Montana Knife Company. From Humble Beginnings to New Heights! A Fascinating Talk With CEO Josh Smith!

This week on the Montana Outdoor Podcast your host Downrigger Dale takes a trip to the Montana Knife Company’s new facility just outside of Missoula Montana. Gang, their new home is AWESOME! One of the many cool things about it is if you ever get a chance to go to Missoula you can stop by and take a look at this brand new 51,000 square foot facility, both outside and in. There you can get a delicious cup of Black Rifle Coffee and take a look at and even buy some of their latest knives, hats shirts and more. They even have a mezzanine you can go up on and look down on the buzzy manufacturing floor below. Course you can watch the podcast right now and see some of the facility and listen to the Founder and President of the Montana Knife Company Josh Smith tell his amazing story of how this great American Company came to be. Josh talks about his humble beginnings and his lifelong fascination with making knives. His Little League coach in Lincoln Montana was and still is a bladesmith and gave josh his first lessons on how to make knives from a hunk of steel and, well obviously something clicked with Josh because he has never stopped designing and making knives since he was 11 years old! In fact, Josh became the youngest person in the world to ever pass the bladesmith test! His story truly is amazing. We know that you will absolutely love this podcast, so don’t miss it! Watch it now on MontanaOutdoor.com on YouTube, Spotify or listen on the website, Apple Podcasts or tons of other sites. 

Links:

• Click here to learn all about the amazing Montana Knife Company! 
• You can contact the Montana Knife Company by clicking here.
• You can also click here to contact your host Downrigger Dale and he can get your questions for Josh answered.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Well, thanks so much everyone for joining us. And uh as I usually do, I I like to uh welcome a few very important groups. But before we get into that, I wanted to talk a little bit about uh who we have coming up today on the show. Uh and that is a guy that has started a company in western Montana. Uh it has grown a great deal. Uh the product he produces is now in its category, probably been become one of the most popular in the world. Uh it it's it's pretty amazing. Uh he operates his company on a very basic business philosophy that I think you're gonna find fascinating when we we get into it with him. We're gonna learn all about that next.

SPEAKER_00 0:48

The Montana Outdoor Podcast is brought to you by Rocky Mountain Truck and Trailer, home of boss snow plows and accessories, and Diamond C trailers and accessories. Go to RMTTE.com and see everything they have waiting for you online. Or just come by 5680 Expressway in Missoula and by Superior Hardwoods of Montana, delivering the highest quality lumber, paneling, flooring, and reclaimed wood products anywhere in North America. Let them guide you through the woods at their showroom in Missoula on Highway 93 South or at superior-hardwoods.com.

SPEAKER_01 1:27

Now I want to welcome in two different groups that uh I always welcome at the beginning of all of our podcasts. Uh, one is our group of active military that listen to us from bases all around the world, uh, on ships around the world, and I found out here recently, even on some airplanes, uh, on very long trips, they have us recorded and listened to us. So we're honored that all of you uh uh spend your valuable time off. I know you get very little of it, uh especially these days, and uh and listen to our podcast and watch our podcast. Uh, we are honored that we have you here and thank you for your service. It means a great deal to all of us. And I know right now many of you out there are doing some pretty heavy uh and dangerous lifting out there. So take care, you're loved and you're missed, and uh hope this podcast brings a little bit of home back to you. I also want to welcome in our um veterans that listen and watch from all around Montana and all around the United States, including one of my daughters who's also a veteran and uh is home now, thank God, and good to have you back. And uh thank you for your service, all of you. We will never forget all the things you've done for our great country. Now, let's get into our topic today. Today we're gonna talk with Josh Smith. He is with Montana Knife Company. And uh, Josh, your business has really exploded. Uh, in fact, I had heard I saw a uh uh interview with you. Uh you had your grand opening, and you guys did not realize just how many people were gonna come to this grand opening, did you?

SPEAKER_03 3:12

No, no, it was it was crazy. So um this is insane.

SPEAKER_04 3:44

Look at all these people that showed up, man. How do we not love it? Thank you to these guys, they're veterans for their service. Thank you, you guys. It's only possible to build this under that flag right there. Thank you guys.

SPEAKER_05 3:58

Um, I feel very, very blessed and honored, but I pulled in here about 5 30 in the morning.

SPEAKER_03 4:04

We were supposed to open at 6, and there was almost 500 people standing in line, and uh I just could not believe it. Yeah, it was today, and it was uh really cool the support. It's how it's how we've grown a business so fast and so great is just from the support of American people.

SPEAKER_01 4:23

Yeah. Um that's what really blew me away. I came out the day before and it was half then. Yeah. And I heard there were people even out here uh like at two in the morning, what are you waiting to get?

SPEAKER_03 4:36

Yeah. There were sixty people in line at two in the morning. It's just amazing.

SPEAKER_02 4:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:43

That well, that's wonderful though. And it speaks to uh what you guys have been able to do here around western Montana and just around the whole world with your knives. I wanna I want to start with your background and your story. You started from humble beginnings uh making knives. Yeah. If I remember right, you were the youngest person to ever be a master bladesmith.

SPEAKER_05 5:11

That's right. Yeah. Yeah, I I grew up in Lincoln, uh just 80 miles east of Missoula here. Um and grew up, my parents uh did excavation up there, so I grew up doing that. And then uh yeah, my little league baseball coach Rick Dunkerly started teaching me to make knives when I was 11. Uh, he invited me to his shop that winter, and uh I made a few knives, and then I think his way of kicking me out of his shop was telling me if I wanted to be a knife maker, I had to have my own shop. So uh I had a lawn mowing business and and worked in my parents' business, so I had a little bit of money and I bought a belt grinder and some some files and that stuff.

SPEAKER_01 5:50

How old were you at this time?

SPEAKER_05 5:51

I was I was around uh I was 12 by that time. Yeah, it was into the next year, and uh and then I got pretty serious about it, and yeah, through through the whole kind of process, I became the youngest journeyman knife maker in the world at 15 and then the youngest master bladesmith at 19. So I was pretty serious about it all the way through junior high and high school.

SPEAKER_01 6:13

Yeah, I mean you were very serious to to to master something like that at such a young age. What what was the passion?

SPEAKER_05 6:22

What what got you so fascinated with knives that you just I mean I I think just being a kid and thinking knives and guns are and hunting and all that's cool at that at that age, and then uh you know it's cool. I I I presented um a metallurgy project for uh my science fair that next year, and I brought a couple knives, and my math teacher and my science teacher bought two of my knives uh for twenty dollars, and it I I don't I think something struck me of like how fun it was to make knives, and then the fact that I could actually make money doing it. Yeah, like what you're gonna pay me to make knives? Like, this is the best, right? And uh and I don't know, just something about that creativity and then the the the drive to get better. Like I was seeing my mentors constantly getting better, and I was trying to catch them. Um, and I just think the what's cool about making knives is every single knife you make you can strive to get better on, and you can actually see it. It's it's a real tangible thing of like you can look back a year at what you made a year ago and realize anybody can see, man, what he's making today is better than what he was making a year ago. Um, and I just I love that. And then the combination of taking raw pieces of steel, you know, handle material, all these raw things, and turning it into something beautiful with your hands, there's just something about that that I think struck me. And I think you see that with different people that are in different art forms, whether it's blacksmithing or people who do do pottery and glass blowing, things like that. Certain people I think it just strikes differently than others of like doing things with your hands and creating that artwork.

SPEAKER_01 8:12

Well, it's almost with with knives, it's almost like they have their own personality. Yeah. We go around to a lot of different outdoor shows and stuff with our Montana Outdoor Radio Show and podcasts and that. And by far, we have a booth and sell all kinds of stuff, but by far our biggest selling items always are knives. Yeah. I mean, people from all ages, yeah, from grandpa to a little kid, you know, often we have to say, Well, go get your parents. I can't sell you a knife.

SPEAKER_05 8:42

Right. Yeah. Well, it's a man's first tool, you know, and and it's and every single person, you know, every single American, every single one of them, uh use a knife at some point in their day or their week, whether it's a butter knife, uh, you know, a chef's knife, a pocket knife, you know, a box cutter opening boxes at work. Um and and I think especially when you s when you have knives that were made in this country, there's a connection that you know that craftsmen, like your fellow citizens actually worked on those knives. And and and you know, as men, especially over the generations, we have passed down knives and guns.

SPEAKER_02 9:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 9:25

Like uh you could probably add watches to that, you know, um uh maybe an old car or some artwork, but you know, it's really knives and guns as men, especially as hunters and fishermen and whatnot, we've passed down.

SPEAKER_01 9:40

I was gonna say, as outdoor folks, right?

SPEAKER_05 9:43

Right.

SPEAKER_01 9:44

It's knives.

SPEAKER_05 9:45

And and this in this in this day and age, everything's made to throw away. You know, you walk at the target, you walk into even a pretty nice store, and everything's kind of made to throw away. And and that's something that I think is resonating a bit with our stories. Like when you look around your house, you see what you own, what are you really actually excited? Or what do you think your great grandkids would be excited to get, like as far as you passing down? And a lot of people don't have much. You know, it's made to throw away. And um, and I've sharpened knives for people for 30 years that they come in and they're saying, Hey, my grandfather, you know, he carried this in Vietnam, or you know, he was a bush pilot in Alaska, or whatever the story is, it doesn't matter. It just hey, he he just went to the office every day, but he carried this pocket knife for 20 years, and it means a lot to that person because grandpa's gone and they still have his pocket knife.

SPEAKER_01 10:37

Yeah, that my first pocket knife was my grandpa's. And I carried that until uh it got stolen uh one day. I mean, years and years later. Yeah. Uh and it just broke my heart, you know. Right. That thing was so near and dear to me, but it'd gotten so thin from starving it so many times.

SPEAKER_02 10:56

Right.

SPEAKER_01 10:57

Probably wasn't, you know, one of the more expensive knives, but uh it's what he had, and uh he carried it with him all the time. So and who knows how many years he had the thing, yeah, yeah. Um now was there a time, and maybe you can think on this a little bit, but was there a time that that you said to yourself, I think I can make a living doing this? Because it that that didn't start right away. Uh, like most entrepreneurs, uh, we all had to have day jobs for a while. Right. Uh so when was that time that you said, I think I can do this full time?

SPEAKER_05 11:37

You know, when I was going to knife shows in high school, I a lot of my mentors were in their 40s and 50s and whatnot. And as I was getting closer to graduating, I was seeking mentorship, you know, and talking to these guys, and frankly, most of them were telling me not to do it as a full-time job. Like it's making knives as a living is a hard thing to do. It's uh you know, it's kind of a starving artist thing where you you might get ready for that that big knife show, that big gun show, you might prepare for two months for it, and you go there hoping and needing to sell what you bring, and it's kind of feast or famine. You leave that show, you had a good show, you got a bunch of cash in your pocket, but then you have to like pay all your bills that you haven't been paying for the last couple months and catch back up. And and there's no paid vacation, there's no 401k, there's no retirement. And and a lot of those old guys were telling me, like, go get a job and keep this fun, you know. And I I listened to that at first, but probably like any young guy, I thought, well, I I you know I can make it. And so when I when I moved into Missoula when I was 21 years old, we the day we closed on our first uh house that uh my ex-wife and I had built, I quit my job and went full-time making knives. And I did that about for about 10 years. And you know, I I had I had had a lot of articles written about me in Montana and in national magazines, and and I felt like I just wasn't going to be satisfied if I didn't try for myself, like find out for myself if I could make it, you know. And I I I did heed the the uh advice from those old guys though about how to run my business and try to try to keep it really, really professional. You'll get guys that will get in in a financial, you know, buying with taking deposits and stuff like that. I I ran a pretty clean good business, but I found out for myself when you know during that first few years I had four kids, right? So four babies, um try trying to pay all the bills and do that one knife at a time, and I found for myself that it was very, very difficult. Like if I wasn't in my shop working, we weren't making money. So I found it hard to go sit in a tree stand and hunt for white tails or go go to the lake for a weekend. Um, and then you find you're you know, you're working on a really fancy knife or a really big project and you screw it up and you have to start over, no one's paying you for that lost time. No, you know, and the cost of materials were going up, and just it was a challenge. And and so I uh excuse me, I you know, I made knives for about 10 years full-time, and in 2008-9 is when that housing market really crashed. And by 2010, I was really questioning if this is the smartest way for me to have a career, and I started really paying attention to those mentors of mine who were now in their 60s and and early 70s, and they were going to knife shows needing to sell knives as bad as I was financially, yeah. And I was thinking to myself, boy, do I want to spend my next 30 years of my career to get to where I'm still at knife shows struggling like that. Um and I have a real admiration for full-time knife makers because you're also, you know, kind of competing against all the guys that do it as a hobby. There's a lot of knife guys that love to make knives in their back lean too in their garage and stuff, which is awesome. Um, but it adds more competition to the market. Yeah. And and it's it's I I have a real admiration for the guys who really do sacrifice. It's like being an artist or or making bronzes. Uh, none of those guys are really getting rich. Um you're you're you really have to live a pretty simple life. You have to be very careful with your finances. Um, but they're doing it because they love the craft, you know.

SPEAKER_01 15:36

Yeah, it's like uh well, any type of art like that, you know, it's a it's an overnight sensation that took 30 years to do.

SPEAKER_03 15:45

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:47

And so it, you know, uh a lot of people maybe just hearing about Montana Knife Company, you know, for the first time, but you've been doing this a long time.

SPEAKER_02 15:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:58

And I did was there a time that you ever could have imagined that there would be over a hundred people working for you making knives?

SPEAKER_05 16:09

No, I mean that's that's the thing. So, like in that in that the the dream actually got uh much bleaker during that 2000 time 10 time frame because that's when I decided to go take a job for Northwestern Energy and become a lineman. And you know, I had actually registered the name Montana Knife Company and I was 19 years old, but I didn't start it, and so people understand the difference here or what we're talking about. You know, everything up until 2010 was Josh Smith knives. That was one knife at a time, they were very high-end, Damascus steel blades. We're talking $2,000, three, $5,000 knives. Uh they're art like pieces of artwork, right? But I was having people wanting me to make, you know, I was a local, right? And so I'd have a, you know, you, you might come to my shop and say, Hey, I would like to have you make a knife for my grandson for his high school graduation. And it's like, well, those knives are like a thousand dollars, right? And I so eat my own local friends couldn't really afford to buy my knives, but they didn't, they also didn't have a great option at the store for something that they'd want to give their grandson and pass down. And so I always had this dream of Montana Knife Company, and I had dreams of scaling it and growing it to have employees and whatnot, but did I think it would scale and grow to this size this fast? No.

SPEAKER_01 17:28

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SPEAKER_05 19:43

You know, and I and I like I say I quit making knives full time and went and got a job with Northwestern, and I ended up becoming a journeyman lineman over the next five years. And and during that time, actually, is when my house burned down in Frenchtown. And so about 11 years ago, right now, uh I was living in a camper in my driveway. My house was burned down, I was broke as hell, uh, had four kids, I was single, I was divorced at the time, so it was kind of like the sad country song. Wow. And so Montana Knife Company was not even a thought, like there was no way. I was just trying to go to work, you know, be a lineman and and figure out how I was gonna rebuild my house and rebuild my life. Um and and you know, the next year is when I met my my new wife, Jessica, and as we got together, I kind of told her the idea of Montana Knife Company. Because she was asking me, you know, as a lineman, why are you not making knives? And I explained all to her. And I said, My real dream is to grow this hunting knife company. And she's like, Well, you why don't you do it? And I'm like, Well, you know, I've been for the last couple years I've been busy with a burned out house and raising kids.

SPEAKER_01 20:56

Easier said than done. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 20:58

And she said, Well, you know, I've got the house and kids, like, go build it, right? And that's when I finally decided to get serious about building Montana Knife Company, the actual production knife brand in the hunt world. And it's kind of cool because her her dad passed away, and uh she inherited about $19,000, and and uh she really wanted to go buy a couple nice horses because he would have liked that.

SPEAKER_02 21:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 21:25

And she grew up riding with him, and uh instead she gave me that money and she said, Go buy steel to start your company. Wow. So I used that money to go buy the first steel to make the first knives for Montana Knife Company. And it was about a year later I was able to write her a check and pay her back. Uh, because and she went and bought two horses that she has today. But um, but that was the catalyst was you know, in 2019, late nineteen, I started making the prototypes for Montana Knife Company, and and of course, about the time I decided to get real. Serious about it early in 2020s when COVID hit.

SPEAKER_02 22:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 22:03

And you know, in 2010, back to then when I quit my job, I really ran from the breaking news on television. You know, it was like, man, I'm a custom knife maker with this housing crisis. We might go into a depression. I I watched and listened to all the news then, and it kind of did encourage me, force me to change my career path. Well, during COVID, I just decided I'm ignoring it entirely. I'm just gonna go to my shop every day. I'm gonna try to build my company. And so all through 2020, I started making those prototypes. We built our website in July. We launched that, and then we started selling some knives in the fall of 2020. It was like, hey, there's something here. And there again, my wife was the one who kept encouraging me to quit my job. She said, You need to quit and do this. And I'm like, Man, the lineman job's a good job, you know.

SPEAKER_01 22:58

So this is truly a family business. Yes. I mean, from from your wife investing to get it going and and all that.

SPEAKER_05 23:07

And even with my kids at that time. So I didn't have any employees. My my junior high daughters and son, they they were actually helping me assemble knives, bead blast them, grind the handles. They all my kids and my wife were it was just us at that time in 2020.

SPEAKER_01 23:25

Do you think some of that success came from uh being in a small town? It seems like that that small town um atmosphere does something to people that you you just learn how to respect people and and do better. I I'm I'm a little biased towards French town because I grew up there. Um grew up on a cattle ranch up the nine mile. But um do you do you think that was something that kind of helped you rather than be try to do this from a big city?

SPEAKER_05 23:56

Yeah, I mean I I think it's the things you learn like growing up in a small town, even like growing up in Lincoln. Yeah, there's a there's a sense of uh kind of of self-reliance, right? And and uh you know, help from your neighbors. Um, I will say, like, my friends around Frenchtown were very encouraging, you know. I didn't have anybody right close around me. Now, other people outside of my inner circle were like, you can't grow a hunting knife company and survive today, like you can't compete with China, you can't make a $300 hunting knife and sell it because you can buy them at Cabela's for $40, right? So there were a lot of people telling me I couldn't do it. Um, but yes, people in that small town, it's a very supportive atmosphere. Um I think it's one of the saddest things that's happening today. Like you go out in eastern Montana, you see these small towns drying up.

SPEAKER_02 24:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 24:52

And it's I think it's one of the biggest concerns that we should have as a nation that's not being talked about. Yeah, is the withering and the consolidation into the big cities. And I did a bunch of research this. I just was on Micro, the Dirty Jobs guy, his podcast last week, and I did a bunch of research on this on like the lack of new businesses starting in eastern Montana in these small towns, like counties that have gone three and four years with not a single new business application. And so, but I I was the command commencement speaker for the Drummond High School last year, and I told those young kids, you know, I grew up in a small town thinking that big brands and all this kind of stuff all came from the big cities, but you're actually kids in these small towns are actually, I think, more prepared to start and lead businesses than anyone because they've grown up uh having to problem solve out on the ranch, right? They've they understand hard work, life and death, right? Tragedy, um, you know, challenges that they have to overcome. They've they've watched their parents do their books, right? Yeah. So they've learned about finances and why you can't buy something that you want, you know, because you don't the cattle prices, you know, business isn't good right now. Right. Or on the farm, and I said, you know, with the power of the internet today, you actually have the ability from Drummond, Montana, from Jordan, Montana, wherever, to reach everyone in the nation. Right. The internet and social media, people do say, like, you know, social media is such a bad thing and whatnot. And I look at it a lot like a gun. A gun can be the worst tool on the planet if it's used in the wrong way. But it can also be a tool for good and for fun, right? And social media can be a horrible tool, absolutely. Yeah, but it also is the most powerful marketing tool on the planet, and it allows you to connect to like-minded people anywhere on the planet, and it allows you to be in Jordan, Montana, and start a brand or Frenchtown, Montana.

SPEAKER_01 26:58

Well, and and it allows you to inspire other people to get out and try it, right? You know, and that that's the thing that blew me away about doing this podcast was I mean, we we originally started it just so we could do um you know more long-form kind of things. When you know, with our radio show, people would say, Hey, could you find out more about this thing or that thing? Well, a live radio show is pretty fast-paced.

SPEAKER_05 27:22

Yeah, you're really stuck to segments there.

SPEAKER_01 27:24

You can't really do a deep dive. So we created the podcast just for that.

SPEAKER_05 27:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 27:28

Having no idea that all across the world, I mean, now we have regular viewers in 80 different countries, yeah. In 2,000 cities. Yeah. I mean, I I never would have thought that.

SPEAKER_03 27:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 27:43

But to me, I think a lot of it has to do with that that spirit of of Montana, the spirit of, you know, can do and do it.

SPEAKER_05 27:51

Well, and that and that you were asking about the small town. There's something about Montana Knife Company, and let's let's forget about the knife for a second. It's that Montana is an aspirational place. Without a doubt. It's a place that people from 80 countries want to listen to a podcast about. Right? It's a place they dream to go Elk Hunt one day or go visit Glacier Park or Yellowstone or you know, uh float a river and flyfish. And and so when you say Montana Knife Company, I feel like that there is a certain meaning that that has, and I think it's because of you know, big cities and and big big places around the the country and the world think of Montana as a small town.

SPEAKER_02 28:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 28:31

You know, uh Missoula or Billings to us are big towns in Montana, but to any anyone else, you know, to anyone in Dallas, that's a small town.

unknown 28:41

Right.

SPEAKER_05 28:42

Like Billings is a small town. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 28:44

Right.

SPEAKER_05 28:44

So we have even in our biggest cities, a small town atmosphere that people aspire to, and and it's those, it's work ethic, it's core values, it's family, it's community. That's what Montana is. And so I think Montana Knife Company, I've I've always tried to embody that with a brand.

SPEAKER_01 29:04

Well, and and you took this to a whole nother level. Uh obviously, that this is really taken off. And I agree with you, the Montana part of it. Montana, I I've always thought that the the further away you get from Montana, the more mystical and magical it becomes. Everybody wants to try that, everybody wants to go see that. Uh, and they assume that things that come from Montana, and they assume correctly, are well made and and done right. But you you developed a business philosophy that is very simple, but it works, obviously. The four C's, you call it. Uh talk about that.

SPEAKER_05 29:45

Well, those those are our are our core values, you know, community, conservation, right, country, and customer. Right. And so if you if you make every decision as a business off of those four C's, like you're gonna be okay. And so anytime a decision comes along that seems like a big one, you need to have your core values that you fall back to and be like, does this fall within what we do? Right. And so the the the the biggest one to me is is country, right? Right, this is not possible. I truly believe this, and that's why there is a giant American flag right out in our parking lot that you know, we yes, we spent a ton of money to put that in, but that this I believe this company uh represents what's possible in this country, and it's only possible because of what you said in the beginning of the podcast. Our veterans, yep, our active duty personnel, the freedoms that we have. You know, even down to our country is so unique that we have small community banks, right? Right? You can be in Hamilton, Montana, and you can walk down to a community bank and you can walk in and you can talk to the president of that bank and say, I have an idea. I want to start something. That's actually to us, that's normal to in other countries and in Europe. I think in Europe, I think they have they have three giant national banks in Europe, and they're not gonna take a shot on a knife maker in his backyard in French town. And and so that's unique. Uh our freedom, you know, to make, I mean, there's other there's countries out there I can't even ship knives to. That's how that's how unfree they are, right? And so the fact that we're able to grow a knife company in this country also shows the level of freedom. Uh, and so it's uh you know that that's the country piece, the community is us trying to be involved locally in what we do, and we're even going to be hosting uh um like hunters education courses out here. We the Fishwell Life and Parks, we we're donating this space here for them to host in our in our conference room here. Um uh and just trying to donate to causes and be a good part of the community. Um and then the customer, obviously. If we're making good decisions on the product that we make based on what our customer needs are and taking care of our customer, that's why we sharpen our knives for free for life.

SPEAKER_01 32:03

See, this is what I noticed about your company. I I've done a lot of different businesses in my life. I've you know, coming from a I always thought I'd be a rancher my whole life. Yeah, it turned out no, I ended up getting into broadcasting, yeah, you know, and and all that. But your focus is so strong on the customer, and you see it everywhere in this building. And in fact, you folks, you probably are have been noticing in the background. I I'm running some b-roll, as we call it, of different things, and I've I've filmed all your different processes and that. It's just wonderful. But for example, up on the mezzanine, yeah, all those panels in the railing are people's knives.

SPEAKER_05 32:51

Yeah, it's cut cutouts.

SPEAKER_01 32:53

They were cutouts, they had their knives cut out of it. Yeah, I mean, you see the customer and the importance of customer everywhere in this huge facility. Where did you learn that? Or was it just you you wanted to treat people the way you always wished you'd have been treated?

SPEAKER_05 33:08

Well, that that that came from the way that my parents grew an excavation business in a tiny town. In a tiny town, if you have a company like an excavation business and you don't do the right thing, it real quickly the word's gonna get around that you're not yeah, and you're done. You have you have there in Lincoln, there's what, 1,500 possible customers. I mean, it's a really tiny market, right? And so my dad had an excavation business there for 40 years and grew a great reputation, but we always did right by the customer, and uh that's where it comes from to here, and that's also why we have the glass windows in this coffee shop. We wanted our customers to be able to come in and see what their money is supporting, and it's those faces behind the glass. The fact that we started this in our garage in 2020 with just my kids and my wife and I, and we now have 125 employees, that was all grown by our customers. If they didn't come to the website and buy knives when we put them up for sale, we wouldn't have all of these jobs created in these people. And I wanted you to be able to come in, buy a cup of coffee, and sit down and watch through the glass what you guys, the American customers, have helped us build and support. And if we keep doing right by the customer, they'll keep telling their friends and family. You know, one thing that's interesting, we really struggle to advertise. Like Meta and Google give us absolute fits to buy ads as a knife company because we make quote-unquote website. Oh, I know.

SPEAKER_01 34:39

Yeah, like we have I get it all the time with this podcast.

SPEAKER_05 34:43

We have a horrible time being able to buy ads, and we actually cannot advertise on the Fox network. Of all networks, really, yeah, Fox, Fox News, we can't advertise on Fox of all you would think the conservative station. And so when we do our our customer feedback of how did you hear about our brand, we always ask that that feedback from a survey, and always, no matter what advertising we do, no matter who, what podcast talks about our knives, it's friends and family.

SPEAKER_02 35:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 35:13

So people telling other people about their experience with our knives or with us, uh, you know, our employees, that does more than anything. You know, and then these podcasts are incredibly important because if I could sit down and say, go talk to a gym full of 2,000 potential customers, I would love to do that. That's what these podcasts are. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 35:36

Um, but you just can't do it on over 300,000 eyeballs on you right now.

SPEAKER_05 35:41

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, it's huge. It's huge.

SPEAKER_01 35:44

And but I think what's unique about the outdoor industry is that it brings people closer because we're connecting to something that's you can't duplicate it. It's not a there's no way for it to be a uh an artificial thing. Yeah, China can't ship this out this window to us.

SPEAKER_02 36:08

Right.

SPEAKER_01 36:08

Uh and so I I I think it when you you're appealing to a customer that if you show them a little respect, yeah, all of a sudden they go, Well, uh, yeah, I'll I'll do that. Okay, it costs a little bit more, but who cares? And I don't think people's gonna sharpen my knife for life. Yeah, and I Who does that? Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 36:29

I I don't think that uh so many of these big, big brands understand how big and how passionate and loyal the outdoor and hunting space is. If you if you are one of us, you know, a hunter and outdoorsman, um, and you truly, you know, come into this this community in the right way, they will support you. Like we had no money for advertising. Like, like I spent that $19,000 on steel and handomaterial and getting things made. Um, it wasn't on advertising. I went to Total Archery Challenge and just introduced myself to other brands in the outdoor space, conservation groups, customers. We set up booths for the first two years. We didn't spend a dollar in advertising. We just showed up and showed that we are an outdoorsman, we are a hunter, we are fishermen, and and we said, we're we're here to build a brand for the outdoor industry, and it exploded. Yeah, you know, and then it's allowed us to kick into other spaces like tactical knives for military people, you know, uh uh cops. Cops are huge customers of ours, they love carrying our product because we also support our first responders. Right. You know, uh we we absolutely love the cops come in here. In fact, when we were sitting here, I don't know if you saw four cops walk by, they come in and have coffee almost every day.

SPEAKER_01 37:51

Yeah, I've uh when I was here before, there was a table of cops that do that, and that's great.

SPEAKER_05 37:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 37:57

Uh because so much, especially nowadays, they they don't get the the thanks that they really should get.

SPEAKER_05 38:04

But when people are in a bind, guess who they call? Absolutely. They call them. Yeah. Yeah. And and it allows us to grow into places like culinary and now pocket knives, you know.

SPEAKER_01 38:12

Yeah, I was just gonna ask you about that. Let's talk a bit about those knives. When you when you go onto your website, you've got well, the main categories there they're the hunting knives, the culinary, the tactical, everyday carry, and then the uh what you call the bushcraft and camp knives. So maybe pick out a few in your mind as far as why did you lay out your website that way, and why did you decide those were the knives Montana Knife Company was going to make?

SPEAKER_05 38:44

Sure. Well, I think first and foremost, we we are and always will be a hunting knife brand. Like that's that's our core roots, that's how we started. Um the the tactical side of it is is I look at very similar actually to the hunt side, where you have core end users that are possibly having their livelihood or their life dependent on it, right? So if you have a if you have a hunting guide in Alaska, right, and he's off the grid, 10, you know, 10-day hunt with with clients, um, breaking down animals, building fires, counting on a knife blade to do its job, that's in a to a certain degree a possible life and death environment, right? Absolutely. But definitely it's just their core livelihood. A butcher using their knife every day. That's their core livelihood, is depending on that blade to be whether it's ergonomical, whether it's just the edge lasts a long time, easy to work with, right? But you get into the tactical environment where you have somebody deployed across the world in Afghanistan and they pull that blade out to use it, and most likely it's not in a life and death situation, but they're using it as a tool. Sure. The last thing I want is our tactical community's knife blade to have China stamped on it. You know, I want them to have the best steel, the best construction techniques. And quite honestly, if you're just sitting around um, you know, at some forward operating base for 30 days and you're missing home, and you pull that knife out and it says Montana Knife Company on it, they know 125 people appreciate what they're doing right there, and they and that they're backed by you know by somebody back home. And maybe it takes them to thinking about hunting and fishing in Montana when they get out of the military. But um that space to me, it's very important that we send the best product possible with our soldiers when they deploy. Um, and I honestly believe there's there's improvements in that category that we can help make to deliver better knives for them. Um, and then a pocket knife, uh, the everyday carry stuff. Um, same thing. I don't care if you're a rancher in eastern Montana or farmer cutting bail strings, if you're opening boxes at your manufacturing warehouse or where you're at, uh, you know, everybody should be wearing a should be carrying a pocket knife. I I believe. Um we've all been in that situation where somebody asks, hey, do you have a knife and you don't have one and your buddy does, and you just feel low about yourself.

SPEAKER_01 41:17

Well, and and the knife can save your life.

SPEAKER_05 41:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 41:21

Yeah. I mean, there's just so many different instances. Of course, growing up on a ranch, it was just all the time. Yeah, you know. Well, we've got either save your own life or save one of your cattle's life.

SPEAKER_05 41:31

I mean, we've had some brandy. We've had some very, very interesting stories come to us of people who have actually saved lives with our knife. Uh, one guy uh did have a in in the Ball Marshall Wilderness had a horse roll over on top of his friend into a ravine, and the guy had to jump off and use our knife to cut the cinch and everything loose of that horse to get the horse off of his his buddy that was pinned under the horse. Um and we do make tools also that a lot of the world probably will look at our website and not understand why that knife is there. Our stockyard knife, for example, it's made for ranchers. It's probably not a knife that we're gonna sell millions of. It's not a knife that you're gonna see uh big celebrities probably using, but it's a knife with no tip on it. Uh and it's for a rancher. Um, a lot of times they're called like a bowl cutter knife.

SPEAKER_02 42:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 42:23

But if you have twine wrapped around or a rope or something wrapped around the foot of a horse or a cow or something, you get off to use it and that animal kicks, you don't want a tip on that knife that can stab them.

SPEAKER_01 42:33

Exactly.

SPEAKER_05 42:34

And so it's kind of a safety tip knife where we made that for the rancher. And so you're gonna see us now and then do things for specific individuals that aren't like the big market. It's not really where we're gonna go make millions of dollars, but at the end of the day, that's the customer piece of those four C's. I've heard ranchers tell us, uh, can you please make this blade? You know, you used to be able to buy them, you can't find them now. It's like we're making that for the rancher, even though that's not maybe the biggest market out there, it's a tool that's needed, and we're gonna make it.

SPEAKER_01 43:10

Well, and that's that's back to you, like you said, back to your four C's about that that customer and and that uh that that's I think why our podcast has become so successful for those same kind of reasons, is that the reason you're on here is not because I decided, oh, let's get Josh on here, it's because our viewers said, Hey, we want to uh hear about that guy, we want to hear about those knives. That's awesome. And and the way I've always said it is this is your podcast, sure, folks. All I I just go do what you tell me to do. Yeah, yeah. You know, and and I I love that. It's fun because they send me on all kinds of adventures. I get to meet really interesting people, right?

SPEAKER_05 43:53

But um well, actually, and it's like right there. Read what's that say right there?

SPEAKER_01 43:57

Made for America.

SPEAKER_05 43:59

So we have a Steel sign in this conference room right behind right behind you here that says made for America and that's how it's not made in America. Our signs aren't aren't, you know, it our our our terminology isn't made in America. It's made for America. It's made for the customers and for the the blue-collar workers that are in this country. That's who we're making our product for. You know, we're not making it in America, we're making it for America. And we actually believe there's a big there's a kind of a big difference there.

SPEAKER_01 44:31

There's a huge difference. Um and again, I think that's why this popularity of of your knives have have just taken off the way they have. How many knives do you figure your average customer owns? I think I know it's not one.

SPEAKER_05 44:47

No, it's it's actually around it's around two and a half. Um, and that's a pretty big number because we have a lot of customers. And so there's some customers that have over 40. You know, the we have uh we have a VIP program that we don't talk about, uh, but it's our way of giving back to our customer. And I say we don't talk about it in that we don't we don't disclose the level, you know, a lot of a lot of rewards programs, they'll say, hey, spend fifteen hundred dollars and you get this. Right. Spend two thousand more and you get that, and they use it as a way to entice a customer to spend more money. We don't do that, we know internally what what those different levels and things are, but when you get to a certain spot, we just send you a knife or we'll send you uh actually last month we sent out 10 guns from Seekins Precision in Idaho to our customers that had spent a certain dollar amount. And so we give back to our customers all the way along uh because of how much we appreciate their support for us because we're direct to consumer, we don't sell in in stores, right? And so when we looked at that early on, you know, if we go sell in Shields or Cabela's, you know, those are great companies, but if we go sell there, they're gonna take a big chunk of margin from us, right, to do that. Well, we said, let's give a bunch of that margin back to the customer, which then thanks them for being a customer, and then maybe we'll entice them to go tell their friends, hey, I bought a bunch of knives from MKC, and they just sent me a free chef's knife. Yeah with a laser engraved VIP logo on it, or they sent us, we send out loop pulled binoculars, we send out Everly Stock packs and Kufaru packs. We do that for our customers just to tell them thank you because they're helping us run this direct-to-consumer business and keep that margin. And because we sell direct-to-consumer, we know who our customer is. If we sold all our knives in Cabela's, we wouldn't know that guy in Ohio.

SPEAKER_01 46:45

No, that's Cabela's customer notes.

SPEAKER_05 46:48

But we know, you know, John in Ohio, and so we can reach out and say, John in Ohio, thank you for buying 10 knives last year. You know, and that's what again, that's old school business tactics. That if if you sold a bunch of stuff to somebody in your town in Lincoln, like my dad did, he would reach out at the end of the year and say, Hey, thank you, Brent, for buying 10 loads of gravel in April, you know. Yeah. Um, it's small town business tactics on a global scale.

SPEAKER_01 47:15

Yeah. Well, and the ranching side of it, uh, that's what a a s a sale was was not just to sell the cows, but it was an annual way of thanking the customers that have bought the past stuff. Yeah. And it's interesting to see even ranching now, they're using uh the internet so you can actually uh fact we I had a um a uh uh Carl Tyler who used to have the the uh Chevrolet dealership here, and uh he did an entire podcast with us just about his upcoming bull sale.

SPEAKER_05 47:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 47:47

And I mean that was sponsored content. I mean yeah, he knew that was his his people, but they could go online and watch the sale be part of it. So I mean, there's a need to be in touch with your customer but still be a mass marketer.

SPEAKER_05 48:03

Well, and when you talk about the community piece and actually about bull sales and cattle sales, we're sitting on the old stockyard ground here where they sold cattle. Yep. And we got a little flack initially when we bought this land because it had been for sale for a few years, and when we bought it, uh, you know, we had to shut everything down, the whole stockyard uh thing, and some of their local ranchers were bummed out about that, and they didn't know it was happening regardless whether we bought it or not. But yeah, what I knew in my mind was, you know, there was one or two full-time employees here on this property. And I knew in my mind if we bought this and we grew it, we would provide a lot more jobs for the community. And it is unfortunate that that way of life is getting tougher and tougher. You know, they got to haul their cattle further and further. But my son, his sophomore year of high school, worked all summer and he took all of the boards down from the cattle pens screw by screw, and very carefully took them all down and stacked them. And every board right behind me, every board in this building is a board from the these are pens from this dockyard. Wow, and so when people from the community walk in here, I want them to know that we kept that heritage. I I wanted to keep that, and so every office in this building has a wood wall. Everyone. And I did that because I want our employees to know and and have a little piece in their mind of of where that came from, and that there's a way of life here that that you know has transitioned here, but we still support that ranching way of life. You know, my family still ranches. My I come from ranching, you know, grandparents and aunts and uncles. That's also why the Made for America sign right here is not out where the public can see it. We're in a conference room right now where the public can't see it. Right. It's to remind employees when they walk out of this conference room to go do their job.

SPEAKER_01 49:52

That's what you're doing.

SPEAKER_05 49:53

You're working for America. You're making this for America, right? And again, with these with wood walls, all the wood in the retail store, all the wood in the coffee shop are all every single board is that my son took down from the stockyards.

SPEAKER_01 50:07

Um it's kind of like what one of our sponsors of uh of this podcast is uh Superior Hardwoods of Montana. Yeah, and they do that. They pulled up.

SPEAKER_05 50:15

They split these boards for us. Oh, did they? So we hauled them all to them and they cut all these boards in half. Yeah. Because they were big, thick two-inch boards, now they're one inch, but yeah, superior hardwoods uh cut it all for us.

SPEAKER_01 50:27

I want to take a minute to thank Superior Hardwoods of Montana for their support of this podcast. It is what allows us to bring you the latest from Montana's Great Outdoors, with very few interruptions, by the way. That said, there is another reason we are lucky to have Superior Hardwoods of Montana on board. They are an amazing business that can offer all of you some of the most incredible wood products you have ever seen. Plus, Superior Hardwoods of Montana is still a place that actually cares about and appreciates their customers, the same way we appreciate you, our viewers and listeners. They offer you something original and totally unique, like their eleven acres of wood wall paneling, flooring, trim, beams, slabs, well, you name it. Every single piece has a story behind it. Wood from old barns, historic homesteads, even historic factories. And that amazing wood can be part of your story too. Right there in your home can be a piece of American history, brought back to life, custom milled and refinished to your specifications. So it not only tells its original story, but also speaks to who you are and how special your home is. Superior Hardwoods also has exotic woods, live edge slabs, prefinished and unfinished flooring too. All in stock and ready to go. Need help picking out the right material? Just ask. Their team has been doing this since 1977. They know how to guide you through the woods. Swing into their beautiful showroom at 5120 Highway 93 South in Missoula. Or you can just check them out online at superior-hardwoods.com. That's superior Hardwoods of Montana. Local, knowledgeable, family run, and ready to help you build something that lasts. Let them guide you through the woods at superior-hardwoods.com. Superior Hardwoods of Montana. Go see 'em. In fact, in the the the commercial that ran here, uh, you folks that watch this podcast regularly, you know that we break in with our with our uh uh sponsor stuff, and and uh we were showing some of the paneling from their corral boards and pretty pretty incredible.

SPEAKER_05 53:00

Well, and that's where the like this table, this wood came from, Sapiere Hardwoods. Um and and that's a thing when you grow, and this is what I also want people to know like why does Trump talk about bringing back American manufacturing? Frankly, I wish they would talk and act on it more. Yeah, but why is it so important? It's not just about the building right here and and the people within it, it's about what American manufacturing supports outside of like this building. So if you take Montana Knife Company, for example, you know, the wood for all these tables bought at Superior Hardwoods, right? Will Clark, uh Angela Clark, the veterinarian here in town, her husband built all the tables in the coffee shop, built these, uh, all of the steel bases on these tables, like those are cutouts, knife cutouts are blanks. True enough. All that was made by Bitter Welding here in Missoula. Uh-huh. Right? Uh all of the our we have we have $10 million in cash right now out around the country in supply chain today. That's how much cash is in the system, in our country, out at different places, uh, bringing stuff in to our supply chain to make the knives. To make our knives. The hardwood cutting blocks that we sell, the uh the um um cutting boards and the and the knife blocks for storing your chef's knives are all made in billings by Montana Block. Our leather sheaths are made by Teton Leather in Idaho. She has five or six employees now just supporting our business. So the point is when you grow American manufacturing wherever it's at, it has these tentacles that affect the entire nation.

SPEAKER_01 54:34

Back to that that that freedom point of it that because we all can just start our own businesses and that, that's what makes our country so strong when we focus back on that manufacturing is it it's it involves us all.

SPEAKER_05 54:49

You know, they make you know GM cars right in Detroit. Well, it's not just in Detroit that that affects things. I guarantee a GM has things happening all over the nation that are feeding those plants, right? And so that that that American manufacturing doesn't just support where you would, you know, kind of think of Boeing in Seattle. Well, I see the fuselages go by on the train all the time. They're coming from somewhere, yeah, right? So Boeing, whatever they're doing in Seattle or in up in northwest Washington, that is supporting a guarantee of being supported by thousands of shops across America, and that's why we need to grow American manufacturing.

SPEAKER_01 55:28

Yeah, without a doubt. Uh that's that's actually national security.

SPEAKER_05 55:33

It really is. It's funny you say that. I told uh Kurt Almy that's running for Senate, did a tour here the other day, and I told him if we got into a really bad war situation, uh, World War, and and we needed uh to ramp up manufacturing of something for the defense uh system, the government could come in here today and say, you don't make knives anymore, you make these parts for these missiles or these parts for this tank or plane or whatever.

SPEAKER_01 56:02

They did in World War II, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 56:03

That's what they did, yeah. And so our our by us building this building, it makes and and growing this manufacturing, it actually in a certain way uh makes our country safer, right? Because all these CNC machines and all this stuff out here, they're just making parts, right? And right now they're making parts to make knives, but they could be converted over to make parts for anything. And so again, if we have a big US manufacturing base all across this nation making parts from cars to boats to knives, any of that stuff could be repurposed and retooled to support national defense in a worst-case scenario, like we did in World War II.

SPEAKER_01 56:45

And then when you look at making it here in Montana, um, and I won't keep you too much longer, but I I really wanted to talk about this because Montana has a very unique uh uh resource. My dad used to talk about it all the time. He said, our our biggest resource in Montana is the people. Yeah, uh the people are amazing in this state. They are these can do folks that can figure it out. And I mean, you've got over a hundred people working in your facility right now that you know when they first started, maybe never really did that before.

SPEAKER_03 57:22

Right.

SPEAKER_01 57:23

But they you trained them, they figured it out, and they show up for work every day and they get it done.

SPEAKER_03 57:28

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 57:28

Uh that's key. And so for so long, our state to make it uh after you grew up, you had to move out of Montana to make a living. Yeah, and then you'd come back here. So we we're exporting our most important resource. We are, and my dad used to it just used to God rest his soul, it used to just drive him crazy. He said, We're losing our most important resource, we should be doing it all right here. He was right, and you're doing that, yeah. And what that does is we when I talked to the the folks that put in the new ammunition company over there in um by uh Miles City and and that uh I'm trying to think of the name now. Sorry guys, but um they were on our podcast a while back, and I mean that thing is growing, it's all basically just military right now. But I said you could have put that company anywhere in the United States. Why Montana? He said it was we picked Montana because it was the people.

SPEAKER_05 58:30

Yep. No, and that's that's all that's all that's we have found that I knew that. I I knew that all along, and a great example of that is Tristan that works on our shop. Uh Tristan was my first employee. Um uh he was a senior at Hellgate High School when I hired him. It was in the spring of 21. Uh, and he was coming out after school and on the weekends, um, helping me in my shop. And, you know, I had no experience in doing this stuff. Uh he stuck with us, he started growing, started learning, scaling with the business. He now, uh, and same with Melissa, she started uh uh probably eight months after him. She had no idea what she was doing at that time either. Those two now both manage about 40 people each on our manufacturing floor. They're both making six figures. And they've they've they've grown with this business, but it's because of their work ethic, it's because of their core values that they have, they lead by example, they're just great young people. Um and there's examples of that all over our business where we most of our hiring we do is we bring people in that have no idea how to do what we're doing, and we train them up, but we have basically no HR issues, we have great culture, it's just Montana people, yeah, right. And and we are pretty hard in our our interviewing process, and I do tell people don't get discouraged if you don't get a job the first time because we have a lot of applicants, yeah. Um and we have hired people on their second and third interviews, uh, but Montana people uh it does make it easier in a way to grow a business when you have people like that because you can just trust them to get the job done and you're not gonna deal with BS from them.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:19

Uh one of my tenants and one of my rentals, a young guy, and he said, Montana knife company is my dream job. Yeah, that's where I want to be. That's my dream job. And he applied, didn't get hired. Yeah. Uh and I said, Well, you know, don't give up. I mean, if that's your dream job, he said, No, I'm gonna work there. Yeah, good. I am gonna work there. That's awesome. And you know that that that said something right there that that people not only want to buy the knives, they want to work at the place. Uh, before we go, one last thing. You do more than knives now. Uh you you're wearing some of the gear uh on you. Um so you you're now into accessories and and that sort of stuff. What made you decide to do that? I know for some companies that can be uh tough because you're getting away from your core, but that really seems to have taken off for you guys.

SPEAKER_05 1:01:13

It has. I mean, we'll do you know seven or eight million dollars this year just in apparel. And and that should tell you something that Montana is special. Like, like I don't know a lot of people that want, and no, no offense to these states, I'm just gonna pull examples, but I don't know a lot of people that want to wear you know, Louisiana Knife Company or you know, Connecticut Knife Company or something on their hat. But for some reason, we have hundreds of thousands of people wanting to wear Montana Knife Company gear, right? And and it and it's hugely helpful to us. When people buy our hats and our t-shirts and whatnot, uh, you're helping advertise our brand for us. When you walk to your closet every day and you choose a shirt and you put it on, you're a walking billboard for whatever that company is. And I hope when you put our knife shirt or our knife hat on and it says Montana Knife Company on it, that you feel like you're a part of a family, that you are representing something that you can be proud of that represents your values. Um, and it is hard to represent a knife because it's in your pocket or in your sheath or whatever. And so for us, we see our hats and our shirts showing up in people's you know, Instagram pages and on in magazine articles and wherever, right? Um, and it's truly, I think, a movement and it and it's a community. Um and so we started seeing that with t-shirts and hats, and so now we've started edging towards more technical apparel. Like, I would like to get to the point where we can offer really legitimate uh core hunting gear that you can actually wear. We have some, like some of our base layers right now are merino bull base layers are amazing. I have a guy right now that's hiking, a friend that's hiking the Appalachian Trail. He's 400 miles in and he's wearing our merino base layer the whole time. Um, and so he said, you know, that's that's a pretty legit test. Uh we also want to, you know, edge into some of the other accessories around the hunting industry. Um, and I think you'll start seeing more and more of that. It's a brand, it's not just a knife company, it is a brand. Yeah, and that's back to that drumming high school speech. You can grow a major national brand in a tiny town, you know. Um, and we're nowhere, no, nowhere near done yet. I mean, five months ago, all of these people here were reporting to work at my house in Fringetown. Like we've only been in this building since January, you know. Uh and and with this building, I will have to say, you know, we could have built a big cinder block box for a lot less money, right? That we could have just made knives in. Why did we spend all this money on the glass, on the way that it looks? I hope that when people from our state and our valley drive by this, they're really proud of what they see on the hill. You know, I'm tired of driving the interstate and seeing giant corporations building these shitty looking boxes that we as citizens have to look at on our way to work every day. I wanted the big American flag, the glass windows, the really nice branding. I wanted it to be something that where if you just commute by it every day to your office, you can go, that's cool, that's a local brand I'm proud of.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:29

Well, and back to that whole customer thing. That's that's my knife company. That's where I get my knives. Yeah, you know, the the the people take ownership in it, and you've really I think accomplished that. That it's it's their company too.

SPEAKER_05 1:04:43

It's and even if you can't afford our knife, you know, we have a lot of people that do buy our hats and shirts that say someday I'm gonna be able to afford a knife. Even if you just buy a $20 t-shirt and you wear it, you again, it's about those core values and and what you believe in. Maybe you can't quite afford a $300 knife yet. If you're on a budget and you're trying to afford your rent in your apartment in Missoula, like I get it. Um and and but come out and have a cup of coffee and still be a part of the family, even if you don't have a knife, you know. And and well, I also inspired, you'll get there.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:16

Yeah, you know, you gotta get inspired and and and that's the other thing with this.

SPEAKER_05 1:05:20

I hope it does inspire other people to, you know, chase their dreams, quit that job and go chase their American dream and build it from their garage. Like I want to show, like, I'm nothing special. I was a C student in Lincoln that grew up doing excavation, right? And uh and I was a lineman at the power company. I I'm not some I don't have a business degree. I've duck hunted my way right out of Montana State. Um you know, I didn't didn't get a degree. You don't have to be something special, you can just have the core work ethic values of a Montana and make it work. And and I hope when people come into this state, it's another thing I'm proud of. When you come into the Missoula Valley now, though. First building from the west that you see as you hit Missoula is Montana Knife Company, which I think just for this valley, yeah, is a secretly for myself, like it feels good. You know, we you know, Missoula's a great town, it's a great place to live. Uh you know, politics-wise, maybe doesn't quite totally align with me all the time.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:21

Uh it can it can frustrate you.

SPEAKER_05 1:06:23

But but I'm I'm real proud that the first business you now see is Montana Knife Company and what the values that we represent.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:31

Well, uh you you built a special business and uh for outdoors folks, uh this is something we can all be proud of. Because you know, if so often we have we buy all this gear when we're out hunting or fishing or whatever, and none of it's from here. Right. So now we've we've got something that's from here that we can we can be proud of. One of the big questions I get a lot though, uh from fishermen, we have a ton of fishermen that listen to that, is okay, are they gonna make a really just true great fillet knife?

SPEAKER_05 1:07:03

Yep. Well, we have one. Uh we just I'll I'll fully admit that they're a pain in the butt to build, and we are working actually. Part of the building of this of this construction of this building was to bring in some specialized grinding equipment to be able to more accurately and easily grind those big long thin knives. We have a really great fillet knife, but uh admittedly we just haven't put out a ton of them because they're they're hard to get exactly right. Yeah, but yes, the fishing industry is something that we plan in the next 18 months to start making more stuff for. Uh so we hear you fishermen.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:39

Um that's the number one question I get about you guys.

SPEAKER_05 1:07:42

In fact, we were just talking with my my daughter's boyfriend is fishing up on Flathead Lake going after all those lake trout right now.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:49

Mac days.

SPEAKER_05 1:07:50

Mac days, yeah. And uh we were talking about what happens with all those fish, and we I I feel like we need a new knife called the Mac uh at some point. So you know, just for Mac days, I think.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:02

But uh we well and then we gotta get you over for the uh Governor's Cup fishing tournament one of these days so you can meet all those folks in Glasgow.

SPEAKER_05 1:08:11

I would love to.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:12

I I admit it's two big tournaments coming up.

SPEAKER_05 1:08:14

I have to say I love fishing and I am just terrible at it. Uh but I haven't done a lot of I've done some fly fishing. I'm just not uh I I'm I'm just not a great fisherman, but I want to learn and get better. I need to go with some old guys that are good at it and learn it.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:31

Um come out with me and the captain, and uh I don't know if we'll we'll teach you uh a whole lot that's that uh you you don't know, but I know you'll have a good time. Yeah, and you'll meet some people that are the salt of the earth, you know.

SPEAKER_05 1:08:44

Yeah, oh I have no doubt.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:46

Fishermen and fisherwomen, they're they're awesome. And we're so excited for the the town of Glasgow to now have not only the governor cup, but this year, the first year having the big uh King Salmon tournament there.

SPEAKER_05 1:08:59

And I I will say exciting, you know, this is what people don't understand that aren't from here. The hunting industry, the fishing industry, the it's a massive financial impact for those small towns out there. Like I, you know, you go during meal deer season, you go into a bar in Jordan, Montana, or a hotel, and they're all full. That town is full of people. I'm sure the ranchers and farmers around there get a little tired of hunters at times, and sometimes we sometimes, you know, some of us leave some gates open and don't do the greatest job. I I think for the most part, hunters are really respectful of people's land. But uh also I do think those guys out there know that hunting and fishermen it it's a it's a big part of their economy out there, and uh and I and I encourage people to go out there and spend money and tip well and because those those waitresses in those small towns, those people working in those areas need that need that revenue.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:53

So well, and they earn your money. That's what I love about it. They earn it. Yeah, you know, they do. Well, this has been a great. I I I hope you won't be a stranger and and come back and do this again with us sometime and absolutely and that, and uh um, you know, who knows, maybe one day you can make the the Montana Outdoor Podcast knife or something.

SPEAKER_05 1:10:13

There you go. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:15

Uh we we would love that.

SPEAKER_05 1:10:16

Uh well we could sure we could sure uh probably put your guys' logo on one and you could do a giveaway on your podcast with it or something. There you go. Help help you drive some more uh some more listeners.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:26

So there you go. Well, we we love the fact that so many of you out there uh have sent me these emails saying, hey, we want to learn more about that company. So that's what I want you to do. Uh and and I know you've been busier and heck getting this whole new place done, but I'm glad that you made some some time for us so we could. So there you go, folks. There you you met the guy behind it. And uh now get out there and send us your questions. Uh, and I will pass them on to Josh because now we've got his ear, so you know, tell us what what you're looking for in those knives. And uh the other thing is send us send us some pictures of you using one of your Montana knives. Yes, yeah, uh send those in. I'd love to kind of sprinkle those in the podcast too.

SPEAKER_05 1:11:11

So yeah, and tag us on Instagram and Facebook on those photos because that's one thing we're great about is we reshare your guys' photos, you know, the customers. We a lot of hunting pages don't read their we we treat our DMs and our social media like a customer service email. So every single one of them gets answered. Um, and so we love sharing out people's pictures with them, with their deer or their fish or whatever.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:35

So yeah, and montanaoutdoor.com that's we do a lot of that, and it's it's been so fun to be able to go go on the journey with everybody. So there you have it, folks. Uh, thank you for joining us. Let us know in the uh podcast description. You're gonna be able to go straight to the Montana Knife Company website. So just look there, you can click on that, boom you go, and then uh uh or you could, of course, send your messages to me. My uh email's on the screen right now, and you and you can send them to me. I'll get them on to Josh so uh that you can get your questions answered and that until we talk again, folks. Be safe and be good to each other. We'll see you next time on the Montana Outdoor Podcast.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:16

Thanks for watching the Montana Outdoor Podcast. You know there's no way we could do this podcast without the incredible support of sponsors like Superior Hardwoods of Montana, home of the largest selection of in-stock, high-end wood products and flooring in the western United States. Let them guide you through the woods at superior-hardwoods.com. And of course, Rocky Mountain Truck and Trailer in Missoula, home of both snow plows and accessories, and Diamond C trailers and accessories. Go see them on the web at rmtte.com. We'd love to hear what you thought of this week's podcast. When you get a minute or two, shoot us an email and tell us your thoughts. Same goes if you have any questions for rigor or this week's guest. Just send your questions or comments to downrigger at montanaoutdoor.com. Hey, don't forget we should be dropping a new podcast this next Saturday. Until then, gang, we hope to see you soon out in Montana's great outdoors.