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There is a fundamental principle to get started with the hobby of knife-making. Before you start thinking about making a living from Knifemaking, make it your hobby first. The money will take care of itself later.

The first thing you need to do is to get involved in the whole process of Knifemaking, spending hours in your workspace regularly, getting covered with dust, wearing a respirator, constantly working in a hot space environment. And at that point, if you still want to continue, knowing well, all the stress that comes with it, you could then start thinking about making money from the art. But first, just focus on having fun with Knifemaking, seeing if you enjoy the hobby.

There is no excuse whatsoever for not being able to start your journey into Knifemaking. You don't need to have a large workshop with huge machines and lots of cash before you can begin. You can start small. You also do not need to know everything there is to Knife-making before you start. Everyone started as a beginner!

Recognition that you don't know something is the first step in learning to do it right. The first key to mastering any hobby is admitting that you don't know it and are willing to learn.

You need a place to work, but it doesn't have to be huge or elaborately equipped. Ideally, you would like an indoor workshop—someplace like a basement or garage.

However, the most important thing is that you need a stable counter, table, or workbench to work on. Although, if you have lots of space, a great electrical service, heater, air-conditioning, ventilation, so much the better. The point is that a little ingenuity is way more important than some giant workshop.

Suppose you have a workshop already set up in your basement or your backyard, great. With some modifications, you can get everything you will need to set up and start making knives. You should also arrange your tools in a tight little row with a spacious high workbench opposite your tools. It enables you to access virtually any tool from your workbench, making it easy and stress-free!

Also, all your small tools should go into a set of drawers right under the workbench. Ensure that they are appropriately arranged and not scattered so you can distinguish one tool from the other. You could also have a low strong table right around the corner to do odd jobs like welding and riveting. Having these tools set up this way comes very handy in carrying out your daily day to day Knife-making activities.

Also, you need to expect that from time to time, your workshop will get dirty. You cannot be working, and be mindful not to get your workshop dirty.

You will either be chipping pieces of metal away from a piece of steel, working wood, forging, or using different glues. As with this alone, it is inevitable not to get your workshop dirty.

Lighting : Your workshop needs to be filled with enough light for you to see while working. Although not just any kind of light, I recommend using fluorescent light bulbs. They are far more efficient and provide a better area of illumination than incandescent bulbs.

You can use incandescent bulbs to spotlight the working area of each machine you are working with.

You wouldn't want to wear your respirators all the time, especially when you are not working with something dusty or resting. So, the ventilation of your workshop must be above average so that when working, the smell from glue and the smoke from forging metals can easily be aired-out.

It is wise to put your safety before everything else. Working in your workshop without safety equipment is very dangerous as it could lead to fatal injuries.

When hearing protectors are worn correctly, they help reduce noise exposure to the ear and the risk of hearing loss. Prolonged exposure to sound above the ear's standard sound limit kills the nerve endings in the inner ear and can cause permanent hearing loss. You wouldn't want that, would you?

You should use this safety equipment in the shop when working on something that is producing noise or sound level higher than the occupational exposure limits for noise. Working in your workshop should enrich your life instead of causing unnecessary damage to any part of your body. So, you should use hearing protection whenever you are going to spend a long time hammering in the workshop or using power tools.

Use hearing protection that:

● Can provide immediate communication and audibility needs when you need to hear warning signs or alarms.

A large percentage of the injuries obtainable in the workshop are from eye injuries. The eye is a very delicate part of our body, and tiny fragments of metals, wooden chips, or coal could easily enter your eye in the workshop while working. Metal shards in the eye are unforgiving, gross, and extremely painful, which is why, when we are working with projects that involve those kinds of turnouts, you should have your safety glasses on to prevent the risk of unwanted objects flying into your eye.

When working on tasks like drilling, riveting, welding, chipping, glue/paint handling, chiseling, etc., do well to use your safety glasses at all times!

You can not dress up to your workshop the same way you dress when you go to a party.

Working around a forge can be very hot. You can not come to your workshop wearing shorts when you are planning on forging that day. Same with other occasions.

As a Knifemaker, you should have the appropriate clothes to wear for different work in your workshop. When you are working with heavy materials, you should wear boots. You can also choose to wear gloves to protect your hands if you are working with something very hot. There's no special dressing to cover everything you would want to do in your workshop. Just have the available dress in your workshop for what you need to do.

The respirator equipment was designed mainly to protect the individual user against the inhalation of toxic and hazardous substances in the workshop air. When grinding metal, some of the tiny metal flakes become airborne dust. Inhaling this dust regularly while working in your workshop can cause a disease siderosis, leading to severe complications. This disease is, however, preventable by wearing your respirator equipment. It might be frustrating to be wearing the respirator for a long time, but safer is better!

Respirators should, however, be used where adequate control of exposure can not be achieved—your last resort.