Originally Posted by
2A Finishing
I *only* do custom grips to order (and other small projects like plaques and "gun related" decor) - I keep blanks in stock to reduce turnaround times on them since I hand carve the inlays and the finish is hand rubbed oil.
I don't currently use the carvewright to cut my grips - I farm out the milling to someone with a much more expensive machine because it costs me less and I get a more precise, higher quality product than what I have the skill to produce on the carvewright, in much less time than I will EVER manage with the carvewright (My best prototype set took around 45 minutes to carve out, whereas my partner is running them off on her machine in under 15 minutes per set). I'm sure there are a lot of ways to make money with the carvewright, and I have been getting there slowly. I currently use facebook for my marketing - I had a website but took it down due to hosting changes and haven't rebuilt it yet. I know my weak point as far as generating business has been my marketing and advertising. Between it being just me doing it, and it taking so much time to do the actual work, I'm just spread too thin. That and I made some mistakes in starting my business when and how I did, so that came back to bite me. That said, I wasn't really asking why my business is in the toilet lol - I was just asking why your navy buddy decided not to engage my services is all (and I can't fathom that it would be that my quality is less than he was looking for, but if it is, I'd love to know what the complaint is so I can fix it for the next customer)
As far as ebay, I've thought about running an ad for my custom work, but I have no idea how to make an ad for something I don't have in hand yet to sell that doesn't have a fixed price.