Episode 379 - Josh Smith

Cleared Hot

Society & Culture

4.9 • 11K Ratings

🗓️ 24 March 2025

⏱️ 104 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

As Montana Knife Company’s Founder and Owner, Josh Smith is the Master Bladesmith behind creating and designing working knives for working people that are built to last for generations. 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.

https://www.montanaknifecompany.com/

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back. We're going to go with a slightly different format for this Monday.
0:05.5	And I'm curious to hear how it is received. I think it was pretty cool. Two weeks ago, I flew down and I visited Josh Smith and did a podcast with him. He is today's guest.
0:16.2	And if you consume the podcast through a medium that has video, YouTube or Spotify, you'll notice
0:23.7	that I have two main sponsors on every thumbnail.
0:26.0	One is Montana Knife Company.
0:27.2	The other one is Black Rifle Coffee.
0:28.7	And today is an awesome day because I get to combine the two.
0:31.8	But I flew down there and we did a little bit of a vlog to show you behind the scenes and then also a podcast.
0:39.3	And then his team did an amazing job and put those two together.
0:43.0	So if you're on an audio only format today, you might hear some things or hear us talking about some things you may not be able to, you'll be able to follow, but it might have a little bit less context if you're in a video platform and today I would recommend perhaps consuming this via
0:58.8	video because you'll get to see the vlog aspect and the podcast aspect I think it's a really cool
1:02.9	blend and I'm curious to hear what the audience thinks I definitely would not be able to do this with
1:08.6	every guest because of the proximity that I have to Josh.
1:12.7	But it's also not a bad idea.
1:14.6	So I can play with it a little bit.
1:16.2	So again, I said Josh Smith is the guest for today, episode 379, founder of Montana Knife Company.
1:22.8	If you listen to the podcast, you've heard me do a bunch of ad reads about them.
1:25.6	They're just down in Frenchtown, Montana, getting ready to move into Missoula when their building is done. It's a really cool brand.
1:32.6	Born and Bresd here in Montana, roots in Montana, and definitely growing globally. So that's the episode
1:37.9	we're going to get into. Before we get into that, give me a second. Let me talk about the other co-presenting sponsor of the podcast. You guys know I'm talking about. It's Black Rifle Coffee. Let's pay the bills real fast. This episode is brought to you by
1:48.8	Black Rifle Coffee. Let's mosey on over to their website, shall we? What do we have here? We have
1:53.7	buy one, get one free. Coffee bags and K cups. Very straightforward. We have the roast they offer some new releases. They've actually dropped a good
	...

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