When Knifemaker R.W. Wilson converted his basement and garage to a workshop, he set out to do it right. Belt grinders, buffing machines and band saws circle the room. The walls are a collage of polishing wheels and saw blades. The workbench is well-stocked with templates and files.
Something obviously had to give, and it did. Wilson's family car and pickup were banished to a
 concrete pad in the backyard and the Weirton, West Virginia, steeltown air that is notoriously hostile to exposed automotive paint.
Wilson doesn't seem to mind, His workshop has been the focalpoint for his knifemaking career that has achieved national prominence since his induction to the Knifemakers' Guild in 1971. The only drawback is that Wilson can't spend as much time in his workshop as he'd like. His regular job keeps him from his knifemaking on a 40 hour per week basis.
Wilson, 37, is a grinder for the Weirton Steel Division of The National Steel Corporation, the largest employer in West Virginia. He and some 13,000 other employees keep the sprawling complex running on a 24-hour schedule. Wilson works the coveted daylight shift from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m., which frees him from the shop in the mill early enough that he can devote several hours to knifemaking.
His double job is not atypical among his fellow employees. There are probably more leisure-time artists in this Ohio river steeltown than in other communities with the same 26,000 population. Maybe it has something to do with the urge to punch out from a soulless time clock, hang up the hard hat and put a personal stamp on something. The need for creative outlet after 8 hours in the noise and dirt produces
 innumerable basement craftsmen.
Wilson moved to Weirton in 1959 from his home in Spring Run, Pennsylvania, a small town in the Allegheny Mountains. He met his wife-to-be who handles the knifemaking shipping and clerical duties, in 1960 and married her not long afterwards. Several years later he was introduced to knifemaking when he found a knife to his liking cost $35. Wilson dismissed the price as too high and spent his money instead on some basic knifemaking equipment. Calling on his steel mill skills he made his own knife and promptly sold it for $35. Today his knives can command a $500 price tag.
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