D. Martell Where we go from here.....

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Dave Martell

Dave Martell

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Airville, PA
As most of you likely know we spent the last 4 months homeless and down for business. Being without income for all this time has put a serious hurting on us that'll take some time to make right. It's been tough the last 4 months and it will continue to be tough as long as I have a backlog of paid for work on the books - this has to change. The very worst thing I've done since starting my business was taking pre-payment for knife orders, it's been keeping me up at night worrying and stressing over how to catch up. I've wrestled with how to tackle my backlog of paid for work while not screwing over anybody and yet still eating and paying rent at the same time, I've come up with the following....

I will start making Martell knives that are on order (and paid for) yet I'll also make Martell knives (maybe every other) that I'll offer for sale. I realize that this will likely (rightfully so) piss off some of you who have been waiting a very long time for your knives that you've paid for but I truly believe this is the only alternative I have for staying in business and getting you all your knives. If it helps any, please know that you'll have paid a lot less than current pricing and the quality you'll get in your knife will be much higher than it would have been if done way back when you first ordered as I get better and better with each knife I grind. Still though, I realize that this is a crappy thing to do to those of you who have been waiting patiently for so long. If I could have just a little more patience from you I promise to deliver and make things right.

Martell knives will have priority but I will also do some western rehandle work when it's possible to double up on the steps in the process like cutting, mounting, and shaping along with Martell knives. Many of you also have paid for western rehandle coupons that will be honored but again I may have to do some rehandles to generate cash flow.

For sharpening work, I am once again open for business. I have always turned over sharpening work quickly and will continue to do so. I try to devote time everyday to the sharpening side of the business. Please see JapaneseKnifeSharpening.com for details.

Also, just to note (again), our stone sales store is open for business, see JapaneseKnifeSharpeningStore.com


I have so many plans for the future for our business but it's very clear that I need to get this backlog in check first, nothing can move forward until this is done. I hope that those of you who are affected by my plan of attack can understand why I chose to do things this way, regardless, I'm very sorry for the long wait and now for this direction I have to go.

For those of you who have been emailing and PM'ing me over the last month or so regarding work inquiries and haven't got a response I will be getting back to you very soon.

Regards,
Dave
 
It is actually quite nice that you worry so much, but then again, better you have your order books full instead of empty!

Hey, we all know this business and we're all used to waiting for the things we want, so don't worry too much as this won't make you any faster or feel better.
 
I know exactly how you feel. I am sure, people will support you with whatever you choose to do, and if some bow out, that will be their loss. I gotta bug you about a few things also but will try to keep it easy...

Stefan
 
Hi Dave,

I am sure things will work out for the business. People will buy and wait for quality. Glad to see you're settling in to the new place and the website is back up.


Hopefully will be packing up a few knives for sharpening and sending your way shortly.


Steve
 
Just good to see you up and at em, Dave. I'm looking forward to seeing the beautiful work you put out.
 
Looking forward to seeing some of your new work and how your knives have evolved.

P.S. sent you a pm about one of my knives that needs work :biggrin:
 
Dave, thanks for the update and concern for your customers.

Not sure if the prepaid customers were given a promised (probably not) or even expected timeline. Anyway, I think most people who have paid would prefer you keep your business going so they eventually receive the knife they paid for.

As others have pointed out, long wait times are just part of the territory with custom knives.

If I were one of your prepaid customers, I might appreciate periodic updates (maybe every two or three months) about how many prepaid knives you have left to do. It would make me feel better and closer to getting the knife if I saw those numbers going down.

Good luck balancing the needs of your past and future customers, and taking care of your business in the way you need to keep things going.
 
My knife better be spectacular when it gets here!....good luck juggling!....ryan
 
You know Dave, you do worry too much. Anyone who has ever run a business knows that without cash flow, there is no business. Just do what you need to do to keep things running. I don't think anybody here will think less of you, and anyway, the alternative is a whole lot worse for them as well as you.:knife:
 
I'm sure people on these boards understand! And I know we prefer you to stay healthy and in business.

Cash flow is a perpetual issue to the business owner. Is there something, other than sharpening, that you could do to generate current income that wouldn't take much time away from the knifemaking backlog? Like say thinning....something you could charge more for than the standard sharpening but doesn't take crazy hours.
 
Stone (store) sales used to be a great source of cash flow for us but that's not true anymore. It does OK but it's much more of an extra thing than and income thing. I hope to change that but not now for sure.

As for other jobs like thinning and rehandles those take some decent time and although not a full knife they are about 1/2 and if combined make for about the same time requirement.

Sharpening can be fast if it mostly belt work but when stones are used it's very time consuming.

There's no quick way for this guy to make money. Still though, I love my job. :)
 
Not even worried about it. Just get yourself up and running again, new shoes can wait :)
 
I'm still working away on my shop. It's taking me a lot longer to get the place set up mostly for three reasons. The first is that we downsized on both house & shop which means we have too much crap now and this crap keeps getting in the way of the crap I need to put places, it's a constant juggling act that sucks. The second hassle is that when you live so rural everything is so far away from you, trips to the hardware store for some screws or whatever takes hours of drive time to do, we really have to plan every drive out and hit other stores while we're out and that kills time. The third thing is that because of the downsizing I can't just set things up like before, I've had to take apart all benches and re-configure almost every work station. I tell you guys this move has been beyond crappy, actually the whole experience of leaving the old place until now has really sucked bad and I'm doing all I can do to hold on.

On the bright side, I can see the light at the end of the tunnel and some additional plans for products for our store is coming together which is nice. Also, my lovely wife Robin is joining me on a part time basis (again) to help out in the shop in the afternoons while the kids are at school - finally I have my assistant back! (Shhh - Don't tell her that I called her my assistant though) :doublethumbsup:

I'd like to mention my lack of communication, that is me not returning emails and PM's....I realize that I have a ton of them to get to and I've been putting it off to keep rolling on other things. The thing is that I don't have an office set up just yet and I'd rather wait to get to that point where I can become organized than to tell you something and it slips through the cracks with the mess I have now. I promise to get back to each and every one of you soon. You're all VERY valuable people to me and I hope you can see that I'm not blowing you off completely....just temporarily. LOL :D
 
Instead of assistant you should call her your secretary then play a mean game of "chase her around the desk"
;)
 
I've got the office all set up (woohoo!) and boy does that feel good. It's so much better out here in the shop now.
 
I was about to PM you Dave, but it seems that letting you sort out things is going to be a better idea. Hold on - once you have to shop set up you will not miss the old one so much. Take it as a possibility to make it even better than it was before :)
 
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