Son of a Blitch
George Bowe Blitch has been a Wildlife Manager, Texas Rancher, Professional Writer, Videographer, Photographer, Editor, Speaker, Brand Developer & Designer, Cartographer, Touring Musician, Teacher, Coach, Entrepreneur, Finance Manager, and the owner of numerous businesses.
George has met some wildly interesting people in his lifetime, and this "Son of a Blitch” is sure to share some impactful stories, interviews, and messages that will be informative, educational, and highly entertaining!
"I've met some incredible people in my life, and I want to share their stories!" ~GB
Son of a Blitch
Ep. 93 Montana Knife Company's Josh Smith - on their latest expansion, Presidential encounters, fundraisers & future collaborations
Discover the remarkable journey of Montana Knife Company as we sit down with the founder and owner, Josh Smith, who also happens to be the youngest person to ever become a Master Bladesmith, at 19 years old. In this latest episode, we delve deep into the evolution of the company and discusses their Third Phase of development, with an ambitious and strategic decision to self-finance the expansion of their new facility. Construction of the new building is already taking its first steps, with concrete poured and steel on its way. This new facility is expected to be a hub of manufacturing, innovation, and community engagement, encapsulating a vision where high-quality knives meet impeccable craftsmanship. The decision to invest entirely in this new venture underscores a mindset: keep everything in-house, retain control, and prioritize the welfare of the employees. The new headquarters will have retail space, a Black Rifle Coffee Company store front, and a Sorinex gym for the employees.
The rewards of all their hard work manifests in the form of not just superior knives, but a company culture that believes every knife produced could become significant for its eventual owner. Josh emphasizes the importance of storytelling in their manufacturing process, giving each employee a glimpse of the end user's connection to their work. Josh shared an example with a touching instance involving a special request earlier that morning, to engrave three knives with the name and rank of the soldiers that were on the helicopter that crashed in D.C. Josh mentioned that after our call he was going to go downstairs and pick three random knives off the production floor. Any knife made could be one to memorialize a soldier, the most meaningful birthday gift, or something a little more Presidential, perhaps.
Josh shared a series of unforgettable experiences at President Trump’s latest inauguration, as he was invited as a guest by the Trump family. Hear about the unique opportunity Josh had to present a set of chef knives to President Trump, along with the lighthearted challenges and memorable moments that arose from the encounter. He also spoke about the MKC luncheon Josh and his wife held at the inauguration.
A significant part of the episode revolves around the narrative of giving back and community support. The "Come Hell or High Water" fundraiser will support recovery efforts in the flooded areas of North Carolina and the fire ravaged areas in California.
The conversations about craftsmanship lead to insights about current collaborations with renowned figures like Steve Rinella from MeatEater, Cameron Hanes, Remi Warren, and an upcoming drop with Mike Rowe (the “Rocker”), first announced on this podcast! Each collaboration reflects the essence of what MKC aims to produce: functional, reliable tools that serve a purpose for workers and adventurers alike. The discussions draw attention to their commitment to stay rooted in American manufacturing, raising awareness of its importance in today's global economy.
As we wrap up the episode, Josh shares his thanks and heartfelt gratitude for the unwavering support from customers and partners, which serves as an inspiring reminder of what can be achieved with hard work, perseverance and a tight-knit community.
Learn more about the host, George Blitch at:
This is Josh Smith with Montana Knife Company, and you're listening to the Son of a Blitch podcast.
Speaker 2:Hey Josh, how you doing today, man? Good Thanks for having me on Appreciate it.
Speaker 2:I'm stoked to have you back. You know it's been a couple years. The last time we spoke you were kind of getting ready for phase two development. You had built out the new MKC headquarters and y'all were just moving in equipment and everything. And so now I know you guys are about to do phase three and the you know the building is is being built. I just wanted to kind of catch up a little bit. Why don't you tell me what's going on with that? And uh, you know some of the developments as far as you know the new building and what that means for you guys podcast.
Speaker 1:Um, I could have sworn it was, you know, a year ago or less, but it's uh, it's just kind of wild how fast time flies. You know, um, when you say we were just moving into this building, uh, yeah, I can't even believe that. It seems like it's, uh, that seems like a decade ago. But I feel like I talked to you just yesterday, um, but yeah, no, we, we moved into this building day, Right. But yeah, no, we, we moved into this building. We filled it up incredibly fast and, frankly, within a few months I was like, oh my gosh, like we got to start thinking about the next move.
Speaker 1:And then, you know, it was about a year down the road of being in here that we actually really got serious about it and I found a piece of property about 15 minutes from here, right along the interstate, and it took a while, but we got that secured and bought that and it was the old stockyards property here where they sell cattle or did sell cattle, and we bought that and then started developing, kind of the plans for the new building and actually we got the concrete poured at least the plans for the new building and and, uh, actually, uh, you know, we got the concrete poured uh, at least the foundation for that and um, steel started arriving yesterday. So, uh, they're unloading steel today and then Monday they're going to start tipping our building up. So, uh, and it's what? February 1st or it will be um tomorrow, maybe what's I don't even know what the date is anyway, Um yeah.
Speaker 1:So it's just super, super exciting that we're kind of starting to build out that 3.0 phase. But I mean, that's honestly going to take the rest of this year. We're kind of targeting a move in date around the 1st of December. Um, I'm hopeful it'll go quicker, but also with a lot of these projects, sometimes they don't so sure.
Speaker 2:Well, what does the new facility look like? I mean, maybe, if you can kind of give you know listeners an idea of what you have now and what you're moving into, what kind of you know development that looks like?
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know, the current building we're in is about just shy of 10,000 square feet. It's. It's literally in my backyard, uh, my house is about 150 feet from where I'm sitting. Um and uh, you know this, this building's, you know it's pretty nice, but it's really just kind of your typical shop. Uh, this new facility is actually, you know, more of what you would consider like a typical commercial building um, big steel structure, uh, but we're honestly going to do it nicer than you probably normally would see.
Speaker 1:A knife factory build it. Uh, the the front third of it is going to be offices and a retail space. So, you know, that's one thing we don't offer here is the ability to walk in and and buy something in a store, uh, because it is on my home property. So we're going to have a black rifle coffee shop in our retail facility. We can give some tours, and then the back, 30,000 square feet, is all manufacturing.
Speaker 1:It's going to be big, bright, tall, really nice, and honestly, I'm doing this probably nicer than most companies would do it. But, to be honest, some of these employees might spend the next 20, it. But you know, to be honest, the some of these employees might spend the next 20, 30 years of their life in this facility and I want it to be nice, so, like we put air conditioning throughout the whole entire building, Um, and we're just putting some amenities in, like a sore next gym and some things for our employees that I hope make it, you know, a little bit nicer place to go to work at than your typical manufacturing facility.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, and you know I wanted to also address the idea.
Speaker 2:Like you know, a lot of times when companies are expanding and they're developing, they're looking at outside influences, as far as investment wise, to be able to help them do that.
Speaker 2:And you and Brandon, your team, kind of decided to double down on your own effort and your own money and that was a big, big move and I think it's going to pay off well. And I know you've talked to some other folks around there who kind of like had that idea, like hey, keep it in house as much as you can because you can have the most control. And you know you had a video where you were saying that you told your employees this you know your 75, 80 employees and that that they were like kind of nodding. I don't think they fully understood, but you said that there was a time that they're they're one of the guys came in like yeah, they're, they're using tape measureers and you know, measuring stuff out and you're like, yeah, I told you if you can kind of talk a little bit about like that idea of you know all around how many people want to support.
Speaker 2:you know MKC and be a part of it, but I wanted to have you kind of talk a little bit about that and your decision to self-finance in that way.
Speaker 1:Well it's, it's funny. Uh, you, you got most of that right, but the part you actually didn't get right is the part with Kip and like with our board. You know, our board of directors is small but very, very experienced and they advised us not to do it this way. Okay, okay, they and they have a lot of experience and and this was kind of an interesting, you know, discussion back and forth but basically they understood from building huge businesses before that cash is very, very difficult to come by and it's really hard to build and cash becomes a problem, right, and so by going and investing a bunch of cash into a building, you then take away cash from your possible purchase of equipment, materials, hiring people, and they said, hey, use other people's mind, take on some investment, go lease a building which, where we're at in Montana, there's no lease space available that could in any way serve what we needed. Maybe bring on an investor, but use someone else's money to build a building. You don't want to own the building, don't want to buy the land, and that's just not, honestly, the vision that I had. I wanted to build a generational company. Now, if I was building this thing up to sell the entire business. That probably would have been the absolute right move, right, but that's not. That wasn't the goal.
Speaker 1:And so, you know, we kind of looked at it, we found that property and we decided to kind of go against the board and buy the property and build the building ourself.
Speaker 1:And now to your point yeah, we had to go talk to banks and figure out a way to borrow the money, and we actually found a great bank that really worked with us and helped us make this happen. But it's literally two dudes that had to go sign on the bottom line to borrow $20 million and it's kind of unheard of. And, to be honest, you really were very fortunate that we had a bank that believes in us and they kind of took that risk with us. But to your point, you're right, you know we had to put basically everything we own, you know, up for collateral, and so they did. They came out one day, uh, an appraiser and was measuring up my shop, my house, and some of our employees saw that and asked me about it and I was like, yeah, we're literally putting everything on the line to do this, and so we're really proud of the fact that we were able to get that loan and do all that strictly, bootstrapping it like the old school business way.
Speaker 2:What was your kind of feedback from your employees when they realized that you know you're investing in them the future of this and kind of that generational idea, and what was their kind of take when they kind of finally understood all that's involved with that?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think that you know. I don't know that it's as much of a verbal thing that they talk about, but I think you can just feel it in the energy and in the culture. You can just tell that they're bought in and that they believe what they're doing is important. We also share a lot of customer emails and messages that come into us to try to reiterate that, because if you're making hundreds of knives, um, it's easy to start to just glaze over. Knife number 65 is just like knife number 70. And you can maybe even tend to want to let your quality go or it doesn't seem as as important or as as cool.
Speaker 1:Um, but, but we always tell people like knife number 65 could be the most important gift that someone has ever given someone. They could. You know, honestly, I just got and I haven't even had a chance to deal with this yet I just got a request from someone that knows those three soldiers that were on that helicopter that crashed, um, you know, out in dc, and this guy just requested that we uh, laser basically their names and ranks on three knives and give it to their families. Um, I'm, I'm gonna just go downstairs and grab three knives off the shelf and I'm going to laser those and send those when those guys were sharpening those knives a week or two ago or assembling them or doing whatever they were doing. They're just three blades in the process.
Speaker 1:They aren't special, Right, but they are. That's the thing. That's the point is, every single one of these knives is potentially one of the most special things that someone has ever given or received. And so, you know, we, we tell a lot of those stories because I think it's important to them that you just never know which blade you're holding and what what you're doing that's going to have an impact on someone's life, you know, and so they've, they've bought into that and I think they've. They've seen that. They've seen the way we're building the business and they know they're a part of it. And we tell them all the time you guys are a part of something that they're going to write books about someday, you know.
Speaker 2:Yeah absolutely Well and and you know, to your point too, I think that's amazing that you're you're going to be shipping those out and and and a great honor uh to to them in their lives and, and you know, just to kind of reiterate that idea too Like you had sent, I think you you talked about how you found out someone's truck was broken into, a knife was stolen it was an NKC knife and you ended up finding out because of you know, you could look back on the history of your orders and you ended up shipping out a replacement one to this individual, who is Andrew Oliver, who then, if you might be able to kind of thread that story and how that you know came to came to be of a whole nother level of development.
Speaker 1:Yeah, since that I've done that a few times, but that particular time was the first and I had seen a comment that he had made on early on in our company that somebody had got one of our knives. And he commented and said, yeah, that's the best knife I had, but I they got, you know, stolen out of my truck and they broke my windows, stole my, my stuff, and so I just sent him a replacement blade and just out of the blue and he got it and I guess he went home that night and told his wife I'm going to work for that company someday and he was working for Amazon and he was managing several thousand people. He stood up the Amazon facility in Spokane. So when we needed a director of operations hire, he applied, came over and interviewed and towards the end of his interview he's like do you remember me or my name or whatever? And I was like no, and he told me yeah, I'm the guy that you sent a knife to. You know that got broken into my truck and whatnot.
Speaker 1:I was like, oh, that's cool. And you know, kind of told us that story and as it turns out, he's been one of the best hires we've ever made. He's now our director of operations and you know very much the reason for our success. So, just kind of cool, like you do the right thing and and not uh yeah, honestly, it wasn't that big a deal. To me it's just felt like that's the kind of company I want to run. And again, that was in year one of our company. It's just like, hey, when I hear stories like that, I want to try and take care of our people. Um little did I know the impact that that would have on our business later.
Speaker 2:Oh, it's like the ripple right. You never know what that may, you know, come to be. And I mean that it kind of brings you to the. The next thing was the idea that you at one point in time you know I guess you and Don jr had kind of become friends or or associated. You know, in some some you know former fashion and you ended up making some knives for president Trump, and I believe that you had done this maybe even before he announced that he was running for 47 or that you know he was going to, or maybe he had. But if you can tell a little bit of story about exactly the culinary set that you had made and what you had had engraved on there, if you wouldn't mind. And then I want to kick in to hear more about the inauguration and your trip there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, I had become friends with Junior over some time here and got a chance to go out to North Carolina and meet him and at that point he was running. But that was I think that was April of last year. So you know very much up in the air as to whether or not he would win and quite honestly at that point I would. I would say that he was really very much running into a headwind with all the allegations against him, all the court cases. He had a long road to hoe to actually win at that point. But we did.
Speaker 1:We made a chef set and we engraved the presidential seal on that chef set and we put number 45 and number 47 on that and, you know, gave that set to him, uh, which he thought was really, really cool. Don jr Loved it, um, but boy, I posted those pictures and I got a lot of people, a lot of hate, uh, and a lot of people like you know. You're going to regret doing that. You're going to look like a clown someday. You're going to see in November, that was a mistake, turns out it was pretty much accurate, it's pretty cool.
Speaker 2:How did you end up? I guess through your friendship there, you ended up going to the inauguration. I know you hosted a luncheon. I know Don and Tulsi came out there too. If you can talk about a little bit of that experience, what was that like for you to go there and be a part of that?
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was amazing. Junior, um, you know, invited us, uh, you know, and not not that we were hanging out with junior the whole time, just, uh, you know, he invited us out there. We went, uh, he was very gracious to actually invite his us to his kickoff dinner on Friday night, which was, um, uh, yeah, it was kind of weird, like it was basically lots of famous, powerful people and then and then Josh and Jess, uh, yeah, it was, uh, out of my element for sure Pretty much the entire right half of the federal government, all the appointees and, uh, you know, billionaires. Um, so that was interesting for sure. It was a really cool experience. But again saw Tulsi and uh and junior there and talked to them both a bunch of Pete Hegseth, and become friendly with all those guys. Uh, tulsi, um, amazing gal spent, you know, I've spent a bunch of time with her now, um, you know, got huge hug from her and we talked for quite a while and same with junior, he was, he was awesome, but, yeah, we did that.
Speaker 1:And then we hosted a luncheon on saturday, uh, and it was really just to celebrate american manufacturing and, to be honest, I I thought, you know, 20 people might come or something like that and shit. We ended up having uh 80 to 100, uh the. The restaurant that we hosted it at that we told we thought we'd have top end would be 40 was not very happy with us. We had people standing out in the hallway trying to get in and then when Trump Jr came in, it created quite a stir. So but it was just really cool. We had four US senators there and then just a bunch of regular people, I mean ranchers from Montana, people that were actually just out there attending some, some media folks, uh, george st pierre, some ufc fighters, you know um secret service guys were there. Uh, that's the cool thing about knives, is it? It cuts across so many people in categories. Uh, no pun intended, I guess. Um, it's, it's just cool because you can just be a rancher in eastern Montana or you can be the most famous whoever in the world, and everyone uses a knife almost every single day, which is really cool.
Speaker 1:And then the inauguration was cool. I mean it was kind of unfortunate that it got moved inside. They said it was for weather, but it was chilly for sure. I mean it was cold, but it was 100% about security. There was no doubt, and I actually kind of knew that from some of my sources. It was absolutely about security, which was the right move. But we actually got to see the president's motorcade drive right by us, him and then JD, when they actually came into the white house for the first time, and it was totally random, we were just out walking around and that was pretty wild experience. So, um, yeah, just a neat time and the balls were cool. Went to the uh, the uh commander in chief ball, saw, uh, you know, president Trump come out and speak there with JD. So that was really cool too.
Speaker 2:I was curious about when you presented his knives, cause I know, you know Joe talked about the time when he came in and he was in the studio and he's like, yeah, the secret service is like we got to take these axes away and the, the, the the uh, jack Carr, you know the Winkler Tomahawks and stuff. But I was kind of curious.
Speaker 1:It's like how do you present, you know, a president, a set of knives, well, and that and that, that was. It was funny. Um, you know, I walk up to the hotel and you know, walk up the secret service. People are standing out there and I'm like, hey, you know, I have a chef set, I have weapons on me and I need to get them in there. And of course they start calling around and and I had some contacts in secret service that kind of knew it was coming, but those people didn't. And so, you know, kind of they start communicating through each other and they figured out, and they get me in there and they walk me into a back room. They had me put those knives out on a table and I actually left that room.
Speaker 1:And then President Trump ended up coming in there a little bit later, uh, with the secret service guys, and they gave them to him. And then when I met him about a half hour later, uh, he had seen him and thanked me for him and stuff. So I didn't personally hand them to him, uh, and I don't think that was necessarily a security thing. It was when I was in there initially. He wasn't even there yet, uh, and so it was just a logistics thing, um, um, you know, but I've been to other events, uh, with Trump jr, with secret service, where, uh, I have, I've just brought the knives in back behind, they've just escorted me in and I'm the only guy with, you know, weapons in there other than secret service. So it's, I was also the only kid in school that was allowed to bring knives to school to show my teachers. So Right?
Speaker 2:Well, you sold your first two, I think, to your teachers, right they were like the beginning of the journey, weren't they Exactly?
Speaker 1:Yeah, exactly. And then all through junior, high and high school, I would finish knives and bring them in, show my shop teacher, show the principal, you know, and then I would store them in the principal's office and then take them back home on the bus. So yeah, it was kind of cool.
Speaker 2:Well, and for those who want to know a little bit about that journey, you can check out the podcast, all the show notes. The first time we sat down and kind of give a little bit of Genesis of your story and whatnot, you know and, speaking of, you know knives and special, you know stuff that you're putting together.
Speaker 2:You've done a lot of collaborations since we've spoke, since, I mean with a lot of different companies. Uh, there's, you know, some I wanted to kind of highlight. You know, I've done a little bit of work with Steve Rinella over there at MeatEater and you guys have, you know, a handful of knives there you guys have collaborated with, obviously, you got Remy Warren and you know the Cam Haines one that recently dropped and you know if you can maybe talk about a little bit of those collaborations and you know pretty soon. Uh, and I also wanted you to kind of touch base on the idea. I know a lot of people have asked him hey, when is there going to be a folding knife? So maybe, if you can kind of address a few of those things, if you want to talk about some of the stuff that's coming down the pike here in 2025.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, I want to just work with cool people that are doing amazing stuff and, um, I think all of those people you named have done really cool things in the industry. They're respected, and so we've been very fortunate to work with those folks. Yeah, working with Cam was awesome. That packout knife is really cool. Cam is, you know, he's an absolute badass, obviously, and that's a. That's a cool little knife. It's super unique. So is that one we did with Remy? I mean, they're very, very unique knives, um, but they're very functional, um, and so I think both of those knives are, uh, I think they're gonna absolutely crush for us over the next few years, um, and then, uh, yeah, as far as collaborations that we have coming up, I'll I'll just break news right on your podcast for you.
Speaker 1:We've got a really cool knife coming out and we are going to be donating and this is a brand new model and we're kind of doing it with Mike Rowe. It's our own model and it's our own knife, but what we're doing with Mike Rowe is we're going to give 10% of the proceeds of every single one of those knives we sell on perpetuity, uh, of that particular model, to the micro works foundation, um, and that is going to be coming out here, uh, probably about the week after this podcast drops, um, so, yeah, we're very excited about that. Uh, that knife is going to be called the rocker, um, and so it's kind of a blue collar knife and it's it's less around hunting and more around just people who go out and work with their hands for a living and need a good, solid little working knife, little belt knife. So, um, uh, that's that's a collaboration that I'm actually really excited about because that's going to help send kids to quote, unquote college but actually, like, help them in the trades, help them with getting apprenticeships, maybe going to line school, welding school, you know, plumbing, a plumbing apprenticeship. You know Mike is really big on like, how do we help kids that aren't maybe cut out to go to four years of college, to get a business degree? They want to graduate high school and go work with their hands and there's nothing to be ashamed about that, in fact, frankly, that's why I'm sitting here today.
Speaker 1:You know, I flunked out of college basically in a year, but duck hunted my way right out of college and it was just my heart wasn't into it, it wasn't the right thing for me, went back and worked in my parents' excavation business Later in life, ended up with an apprenticeship, you know, to become a journeyman lineman. And I passed through that and became a lineman. You know. I was an apprentice knife maker and I actually thought for a while I was going to be an apprentice welder, so much so that I bought a pipeline welder and started practicing welding in my shop before I got my lineman job. So, uh, but those are the. That lineman job is what funded and set me up for my chance to start MKC, you know, and so I very much believe in that, in that mission that Mike Mike is on with the micro works foundation, so pretty excited about that.
Speaker 2:That's amazing man. And as far as folding knives did, I hear something on a video once. Oh yeah, it's a little talk about that coming out.
Speaker 1:The number one question we get folding knives. Yeah, we are in the uh, we're very much in the prototyping stage now. It's designed uh, we're working on several prototypes right now. That's a knife you really got to put a lot of testing into, um, you know, you got to go get it dirty, you got to get sand and fat and blood and whatever in it, water right and make sure the mechanism works correctly, make sure it locks up well, make sure it uh, you know, wear wise, that it wears in well and you don't end up with issues. So we're going to be prototyping and testing that basically this entire year and our goal is to come out with that in the middle of next year. And, frankly, that's probably the number one reason we need the new building is we don't have room in this current facility to even make those knives this year, uh, you know. So that square footage that we have coming up in that new facility is going to allow that folding knife to become a reality.
Speaker 2:Uh, man, I'm excited about that, you know. And there's one other one that hit. The name escapes me, but it was the one that's kind of like for ranch hands, right, that just dropped, I guess in December. Uh, what hit? The name escapes me, but it's the one that's kind of like for ranch hands, right, that just dropped, I guess in december. Uh, what's the name of that one? It's that you guys had come out, um, which, uh oh, oh, the stockyard knife yeah I was.
Speaker 1:I was throwing off for a second, yeah, uh, I was thinking about a rocker knife and I was like, no, we haven't come out with that.
Speaker 1:Yet no, the, the stockyard knife is a knife that with, without really really much of a tip on it, um, and I did that because there's a lot of people, especially during branding season in the spring, and you're castrating calves. You know, you know you're using a knife in that process and if a calf kicks or something happens, you can stab them with a regular knife, you know. Same thing, if you're out on the ranch and you find a calf that's got, or a cow or whatever that's got, baling, entwined, wrapped around its hoof or something, and you need to cut it out, um, anytime. Or, let's say, you get hung up in a rope or something happens with a horse and you got to cut, say, the halter free or whatever, right, um, we've had, we've had our, our four H calves. When we're breaking them, when we tie them up, we've had them. Uh, and our, when my kids don't quite tie the knot correctly, we've had those four H calves basically throw themselves down and flip themselves over and you've got all that weight on that rope. If you don't tie the right knot, you can't untie it, and so, uh, you know, we've had to reach up there with a knife and cut those ropes for you, right?
Speaker 1:There's a ton of different situations you can be in with livestock where you need to use a knife, and it's a bit of a wild situation, and if you have a tip on a knife it's much more dangerous for the animal and for you. And so that stockyard knife uh was specifically designed for that crowd and, honestly, it works really well in that blue collar uh vein for people who maybe just need to open 500 boxes a day. Uh, you know, it really works well for that kind of work. Uh, and I've seen electricians using it for skin and wire. So, again, you make knives intended for one purpose, but it's interesting how other uh, uh you know, professions, um, or crafts find uses for in their in their way. So it's really cool to see those photos come in from customers.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, you know I, I want to rewind back to the idea the knife that you designed there with cam, and you know the the thing about it. The thing about it it's got short but it's actually in that three-inch blade. It actually has three and a half inches right of, like actual blade, because of its curvature.
Speaker 1:You pay attention, just a little bit.
Speaker 2:A little bit. Listen, you can see all these knives of yours behind me. I've got quite the sets, man. They are my favorite. I've been using those when I guide hunts. That's the one I'm putting in my hunter's hands.
Speaker 2:I mean they're the best ones out there and I love that they're all made here and that support America jobs. I mean it's a big thing for me, right? But something about the craftsmanship and the quality and the idea of having something like that that you can take out in the field you know, cam, he's going out in the middle of nowhere, no one else has been right and so having something that's lightweight, that's usable, that is very, very reliable and I wanted you to kind of talk about that because I didn't get a chance to get one in that drop but I was just floored with the design. It looked like such a great utility for those purposes of being way out in the woods and having something light but durable and just I love the design. So, if you can go ahead and maybe expand on that a little bit, and, uh, when you guys were developing that, what was it that, you know, you guys came to the table with to to bring that out?
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's, uh, it's called our packout knife and it's uh, it's actually kind of a miniature version of our bare tooth. Uh, and that bare tooth knife was designed, you know, to do a lot of work in a hurry with and have a lot of edge, and it's a for people that you know. Uh, you know, maybe you're just listening to this and try and visualize it uh, it's got a really aggressively upswept blade on it. Um, but unlike the bear, you know, the bear tooth is really big knife and that was more for like fleshing big hides like bears up in Alaska or moose, you know, really huge hides. This was made more for, and I would say that bear tooth is more for like back at camp, back in the garage, in the taxidermy studio, things like that. You're not necessarily carrying it. The packout was made literally for packing out into the furthest depths of the woods and then be able to get a lot of work done with the skinning process and there again, this knife doesn't really have a very aggressive tip. It's maybe not necessarily the best knife for doing little fine detail, uh, caping work around the eyes, the tear ducts, the, you know the, the antlers, base of the antlers, um, but boy, when it comes, comes to, you know, opening up a cavity of an animal and then skinning that out, skinning out the quarters, if you remove the quarters and you're trying to get that skin off in a hurry.
Speaker 1:Like you said, it's a relatively short blade but it's actually got more cutting edge than it does overall length of blade, which is actually interesting, which just means it has a ton of working surface on that edge.
Speaker 1:Um, and the other thing is is the handle is relatively short but it's kind of chubby, so it fills up your hand really nicely. So you know, guys that have big hands, it fits in the palm of your hand well, um, and you have a lot of dexterity and control over that, that handle and that blade which allows you to really move fast. A guy like yourself that's guiding and whatnot. You're man, I'm sure when you get a deer or another animal down, you're moving, especially up here, if it's cold, dark, you're trying to beat dark, or you're trying to get out before the snow hits, or whatever. You're trying to beat dark, or you're trying to get out, and, uh, before the snow hits or whatever. You're trying to be fast and that little blade I think you're going to find that blade is is, uh, you can. You can move quickly on an animal with it.
Speaker 2:Well, you know, in Texas the heat sometimes right You'd knock a hog or two down. You know you gotta move quick in that realm too.
Speaker 1:And the flip side of the spectrum. That's a problem we don't have very often up here.
Speaker 2:It'd be nice to trade sometimes. We just had, like our little snowmageddon two whole days. Everyone's like, oh, the whole state shuts down. No one knows what to do. I've lived in snow before. I'm like this isn't that big of a deal, guys.
Speaker 1:But, god, we've had two straight weeks of it being zero degrees every night and it's actually been sunny and nice. We don't have much snow, but boy, uh, like these guys starting in my building, they were unloading steel yesterday morning it was zero and, uh, you might see some photos or video, but yeah, they're all.
Speaker 2:They all look like big, chubby snowmen, they're all puffed up and all these clothes and, uh, yeah, pretty frosty beards on them, that's for sure I can imagine when I saw some videos, you guys having like having to tarp over all the stuff that y'all were doing when you were laying down. I mean it looked like a day-to-day operation of just kind of keeping that snow off when you're working on the concrete there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I was running up there almost every day. They're insulated concrete blankets, and so when we poured our concrete, we had to cover it and then run heaters on it for three days to get the concrete to cure correctly. Um, and then I pulled those blankets off of that and laid them on the ground to keep the ground from freezing so hard, so the plumbers and electricians could dig their ditches. Right now, I bet you, there's probably 12 to 18 inches of frozen hard frost in the ground, so the the top surface of the earth is frozen foot foot and a half deep, which is, uh, probably not something that texans have to deal with very often no, not at all.
Speaker 2:Well, you know that. That made me think about, too, just like kind of being out there in the elements. Have you, did you get a chance? I know, with so much going on, uh, you're a busy man, but did you get a chance to get out and do some hunting this, this, this last season? And if so, uh, what did that look like? What you got in the freezer?
Speaker 1:Uh, yeah, unfortunately not really. Um, I, and I say that I actually got to do, you know, probably the coolest time of my life, uh, in August. So, uh, it almost doesn't count as hunting season, but it was late August, Uh, uh, I took my son up on a moose hunt to Northern British Columbia and he shot an absolute monster moose. It was a 10 day fly into a lake 10 day, uh, horseback packing hunt. We use the horses some, but not a lot. A lot of it was hiking, Um, we use the horses. When it mattered most, which was packing the meat out, which is a godsend.
Speaker 1:Um, we'd never been able to hunt theory, we're in without horses, frankly. But my son shot a huge moose, saw some grizzly bears, heard some wolves. How got to sleep in a tent and freeze our butts off for 10 days in the rain and cold weather. Uh, it's funny, you think August, I mean he even here in Montana, it's 100 degrees here in August and flew in there and I mean froze our asses off for 10 days. But when I got home from that, honestly we were so busy, you know, I didn't, I didn't hunt basically the rest of the season, which is kind of insane to think about, but there's just so much time being spent right now on trying to grow this company that it's a bit of a challenge right now to get away at all.
Speaker 2:I can imagine Now was that Hank's first moose.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:That's awesome For sure. What an experience man.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he made a 644-yard shot and absolutely dropped it in its tracks. Wow, what was he using? 28 nozzler? Okay.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, and absolutely.
Speaker 1:Uh, it's the coolest video and the fact I actually just watched the film my camera guy just finished editing it, uh, two days ago, Uh and uh, I went over it, checked it out, it was really cool, and so we should be releasing that pretty soon.
Speaker 2:Cool man. Well, I'll, once that comes out, I'll I'll throw some links here in the show notes below so everyone can see that as well. Yeah, appreciate it Absolutely. You know I wanted to kind of, you know, chat a little bit about what you got kicking right now and I know it's, you know, kind of coming to the end of the next week or two. But you got the come hell or high water fundraiser and I'd love for you to just kind of maybe you know, cradle to grave talk about the idea of what this was about, how this started and the explosive growth from the community. And you know, I'll, I'll let you go ahead and chat about that, but I'm really curious how you know how, this came to be.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So you know, a couple of years ago we had some bad flooding here in Montana, um, down around Yellowstone park, and a knife maker buddy of mine, will Stelter, reached out and said, hey, let's collab on a knife and do a fundraiser for that. And so we ended up calling it the come hell or high water fundraiser. Uh, and it was great. We donated $80,000 to really small town, uh, small towns down in in Southwestern Montana, uh, and so we hadn't done anything since. And then, uh, the north carolina floods happened from hurricane helene. And, uh, a little bit later in the fall, uh, chase rice reached out to me. He's like, hey, I, I'm going on this elk hunt in montana. If I shoot this elk, will you make a knife or two and let's do a fundraiser for North Carolina? And I was like sure, no problem. So he did, he came, he did, he did get an elk. He sent me the elk antlers, no-transcript, and we were getting ready to launch, kind of like, this fundraiser for that.
Speaker 1:And then the fire, the California wildfires hit and unbelievable devastation. And you know, my house burned down 11 years ago and I was living in a camper in my driveway, so like I know where some of these people are sitting. I get it. And, and I do want to add to, you know I've had some comments on this, you know, basically, like you know, screw those people leftist, commie, whatever, liberal, whatever's right, screw California and all the people in it. Granted, I'm not a fan of California's politics, but there are a ton of amazing people that live in California and, frankly, they are US citizens. And number two, not everyone down there has Mel Gibson's money right. A lot of those people that live there maybe even got those homes passed down for the generations and sure they might have $10 million net worth and all of it's in their home and they go down and work a day job. There's people who are waitresses, there's the service community of that place and, granted, it's the Palisades and a lot of those people at least the perception is that they're wealthy and they're rich. But I know enough stories now to know, in fact, another guy I know, his daughter lost their home and they're not sure insurance is going to cover it and they're in an absolute bind, right and so, and they're not super wealthy. Uh, so this idea that we should just uh throw out our, our American citizens cause we don't agree with the state's politics kind of bothers me. But anyway, when I saw that happen, I called Chase and I was like, hey, let's do one knife for North Carolina and one knife for California and let's raise some money and split it between the two, which he loved it.
Speaker 1:It was great, and we launched that, come hell or high water, and basically what it is. Frankly, it was our hack to get around the illegal raffle rules. You can't run raffles. There's a bunch of crap with gambling laws, internet crap, right. And so what we did is we're like, okay, buy a t-shirt or a hat, so now you're buying an item and then we will enter you to win these knives. And so for every $5 you spend on a t-shirt or not a hat, I'm sorry or a Zippo lighter, for every $5 you spend, you get entered. That's one entry into this quote unquote raffle fundraiser. And so what was really cool was the minute we launched it, some other really big brands started throwing in grand prizes and we have now a bunch of really cool grand prizes from a lot of different companies, and it just made it that much sweeter. And so we've already raised over $230,000 that we're going to be donating and, quite honestly, I would imagine over the next few days it's probably going to be upwards of 300 grand, um, and then we're going to make sure that was the other thing when we raised that money for red lodge, montana and those people.
Speaker 1:Uh, I want to be damn sure this gets to the people that actually are affected. And I did a bunch of research and, frankly, I interviewed nonprofits. You know, we we have to write this check to a nonprofit. I can't just I'm not going to just go write it to individuals, right, frankly, if I wrote it to individuals, they would get taxed on it. It's kind of stupid.
Speaker 1:But we are going to make sure we do a lot of due diligence and make sure that we're not. We're not. I'm not going to just write a check, you know, to the Red Cross or something like that. No, I'm not going to just write a check to the Red Cross or something like that. No offense to them. I know they do a lot of great work, but we're going to make sure this gets to the ground and helps the people of North Carolina and California. So, yeah, it's been really cool. Chase Rice is actually going to fly out the two people that win the knives to a concert and him and I are going to present those knives to the winners on stage at one of his concerts, and he's going to pay for the whole thing.
Speaker 2:So that's cool prizes now or something like that even more. And so I'll have the links below and make sure everyone who's listening or watching go and pick up one of these. You know, I got one of the Zippos here. I got the t-shirt as well here, for those who aren't listening, you can go check out the show notes.
Speaker 2:But great shirts, great Zippo, great cause, and I love that it's going to be going directly to people. It's not going to be necessarily all administration, it's going to be going to the people that need it the most and I, you know, your due diligence is, you know, definitely you know, salute you on that and making sure that that dollar goes far for each person. There's a lot of people who are affected a lot, a lot of land that was just destroyed, there's a lot to build back and it's great to see our community and, you know, fellow Americans stepping up and helping each other and building something back, hopefully better than before and as as you can, you know, and a lot of hurt and a lot of pain in a lot of people's lives right now.
Speaker 2:So, uh, you know, I think it's important that we empathize with everyone, no matter what your background is, and realize we're all just trying to. You know, we're all a part of something together here, Right, and you know, and, and kind of leaving with that. You know, I wanted to kind of have you maybe, you know, take a few minutes to talk about. You know, maybe, how you're feeling as far as the support that you've gotten from so many different people having your business. You know, I know you've talked about it before it's right, it's a 33 year overnight success.
Speaker 2:Right, it's all the hard work and the efforts that's put into this, something that in five years seeing this brand grow that represents so much here of you know American jobs, American manufacturing and really kind of trying to build something great here in the US and I applaud that. I just wanted to you know if you had some words you'd like to share to some of those people have supported you and you know what it means like for you personally to see this development and see all this support.
Speaker 1:Yeah there, yeah there, there almost are no words it's, it's, it's, it's um absolutely really become impossible for me to thank everyone that deserves a thank you. I, I see, you know the labels that when my wife's in charge of customer service and and and fulfillment and I see the labels being printed, you know, after a drop, and a lot of times I'll grab those labels and just kind of look through them and see if I like recognize any names, Right, and a lot of times I don't recognize a single name. That's all strangers, Right? And uh, I wish I could reach out and thank every one of those people because, you know, when you buy even people that can't afford a knife but they believe in what we're trying to do, just buying a t-shirt or a hat when they wear that hat or that shirt or they they buy that knife, they're they're representing and they're believing in an idea of, like the American dream, and I cannot tell you how much I appreciate. When I get, I'll get texts from people you know at a Red Sox game in Boston and they'll be like dude, I just saw this dude wearing your hat, and a lot of times these people will like go up and talk to each other and they're like, dude, you're wearing MKC and they're wearing that. And they're doing that because they believe in this idea that the American dream is still alive and that they believe that American manufacturing is critically important to, frankly, the survival of our country. And it's not just the customers but the industry itself, whether it's Seekins or Stow Glacier or SIG or Leupold, Sorenex and Black Rough Coffee I could just go down the list of literally 100, 150 brands that have, in one way or another, been accepting of us and helped us grow, and we try to remember that now.
Speaker 1:You know we've talked a little bit about like hey, when we see some of these other brands coming up and whatnot, how can we be helpful here and there to to their success as well? Um, I think a lot of people see like a, a brand, like a Yeti, and they just see a huge brand, they see a conglomerate. But what I've gotten to know is, like the guy like Andrew Jones behind Yeti right, and you know he's not some big executive, he's a worker bee guy, but he makes a lot of things happen I get to meet the humans behind these huge brands and you start to realize that these huge brands, like a Seekins Precision. There's a Maddie and a Danny Nelson behind it and there's Glenn Seekins. That's the CEO, that's doing what I'm trying to do with mkc and he's literally grinding every day to try to build his gun company. Um, and what I really want people to know is that, like, it is absolutely possible to chase your dreams.
Speaker 1:And you know people say, well, it's never been more unfair today, it's never been more. You know, rich versus poor. And I would argue, do you think it was any better during the great depression when your grandparents were trying to survive? Right, I think there's always going to be struggle, no matter what time of uh, you know time period we're in.
Speaker 1:But what's most important is that we, we keep a free country and we live in a free country. If you live in a free country, then you have opportunity, right, and I don't know that. There's another country and you know I'm not into a lot of, you know, world news, so I don't know, maybe there's the equivalent of a Montana knife company in Taiwan, but I'm not aware of it. Right, Our style of government and government for sure has all its flaws, but our style of what we set up for a framework for our country allows for innovation, allows for people to rise up from being broken, living in their camper 11 years ago, with a house burned down, to have an 80 employees and a multimillion dollar brand Right, Um, and that doesn't mean I'm getting rich, it means I'm reinvesting all that back in and, frankly, for the thing I'm most proud of probably is the fact that I have 80 people in our company that can go chase their dreams, pay their bills, feed their families and raise their kids here in Montana and they don't have to leave our state to go find a good job.
Speaker 1:So it kind of rambled on there. But, like the appreciation is just throughout the entire process and you know the appreciation for my employees that have stuck by us and put in this hard work and kept the quality up and, um, yeah, I'm, I'm very grateful for the position we're in today.
Speaker 2:Well, I just applaud everything that you just said and you know I think it's so important. Uh, you know all the aspects, especially just kind of the American made job and like being able to continue and like you're helping all these people continue to pay their bills, build their lives, build their families. And you know it's only going to grow as phase three continues on and as your company continues on and, uh, you know, like I said, I salute you and all the great things you guys got going on. Um, you know, for those who might not know, why don't you go ahead and give the, you know socials where people can follow you and as well as, uh, you know, maybe you want to go ahead and just, you know, talk about that and where people can find that.
Speaker 1:I appreciate it. As far as finding us, you know montananifecompanycom or our Montana Knife Company Instagram page we finally got our Montana Knife Company Instagram page verified about a week ago, nice, and got the blue check mark. And that might not seem like a big deal, but you go search Montana knife company on Instagram a month ago and there was dozens of fake pages and so, uh, and they were scamming people, which really pissed me off. Um, cause people believe they were winning things from us and, yeah, it was very frustrating. Um, so that's good. And then you know my personal Instagram page if you want to follow. Uh, it's, it was very frustrating. Um, so that's good. And then you know my personal Instagram page if you want to follow. Uh, it's, it's kind of a random mix of of stuff, but, uh, just Josh Smith knives is my Instagram page. Um, you know, I haven't recorded a podcast in several weeks.
Speaker 1:Now I'm actually looking at kind of revamping it just a little bit. We were going to maybe pull it out of. It was on our Montana knife company YouTube and it felt like it was getting swallowed up a little bit by all the content that we put out on the Montana knife company page. So I'm actually trying to figure out what to do and how to do that, but, cause I do love doing the podcast, it's called the Josh Smith show, uh, and I did. I have a bunch of really great guests. There's just amazing people and you can still find all those. I need to get to recording more episodes. But I'm actually currently trying to figure out if I'm gonna keep the name and then if I'm gonna start like its own YouTube page and kind of run it as its own thing, versus it kind of being swallowed up in that MKC proper YouTube. So that, yeah, just internal struggles of trying to figure out how to grow and what, what the right move is, you know.
Speaker 2:Indeed, man. Well, you know, I'm sure you'll figure that path out, and I definitely encourage people to go check it out. You've got some amazing people you sit down with and chat with, and it's a thoroughly entertaining and educational too. So, josh, once again, man, I just want to thank you for coming along. You know, I guess, as phase four comes out, we'll have another podcast, and you know we're just going to continue our trend here, but there you go.
Speaker 2:It's wonderful to you know, be in touch with you and to see all the growth and all the wonderful things you got going and all the things you're facilitating all around and just making the best damn knives out there. Man, just keep it up.
Speaker 1:And thank you once again. Well, congrats on the podcast, uh, congrats on the maps business and, and, uh and man, I appreciate your support. Um, I love all the stuff behind you. It's super, super cool. Um, I can, I can tell we're a lot alike. There's a lot of things there that are real similar to the things I like, but, uh, yeah, really appreciate the support and, having me on for sure, look forward to doing it again excellent.
Speaker 2:Well, hey, man, take care and everyone. Make sure you check out the show notes. Go check out the website, sign up for the next drop and be notified when the next knife's coming out. Another one's coming out soon the micro special. Make sure you also go and check out the Kumheller High Water. Go ahead and get your purchases in there. Remember that's going to end soon.
Speaker 1:So, as this drops, you maybe got a week too. We'll see what it is, but make sure you sign up for that and go help out with that fundraiser. Thanks again, josh. We'll talk soon. Thank you.
