Knives (handmade) 101 #9 Making Knives is Not a Clean Hobby

Do you like to stay clean and neat?
Having nasty stuff under your nails and in your eyes is not something you can live with?

Oh boy (or a girl), did you pick a wrong hobby!

Yes, saying clean, or even getting clean while making knives is not an easy thing to do.

The thing is, I've spent last 15 or so years doing research. Seating in front of a PC, reading, writing, typing... Not a lot of chance to get dirty.

And honestly, it's kinda expected of you that when you show up at the office that you do so in a presentable state.

Blisters, dirty nails, knuckles grinded off, permanent red and bloody eyes... are not considered as presentable in my kind of work.

Up to a few years ago, I didn't have any problem with being well groomed.
Boy did things changed. ;)

When I started this crazy adventure I didn't really know that getting ready for work on Monday is going to become such a ever-losing battle. OK, so I'll be grinding and sanding steel and wood, but that's just dust.

You jump in the shower, clip and scrub your nails and you're good to go - right?

Dust is just one (big) part of the stuff that you gotta deal with when making knives...

You wouldn't believe how many ways there are to get dirty in a knife-making shop. And I don't mean dirty in a you-need-a-shower-dirty but in a holy-fu*#%-what-happened dirty.

Besides the usual blood, sweat & tears there's oil, burning oil, 5-minute glue, crazy glue, 24 hours two-tone epoxy, scale, lava-like dripping flux, flying red-hot scale, sparks, cold water, hot water, WD40, mechanic oil, layout fluid, permanent markers...

Not to mention ceramic belts rotating at down-to-the-bones-grinding speed, red-hot steel, sharp edges, knives, broken drill bits, grinding discs, cutting disc, saws of every kind, stuck drill bits helicoptering steel...

Oh, I've forgotten acids, dyes, paints, finish oils, polishing compounds ...

Every fu*$#ing thing looking to make you look like you had some horrible accident

And it's not only cosmetics, there are real health hazards - fumes, fricking gas forge going up to 1000C, exotic wood dust...

For the first couple of months, I was kinda emberrisedwhen people at work saw my busted up hands.

And then, it hit me you know what? I fu?*#ing earned every mark on me while doing what I love so...

Knifemaking is the best hobby in the world! I wouldn't change it for well-groomed nails if they come with a million $!

Not only that, I've started to look at others hands to see how they look like. And I feel like I'm in the Fight Club when I see hands that look like mine used to do.

So, yeah, if you don't want you hands, and face, and legs, and... to look like you actually use them don't start making knives.

Me? I'm gonna keep it going for as long as my body lets me and then some.

And I don't care what anyone thinks, because I'm having a blast and I'm happy as a kid in a kandy store.