JOSH SMITH ｜ Breaking Foreign Supply Chains Through American-Made
Episode Stats
Length
1 hour and 13 minutes
Words per Minute
186.11748
Summary
In this episode, we talk with Josh Smith, CEO of Montana Knife Company, about the challenges of starting an American-made company, why growth isn't always linear, and why foreign markets are unfair business partnerships. Josh Smith is a master bladesmith and the youngest person to have earned that honor. He spent decades as an electrical lineman while he built his custom knife business. But more recently, in 2021, he started his next knife making business, moving into American production and manufacturing.
Transcript
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It's no secret that during COVID, we began to see how bad the foreign supply chain crisis really was.
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That woke a lot of people up to the reality of importing cheap products from overseas adversarial countries.
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But we've spent the last century closing American manufacturing facilities and exporting our American jobs overseas.
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With the new potential tariffs, which I believe are more of an economic bargaining tool for Trump,
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we, again, are staring down the barrel of high prices for everyday goods.
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And that's part of the reason I love what Josh Smith, founder of Montana Knife Company, is doing in a very small town called Frenchtown in Montana.
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He's putting Americans to work building American products, specifically hunting, tactical, and culinary knives.
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Today, we talk about the challenges with starting American-made companies, what you're likely going to hear from competitors when you do,
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why growth isn't always so linear, and there are also no overnight successes,
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why foreign markets are unfair business partnerships, and learning to build a business from the ground up, literally.
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You're a man of action. You live life to the fullest.
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Embrace your fears and boldly chart your own path.
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When life knocks you down, you get back up one more time, every time.
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You are not easily deterred or defeated, rugged, resilient, strong.
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This is who you will become at the end of the day.
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And after all is said and done, you can call yourself a man.
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Gentlemen, welcome to the Order of Man podcast.
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And I just want to take a minute and say thank you for tuning in, for listening, for sharing, for promoting,
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but most importantly, for living your life as a better man.
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That is our goal here, to give you all the tools that you need so that not only can you thrive as an individual,
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we can reclaim and restore masculinity as men in our cities, in our neighborhoods, in this country, and throughout the world.
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And what I would ask for you today is just take a minute.
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If we've offered any help, offered any insight, or any of my guests had shared something with you that was valuable,
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that helped improve your life, just say what it was in a review.
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Just let people know, hey, I listened to this podcast.
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Or I heard one of Ryan's guests, Josh Smith, like today, or Jocko Willink,
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or Grant Cardone, or George Foreman, or Matthew McConaughey.
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If we could just get hundreds, if not thousands of reviews, it would really boost this up.
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And most importantly, get this mission in front of more men.
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I don't really have any sort of promotion today because the person I have on is also happens to be one of my good friends,
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I was listening to something on the radio the other day, or it was a podcast, I think.
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And I'm blown away with how many podcasts just sell nonsense because they're getting a paycheck to sell that nonsense.
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I only work with companies that I personally know, like, and trust, and use their tools.
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In fact, I've got two different Montana Knife Company knives sitting on my desk right now,
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and I believe in what these guys are doing outside of their knife making.
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In fact, he's the youngest ever to have earned that honor.
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He spent decades as an electrical lineman while he built his custom knife business.
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But more recently, only in 2021, in fact, he started his next knife making business,
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moving into American production and manufacturing.
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And as a fairly new company, Josh and his team at Montana Knife Company are making big moves
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that are shaking up the knife production industry.
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Endorsed by Joe Rogan, Jocko Willink, Mike Rowe, and so many other heavy hitters,
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Josh and his team are only getting started and reshaping how knives ought to be made.
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I remember, man, what, two, three, four months ago, I think I saw a post that Jessica had made
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Because she was in Cedar City, which I don't know if you know this, but which is 45 minutes
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But that, to me, just based on the limited amount that I know about her, and we've shot
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total archery challenges together and, you know, talk shop, but that's a no-brainer, man.
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No, I needed somebody that I could kind of trust to help me with some of the relationship
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It's actually a challenge, like, probably the hardest challenge I've had with growing
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MKC isn't about making more knives or about buying equipment.
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It's like maintaining relationships, you know, when you get so busy, and I know everyone's
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I hate to make it sound like I'm busier than anybody else, but you get to a point where
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you do, like, my favorite part of this industry is the people, but it gets to be really, really
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hard to feel like you're being a good friend or whatever and check in with people, right?
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Like, I don't, frick shit, I don't ever call you, you know, but it doesn't mean that I feel
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It's just trying to help keep up with the relationship side.
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And so when I was looking for a kind of a brand relations manager, she's really, I was
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looking for somebody to kind of amplify my voice and help take care of our people, you
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know, friends and friends of the brand and make sure people are taken care of and that
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they don't feel like they're left behind or, you know, whatever.
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So when I, when we found her, she, one, she's respected throughout the industry.
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I hope her headphones are in because she's, oh, they actually are in.
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Tell it, tell her I said hello if she's right there.
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She's got her noise cancelings in, uh, we actually share an office now.
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We got to the point in this building where we're just so jammed up.
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So I moved her over into the corner of my office, but we both wear these noise canceling
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And when you've got them in, it's like you're in la la land.
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Uh, so I could talk all kinds of crap about her.
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I actually don't want her to hear me say anything good about her.
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You don't want to get her, her head to get too big and then think that she, you know,
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And she also to brag on her a little bit, she is a straight up,
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I'm sure, you know, but she's an incredible hunter.
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Um, but I've shot total archery challenge with them and they are both phenomenal, phenomenal
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It's funny when they moved here, um, they're actually renting my, I have a house next door.
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And Braxton showed up with their enclosed trailer and he had it all unloaded out in
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And I told him I'd help him unload, like washer dryer, heavy stuff.
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And I went over there and there's like eight elk, elk racks and all these big white tails
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There was all these racks spread out in the driveway.
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And I was like, damn dude, like you're a killer.
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Uh, of course, Braxton's gotten his own fair share of animals too.
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What's with the mule deer behind you over your shoulder there?
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Uh, that's a, that's when I shot a big Chino, uh, back in 2001, uh, down in Arizona.
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With JP and those guys, um, JP, uh, Bert Soren was down there with me.
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I was like, Whoa, that goes way back, but time just flies.
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Uh, so we, we spotted that buck and, uh, day one and I took off hiking for it.
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Um, you know, and there you can wear ear pieces where, where, you know, they can kind of help
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Um, so I go hiking off, uh, to kind of just cover distance these deer up on a hillside.
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And as I'm working my way up the hillside, those deer got up out of their beds and started
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And then those guys radioed me and they were like, Hey, those deer are gone.
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And so I just worked my way up in there without any comms at all.
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And I just took one step at a time for like two hours, glassing with every step.
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And I ended up finding one of the small bucks bedded underneath one of the trees.
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And it's kind of one of those, like you find one buck and then you start, I just, I stayed
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And I started looking around just in my binocular, you know, field of view.
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And all of a sudden it was like, there's another buck, there's another buck.
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I stayed frozen, um, there for probably 40 minutes.
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Um, other than I, I put my binos back as slow as possible and, uh, grab my release and, and
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And finally, all of a sudden they just decided to stand up.
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Uh, and I had ranged the, uh, tree that that big buck was laying under, uh, cause I couldn't
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And so when the young buck started standing up, I knew there was a lot of commotion.
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So I took that as my chance to draw and I drew.
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And, and as soon as he stood to his feet, I shot him and, uh, and yeah, he went just
00:11:02.660
I leave him with a taxidermist down there to clean the skull up and whatnot.
00:11:07.180
And he calls me a couple of months later and he's like, Hey, uh, did you see what was in
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And I was like, no, what are you talking about?
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And we actually, our t-shirt, we are our mule deer t-shirt, uh, kind of pays homage
00:11:22.080
There is a shaft of an arrow and a broad head through the side of that deer's nose.
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And the broad, the mechanical broad head is in the tear duct over here.
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And so when you look up, when you look up inside the nostril of that deer right there,
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you can see the arrow shaft going across, I'm trying to point on here, across that deer's
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nose and there's bone growing over the shaft of the arrow.
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At least two years, that deer ran around with that arrow busted off in its face, which shows
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Well, you'll have to, uh, after the recording, show me the broad head and the arrow.
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I don't know, because I've never been able to bag a mule deer.
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I went for three years, man, you were talking about sitting there for 45 minutes, dude.
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I sat in a ditch on the Arizona strip with big Chino for three hours and froze my balls
00:12:28.980
I just hurried and took a shot right over his back.
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So I followed this dry river bed and they're like, Hey, he's just bedded up.
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You got to sit there until he gets up in the evening.
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I sat there for three hours and he's like, all right, get up.
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So I got up and I popped up over this ridge and I couldn't see him.
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And finally I saw him as he was running away from me.
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So really maybe I have some good stories with big Chino.
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Like, uh, you know, it's funny cause I shot that deer on day one and then I started seeing
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some of the videos of some of these other bucks.
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These guys were stalking and I started having shooters remorse.
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I was like, Oh gosh, maybe I shot, shot too early, too fast.
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There were nine guys in camp and we spent like six days there.
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And at the end of the week, I was the only one that shot a deer.
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So then all of a sudden I was, I went, I went from having shooters remorse to like, Oh, thank
00:13:52.620
I, I, I fell in love with maybe six, seven years ago with whitetail.
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I go out to Minnesota every year and that was hard at first.
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And then I went to Minnesota cause a friend invited me out there and I've become friends
00:14:07.000
with these guys and, you know, sitting in a tree stand for three, four hours in the morning
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Like you, like where you did, you know, I grew up hunting whitetail as a junior high and
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high school kid with my bow, uh, right at my parents' backyard.
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I'd go set a tree stand up and I shot a couple of deer, but nothing, nothing big.
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I love big whitetail, but I'm the, I'm the wrong kind of personality to sit in the tree
00:14:48.340
Like I have whitetail hunting back here behind my house.
00:14:50.960
And again, I'd probably feel different about it if we had big, big bucks running around,
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but we don't, um, yeah, but I sit there for an hour and I start thinking about all the
00:15:02.340
Um, I, I just can't, I I'm like, God, I could have built that bench in my shop.
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I could have made, I could have made a half of a knife by now.
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I think if I travel somewhere, cause when you travel for hunting, you're just there to do
00:15:20.560
that, but boy, when I, when I'm a 10 minute walk from my house, I, my mind can't do it.
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I was freezing my balls off and it was just miserable and I didn't see any deer.
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I'll have to show you, uh, last year I shot the biggest buck of my life.
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And when the snow thawed and spring came, the guys I hunt with actually ended up finding
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them in my arrow was just buried in his body cavity and they sent it to me.
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I feel a little bad cause I didn't harvest it right away.
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I didn't get any meat from it, but, uh, mixed feelings on that one.
00:16:21.020
A lot of times, a lot of times that's, that's the unfortunate part of hunting that, that
00:16:25.000
we, you know, we'll all go through if you hunt enough, like everyone's going to go through
00:16:31.480
You know, well, you know, you said something interesting, Josh, you were talking about
00:16:35.500
making half a knife and, uh, I can attest for that because I don't know if you remember
00:16:41.800
This is, do you remember this, but I need to send this to you.
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I've got a bloody, this is not a show piece for me.
00:16:49.180
This is a working piece, but this is the stone wall.
00:16:52.280
Uh, as far as I know, it's the only Damascus stone wall that has ever been created.
00:16:59.380
I, I, I've built a couple of those, uh, of Damascus.
00:17:04.760
But, uh, you're the only one that's built one with me.
00:17:09.580
This is a, uh, this is a, a Josh Smith, Ryan Mickler collaboration that you will not find
00:17:15.020
anywhere else, but I need to get some of that rust off.
00:17:19.420
Building a knife with you was, was a highlight quite honestly, that I will never forget.
00:17:30.680
And I'm glad you're putting some, uh, put it to some use.
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And this is like, you know, people have trophies and things they want to put on the wall and
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That's not to say that there aren't show pieces for sure.
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And I know you create some, but man, this is a working piece and I'm glad we could do
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That's the, I don't know if you can, I don't know if it's going to focus or not, but yeah,
00:18:10.300
Is that probably 21, I think maybe 20, 21, 21, 22, somewhere, somewhere right in there.
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You guys have grown so much, you know, and then I just got, uh, this knife, the V 24 in
00:18:29.600
Uh, I don't know, just a couple of, it was interesting because this is the one that I
00:18:34.040
I think you call it black and coyote and you guys sell out a knife so fast.
00:18:48.880
Those, those knives are, those knives are pretty damn cool.
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That, uh, I don't know if you guys can see this, but that V it was originally called
00:19:06.340
Um, and it was, uh, you know, it was a longer blade and it was shaped a little bit different.
00:19:12.340
It had a point on the pommel of that, um, I, you know, I don't really love a point for
00:19:18.000
a fighting knife on a handle because the handle is really pointing at you, uh, especially,
00:19:23.440
uh, you know, airborne operations are a lot bigger deal now, obviously.
00:19:29.540
And, uh, you know, you've got that dagger with a point on that handle and something
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goes wrong on a jump and you end up folding in half or something.
00:19:38.300
I don't want that point of that thing, jabbing whoever's carrying it.
00:19:42.040
Uh, um, but you know, that V 42 is a legendary knife.
00:19:47.080
And it, what's cool about that is that was that knife was, uh, for the devil's brigade,
00:19:52.860
which was the very first special operations group ever formed.
00:19:57.820
And it was formed to be between, uh, some soldiers out of Fort Harrison in here in Montana,
00:20:08.540
And they came together, they called themselves the devil's devil's brigade.
00:20:12.420
And that became the very first, uh, special forces group.
00:20:17.240
And so that's really where, you know, green berets and, you know, the unit guys and Navy
00:20:22.480
seals, that's really where all of that kind of started, which was a smaller team of specialized
00:20:28.920
Um, and they called it a V 42, which was victory for 1942.
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You know, when you think about world war two and, and, and, and so I, we called this one,
00:20:43.480
Uh, and, and I shortened up the blade a little bit.
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I shortened up the handle and I wanted to make it a little bit more, uh, practical to carry
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Uh, the, the V 42 is really cool, but it's, it's just too long to actually reasonably carry
00:21:01.980
Um, and we're actually going to come out with a longer version, uh, probably next year,
00:21:07.180
which would be cool, but they're a little bit more ceremonial than they are functional.
00:21:11.840
Uh, I mean, they're very functional, but as far as carrying them, um, you know, so anyway,
00:21:18.300
And it just so happened to be that the V 42 was a 1942, but here we are in 2024.
00:21:24.900
So we just reversed it and made it to V 24, which was cool.
00:21:29.200
I didn't know where that came from, but that's actually really cool.
00:21:32.060
And one thing I noticed on the actual, um, sheath is you've got this, I don't know what
00:21:39.680
you call it, but it's this like everyday carry clip.
00:21:41.900
It's not the one that you would put on like a hunting pack, for example, but it's this
00:21:52.700
Um, and it, it, man, it really does lock down on whether it's a pocket or they're also
00:21:59.720
Uh, that that's kind of, that that's why the width of that is.
00:22:05.980
If I'm doing a, you know, a backwoods hunter, like I'd want to have this right here.
00:22:13.300
And so you could, uh, you could, you know, click, click, click that over the Molly webbing.
00:22:18.240
The one thing, the sheath making is a little bit hard on the tactical side because, uh,
00:22:25.920
You know, I'm not a veteran, so I'm not sitting here acting like I know what I'm talking about.
00:22:30.660
But, uh, you know, when I, when I talk to a lot of these guys, there's a hundred different
00:22:36.160
ways these guys carry their knives and where they put them on their kit.
00:22:40.500
And quite honestly, it can be mission specific, uh, depending on what gear they need to carry,
00:22:48.240
Are they carrying radios or are they just carrying some mags?
00:22:52.120
Um, are they going a little bit, uh, you know, skinnier on some of their gear?
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And then some of these guys, it doesn't change and they'll actually, they don't want to lose
00:23:10.020
It's like, Hey, if you want to zip tie it, that's fine.
00:23:12.600
But we offer a lot of different, uh, sheath attachments, especially for that tactical
00:23:18.280
side on our website, because it's almost impossible to just make something that everyone's going
00:23:24.900
to like, you know, so guys, guys can kind of play with how they want to, what they want
00:23:31.300
I think that's cool because on this, um, on this knife, again, the Damascus stone while we
00:23:36.540
did, you know, you were gracious enough to make this go with it, you know?
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And so obviously, you know, that's something I'm going to carry and something I really appreciate,
00:23:45.200
but this is something that can go on my hunting kit.
00:23:50.420
Um, Tim Kennedy had done a video on this and I think, I don't, I don't really know the
00:23:56.020
story cause I try not to get into too much drama, but I think there's been some accusations
00:24:00.400
of stolen valor, which I think are, are very uncredible.
00:24:04.860
Uh, but people were bagging on this because it wasn't the V 42.
00:24:09.560
And I'm like, I don't, I don't think it's supposed to be the V 42.
00:24:12.900
I think it's supposed to be a nod to the V 42, but not the actual knife.
00:24:20.680
And the reproduction world is, you know, I learned this a long, long time ago as a custom
00:24:26.140
If you're going to reproduce a knife, like a historic knife, man, you better get that thing
00:24:35.220
Because the historian people will pick you apart.
00:24:40.640
Um, so I, and anybody who has half a brain can see that clearly this is not a copy of
00:24:48.920
Um, it absolutely has design characteristics that make it, uh, you know, you can see the
00:24:57.540
Uh, you know, the original V 42 had stacked leather, uh, that, that was the handle.
00:25:02.940
And so that's actually why we did the, the million around the handle we did to kind of,
00:25:07.060
uh, you know, basically a little nod or shout out to that stack leather look originally.
00:25:12.460
Um, uh, but yeah, uh, obviously this is not an actual V 42.
00:25:21.280
You know, as far as, uh, Tim and some of that, I actually, I actually watched the podcast that,
00:25:28.340
uh, that, you know, had those accusations, uh, that they kind of lobbed at Tim to be honestly,
00:25:38.280
Um, and then I saw Tim's response and my stance is on that, uh, two things.
00:25:46.740
So ask somebody else when it comes to like, what's, you know, technically right or wrong
00:25:54.640
I do know I have several veterans include a, including a green beret that worked for me.
00:26:00.520
One thing for sure, both of these guys that have been to war and both have been blown up
00:26:04.520
will tell you is if six of us go out on mission and, uh, and we come back and it's fairly kinetic,
00:26:11.940
uh, we're going to come back with six stories about what happened.
00:26:16.600
Uh, you know, and even if, even if none of us are killed, even if none of us step on an
00:26:23.040
IED or any of that stuff, you it's still freaking war.
00:26:38.240
Even if you are a high level operator and it all goes well, uh, you're killing people.
00:26:43.780
And so the, the version of the stories, uh, can vary a little bit.
00:26:50.780
And, and then lastly, I find it interesting as a, as a civilian, I have never seen a community
00:26:58.940
more, uh, hard on each other than the veteran community.
00:27:08.840
And I think sometimes may, and maybe, maybe there's some, uh, some things in Tim's book
00:27:15.460
Uh, who knows, maybe there's a couple of things that are just flat out, not true.
00:27:24.000
I've seen him when we met with president Trump with secret service guys wanting to get pictures
00:27:29.600
I've seen him with the coffee gal at Starbucks.
00:27:32.500
I've seen him, how he treats people at his, uh, his workout classes with firemen.
00:27:41.200
So, uh, do I think he willingly and outright lies about any of those stories?
00:27:50.000
Uh, also you have to remember there's a ghost writer, uh, for the book, right?
00:27:56.340
And so, you know, if I was to dictate to you, Ryan, my entire life story about making knives
00:28:02.380
from the time I'm 11 and we sit down for the next four days and I just tell you my story
00:28:07.100
start to finish and then you go write my book, you may take some of your own liberties to
00:28:12.740
make my stories at 11 year old little league baseball player sound better.
00:28:16.740
You might even say I was the best baseball player on the team.
00:28:21.800
And then somebody might come out and say, well, I played with him.
00:28:27.240
Well, uh, you know, so I guess my point on this is, is I'm not sure as a civilian, what
00:28:37.300
He's a green beret who also fought in the UFC, which is, uh, either one of those is incredible
00:28:48.140
And then he also, uh, has done some superhero things.
00:28:51.340
I've actually seen videos personally of him working, uh, the Southern border.
00:28:56.760
Cause he's still actually in the military today.
00:28:59.020
Um, I also know that book was run through the DOD and approved, uh, and they fact check
00:29:07.220
So, you know, it's a long winded, but my point is, is, uh, the last thing I'm going to do
00:29:16.540
Cause I think all of those people are American heroes that served.
00:29:24.820
And I take every individual relationship, you know, there's some rivalries in this community
00:29:29.560
of some very well-known people that I'm friends with, uh, that actually don't like each other
00:29:35.600
And I always take all my relationships based solely on my personal experience with that
00:29:41.900
And, uh, and my experience with Tim has been, uh, nothing short of, you know, incredible.
00:29:53.420
Uh, I just wanted to share something new year, new you.
00:30:00.480
Uh, too often it's new year, same you, but look, if, if you use the new year as a catalyst
00:30:05.480
for growth, all the power to you, but that doesn't seem to be how it typically goes.
00:30:10.420
But I do have a tool for you that you could really use to potentially make that first phrase
00:30:19.340
And when you sign up for our free battle ready program, you're going to unlock instant access
00:30:24.280
to a series of emails, 17 to be exact, that will walk you through step-by-step the path
00:30:30.360
that I've used to build a seven figure business, help fix a strange relationships, get in the
00:30:35.060
best shape of my life, and finally develop a sense of fulfillment and satisfaction in
00:30:41.560
It's what the 10th, as of the release of this, put yourself on the path of really doing something
00:30:47.120
come 2025, not just regurgitating clever little phrases like new year, new you, or 2024 was
00:31:01.000
Again, that's orderofman.com slash battle ready.
00:31:11.100
I think you probably know Tim better than I do, but you know, what I'm reminded of is
00:31:15.740
a few good men when Jack Nicholson basically says, Hey, look, you're asking me to protect
00:31:21.400
Then you're going to critique the way that I protect you so you can sleep at night
00:31:26.900
Look, we can, we have a right to do that and you can do that.
00:31:31.940
We ought to be critical of these things, but also we ought to take all of this stuff with
00:31:39.420
One of my favorite stories of, of Tim is I was supposed to do a podcast with him years
00:31:46.740
And I went to a friend's house, Kip Sorensen, and we watched some UFC fights.
00:31:58.800
And I already had an interview scheduled with him and Tim got beat up.
00:32:05.340
And I remember thinking, well, there goes that interview.
00:32:09.060
Cause I was supposed to interview him on like Tuesday or Wednesday after UFC.
00:32:22.080
He's shown me interesting and unique things that he's, he's told me stories, man.
00:32:38.960
And so you have a few guys out there like that.
00:32:41.660
You've got Jocko and you've got some of these guys that are big personalities and they're veterans.
00:32:47.160
And so there's also kind of that veteran culture of the, of the silent professional type as well.
00:32:56.960
So I think that's going to draw, uh, some hate, um, hell, I'm sure I've got some knife makers out there, uh, that maybe don't like me that had never even met me just because I'm, I'm kind of out there.
00:33:12.760
Um, you know, there's even, I've been in awkward cases where I've had people explain or say things about me either in a podcast or in articles where they basically call me like, oh, Josh,
00:33:26.960
Josh Smith, he, uh, is the, like the best knife maker alive, right.
00:33:31.260
Or the, or the greatest knife maker, you know, uh, you know, living today, they're trying to be polite and kind.
00:33:38.480
Uh, but that's not, those aren't, that's not true.
00:33:42.140
And other knife makers might, uh, look at that and be like, oh, Josh is thinks he's whatever.
00:33:47.780
And it's like, no, I can name you a dozen knife makers off the top of my head right now that are better than me.
00:33:53.880
Um, uh, you know, I'm a pretty damn good knife maker.
00:33:56.960
But there's a, there's a lot of dudes that are unbelievable knife makers.
00:34:01.660
Um, but it can be viewed as though I'm the guy saying that, uh, and you can end up in some weird spots when you're public, like you and I are where words are almost put in your own mouth and you're, you're left with people hating you.
00:34:19.380
Well, it's, it's not even, it's not verifiable.
00:34:23.720
Like how can you say somebody is the best knife maker?
00:34:27.180
It's just not a category that exists because it's all based on people's opinions, people's views, people's perceptions, people's experiences, or maybe their biases.
00:34:37.420
It's not even a verifiable statistic, but I've had people say things like, well, that's just your opinion.
00:34:52.960
You know, the difference between opinion and fact, and I don't need to preface everything I say with, this is my opinion.
00:35:00.100
You're capable of comprehending that strat, that idea.
00:35:06.380
And that's the thing I have taken more and more of the Rogan approach of, uh, uh, of not reading the comments, you know?
00:35:14.460
The other, the other part of that, to be honest, uh, just from a, a time perspective, I started, uh, keeping track a little bit of one day, a few months ago of just the time spent, responding to some comments.
00:35:28.620
And, uh, it's kind of mind boggling when you start multiplying that times 30 days a month.
00:35:34.880
And it, it's actually a real struggle, um, that, that I still try to figure out what that balance is, because I also have 99% of the comments on my pages are positive.
00:35:49.560
And, and I never want someone to think that I don't care.
00:35:53.780
Like if they comment and they're like, Oh, I love that knife.
00:36:01.480
Well, if I don't get on there and say, thank you.
00:36:09.620
It's like, well, I, I do appreciate all of those comments, uh, more than people know.
00:36:15.040
And as you know, with social media and stuff, you actually want engagement like that.
00:36:20.260
And so, um, it's, uh, I find that not responding to the comments thing, um, a bit of a challenge because there's also just like, is that 10 or 15 minutes spent answering comments?
00:36:34.420
Uh, as important as talking to my daughter for 10 or 15 minutes, right?
00:36:41.000
Because my daughter leaves the, you know, at home for school in the morning, see her for a few minutes and we're busy and whatnot.
00:36:51.800
Uh, you know, I see my kids for about an hour out of the day, you know, so do I, should I spend that 15, 20 minutes answering comments or should I sit and chat with my family?
00:37:01.180
And I'm guilty of not making the right choice on that still too often.
00:37:08.880
I think more than anything that just speaks to your character, like you're not just selling a knife.
00:37:15.560
You actually care about the people who are buying your products.
00:37:18.680
And I wish we could respond to it all, but the fact of the matter is, and the rate at which your company and organization are growing, it's just not possible.
00:37:26.280
It's hard to know that somebody bought your knife and all you can give them as a thumbs up.
00:37:31.640
If they comment, like, I definitely understand that.
00:37:38.320
Uh, Brett's helping with that, you know, on a drop night, Brett's in on the comments.
00:37:50.900
And it's, um, like you say, give them just a thumbs up.
00:37:53.960
It's like, God, I, I, I want to be like, Hey, I really do appreciate it.
00:38:00.940
Uh, um, but man, it's just, it's, it's hard to keep up on all that.
00:38:05.320
And, you know, and then you combine that with answering texts, emails, direct messages, uh, you know, three or four different social media platforms.
00:38:13.200
Um, it just becomes a major challenge and I'm not complaining at all about it.
00:38:18.720
It's more about like, I'm still trying mentally to solve how to deal with it.
00:38:26.560
Uh, you know, I just went and visited our job site and our concrete guys are pouring my concrete foundation today.
00:38:33.360
It's 18 degrees and it's frosty, you know, and their, uh, hands are freezing while they're, uh, troweling mud on the foundation.
00:38:42.420
And I'm like, these guys are actually doing hard work.
00:38:44.980
Like what I'm trying to, the problems I'm trying to solve aren't actually that hard.
00:38:50.400
But to be fair, and I, and I'll sneak up for you a little bit on this one, you were, you're, you're alignment, right?
00:38:56.280
So you're not unaccustomed to being out there in that freezing weather and doing the work.
00:39:01.700
I think what a lot of people might see is, oh, well, you know, wouldn't it be nice?
00:39:07.500
Yeah, it is nice compared to what I was doing five, 10 years ago.
00:39:15.440
I mean, that's, I think that's why I have so much respect for what they do.
00:39:18.440
Cause, uh, I sat out there plenty and froze my butt off, uh, you know, and especially this time
00:39:25.120
you're in the mud, uh, everything's harder coming into the fall and winter, uh, when you're
00:39:31.260
trying, when you're trying to do your job, you know, um, days are short, you know, you don't
00:39:36.360
have a lot of daylight and you're just trying to get a lot of work done and it's cold and
00:39:40.500
And yeah, those guys are, they're doing a good job up there.
00:39:43.760
That's the other thing, you know, with the weather five days ago said it was supposed
00:39:47.360
to be like, uh, 45 degrees and we were going to be able to pour and not have to cover everything.
00:39:52.240
But then we got this inversion that came in and it fogged in, uh, the last three days
00:39:59.400
Uh, our Valley, I'll tell you what, we get fog that rolls in and it'll be here for a week
00:40:06.180
And if you drive 20 miles East of here, it'll be a bluebird sunny day and it'll be 50 degrees.
00:40:12.440
And here it's like a low of 18 and a high of 22 and it's just fog.
00:40:20.240
So those guys had to go rent, uh, ground heaters and buy a bunch of concrete tarps.
00:40:25.660
And they're, they're going to cover that whole foundation or in heat on it for the next three
00:40:31.860
I, you know, I didn't even appreciate this until I moved to Maine several years ago where,
00:40:36.340
you know, you'd complain about the roads not being done.
00:40:43.180
You know, we've got one third of the year to get it done.
00:40:51.540
It's, we don't, we don't, I'm in Southern Utah.
00:40:58.240
Hot summers, very mild winters until you start moving North.
00:41:02.460
You really don't understand what is happening here.
00:41:08.440
I mean, where I grew up just a hundred miles East of here, you know, my dad's excavation
00:41:12.460
company, we, we would have to shut down mid-November and not pick up until the first of April is
00:41:18.380
because the ground froze so hard, so much snow, which somebody might say, oh, you got the
00:41:25.060
And it's like, yeah, you also get to watch whatever money you had in your bank account
00:41:28.660
just slowly, uh, drain out of the bathtub, uh, you know, and go down the drain.
00:41:37.020
My parents went 20, I think 20 winners, uh, borrowing money before they made it through
00:41:43.180
a winter without having to borrow money to make it through.
00:41:46.020
You, you, you, you work hard all summer and you save as much money as possible.
00:41:51.560
And then you watch it and then you're, you know, come February, you're out of money and
00:41:55.480
you're borrowing money to get going again in the spring.
00:41:58.240
It's a, it's a challenging business in those kinds of climates.
00:42:04.440
I mean, if you just look at nature, you know, the squirrels and the chipmunks are stocking
00:42:10.600
Cause they know, and throughout human history, I think the majority of human history has been
00:42:15.600
It isn't until the relative ease of modernity that we've had the luxury of borrowing money
00:42:26.300
It's, it's, uh, I do have a question that I've been meaning to ask you for, for some
00:42:31.420
time now, you know, I've showed you a couple of nice and we have two, you know, almost opposite
00:42:37.180
We've got something that's more of a custom made knife.
00:42:40.160
And then over here, you have something that's more of a, I don't want to do it an injustice.
00:42:44.580
So you correct me if I'm wrong, but more of a mass produced kind of knife, right?
00:42:50.640
I mean, I don't know how you'd say that, but yeah, it's a semi-production knife.
00:42:57.360
Um, what has been your internal struggle between creating something like this?
00:43:03.280
And I know you've made knives for prints, literally princes, and you've done some of
00:43:19.540
And the reason why is because those two companies are named two different things, right?
00:43:24.860
On, on your left, in your left hand, you had the Josh Smith knife, right?
00:43:38.200
So that's, that's the Josh Smith knives, custom knife.
00:43:42.100
And then, and then you have the Montana knife company knife.
00:43:45.700
Uh, the, the place that it got weird for a lot of knife makers is when you're, when I'm
00:43:50.560
looking you in the eye, Ryan, and I'm like, Hey, this knife's $2,000.
00:43:57.580
And then, and then, you know, come to find out that custom maker has a CNC machine and
00:44:05.320
And it's like, okay, where is this line of, and this is the age old argument that I'll,
00:44:10.880
I'll refuse to get in with another knife maker because it's, again, it's, it's opinion.
00:44:15.920
Um, but what is handmade and what is production, right?
00:44:21.180
And handmade could be, uh, you literally, uh, smelt your own steel out of sand because I've
00:44:32.680
I've done that with knife makers where you make your own steel out of iron ore.
00:44:36.680
Uh, and then there's knife makers that have, you know, hand file all their blades and go
00:44:50.460
It's like, Oh, well you're using powered equipment and now, now you're onto a CNC mill.
00:44:58.280
Uh, for me personally, any knife that has a Josh Smith knives logo on it.
00:45:04.600
Like I made that knife myself, me all, you know, with, without any help from anyone.
00:45:11.040
The only caveat to that would be like, if I gave it to an engraver to do like some custom
00:45:16.760
engraving or gold inlay on it as like an embellishment.
00:45:20.620
Um, now the, the, the Montana knife company knives, obviously I have employees, uh, shit,
00:45:30.560
Like we, we get behind or the, those guys down in my sharpening room really had to learn
00:45:36.540
And I spent a couple of days in there sharpening daggers with that crew, like tray after tray.
00:45:41.600
Uh, so I still help now and then on that stuff.
00:45:45.580
I was just grinding a blade yesterday with a new model.
00:45:48.360
We're coming out in January, uh, to get the edge geometry the way I like it.
00:45:53.900
Um, so, uh, and it's two different kinds of joy, right?
00:46:01.120
The, the joy out of a custom made knife that you make by hand with very little power equipment,
00:46:09.060
That's a different feeling when a customer or collector buys that and it's several thousand
00:46:13.740
dollars versus some knives for MKC that we're going to make this week that are being made
00:46:20.440
right now downstairs without me that I won't touch, but then I'll get a photo from some
00:46:26.080
father with his nine-year-old boy, with that kid holding that knife with a huge smile, with
00:46:30.620
a little spike buck for his first year, two totally different kinds of joy, but equally
00:46:37.820
You know, um, I think the dilemma would come and where it would lose its heart and soul for
00:46:44.840
me is if I was sourcing things from overseas, you know, I might not be doing all the work
00:46:50.240
on these MKC knives right now, but you know, the guy that's rolling that steel in Niagara,
00:46:57.440
New York, uh, his family also needs to eat, right?
00:47:01.820
The guy running the laser machine, you know, or a grinding machine or Francesca who's making
00:47:08.060
the leather sheaths right down in Idaho and her whole crew, they also have kids and house
00:47:12.560
payments and, you know, and their dreams of their own.
00:47:15.560
And so, uh, whether it's me doing it or one of my employees or a contractor that I have
00:47:21.480
helping us keep up, it, it all feels just as good, you know?
00:47:27.600
And I think one of the things that you've been really clear about is just you're authentic.
00:47:32.540
Like this is a Josh Smith knife and this is a Montana knife company knife.
00:47:37.340
I think where I would make the distinction is, you know, we put this, for example, when
00:47:42.280
we sharpened this, it was with a belt sander and you might say, well, you know, that's
00:47:46.540
not man-made except for it is because I was the one holding it on the belt sander and you
00:47:54.580
You got to fix that versus sending it all through a machine.
00:47:58.160
And there's not anything wrong with sending it through a machine.
00:48:00.760
As long as you clearly communicate what people are getting.
00:48:03.960
And I like this thing just as much as I like this thing.
00:48:07.460
And that's the piece I've always said, if, if I'm, if I'm at a knife show, uh, and we're
00:48:12.760
custom knife makers, so long as a knife maker's honest about, you know, Hey, that inlay and
00:48:19.580
all that fancy work on that handle, like I did that by hand with files or Hey, all that
00:48:25.680
I have the knowledge and I taught myself how to run a pantograph and, and a, and a CNC lathe
00:48:33.040
And I made all those pieces on all that equipment.
00:48:36.940
If the customer thinks that's cool and appreciates that for what that is, that customer should
00:48:42.380
It's when a customer, it's when a knife maker would maybe potentially lie.
00:48:45.860
And I think there's very few out there that would do that.
00:48:48.700
Um, but there's still an art form to even learning how to run all that equipment and be good enough
00:48:57.100
Uh, you know, frankly, I have a quit in my, my own shop that I have machinists here that
00:49:02.520
run it that, uh, I'm incredibly impressed by their skill to know how to run that machine
00:49:11.360
So, uh, I've always said, I think knife makers need to not be ashamed of how they make their
00:49:17.020
knives, no matter what form that's in, they just need to be honest about how they do it.
00:49:22.160
And then the customer, then the customer can vote with his wallet.
00:49:26.060
Well, I love that point voting with your wallet, because one thing you're doing is you're
00:49:30.400
making everything in America and there's a handful of companies.
00:49:37.700
There's a handful that I know of personally where I have relationships with these organizations.
00:49:45.480
There's, there's a handful of companies I know that are making everything in America.
00:49:48.320
Uh, that's part of the story and what's cool about it is when I buy a knife from you, not
00:49:54.760
only do I get a cool product that I'm actually going to use, I get to support you and your
00:50:00.700
friends and people that I've actually broken bread with and shaking their hand and, and,
00:50:07.520
Like these are American, like putting Americans back to work.
00:50:10.700
Like that to me is worth just as much as buying some other knife from somewhere else made in
00:50:16.280
China or India or wherever they make knives these days.
00:50:19.980
That's the whole point of American manufacturing, right?
00:50:22.760
Is, is, uh, and I, I've always, you know, thought American manufacturing is cool.
00:50:30.480
I've always said like, Hey, we need to bring it back.
00:50:32.460
But, but now that I'm in it and I get to see behind the scenes, truly like firsthand,
00:50:37.240
uh, how impactful, uh, like what we are doing and let's just take everyone out of my building
00:50:46.080
out of the equation for a moment, how impactful what our company is doing around this country.
00:50:53.260
Now, if you then expand that out to, you know, uh, let's say a thousand more companies kicked
00:51:00.860
off and did exactly what we're doing in their, in their respective fields, whatever that is,
00:51:05.600
that, that would, that would spread across this country.
00:51:09.640
And it makes our whole country, uh, more prosperous, uh, you know, more, more safe and secure,
00:51:17.380
uh, that, you know, and, and makes our communities more tight knit and it makes our country better.
00:51:23.260
And that's the thing with American manufacturing.
00:51:25.260
I don't care where it's happening as long as it's happening in America, you know, it's, um,
00:51:35.860
I mean, we've given away this year alone, almost $700,000 to nonprofits in, in our fourth year
00:51:44.700
of growing this company, I can guarantee you if these knives were being made in China and I
00:51:51.160
was receiving them in boxes and shipping them out that we would not be doing that.
00:51:57.720
These, these companies in China, uh, you know, or, or, uh, uh, a large investor owned company
00:52:04.320
with, you know, a China, you know, half the guys on the Chinese board or whatever, uh, would
00:52:10.540
not be given away money to the wild sheep foundation or a Montana veteran project.
00:52:16.880
Or, uh, partnering up with some of these different people that we have to help support
00:52:21.620
RMEF or, you know, whatever, various organizations we've really tried to spread it around.
00:52:27.180
Um, uh, American manufacturing means more to this country than I think people know.
00:52:32.960
And if we can continue bringing it back, it's going to make everything better.
00:52:36.140
Well, and I think one of the cool things I like is that these knives are made out of
00:52:42.060
Nobody knows where the hell French town, Montana is the closest town.
00:52:46.240
As far as I know, you correct me if I'm wrong is Missoula, which I think most people would
00:52:49.940
recognize, but French town, what, what, what, where the hell is that?
00:52:59.420
And that's what, that's, what's cool is I, I hope people get motivated to start, uh,
00:53:04.880
businesses in tiny towns in Minnesota or in South, South Dakota, or, you know, a tiny
00:53:15.780
And this is what I told a high school, uh, graduating class.
00:53:18.960
I was the commencement speaker there this spring.
00:53:21.540
And I told him our company should prove to you that no matter how small the town is that
00:53:29.420
You know, you can grow a national brand in Drummond, Montana.
00:53:41.140
You know, I know a lot of people like to kind of crap on the internet and social media and
00:53:46.160
And I look at the social, I look at social media, exactly how I look at a gun.
00:53:51.980
Uh, it can be deadly and dangerous and, and, and, and one of the worst things on the
00:53:58.340
planet, or it can be an amazing, enjoyable tool, uh, that, that can also help you survive.
00:54:08.300
And we have used social media in the right way, in the positive way to build a brand,
00:54:14.520
to help feed these families and to build our, our American dream.
00:54:17.960
Um, and with the internet and with social media, you know, I told those kids when I
00:54:22.540
graduated, you know, I said, you know, I started making knives before there was the
00:54:31.040
Um, I said, you guys have such a huge advantage because with the internet, the world is now,
00:54:37.460
you, you now don't have to be in LA or New York.
00:54:40.820
You can be in French town, Montana, and you can grow a major brand from right there, from
00:54:51.520
I had seen a post that you'd made on social media.
00:54:54.140
Uh, I don't know, maybe a couple of weeks ago, maybe a month ago.
00:54:57.060
And you had tongue in cheek said how, um, tariffs and the broken supply chain will impact
00:55:04.680
And then I think the next slide said newsflash, it won't or whatever it was.
00:55:13.100
You know, Trump has talked about coming in and imposing chair, uh, tariffs on, um, well,
00:55:19.280
Mexico and Canada at a hundred percent China for some things up to 20%.
00:55:28.280
Yeah, I know just enough to be an opinionated asshole and not, not enough to actually have
00:55:33.680
tons of fact behind it, but as just a regular guy watching the news, you know, I'm, I'm
00:55:39.660
Uh, you know what I would say, and it's, I don't understand how this phrase can be taken
00:55:46.660
as a bad thing, but they were actually using this in the campaign against Trump when they
00:56:00.880
Like, you know, I'm the CEO of Montana knife company.
00:56:04.640
I should be thinking Montana knife company first at, in that role, wearing that hat.
00:56:09.940
Now, if it's my dad hat, then obviously I'm going to put my family first.
00:56:14.160
And ultimately my dad hat's going to be worn all the time over any other hat.
00:56:18.560
Uh, but as the president of the United States, it should be America first.
00:56:28.400
Now that also doesn't have to mean, um, you know, the, we, we have to harm other countries
00:56:34.280
to be first, uh, but we should always be asking ourself, uh, is, is this what's best
00:56:39.920
for our citizens and the, Hey, if our citizens are being crushed because, you know, they're
00:56:45.580
bringing in, uh, wheat at two cents on the dollar from another country and our wheat farmers
00:56:53.840
Well, then we should probably put tariffs on wheat, right?
00:56:56.640
Like, uh, and, and especially like competition is really good until it's unfair.
00:57:02.160
And so let's say Montana knife company, uh, the Chinese version pops up and they start
00:57:06.740
shipping in knives into America, but they're making knives at half price because they're
00:57:15.400
Then yeah, the government should step in, you know, and for the record, I'm actually a very
00:57:19.820
small limited government guy, but one of the roles of government is to protect its citizens
00:57:27.120
against foreign adversaries and that can be missiles and planes and ships, or that can
00:57:36.100
be financial, uh, you know, in a financial way.
00:57:42.320
So long as it's, uh, as, as long as, um, you know, they've really analyzed the effects of
00:57:47.860
and, and you know what, some of us are going to have to be willing, not some of us, all of
00:57:52.040
us are going to have to be willing to experience a little bit of hardship to make future
00:57:57.100
better for our children, you know, with our deficit and our debt and everything that we're
00:58:03.300
doing, uh, there's probably going to need to be some government programs cut.
00:58:08.360
It's probably going to need to be some government programs cut that we would all agree are really
00:58:14.700
You know, uh, I'm not advocating for cutting, you know, school lunch for, for poor children,
00:58:21.600
We all think that's a great thing, but there may be a program that's very similar to that.
00:58:26.460
That we all agree is a really nice program, but like at a certain point we have to cut
00:58:32.260
some programs and, and it should be on the community to help, whether it's feed those
00:58:37.660
kids or, you know, maybe it's afterschool childcare or it's, you know, my argument would be, we
00:58:44.480
can pay for all that and just cut out the stupid crap, uh, like sending money to Ukraine.
00:58:50.520
Like, let's go ahead and feed, let's feed poor kids in rural Montana and not, not send missiles
00:59:00.460
Well, I mean, even the one that comes to mind for me is I, I listened to something just today
00:59:04.660
and they, and don't quote me on the numbers, but, uh, 16% of the government in certain
00:59:10.460
departments, they're not even, the employees aren't even going to work.
00:59:17.460
But then we're spending billions and billions of dollars on heating and cooling government
00:59:24.200
buildings that could be sold off, that could be turned off.
00:59:29.160
We don't need to worry about Ukraine or this or that, like, or these programs about feeding
00:59:32.780
kids or social security or Medicare or Medicaid.
00:59:34.800
That's a, that's a quick and easy fix, you know, right there.
00:59:39.420
But I do agree with what you said about the fairness factor, you know, if some, if there's
00:59:45.200
a, a bean and corn farmer in Minnesota and he's losing to a bean and corn farmer in Wisconsin
00:59:52.620
because the guy in Wisconsin learned how to, uh, produce a yield that was 150% better than
01:00:01.320
But if you're stealing technology and you're rigging the game, that's the issue that I
01:00:11.860
And it's, uh, this is, this is really what I feel about the government.
01:00:17.520
And this is why people might consider me a little bit nutty, but until our government can
01:00:22.480
pass a balanced budget, uh, we should not be required to pay taxes anymore.
01:00:28.760
Uh, you know, I will, I, you know, and it's, it's amazing to me because the IRS will tell
01:00:35.960
you Ryan exactly, uh, where you went wrong in filing your tax return and penalize you,
01:00:42.980
uh, to, to, to, to whatever degree they need to, uh, but they can't even pass a budget.
01:00:50.340
Uh, you know, even if you said, Hey, year one, you have to pass, you have to pass a budget
01:00:57.980
and cut your deficit by 50% and the following year, you have to cut it by 25 more percent.
01:01:05.660
And the third year it has to be balanced, meaning we are not going in debt anymore.
01:01:10.540
Uh, or the American citizens by year three will make, uh, that will be income tax-free.
01:01:19.740
The government would get their ass in gear and they would figure it out.
01:01:25.500
When you even have departments, I mean, the department of defense can't even, uh, run an
01:01:33.120
I mean, they just tried and they, they cannot audit their books.
01:01:37.820
And so as, as the, uh, you know, as an American, you know, uh, Patriot or whatever citizen, uh,
01:01:51.400
you should not be allowed to tax me until you can tell me what you're going to do with my
01:01:57.440
That's that, that should, that should, that's to me, that should be a very fair and easy
01:02:02.840
thing to be able to, uh, for all of us, right and left to agree on.
01:02:07.020
Like, I don't care how liberal and how left you are or how conservative, how right you are.
01:02:13.440
Nobody should have to send a dollar to the U S government until the government can tell
01:02:20.120
Cause then you can make the decision whether or not you want to vote for them or not.
01:02:23.500
Do you agree with what they're doing with your dollar or not?
01:02:25.700
You know, but at least it ought to be accounted for.
01:02:33.120
I mean, I'm staring, I'm staring down the throat of tens of thousands of dollars of penalties
01:02:38.580
and interest because I underpaid, but you can be sure that if I, uh, overpaid any given
01:02:45.320
quarter, I don't get to charge interest or penalties.
01:02:48.980
And it comes to me on their convenient time, not their timetable, my timetable.
01:02:55.620
I do have a question though, about that when it comes to the company, do you ever have
01:02:59.700
concerns about being vocal about your political stance and beliefs when it comes to running
01:03:07.920
a major organization and one that you actually want to have grow?
01:03:11.160
Yeah, that was a topic of discussion a bit through the election cycle.
01:03:15.920
And I, you know, I tried to just kind of think through whether or not it was either appropriate
01:03:21.620
or if, or if I should offer my political opinion throughout the year, uh, you know, cause Democrats
01:03:29.360
buy knives too, is the, the famous Jordan line about Nikes.
01:03:32.600
Um, uh, and it got to a point with me this summer where it was like, uh, you know, when
01:03:42.500
I, when I watched, uh, Tim, she, he was running here in Montana for Senate.
01:03:47.240
When I watched what him and his family personally were being put through by, and this is a former
01:03:52.780
Navy SEAL American hero, uh, who decided to run.
01:03:57.640
And when I watched the unfair attacks and what was happening, and then the final straw for
01:04:02.680
me where I'd already been offering my opinion a little, but where I went, you know, absolutely
01:04:10.540
When Trump took a bullet to the head, I thought that guy's standing up and saying fight and
01:04:17.960
he's continuing to fight and continue to do rallies outside.
01:04:21.900
How big of a pussy am I going to be if I can't stand up and just say who I want to vote for?
01:04:28.020
And if, and if, if it has ramifications on my business, then so be it, uh, that, that would
01:04:33.920
just shine a light on how, uh, bad of a situation that our country is in.
01:04:39.680
And so that's kind of, now I, I also didn't, uh, hit the politic anvil, uh, with the hammer
01:04:47.120
every single day, because to be quite honest, whether I agree with someone's opinions or not,
01:04:54.360
So I don't, I don't think our customers need to see it every single day.
01:04:59.160
Um, I think sometimes it's nice to have a reprieve and go listen to a podcast or
01:05:03.520
go, go visit a website or an Instagram page and not be hit, being hit with a political hammer.
01:05:10.120
Um, but I did feel like it was important in a timely fashion throughout the election season
01:05:16.660
to stand up and go, Hey, this is what I believe.
01:05:23.820
If you disagree so much that you don't want to buy something from me, that's also fine.
01:05:31.200
Um, but I also think what it, what I found is that it actually just deepened, uh, some
01:05:37.640
people's love for what we're doing and they respected, and I actually got some really nice
01:05:42.120
And frankly, I had a couple, uh, interesting dialogues back and forth of debating people
01:05:47.660
who didn't agree with me, uh, in my DMS, but actually in a real respectful way, uh, where
01:05:55.960
I got a really nice message the other day from a guy that said, you and I do not agree
01:05:59.800
politically and we've had our disagreements, but damn, I'm proud of the company you've built
01:06:06.320
You know, that's a, that's an awesome compliment.
01:06:08.440
Like we don't agree on Trump or on a few certain things, but the guy's objective enough to realize
01:06:20.080
Like, yeah, you know, and, and you could have voted for Kamala and maybe you had your reasons.
01:06:27.000
Maybe it's on, you know, the right, you know, the women's rights or, or whatever, right?
01:06:33.700
Whatever you perceive as your hot issue, you could have voted for Kamala and also not be
01:06:43.660
Uh, we can sit next to each other at our daughter's volleyball game on a Saturday night and have
01:06:48.680
a nice conversation and, and support our kids and, and be good neighbors, you know?
01:06:56.260
I think there's a little bit of awakening in that department, you know, four or five,
01:07:01.020
eight years ago, I think it was more contentious than it is today.
01:07:04.980
And I think we're realizing that although we might not agree always politically, um, that
01:07:09.580
doesn't make you a horrible person, maybe misinformed.
01:07:18.040
And, and I'm glad you brought up Tim Sheehy too, because we've had, uh, Greg on the podcast
01:07:24.500
And yeah, you know, I love to see comp and I know you guys are friends with them and had
01:07:29.500
Like, I love to see the resurgence of American manufacturing, American beef, American products,
01:07:36.360
Just like, this is what we need to be more competitive, not only for ourselves, but on
01:07:41.700
And to, uh, spread what I think is a pretty good way of life, quite honestly.
01:07:48.920
And that's why I say it doesn't always have to be on a giant scale.
01:07:53.380
If you just had a hundred thousand more, uh, beef cattle ranchers copy what Greg at little
01:08:01.240
belt's doing and try in their small community, uh, try to source, be the source of beef and
01:08:09.320
figure out a way to take that beef from your ranch and into your local restaurant.
01:08:13.400
You know, if that, if that model was copied all over the nation, if Montana knife company
01:08:19.020
was copied in, in, uh, whatever various different industries need, uh, you know, parts made, I
01:08:27.640
don't care if it's pens, I don't care if it's, you know, calipers, whatever, make it here in
01:08:34.020
Uh, and again, maybe it's a, maybe it's a million dollar a year company.
01:08:40.780
It doesn't have to be billion dollar companies.
01:08:43.220
What's going to save our country and make our country great are millions of $1 million
01:08:49.280
companies versus one or two $10 billion companies, you know?
01:08:57.900
Well, man, I, I, I love what you guys are up to.
01:09:00.660
Obviously I've been a big supporter of you and what you guys are doing.
01:09:03.660
You've been a big supporter of what we're doing too.
01:09:07.580
Five, five or six, five years, five years since we met maybe at a winter strong with
01:09:16.380
Were you there at the first one in 2020 or 2021?
01:09:21.800
It must've been, I didn't, I missed the first one, but I got an invite on the second
01:09:26.500
So, you know, we're fast approaching four years now.
01:09:34.560
Um, and your, uh, iron council guys and whatnot, uh, you know, I hear, I hear from them.
01:09:42.040
Uh, you know, the support you guys have been, you were early to support us and, uh, it means
01:09:49.640
The, the only negative I've ever heard about you guys is damn it.
01:09:56.140
And you guys are solving some of those problems as well, but those are good problems to have,
01:10:01.740
I'm looking forward to that, uh, opening of your new facility.
01:10:04.940
I remember when you opened your previous one, it's crazy to think that that's outgrown
01:10:10.760
I think I read that you, what, spent $7,000 on foundational bolts or screws.
01:10:17.320
I'm not a construction guy, but I love to see that story, man.
01:10:21.760
Last week I stand up there and they were, you know, they're pouring today, but they were
01:10:25.280
putting the bolts in and, uh, my concrete guy goes, yeah, seven grand laying there.
01:10:30.700
And I was like, I'm like in bolts, like, God, it's so expensive to build.
01:10:36.580
I mean, you know, we'll have almost a million dollars just in concrete in that place.
01:10:42.280
But, but again, good problems to have the fact that we, that we can buy $7,000 worth
01:10:49.080
of bolts or a million dollars in concrete, uh, just shows you how much support we've
01:10:53.700
had from the American, uh, consumer over the last four years.
01:11:00.680
And yeah, just, just start planning on it, man.
01:11:02.920
I think about the end of March, which is what we did last time, uh, the end of March of
01:11:07.820
2026, we should be having a pretty cool grand opening.
01:11:10.760
So you, you might as well just block that month out, right?
01:11:15.520
Uh, and if you don't end up using any of those $7,000 worth of bolts, you can always melt
01:11:19.800
it down and make a cool knife out of it or something.
01:11:21.960
I don't know, but you've got used for it for sure.
01:11:26.120
Tell the guys where to connect with you and, uh, we'll wrap it up for today.
01:11:29.960
Uh, you know, our Montana knife company, Instagram, Montana knife company.com.
01:11:35.040
And then, you know, my personal page, you'll hear a little bit more about my, uh, political
01:11:41.500
And, uh, maybe see a few pictures of my family, but just my at Josh Smith knives is my Instagram.
01:11:50.300
I love, I love watching you and your family and your kids.
01:11:53.840
Um, I don't know how old your son is at this point.
01:12:06.200
And so they're very close in age, but just to see him grow.
01:12:11.080
And I'm so grateful for, uh, our friendship and our connection, man.
01:12:21.360
Josh Smith, a lot of you guys are already familiar with him and his team and the work over at Montana
01:12:27.280
You've been hearing me talk about it for years.
01:12:29.800
And, uh, there's a reason I use these knives in the field.
01:12:33.600
I use them when I'm, I don't know, need a knife at home because I need to cut a zip tie.
01:12:39.900
I've always got one of these knives around and I would love for you to support these guys
01:12:43.640
because they are doing great things, not only in the realm of making knives, but they're
01:12:50.900
And I think what we're going to see over the coming years and decades is a manufacturing
01:12:59.080
And I hope that's the case and they could use your support.
01:13:03.720
And if you buy something, use the code order of man, you'll save some money order of man.
01:13:09.080
Outside of that, guys, go check out our battle ready program, order of man.com slash battle
01:13:13.940
Get lined up for a new year by starting right now, starting today.
01:13:18.040
If you were serious about it, that's what you do.
01:13:19.860
And I know a lot of you are order of man.com slash battle ready.
01:13:23.600
All right, guys, I'll be back tomorrow with an interview or a conversation.
01:13:27.020
I should say with my good friend and fellow co-host, uh, Kip Sorensen doing an ask me anything.
01:13:34.400
Subscribe, leave your reviews and let's keep getting after it.
01:13:39.920
Until then, go out there, take action and become the man you are meant to be.
01:13:47.360
Thank you for listening to the order of man podcast.
01:13:50.360
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01:13:54.040
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