Selling Knives Online

A period piece from the early web - when a hit counter, email and a credit card machine changed a bladesmith's business.

From the archive - preserved as written in the early days of the web, hit counter and all. Dave's knife business now lives at Exquisite Knives.

I have been attending knife shows for many years - first as a paying customer, then from the other side of the table as a dealer and maker. As much as I enjoy "pressing the flesh," selling on the internet has opened up many new avenues: worldwide exposure for my knives at a reasonable cost.

Thanks to the internet, my knife business has never been better. Between answering e-mails, posting new knives for sale and speaking to potential customers on the phone, I am kept quite busy.

I write a new article for the site on an almost monthly basis (sometimes I am even on time!). This helps give the site a fresh look. A hit counter helps me keep track of the number of people accessing the site - over 40,000 hits to date!

By opening my business to credit card sales, purchases can be made immediately with the click of a button, and I can now accept credit cards at shows. The website also creates many other sales opportunities: I receive telephone calls about knives constantly. Some calls are knife questions in general, some are about my knives, and some folks just want to chat. In any case, I am given the opportunity to talk about knives - one of my favorite things. I have sold knives all around the world, and a good number of those contacts were made because of the website.

The original article closed with a credit that still holds: this site was built and maintained by Rob at Balance Digital - then, and now.