Insurance/Liability for a sharpening business?

R

Raylas

Joined
Jul 27, 2012
Messages
504
So I'm considering starting a small-time sharpening service, via mail order, and I don't wanna get sued if somebody cuts themselves on something I sharpened, or commits a crime with a knife I honed for them, the knife gets lost in the mail, etc.

As a result, I figured this would be a good place to ask: Does anybody here who offers sharpening services, or has a similar expertise, know what a good insurance policy/Liability policy would be to have for something like this?

I'm not planning on doing any knife-making, nor letting people into my workplace, I want to do this strictly by mail, and only sharpening, no other modifications. I'm not worried about my own safety, but about getting sued by others who mis-handle or misuse something after I've serviced it, or something being lost/stolen in the mail or a break in, god forbid.

What do you all think? Know anybody who might have good information on this? Or do you have anything you can tell me yourselves? I don't know a think about Insurance, so any assistance would be appreciated.

P.S. This is not an advert. My business doesn't even exist yet, please be gentle on me, wise and kind Moderators. I don't want to shill to people here, they're not even my target customer base. I just want help finding protection for a prospective project to help it get off the ground.

Thanks in advance.
 
Wow, it is a strange world we live in.

"Your Honor, the blade never would have penetrated all the way to his heart if Raylas had not made it so sharp. Really, this is his fault."
 
hhmoore said:
Don't forget damages caused by you. Some people are pretty anal, and a wayward scratch/scuff could be made into a huge deal.
Click to expand...

Oooh, yeah, good catch. I would obviously try to avoid that as much as possible, but accidents do happen and I'm only human.

UncleBoots said:
Wow, it is a strange world we live in.

"Your Honor, the blade never would have penetrated all the way to his heart if Raylas had not made it so sharp. Really, this is his fault."
Click to expand...

See, I agree, it's all so silly, but check the news sometime. This stuff happens on the weekly, people get sued over the most obvious, bone-head things.

There's a lot of stupid people out there who will hurt themselves with their stupidity, and then blame you for not anticipating how stupid they were going to be. We live in clown-world, and I'd rather be safe than sorry in this case.

We've all, I'm sure, seen the stories on the board about people running their fingers down the edges of sharpened blades and cutting themselves open, then acting shocked and wondering why the owner would "carry such a sharp knife."
 
Talk to your insurance agent. I have general liability / errors / omissions insurance. ~$70/month for $1,000,000 coverage (or $2,000,000; somewhere in that range). The somebody cut themselves / cut someone else part is the only thing I'd worry about (LegalShield for small business might be a better option and cheaper); anything you ship should be shipped insured at the customer's expense.
 
Not a direct comparison but when I talked to my insurance provider about adding bench stones and holders to what I make it added $5 a year or quarter to my policy. It was so small I didn't even register what it was, which surprised the shit out of me. Another safety net is to be poor enough that you're not worth suing, which isn't hard.
 
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