Magazine Reconomica offers you a rare but interesting profession of a blacksmith-gunsmith. Andrey, a knife maker, will tell about his work. Blacksmithing is not yet his full-time job, but he started from scratch, turned his hobby into a source of income and quickly made a good income. You will learn how to turn your blacksmithing hobby into a small business, how to sell finished products and how much you can earn from it, while combining a hobby with a full-time job. According to the author, this is a very good extra income, especially if you live in a region with a low average salary.

The economic situation in the country is such that almost all people are forced to look for opportunities to earn extra money. Retirees work to help their children and grandchildren, motorists taxi or deliver pizza, students hand out flyers or put up ads. It is unlikely that all these activities bring people positive emotions. As well as the main work, which most of us can hardly call a favorite. And how can you call a favorite process in which you are just a small cog, and if necessary, you can be replaced by another cog just like yourself.

That's just a hobby thing. This is something that everyone treats with trepidation and does with pleasure. Doing what you love and making a profit from it is the dream of millions of people, but now it turns out to be realized by a few. It turned out for me, although a couple of years ago I had no idea about what I'm doing now.

How I mastered blacksmithing, or how it all began

And it all started with the usual conversation in a sincere gathering with his brother, who is obsessed with all sorts of knives, brass knuckles and pistols. He began to tell me about the videos that he saw on the Internet, about making beautiful designer knives with his own hands from improvised materials.

Imbued with his enthusiastic exclamations, I also decided to see what kind of masters there are. It turned out to be true that making a cool author's knife with a minimum set of tools is not so difficult, and I decided to try it. I was also lucky with the fact that I work as a thermist in a machine-building industry, so I understand steel grades well, and there were no problems with materials for a knife - the presence of a professional thermals at hand in such a case is a huge plus.

How to make a knife with your own hands at home

I watched a bunch of videos on the Internet on this topic, I liked one of them, which I took as a basis as a guide. I used what was at hand to make my first blade. It can be said that he worked at home with improvised means.

The material for my first knife was an ordinary old Soviet file. Steel for a knife is not the most suitable, but it is affordable and easily processed.

I set up my workshop in the garage. My tools for work were a file, sandpaper and a clamp. For the manufacture of descents, I made a special device out of plywood and set to work. Grinding a large layer of metal by hand turned out to be a very difficult task. His hands were constantly tired, he sharpened for a minute, and rested for five. But, oddly enough, I had no desire to quit the whole thing.

Having completed the work with a file, I began to grind the workpiece sandpaper . A few hours of work - and now my blade is almost ready! It remains only to take to work and harden.

Here I must say that due to inexperience, I made a big mistake with the dimensions, the blade turned out to be very thick and massive, but I still decided to complete the work to the end, because my main task was not to make a good knife, but to understand the principle and subtleties of the process.

Next, I needed to make a handle for my “monster”. I went to a birch grove to collect dry branches and birch bark. Back in the garage, I started making the handle. Working with wood is much easier and more pleasant than with metal, so there were no problems here. The handle is comfortable and beautiful. And I decided not to stop there.

How to learn how to make really good knives

I approached the manufacture of the next knife more seriously. I picked up a workpiece from a more suitable steel and correctly calculated all the dimensions. The second knife came out much more attractive than the first. My brother, seeing the result of my work, praised me and asked me to give this knife to him. Without hesitation, I complied with the request, because it was with his suggestion that I began to do this.

My handmade knife

Then things got more fun. Having mastered some of the intricacies of the process, I improved with each new knife, and some acquaintances, having seen the results of my work, were already ready to shell out money for me to make a knife to order. But my activity has not yet gone beyond the scope of a hobby. After all, even though I spent almost all my free time in the garage, the productivity was extremely low - only 1-2 knives per month. You won't make money on this. And then I decided to take a serious step, since the manufacturing process itself gave me pleasure.

Blade production automation

To take my small production to a serious level, I needed to purchase a belt sander. The difficulty was that the simplest grindercosts about 15-20 thousand rubles. I had money, so I, enlisting the help of virtual colleagues in the shop, the same artisanal craftsmen like me, began to choose a machine tool that cost me 17 thousand rubles, including delivery.

After I installed grinder in my garage, I realized that the production of knives by hand and on the machine is like heaven and earth.If earlier on the manufacture of one blade with a file and sandpaper it took me several days, now in one day of work I could easily check out 5-10 blades, while saving a lot of strength.

In addition, the blades made on the machine turned out to be much more accurate and of high quality. Yes, and there were no problems with the handles, because on grinder wood can also be sanded.

This is what my workshop looks like today

In a word, the matter fell apart. In the first month of work with grinder I made 6 full knives. Having presented them to my friends, I immediately received several orders from them from 1.5 to 2.5 thousand rubles. The next month, I earned 10 thousand rubles in this way. I solved the issue of metalworking with the help of a grinding machine, but then another problem arose before me. I had to carry all the blanks to work for heat treatment or some kind of forging operations. To solve this problem, I was puzzled by the manufacture of a forge.

How to make a blacksmith's forge with your own hands

Even a schoolboy can make the simplest forge forge. I did not complicate my life and went exactly this way. Having collected clay, I blinded a small gutter right next to the garage. The basis of any forge is blowing . I decided to use an old vacuum cleaner with a reverse function for this. I ran a metal tube with holes along the bottom of the clay gutter, connected the vacuum cleaner hose to it and that's it - the forge is ready. Fill up the coals and kindle. And although I still wore blades to work to heat, because the quality of the blade directly depends on the quality of hardening and tempering, then simpler operations, in particular forging and annealing. I made it right in the garage.

Where can a blacksmith take orders?

After I fulfilled all the wishes of my friends, there was a problem with new orders. This is where social media came to my rescue. I created a group where I posted photos of my work, as well as some tips for making, and quickly gained a small audience, since such things very well attract the attention of the stronger sex.

Examples of my work

Now, under each photo of my work, there are several requests for sale at once. I do not overprice my knives, knowing full well that I am far from the most skilled craftsman in their manufacture. The average price of one knife is 2 thousand rubles, it turns out to manufacture and sell usually about ten pieces per month. The process of their production has already been perfected to automatism, only now I put my author's stamp on each knife.

Payback for a knife making business

The profitability has been good. Thus, their costs grinder and I recaptured the materials in two months of work. Moreover, now I can afford not to wander around the shop in search of normal steel, but to order it from suppliers. As well as other necessary materials: leather for the scabbard, special oil for impregnating the handles, ribbons for grinder and much more. And the most important thing is that the very process of making knives brings me pleasure and no matter how much I earn on it.

Although during the holidays, when there is a lot of free time, my monthly income exceeds my basic salary and amounts to about 30-35 thousand rubles, but when you have to combine your hobby with work, the income is about half as much.

Youtube is the best client flow source for private master

Now my plans are to create a channel on youtube , where I want to post videos about making knives and share my experience with novice craftsmen. In order for the videos to be of high quality, you need to purchase a good camera and a tripod. All this pleasure is not cheap, but it is worth it. After all, the channel youtube - this is a large number of potential customers, plus another opportunity for additional earnings on the affiliate program.

How to turn your hobby into a profitable business

I talked about my experience of how you can convert your own hobby into a real serious income. After all, things made by hand to order have always had a special value. As an example, we can take consumer goods, which are made by prisoners in places not so remote. Zonovskie backgammon, rosary, cards, pens and much more are very expensive, not only because it is all incredibly beautiful, but also because it is exclusive handmade.The master puts his soul into it, so such things are highly valued.

Product worth 2000 rubles

My experience with knives by no means encourages you to grab a file and run to the garage. This is just an example of the fact that with the right approach and perseverance, you can easily make your hobby bring not only positive emotions, but also income. And you can do anything.

For those who like to work with wood, making chess and backgammon would be a good option, but for girls, various options for needlework are suitable: embroidery, knitting, beading . For each. a seemingly useless, but beautiful trinket, there is a demand, you just need to be able to present it correctly. And if you really like what you do, then nothing and no one can stop you from repeating my experience.

Since ancient times, the profession of a blacksmith has been known for its popularity and respect, but it required a lot of dedication from the worker. Years have passed, life has changed, but people still need the services of a blacksmith. Who is a modern blacksmith, what does he do and how can I make money in this area? blacksmith.

Blacksmiths and forge

There are different types of blacksmiths and backgrounds, but they all acquired their skills through the transfer of techniques from father to son, from teacher to student. There is a category of people who learned blacksmithing through self-development and training, learning all the hardships of this profession. People in this profession are more likely than others to deal with fire, so one of the qualities required to work with a forge is caution. Other qualities include excellent visual memory, an eye, however, it can be worked out, elegant taste, neatness and high endurance. To get started, you need to have a lot of capital for your forge, but if you don’t have the courage to start your own business, then you can work as an apprentice with a blacksmith, and gain technology and experience there. To open a blacksmith, you need funds in the amount of 15,000–40,000 USD. e.

Each forge needs to be equipped with: a forge, a metal water tank, a tool rack, a mobile table, an anvil, a blacksmith's hammer, a welding machine, a bench, a vise and a box of coal. Depending on the focus of the blacksmith, other tools may be needed for miniature work. First, the blacksmith must draw a plan for the future blacksmith, taking into account the scale of the tools. We must not forget about light sources, both artificial and natural.

Blacksmith earnings

What is earnings based on and what profit does blacksmithing bring- that's what I wanted to ask Yuri Semyonovich, a blacksmith from Pushkinskiye Gory. Profit depends on the cost of the metal, large firms buy tons of metal, so they win the tender and can count on big profits. Others have to get out to get a good profit.

From a ton of metal, ideally, you can get 500 different products. The income from production is 15,000 USD, but this is taking into account the fact that each product will be sold at a price of 90 USD. e., and it is very difficult. It is difficult to answer the question of what products are popular and what is better to manufacture. A fence 50-60 cm long with decor will be made for about a month. A square meter of such a product costs 3.5–5 thousand rubles. The cost varies depending on the complexity. The same applies to stairs. Income from them, on average, is 15 thousand rubles per floor. It's a different story for small jobs. The cost of forged furniture with a table and a mirror compartment is 20,000–25,000. The work takes two to three weeks. With such a job, you can earn about 20,000 rubles. But a fireplace set in the provinces can be sold for 3000-4000, of course, everything changes when it comes to selling in the capital.

In Moscow, they would laugh at that price.

A unique set can be sold for 9–11,000 rubles, that is, on average, 1 square meter of an item costs a blacksmith, taking into account the rent of the premises, about 110 USD. e. The price of products and the cost increases when decorative elements are applied. On average, working for yourself and creating various jewelry, you can earn 3000–4000 USD. e. In this case, all equipment and premises will pay off in a year and a half, but with one caveat. In the winter period and the first months of spring, there are practically no orders. The work in this business is very difficult and many leave to work for companies that have large demands and buy metal in large quantities. There are those who, in addition to blacksmithing, teach master classes. The average salary of a blacksmith working for a firm is 40,000-200,000 rubles per month.

Having heard all of the above, we can conclude that anyone who has the desire and desire for creative activity, who is not afraid of difficulties and hard physical work, can start their own business with the help of blacksmithing.