A couple quick Qs re seam rippers

[Ted iin Michigan]

So we are on vacation and we stop at this quilting store (LOML happens to be a quilter - get it?). She sees these seam rippers in a case. Nice work, acrylic handles, priced at $28.75. She asks if I could make them. I say "Sure, but I don't think they'll sell at that price". She says "Well, that woman didn't skip a beat when she bought one". I ask "Do you use them?". Her reply "Sure, all the time"

So my Qs: do you make them? Do they sell? At what price?

Thanks in advance,

 

[Robert57]

I have made 6 seam rippers. Gave to my wife and daughter, they shared with friends. So I dont know how much to sell them for or where, maybe by word of mouth, friends telling friends. I made my out of cocobla,olivewood, bocote and zebra wood. Easy to make and put together. So I'm like you, how to price and where to sell.
Robert
Stuttgart, Ar

 

[Dan Masshardt]

I make them. The only craft show I ever did, I sold more seam rippers than pens. I don't know if that would be consistent or not.

I have several on my etsy stop. Sold 3 or 4 in the Christmas season.

The problem is the price. I think you can only get so much for them normally. $20-$30.

I think my plan going forward is going to be to only do them with higher end woods, charge more and wait for the right buyer.

Everybody I've talked to wants wood. I have a sweet purple resin I was sure would sell. Nope.

The nice thing about them is that you don't have to be precise to the bushings and can have fun with shape.

I got a pin chuck for them and will likely do mostly closed end now.

 

[Charlie_W]

Hi Ted,
Last fall, our woodturning club participated at a local craft fair and I sold several seam rippers for $30.00. They were closed end acrylics (and 1 colorwood w/CA) using the Woodcraft kit.
A local quilting shop where my wife shops, has bought 8 of these seem rippers so far and have sold 6. I priced them to the store at $26.00 each and the store doubled the price to $52.00!

Here is a pic.

 

[TimS124]

Acrylics work well here...so do woods. I walked in the house with one I'd just made from a Color Explosion blank and my wife promptly confiscated it. Mind you, she already had at least one with a more traditional acrylic material.

Her quilting friends each wanted rippers...I ask them if they have a favorite color and try to find a material with that color...works quite well.

I've talked with quilters at quilt shops and some don't flinch at the price while others balk...depends on their personal definition of slush funds I think.

A pin chuck, or PSI's "Grabber" mandrel, allow more freedom in the handle's shape. I think they also produce a much nicer final look...

At a show a couple years ago, I saw a booth with pens, rippers, etc and the seller had some very simple rippers priced very low. Those allow quilters on a budget to still have something custom/unusual...a good place to use up blanks with less character, acrylics bought on closeout, or the early results of learning to cast custom colors/patterns on your own.

 

[TimS124]

Here's a closed-end seam ripper I made as my final project of 2013. It's "Pink Coral" Tru Stone I think (I know it's Tru Stone but I'm not certain if it's Pink Coral or another similar Tru Stone).

Tru Stone isn't cost-effective on this kit, but this was a gift for my daughter so cost effective wasn't a factor.

 

[pfbarney]

I have sold more of the PSI seam rippers than anything...mostly the double ended with the stiletto. I even sold one to a girl who doesn't sew, but uses a seam ripper to remove her hair weave. I'm not joking.

Acrylics only. Wooden ones have never sold for me. Also, on the single ended ones, the clip was not very popular.

Sort of related...I am going to be a vendor at a quilt show in June and will actually have my lathe set up making seam rippers. Now I have to try to figure out what else to sell.

 

[Mack C.]

Seam rippers are a great project for using up short off-cuts of acrylics. I like to join them at about a 5 - 10 angle. I drill them first, then epoxy them to the tube slightly longer than the tube, so I can grip them with clamps to squeeze them together as the epoxy sets up.

 

[Ted iin Michigan]

Thanks everyone for the responses. I'm a bit surprised that they seem to be sellers. More popular than I thought.

 

[Mack C.]

I'm a bit surprised that they seem to be sellers.

Mine are giveawayers to my daughter's quilter friends!

 

[PapaTim]

I've sold them at a quilt show, at my wife's quilt club meetings and on etsy. Single, double and necklaces from PSI. At the quilt show the first ones to sell out were the necklace seam rippers (the most expensive), they wore them around the show like jewelry. Next quilt show I do I'll bring twice as many.

 

[monophoto]

My wife tells me that a seam ripper is the perfect tool for removing the labels from can in the kitchen.

So the market for them should extend well beyond seamstresses and quilters.

In fact, the other day I had to replace the water can that is part of my grinding station (it had sprung a leak). I designed the station around a can that originally held green beans. We had green beans for dinner, so I used the seam ripper that wifey keeps next to the kitchen sink to remove the label. The point is that even woodturners are potential customers for seam rippers!

 

[KenV]

The quilters where I live like to easily be able to replace the seam ripper blades. I can resharpen them, but most cannot. Easy replacement of blades is a selling point.

 

[lwalper]

I usually price things at 3X the cost of materials, but have been selling these for $20. Not much profit margin there, but with a easy to make single tube and found materials for blanks it keeps the lathe spinning.

 

[TimS124]

I second pfbarney's suggestion about skipping the clip during assembly! I put it the very first one I made and immediately hated it...realized that none of the quilters/sewers I know ever put something like this in their pocket!

The clip is a waste of time/money. It serves one purpose...keeping the rippers from rolling off the table too easily (but visually, it's really ugly so I don't bother installing them).

I have lots of spare clips that someday will hopefully be useful for some other project.

 

[Mack C.]

The quilters where I live like to easily be able to replace the seam ripper blades. I can resharpen them, but most cannot.

Ken, would you mind telling what you sharpen them with, please!

 

[SDB777]

I'm sure if you were to get 'in with' a FB group of sewing/quilting types....then yes, they would sell. I wouldn't know a price though....sorry.



Scott (bet the competition would stink though) B

 

[monophoto]

The quilters where I live like to easily be able to replace the seam ripper blades. I can resharpen them, but most cannot.

Ken, would you mind telling what you sharpen them with, please!

I have a pocket knife sharpener that also includes a thin, conical diamond hone that was intended for sharpening fish hooks. Found it in a sporting goods store.