Ready Made Kramers

I'm sure a few of you guys will have just received the Kramer newsletter with the new batch of ready made knives.

The 8" damascus chef's knife looks like a nice profile and the price is quite reasonable when compared to the cost of straight 52100. Unfortunately you have to win a raffle in order to buy it.

It is quite generous of Bob to set a fixed selling price and then run a raffle, rather than setting that as the starting price and running it as an auction, as he'd certainly earn more by selling them that way.

http://kramerknives.com/ready-mades/sale/

I know a few members were looking for genuine Kramers recently, so here's an overview of what's available:

8" Chef 52100 $2760



10" Chef 52100 $3450



8" Damascus Chef $5000



10" Damascus Chef $6250

Right, really generous of him to let me try and buy a 10-inch chef for $3500. Snort,

Noodle Soup said:

Right, really generous of him to let me try and buy a 10-inch chef for $3500. Snort,

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Ok, edited to add "quite".

But really they could all have brought in more in an auction. I was really thinking of the Chevron when I wrote that. I could see that one going well beyond $10k in an auction.

Noodle Soup you have a point but I think the bigger point it that he could be charging more, or doing the sales auction style ad getting even more. Kramer is basically leaving money on the table. I wonder how many of these will get flipped? I'm tempted to put my name in for all of them and if I win take a few pictures of me with "my knife" which will promptly get put on eBay.

Well, the 10" damascus does look interesting, but I would probably rather get a full high end custom from DT or similar. No disrespect to Kramer, he just had that 'bad' luck to be an excellent knife maker at the right time on the right place.

Has anyone actually seen one get flipped for a profit. I think Salty did it many years ago, but I don't recall seeing it otherwise??? All of the second hand ebay auctions I have seen have not been too impressive.

MAS4T0 said:

Ok, edited to add "quite".

But really they could all have brought in more in an auction. I was really thinking of the Chevron when I wrote that. I could see that one going well beyond $10k in an auction.

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Order custom knife from Marko with damascus from DT. You could ask for the same profile as on this Kramer. And Marko makes better WA handles IMO. Oh and such custom would cost you just a fraction of Kramer… with a better grind.

edit: removing belligerence.

icanhaschzbrgr said:

Order custom knife from Marko with damascus from DT. You could ask for the same profile as on this Kramer. And Marko makes better WA handles IMO. Oh and such custom would cost you just a fraction of Kramer… with a better grind.

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I've already got a Marko gyuto, which I use daily and I'm waiting to get on his custom order list when it reopens.

The point I was making is that Kramer could be auctioning these knives and earning more money from them than what he's asking. Kramer prices are high, but given the resale values and the auction prices, I feel that for a Kramer it is reasonably priced. As Bill said, Kramer is leaving money on the table and that in my book is somewhat generous.

I hope that Marko achieves the same kudos, and that one day he can charge $6k for a gyuto.

Other people can spend their own money however they like but you can't convince me any kitchen knife is worth $2500 up. A knife that is actually used is an expendable item. Along with wearing away from resharpening, it is going to pick up dings and stains around a real kitchen. None of which will increase its value in the long run.

I have just noticed that the 10" gyuto weights 340g ... now that is a heavy one

I decided to put my name on two of the lists. Why the heck not? Can use and still sell later at no loss.

I giggle when I see others poopoo the pricing on a Kramer knife. I picture a bunch of old men standing on a corner rationalizing why they never spent the dough on the Porches and such as they drive by.
It is what it is. If I had the dough, I'd jump on one of these 10"knives. But hey, that's just me.
Pretty cool of Bob to offer these up.

WildBoar said:

I decided to put my name on two of the lists. Why the heck not? Can use and still sell later at no loss.

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David, I hope you get one! Heck, I'll rent it off you for a week!

The chances of 'winning' are super low, but if you don't play the chance is zero! And rest assured you if my name is chosen you can borrow the knife. :thumbsup:

I wonder what the actual odds of having your name selected are, I put my name in for two of them as well. If I win it'll be for keeps (unless I get both in which case I'd sell one)

tjangula said:

I wonder what the actual odds of having your name selected are

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I wonder how many people will put in for each one, though I'd wager the odds of being selected are pretty low.

marc4pt0 said:

I giggle when I see others poopoo the pricing on a Kramer knife. I picture a bunch of old men standing on a corner rationalizing why they never spent the dough on the Porches and such as they drive by.
It is what it is. If I had the dough, I'd jump on one of these 10"knives. But hey, that's just me.
Pretty cool of Bob to offer these up.

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I thought about your post for a while. If you have followed mine much you may have noticed that I travel a lot in pursuit of both kitchen knives and culinary skills. Those are combination business and vacation trips for me. I would much rather spend that $3500 on another trip to Sichuan, Viet Nam, Thailand or a number of other places than for one fancy knife that will not perform 7 times better than a $500 blade. I also have much more fun hunting down local patterns in far away places that are total junk compared to either.
Once upon a time I was trying to keep up with the other guys in my profession taking hunting trips to exotic areas. It eventually dawned on me I could go spend 2 weeks in Chengdu for less than they spend to shoot a moose in B.C. Canada. And be happier doing it.

WildBoar said:

The chances of 'winning' are super low, but if you don't play the chance is zero! And rest assured you if my name is chosen you can borrow the knife. :thumbsup:

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Excellent.

No question - if I had the money, I'd be more than happy to buy one. He's Bob Fricking Kramer.

Lefty said:

He's Bob Fricking Kramer.

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:word:

I don't exactly have that amount of money as disposable income burning a hole in my wallet at the moment, but I'd find a way. I say this knowing I'd get killed by the current USD/CAD exchange rate, then slaughtered by the CBSA with tax. I can't believe I'd wager that kind of money on a knife that I've only seen a one picture of, I guess I like high risk high reward

too much money

I remember that one DC Sharp was selling for like $8k used, it doesn't look any better than the readymades.

Anton said:

too much money

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lus1:

Just waiting who get the knife and post a review lol[emoji57][emoji57][emoji57]

marc4pt0 said:

I giggle when I see others poopoo the pricing on a Kramer knife. I picture a bunch of old men standing on a corner rationalizing why they never spent the dough on the Porches and such as they drive by.
It is what it is. If I had the dough, I'd jump on one of these 10"knives. But hey, that's just me.
Pretty cool of Bob to offer these up.

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Except that Kramer isn't Porsche. More like a Porsche priced Ford. Less than two weeks ago I tried cutting with one of original 10" Kramer with D handle. I wasn't impressed to say the least. You might like or dislike the profile — that's personal, but the grind isn't a personal preference. There are many 300-500$ knives that cuts noticeably better, so honestly I don't see the reasons to giggling.

Market prices for Kramer knives are crazy and Bob himself admitted it.

I'm in for two, I like my chances because they are small. If I win I'll be dropping by a few restaurants so we can ogle it before I re-sell it. Might even need to have a get together!

Someone who owned both the Z Kramer 52100 and a Kramer stated, on here, (I think it was deanb) that the Z Kramer was incredibly close to the knife he got from Bob.

Anyone trying to justify the price on performance grounds is deluded. If you want a Kramer because it's made by Bob Kramer, that's a different matter.

Timthebeaver said:

Someone who owned both the Z Kramer 52100 and a Kramer stated, on here, (I think it was deanb) that the Z Kramer was incredibly close to the knife he got from Bob.

Anyone trying to justify the price on performance grounds is deluded. If you want a Kramer because it's made by Bob Kramer, that's a different matter.

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Very true. I would even compare it to Damascus knives whose cost increase has nothing to do with a performance increase. The same could be said for the custom handles I love:biggrin:. Modifying a famous saying: the beauty and value of everything is in the eyes of the beholder.