Introduction: how, why & who

Hello good people of the Steemit community!

I make knives - not for a living but for pleasure and for fun.

Edit/Announcement: I totally forgot to say in my introduction post – I do make knives but not just any knives. My passion are cooking knives. That being said, I am known to do an off knife that is EDC or a hunting, bushcraft or even a folder. But chef knives are my love, so if not stated differently most of the stuff I’m writing is directly applied to knives for food preparation.

So, before I lead you all into a wonderful world of handmade and custom knives I should probably say a few words about myself.

I am a reasonable young man from Zagreb (Croatia) which had had some, let's say, odd life choices and have walked some unexpected pats and the fact that I am where I am now has come as a surprise not just to most of the people that know me but to me as well.

Coming from a poor family, and I mean no-running-water-in-our-"flat" poor, the choices before me were not that promising. The fact that I was a strange kid who preferred playing alone to spending time with others didn't make thing easier. Besides being a loner, I was, and still am, a lazy bastard. Now admittedly, a kid even a poor one doesn't have a lot of things to be lazy about so I was lazy doing one thing I was actually supposed to be doing - yep you've guessed it - learning in school.

I was mostly bored, and especially in school - both the elementary and the high one, and before you know it I started kinda skipping not just classes but days and soon enough whole weeks. By the time I was 14 I could outdrink most of the construction workers in the neighborhood, and at 16 I was collecting debts for a local gang of mafia-wannabees. At 19, having just (against all odds) graduated from high school, the safest bet was I'll be in jail or 6-feet under by the time I've turned 21.

Well, the safest bet is not always the one that gets you money. In order to not get drafted into the military, I took my chances at the higher education. And wouldn't you know, I've aced the admission test and despite my poor track record in education I've managed to get into college.

OK, in order to this first post not becoming a novel, I'll cut it short here and just give you the highlights. I've graduated top of my class with mayors in archaeology and information science - strange combo I know.

A few years later I got my PhD in cognitive neuroscience (I did mention weird choices), hence the doc in DocSmith. Currently, I’m working as a researcher at a government-funded institution. I have a lovely wife, a solid income - and life is good.

Now, what I didn't mention before and I think it's quite important to round this profile story is that I was always good with my hands, whether it was painting, carving, sculpturing, taking things apart or building things from scratch.

Oh yes, I've almost forgotten the knife!

One of the passions that have been with me from the very beginning was the knife. Other kids played hide and seek, I've played with a knife. Other kids played football, I've played with a knife. Other people listened to the music while walking a dog, I've played with a knife. Other... I think you get the picture.

There's something fascinating about the knife that’s hard to properly explain, and to be honest I do believe that only a knife-junky can get it. A blade is the first proper tool us humans have developed, a sharp edge is what started this thing that is human civilization. It is just a thing, that to most of you, is something that gets used (and probably misused) and then be thrown back in the drawer. But to me, a knife is one of the greatest inventions in all of the history. It is brilliantly simple in design: you got the sharp/pointy end and the "safe" end - or the handle, and you use it to cut stuff.

Who cares about knives, you may ask. Most of you don’t so it’s a fair point, but try spending a week without using some kind of blade and you’ll see just how much we all depend on this simple and "unimportant" thing.

The thing that most people don't think about is how much work goes into making one. Even the cheap knife-like objects that can be bought in supermarkets that probably most of you keep in your kitchens are the result of an unbelievably long tradition that started when the first blacksmith got the idea to turn a lump of rusty metal into something that can cut.

So, my story with knives started almost forty years ago, but the story of DocSmith started some three years ago. I've always planned to make a knife, I've certainly destroyed a few trying to make them “better”, but somehow all the other stuff got in the way and for most of my life it was just an ideal dream.

Then one spring evening I've decided to make my dream a reality and I've started making knives. I’ve gone to a flea-market, bought some basic tools and an old file, and started working on my first knife. I’ll leave the details for a future story, but as you can probably guess it was a big ass failure.

Three years later, I know much more than I did when I started but I still have a lot to go to consider myself a master craftsman.

If willing, join me on my journey, and I will share my highlights, my struggles, my successes and my failures. I will show you some amazing knives, teach you about how they are made, what are they used for and how, and maybe you’ll help me learn a few things along the way.

Together we may even find the answer the ultimate question:

Is it possible to get your nails cleaned by Monday?