A customer said my knife handles looked like 'angry potatoes'

I was at a craft fair in Bend last fall, and a guy picked up one of my chef knives. He turned it over and said, 'Great steel, but the handle feels like an angry potato.' I was so focused on the blade I never really thought about handle shape. I spent the next two months just carving and sanding different handle profiles until they fit a real hand. What's the dumbest piece of feedback you've gotten that actually helped?

3 comments

3 Comments

phoenix3311mo ago

Got told my mugs were aggressively ugly once, changed everything.

patb121mo ago

What kind of mugs were they talking about? I read an article once about this cafe that only used mismatched, "ugly" mugs on purpose. They said it made people talk and actually became their whole thing. Maybe the person who said that just had boring taste. Did you start making them even uglier on purpose after that?

nancy52420d ago

Oh man, I saw a video about that too! Some artist in Portland runs this whole studio where they only sell "ugly" pottery on purpose. She said the imperfections make each piece feel more personal or whatever. I kinda get it though, like when something is too perfect it just feels... dead. Better to lean into the weirdness than try to hide it.