The price some people charge - a personal rant!

[Glynne]

As well as entry to the Gardeners World Exhibition (yes I know I spoil her), you gain free entry to the BBC Good Food show which is interesting despite most things being over-priced.
However I came across this one exhibitor who I thought was "having a laugh" and taking advantage of being at a well known show.
Oh no - Have a look at the prices!
http://www.naturallycreated.co.uk

Bear in mind these are essentially flat boards with perhaps the edges rounded (obviously by their craftsmen!). I've no doubt many of you will have scrapped bigger lumps of wood.
Nothing special about the finish - the guy thought it might be Osmo oil but wasn't sure.

I did feel a bit guilty at the time as I might just have been described as a bit of a nuisance (chuffing big one actually) - but the guy did condescendingly suggest if I wanted to know what the wood was, there was a label on the back. I didn't actually swear and passers-by were impressed by the speed my wife fog-marched me away, but the prices are an insult to proper crafttsmen.

 

[doctor Bob]

but the prices are an insult to proper crafttsmen.

Why?

Supply and demand, if he's making so much money why don't you undercut him by £5 a board and become a rich man.

Looks to me like you were the one doing the insulting if your wife had to drag you away ..... what an earth has it got to do with you?

 

[marcros]

Each board has some provenance to it, I actually like them. If they are too much then he wont sell any.

The only thing that puts me off is knowing that i have the tools to make one myself- if not then I think that they are well priced.

 

[paulm]

Each board has some provenance to it, I actually like them. If they are too much then he wont sell any.

The only thing that puts me off is knowing that i have the tools to make one myself- if not then I think that they are well priced.

Likewise, just what I was about to type but beaten to it

Cheers, Paul

 

[cambournepete]

Same here - I like them and think the prices are reasonable. Remember they are hand made, so probably an hour for each, maybe more, plus buying the wood, tools, sandpaper, marketing, selling etc.

 

[Sheffield Tony]

I was expecting to see higher numbers than that to justify a rant. Mind you, I just finished an end-grain beech board for meat carving, with a groove around the edge and well for catching juices, using just hand tools. I'd want at least the top end of their prices before I'd do it again !

I thought that the provenance of the wood was faintly amusing. All wood comes from a tree that grew somewhere, after all. I can picture these being used in trendy cafes - I've recently had food served on a wooden board, on a bit of slate looking suspiciously like a roof tile ... what is wrong with a plate these days ? Not sure I like the natural edge for food use. Interesting too that they say the finish is olive oil - I thought that was not preferred because it goes rancid ?

 

[Jacob]

....., but the prices are an insult to proper crafttsmen.

I'd say the prices were very good news for proper craftsman (and improper ones too!). Higher the better IMO, if you can get it.
NB there is a big element of marketing in these - it ain't cheap.

 

[bugbear]

I'd say the prices were very good news for proper craftsman (and improper ones too!). Higher the better IMO, if you can get it.
NB there is a big element of marketing in these - it ain't cheap.

I agree with Mr Jacob Butler - caveat emptor. If customers are dumb enough to buy into the hype and waffle, why turn down their money?

BugBear

 

[Reggie]

Isn't it things like this that inspire people to make stuff themselves? I have to agree with Glynne that I think a lot of things are over valued, of course there is a market there and people are willing to pay that much for one but I can't see me ever needing a £75 chopping board, that's 3 weeks worth of food....

There is a lot of spiel on the site, especially the 'quite simply unique' tag, like every single piece of wood out there, I expected to see 'This isn't just a chopping board, this is a <insert annoying retailer name> chopping board' on there somewhere.

 

[maltrout512]

I don't think there over priced... why not buy one of these to use with one off those boards http://www.japaneseknifecompany.com/KNIVES/TRADITIONALJAPANESE/TAKAYUKITRADITIONAL/YANAGIBA.aspx

 

[RogerBoyle]

I like most others clicked the link to see just how much he was ripping the people off .

Like most of the other posts I fail to see where the ripoff is

TBH reading what you gave written I dont think I would have shown the same patience as he did

Roger

 

[bugbear]

I don't think there over priced... why not buy one of these to use with one off those boards http://www.japaneseknifecompany.com/KNIVES/TRADITIONALJAPANESE/TAKAYUKITRADITIONAL/YANAGIBA.aspx

That's not a knife; this is a knife.

http://www.japanesechefsknife.com/Mizun ... ml#Honyaki

BugBear (with apologies to Crocodile Dundee)

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Crocodile BB.?

 

[Racers]

Or http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJcMDG8zjoc

Pete

 

[iNewbie]

The more I read their site the more my wallet clamped-up like a clam...

 

[woodiedonald]

Its the high end of the market, horses for courses! Prices aint that crazy, 30-40 quid approx. for a basic one. The one thing i'm against is the fact that they have ring porus wood and character wood like pippy oak there and with the bark left on there's a lovely little gap for germs to start building up where bark meets wood not to mention bast (inner bark) is like a sponge so it'll hold the nasties and bits of it'll come out eventually.

Try setting up a business yourself OP then report back to us r.e. prices!

 

[Reggie]

I guess glynne and I are just cheap However I still agree with Glynne, with that much marketing around the website, you'd think the guy that was actually talking face to face to the public (You know, the people that might buy the product) would actually know as much as possible about the product. The guy couldn't even tell Glynne what the finish was on the product and was snarky about the type of wood.

 

[Mr_P]

When I presented the game I've devised recently to some business/patent advisors they said it was far too expensive at £40. I'm hoping they were wrong and this site encourages me to continue.

 

[Jelly]

I'd say it was too much to charge for what it is... but I'm a Tight-fisted Yorkshireman (also one of their waney edged boards is more than a day's wages for me).

However, I can see there would be a market for them, and considering that they're done by hand it seems a fair price... for my money the whole hand-Crafted bit is non-nonsensical it wouldn't detract from the functional or aesthetic aspects of the product to at all to machine plane them and do the edges on a spindle... it's just so that people with more money than sense can feel smug about how "special" their cheeseboard is. (My other thought is that it must be a pretty tedious product to be making, over and over again with very slight variations... I'm struggling to see what skilled woodworker would want that job).

 

[Reggie]

I guess it depends on the scale of sales you expect to get vs the price as to whether it's expensive or not at the end of the day and of course beauty/value is in the eye of the beholder, the boards do look really nice but for me they're simply not worth spending my money on.