land of the karambit, barong, bolo, escrima/kali/arnis, etc. The second question is “why?” Well there are a myriad of reasons. This whole idea started around 5yrs ago. It was a cumulation of a few things hitting me at once. I had always been interested in travel, but it seemed like something (usually my job or money situations) were getting in the way so I kept postponing it. Then I started listening to my elders making statements how there are things they wanted to get done in life that they never did. I did not want to one day find myself looking back over my life and regretting not doing the things I wanted to do.
That is what gave me the drive. But where to go? I've lived in Michigan my whole life so there is a lot of world to explore...so I made a list of requirements. I wanted warm weather, sunny skies, nice beaches, affordable, English speaking, and possibly somewhere I might want to retire to someday. The search began. I started researching different countries...Mexico, Panama, Cost Rica, Thailand, Dominica, Belize, etc., etc. Well to make a long story short someone suggested Philippines to me and after researching it, thats where I decided to visit first.
And now the plot thickens... In my online research I made a good friend from Philippines named Hazel(many of you will recognize her name because she helps with the business a lot, responding to emails, etc). We got along good from the very beginning since we share common interests, and the same sense of humor. After months of friendship I started my campaign of trying to talk her into a relationship with me. Fast forward 2yrs later and I finally talked her into meeting me....that was the spring of 08. So I flew over there and stayed for 3 weeks. Two things happened on my 3week stay there. One, I realized I really enjoyed the country, and two I enjoyed my time with Hazel in person even more than online (and she didn't run from me in fear.....much) I also managed to talk her into being in a relationship with me. I returned home where I finished another year of school. During this time we decided we are a good match and will get married.
So after last school semester I planned on going to stay for another month or so. Then I said “screw it” theres no better time than now to start having adventures so I decided to put school on hold (again) while I move over there, concentrate on custom knives, and get married.
I find this situation kind of comical since I used to good naturedly make fun of people getting into online relationships or getting together with someone on the other side of the planet (are they so ugly they have to fly 3,000miles to find someone?). Now I am one of them. Life has a ironic sense of humor.
What this means for Ecos Knives.
This means major changes will be taking place over the next year. In a nutshell Ecos Knives has been “me” for the last few years. I do everything from find suppliers, website design (I'm still learning), responding to emails, shipping, product design, testing, photographing, etc.....not to mention making the knives too. For the last year Hazel has been a major help with the business end but it's still been just me doing the majority of the work. Obviously this does restrict growth of the business.....one person can only do so much(and what happens if that person gets injured?) I found myself at the point where I had to do one of 3 things....start outsourcing my work, raise prices, go with CNC machinery. I do believe in knife collaborations between makers, but I did not wish to outsource my work. CNC is very efficient, and would help keep prices low...but I don't like it for two reasons. #1 I feel doing the work by hand gives the project more “soul” or “personality”, and #2 is I believe people need jobs more than cnc machinery(unless the cnc mill has 7 starving kids to provide for). And lastly I really didn't want to raise my prices. I enjoy offering knives that are affordable enough where the average person won't be scared to use them.
So what changes will be made?
First off I won't be attending school fulltime so that gives me much more time to work on knives. Secondly after the move I will be setting up my workshop and making the knives over there, but I will be shipping them in batches to my father who will then ship them out from Michigan as they are sold....which saves me time, and saves our US customers the hassle of international shipping. Hazel will also be coming to work for Ecos fulltime (right now she also works fulltime as a legal secretary) helping me with the business end and she also wants to try her hand at the actual knifemaking process. I will also have her brother lined up as a fulltime employee and I will start training him in custom knifemaking...starting with the basics. All of which will free up more time for me to concentrate on product development, and growing the business.
I plan on building up inventory of our current designs, develop new designs, and for the first time ever....work on marketing! Marketing will consist of expanding the website quite a bit, perhaps some further online marketing,set up dealer relationships (so if you are a custom knife dealer feel free to contact us), and buy ad space in magazines. Currently our only marketing is occasional pieces on Ebay, and word of mouth through our much appreciated customer base.
When will all of this occur? I am aiming at moving by the 10th of next month....but thats not concrete. I need to get things wrapped up here (bags packed, shop cleaned, items shipped, car sold, etc) But the move will be asap. It will take a month or so to find living/shop space to rent and then things will get started. I expect very noticeable changes by the Christmas shopping season.
Now I need to get in the shop and get some knives made so I will leave you with a few photos I took of the area I am moving to. I hope I didn't bore you and thank you again for your support!
-Jason
www.ecosknives.com
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