Why Handmade Costs More – Explaining Artisan Pricing to Friends

We’ve all heard it. You show someone a beautiful handcrafted piece, they admire it, ask the price, and then say, “Oh wow, I could get something like that at Walmart for $20.” Cue internal screaming from every artisan everywhere.

Here’s the thing: they’re not wrong about the Walmart price. What they’re missing is that price and value aren’t the same thing, and “something like that” isn’t the same as “that.”

When Rex makes a Chef’s Knife, you’re not just paying for the finished product. You’re paying for his 40+ years of accumulated skill, the knowledge of how different woods behave, the steady hands that can turn a rough blank into a perfectly balanced tool. That expertise didn’t happen overnight — it’s decades of practice, thousands of mistakes, countless hours of refinement.

You’re also paying for materials that mass producers would never use. We source from suppliers like Cook Woods and Woodworkers Source, choosing pieces for their beauty and quality rather than their cost-effectiveness. That Australian red gum burl? It’s expensive because it’s rare and stunning. A factory would use pine with a printed wood-grain pattern and call it a day.

Time is the invisible cost people don’t consider. Dawn might spend six hours on a single resin pour, waiting for each layer to cure perfectly, adjusting colors, creating depth and movement that catches light. A machine could squirt out a plastic approximation in six minutes, but it would look exactly like what it is — exactly like all of the others squirted out that day.

Then there’s the durability factor. We guarantee our pieces will last generations because we build them that way. Rex uses traditional joinery techniques and finishes that protect the wood for decades. Compare that to mass-produced items designed to break or wear out so you’ll buy replacements. Our cutting board might cost five times what Walmart charges, but if it lasts fifty times longer, which is really the better value?

When people make price comparisons, help them understand what they’re actually comparing. That $20 Walmart cutting board will warp, crack, and need replacing within a few years. Our $125 cutting board will still be beautiful and functional when your grandchildren inherit it. Break that down over its lifetime, and suddenly our “expensive” piece costs pennies per year of use.

There’s also an emotional value that’s impossible to quantify. When you use a mass-produced item, it’s just a thing. When you use something made by hand, with intention and skill, it connects you to the maker’s story. Every time you reach for that handcrafted pen or cutting board, you’re reminded that someone cared enough to make it beautiful.

We’re not trying to compete with Walmart, and we shouldn’t have to. We’re offering something completely different — the irreplaceable value of human craftsmanship, materials chosen for beauty rather than cost-cutting, and pieces made to become heirlooms rather than landfill fodder.

The next time someone questions artisan pricing, remind them: you can’t get “something like this” anywhere else, because this is one of a kind. And one-of-a-kind has never been cheap — nor should it be.