Stock-removal knife making has a secret the price tag rarely reflects: the belts cost more than the steel. A bar of AEB-L, an oven cycle, a pair of stabilized scales — and six belts ground to slick in the process. MadeKeeper puts the grinder's appetite on every knife's books, so your prices come from the whole build, not the steel receipt.
The app is live. Free during the pilot. Founding rate $19/mo, locked for life.
No card to start. Use it free through the pilot, and lock the $19/mo founding rate for as long as you stay.
Say you grind an AEB-L 8-inch chef:
At $325 with eleven hours in the build, your bench time paid $23.45 an hour. That's a real wage — and the number that says your next price bump belongs on the hand-sanded models, where the hours hide.
For blades, MadeKeeper keeps clean records of what you made, when, and where it sold — useful paperwork to have on hand, since knife rules vary by state; the rules themselves stay your call to check.
Materials and true cost per piece, products (in bulk or one-of-a-kind), sales that drain stock, the was-this-fair-worth-it event math, mileage, expenses, and the year-end tax packet — all in the app today. Etsy and Square sync, your own storefront, a booth card reader, and shipping labels are building, shaped with founding makers. Nothing above describes a feature that doesn't exist without saying so. See the full live-vs-building list →
Because they're the cost that scales with every knife and never shows on a materials list. Six belts is $27 — more than most makers' steel — and a year of grinding is a four-figure belt bill your prices should have been carrying all along.
As a per-blade line on the knife — the service fee plus shipping share. If you run your own oven, log the cycle cost instead. Either way the hardening step is in the price.
Yes — sheath materials log per knife, or as their own product if you sell sheaths separately. The knife-and-sheath bundle then prices from the whole truth of what's on the table.
The app is live and free during the pilot. Lock the $19/mo founding rate for as long as you stay.