Josh Smith - CEO of Montana Knife Company

Cleared Hot

Society & Culture

4.9 • 11K Ratings

🗓️ 13 May 2024

⏱️ 119 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Josh grew up in Lincoln, Montana on the edge of the Bob Marshall Wilderness. At the age of 11 Josh’s baseball coach, Rick Dunkerley, began teaching him how to make knives. In the very beginning, Josh would go to Rick’s shop where he learned to remove stock blades under the guidance of Rick.

About a year later, Josh began putting a shop together at his home. Josh’s Dad gave him room to work in his equipment shop, and at the age of 12 Josh joined the American Bladesmith Society. Over the next few years Josh began forging and honing his craft. Josh turned 14 at the Eugene Oregon knife show where he met other incredible knife makers, all too willing to share their talents and knowledge with Josh.

At 15 years old, Josh passed the Journeyman bladesmith test in Atlanta, Georgia at the Blade Show. Josh became the youngest bladesmith to ever pass this test. The Journeyman test is a two part process. A test blade must be forged and heat treated with the capabilities to chop a 1” rope in half, 2- 2x4’s in half and then still shave hair. Once the cutting tests are done the blade must be able to bend 90 degrees in a vise without breaking. After passing the performance test the maker must present 5 knives to a panel of Mastersmith Judges. Each knife is examined closely to ensure the knife is made to the highest standard of craftsmanship. At the Journeyman level a maker is not expected to show perfection but is expected to show a sufficient level of craftsmanship expected from a professional bladesmith.

Josh continued to work on his craft and at the age of 19 he earned his Master Smith rating from the American Bladesmith Society. Josh was the youngest bladesmith to ever pass the Master Smith test.

In 2002 Josh moved to Frenchtown, Montana where he now calls home. Josh and his wife Jessica live on a beautiful piece of property near the Clark Fork river. They have 3 daughters and 1 son that are active in sports. Josh coaches the youth tackle football team and a youth girls basketball team. The Smith kids raise cattle and hogs in 4H in addition to their sports. Jessica is the customer service and fulfillment manager for MKC.

Wolf 21- Check out what they have to offer for the best sleep of your life:

https://www.thewolf21.com

Use Code: "clearedhot" for 30% off of your 1st order T

he Speed of War Comic Series: https://www.thespeedofwar.com/

Check out the newest Cleared Hot Gear here: https://shop.clearedhotpodcast.com/

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Good morning everybody here we go again but before we get into today's episode let's talk about the brand that makes this podcast possible that's right it's black rifle coffee
0:10.0	let's head to their website normally I go the rotating painter, which I'll start off with.
0:15.0	It's the 22 count rounds.
0:18.0	You can add those to the coffee club subscription.
0:22.0	If you're not familiar with that, you can see them in the upper right hand side.
0:24.4	They're kind of like a currig essentially. I think that's a brand name though as opposed to a specific product,
0:29.7	but that's what they go in. I was going to go through the website but up here on the click here
0:35.9	button supporting veteran causes with every cup see how this is way more
0:40.4	important to me. This is why I like Black Rifle Coffee. Year to date, they have donated
0:46.6	17,131 bags of coffee. They have made 50 grand in large donations and 364,746 dollars in monetary donations through the
1:01.3	BRCC philanthropic endeavors veteran LEO fire and
1:05.0	conservation efforts and their donation pathways. This is just a year to date.
1:10.4	It's going to continue to get bigger and bigger. That's what I like about the
1:14.2	brand as much if not more than their coffee in addition to of course the founders.
1:18.8	And the normal website is everything that I've already talked to you about many times.
1:24.0	Again, these logo diner mugs, they're pretty bomb.
1:28.0	They're pretty badass.
1:29.0	They're fire, as my daughter would say.
1:31.0	Not exactly sure what that means, but that's what she says in
1:36.1	addition to other words that I have to look up on either Google or Urban Dictionary
1:39.8	but that's a story for a different day. Episode 325 is with my friend Josh Smith.
1:45.0	He's been on the podcast a few times.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Cleared Hot, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Cleared Hot and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.