Hey everyone,

I am a new hobbyist knifemaker and member in north-eastern MA (currently living in Marblehead).

I'm half Finnish half American and a dual citizen and spent a lot of time in Finland growing up, where knives are an important part of the culture. Between my Finnish heritage, the fact that LOTR is the first thing that I remember my dad reading to me every night at bedtime, and my exposure to my American grandfather's knife collection (he was 101st Airborne, 10th Special, Commander of the 3rd Infantry Battalion, etc), I've been into knives from a pretty young age.

The first time I considered getting into knifemaking was after my Recon NCO class (I served in the Finnish army) got matching personalized knives from Heimo Roselli to celebrate making it through our course and getting our SF badges. Then in 2015, I (like many new knifemakers) saw the premier of Forged in Fire, and I've known that I wanted to give it a shot ever since.

This fall, a few co-workers and I signed up for an intro blacksmithing class where we made bottle openers (outdoors, wearing masks and socially distanced), and I got hooked. I started ordering random equipment and going through online courses and reading books. I found a local self-taught knifemaker who was willing to let me spend a day learning from him.

I've forged 1 knife so far, and will post a picture in this thread once its done (need to fix my bevels, add a handle, and sharpen). I find knifemaking to be a great way to balance out my day job of staring at computer screens for far too many hours per day (software product management).

This is a long shot, but I'm looking for workshop space that I could rent. I really only need 100-300ish sqft and would use it on the occasional evening and probably once per weekend. An existing knifeshop/blacksmith shop with a little extra space would be ideal. If anyone has any advice or leads on space in the area, please do not hesitate to reach out. I'm currently based in Marblehead, but will likely move to Cambridge late spring/early summer, so anything in the surrounding areas would be of interest to me.

Best,

Jesse