"Forging a New Path" with Justin Lamoureux

[00:00:00] A lot of my time was being consumed with that and then come in late into the evening and I'll have that relationship with her, with the kids as much.

[00:00:10] Now that I'm just doing this, now maybe my mind is occupied with business stuff, but I feel like I could spend more time with the kids and with my wife.

[00:00:20] So it's definitely positives in that respect and way more receptive where she'll be like,

[00:00:27] you know what happened with my grade six students? And I'll be like, oh no, tell me.

[00:00:32] I am honestly kind of curious.

[00:00:35] Yeah.

[00:00:35] Well, and you're on an island, you're by yourself in the shop all the time.

[00:00:39] Right, right.

[00:00:39] I am, but there's still like, I have my community.

[00:00:42] Yeah, of course.

[00:00:43] There's a bunch of guys on Instagram that I've met and chatted with and we'll send each other messages.

[00:00:49] Yeah, that's good. So you're not like, yeah, you talked about your community and your group, your association.

[00:00:55] Yeah, yeah, totally.

[00:00:56] Totally.

[00:00:56] Guild.

[00:00:57] Guild.

[00:00:57] The guild, sorry, it's a guild.

[00:01:19] Welcome everybody back to another episode of the Quiet Riot Show. It's going to be a good one today.

[00:01:26] I'm excited about it because it's our new sponsor that's joining us today.

[00:01:30] We have a sponsor?

[00:01:31] We have a new sponsor, yes.

[00:01:32] We have a new sponsor?

[00:01:32] Yeah.

[00:01:33] Hey, awesome.

[00:01:33] Yeah, we have a new sponsor. Sponsor, yeah, and replacing another one, I guess.

[00:01:40] Yeah, that's fine. That's part of it.

[00:01:41] Yeah, yeah, that happens. And yeah, just I've known this guy for a while and I'm looking forward to this episode.

[00:01:50] Me too, actually.

[00:01:51] Yeah.

[00:01:51] I don't know much about him, but I know what he does for a living and that's exciting.

[00:01:56] Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[00:01:56] And nobody who does that for a living is probably boring or anything like that. They probably have a bit of a story.

[00:02:03] Yeah.

[00:02:04] So I'm excited to find out. Yeah, for sure. Fuck, it's cold today.

[00:02:08] Ugh.

[00:02:09] It's been, I've been, like, I spent my whole day today in a hoodie and a freezer jacket, like, even at work. Like, I didn't take it off.

[00:02:17] It's awful.

[00:02:18] It's cold inside, like, yeah, just, just nasty.

[00:02:21] I don't like it.

[00:02:22] If you're listening to this from somewhere warmer, fuck you.

[00:02:25] Yeah, or be happier there.

[00:02:27] Or there's that, I guess, too. Sorry.

[00:02:30] You know, I play sponge hockey and that's our season's...

[00:02:33] Has that started right?

[00:02:34] Yeah, so our sport, or like the competitive one, starts next Saturday, so it, on the 21st, so it'll be just before this episode comes out.

[00:02:47] But we play sponge hockey on the river as well.

[00:02:51] Oh, yeah, you got that spot there, yeah.

[00:02:53] And that's, that's already, yesterday was the second time that they, the guys got together. I didn't go, I was just like, been, I had too much work to do, so.

[00:03:02] So, I'm planning on going next week, but yeah, it's been, it's been cold, so, you know, once you, once you get the fire going and start moving, it's okay.

[00:03:09] It's just that initial of stepping out into the cold and, you know, getting out there.

[00:03:14] No thanks.

[00:03:15] But we'll have to have you come out, though, on a nicer night.

[00:03:18] It's, it's fucking good times because you're sitting, standing around the fire, having some drinks and...

[00:03:23] I'm in to those things if it's warmer.

[00:03:25] Yeah.

[00:03:25] Yeah.

[00:03:26] Yeah, we do have warmer nights, too, so.

[00:03:28] Yeah, but having drinks, that's going to be February. It's going to be freezing.

[00:03:31] Yeah, not always. We'll, we'll figure it out.

[00:03:34] Okay.

[00:03:35] Yeah.

[00:03:35] We, we usually do bring a cooler just to keep our drinks warm.

[00:03:40] Because otherwise, beers freeze.

[00:03:42] Yeah.

[00:03:43] So, anyways, let's, let's bring in our guest.

[00:03:47] Sure.

[00:03:48] Okay.

[00:03:55] All right.

[00:03:55] All right.

[00:03:56] I'd like to introduce our guest for today and it's Justin Lamoureux.

[00:04:01] It's one of our sponsors from Rainy Day Forge.

[00:04:04] What's up, guys?

[00:04:04] How's it going?

[00:04:05] Welcome to the studio.

[00:04:06] Happy to be here.

[00:04:07] It's, it's quite awesome.

[00:04:10] He's been, you can tell he's been on mics before.

[00:04:12] Yes.

[00:04:13] Yeah.

[00:04:13] Oh, yeah.

[00:04:14] Yeah.

[00:04:14] You can hear it.

[00:04:15] You can feel it.

[00:04:15] He, we can, we, we can probably dive into that a little bit later because he's been behind

[00:04:21] a mic in front of a camera.

[00:04:24] He's, his social media is fantastic.

[00:04:26] Like what you're doing for your business.

[00:04:28] It's funny.

[00:04:29] It's entertaining.

[00:04:30] It's, it's informative too.

[00:04:33] You, uh, like your YouTube videos are awesome.

[00:04:36] And, um, like you got into this new business or this job or hobby, what you love doing.

[00:04:44] And I think you've probably learned all these extra skills along the way to do that.

[00:04:49] So we can, we can dig into that.

[00:04:51] Um, have you listened to our show?

[00:04:53] I have.

[00:04:54] Okay.

[00:04:54] So you know about our check-in and we like to, we like to do the check-in first and then

[00:04:59] we'll, we'll just see where the conversation goes.

[00:05:08] So since last time I am a, probably I would say about a seven.

[00:05:16] It's been, that's pretty good.

[00:05:18] Yeah.

[00:05:18] It's been very, very challenging week, but somehow I'm managing everything.

[00:05:26] Like I'm getting shit done.

[00:05:28] You know, part of me thought when November ended that, okay, things are going to calm down

[00:05:34] and nothing ever.

[00:05:36] No, no, it just doesn't end.

[00:05:37] It's like, Oh no, no, this, this, this happens.

[00:05:40] And that happens in Christmas concert and then Christmas get togethers.

[00:05:44] And yeah, it's just busy, but like I'm managing it like mentally.

[00:05:47] I'm managing it physically too.

[00:05:50] Like, uh, I, I've been catching up on podcasts, you know, that I've haven't listened for half

[00:05:56] a year or more.

[00:05:57] So yeah, just overall, I, like, I feel in a good place.

[00:06:01] So, so I'm, yeah, I'm happy that's before Christmas.

[00:06:04] What is a 10 though?

[00:06:06] Like I've been listening to the pod.

[00:06:09] We don't know.

[00:06:09] And I'm like, okay, they keep saying like, I'm a six, I'm a five.

[00:06:13] And I'm like, what are the references?

[00:06:15] Like what's a 10?

[00:06:17] I don't know.

[00:06:18] Yeah.

[00:06:18] I think a 10.

[00:06:18] I've never been a 10.

[00:06:21] Like, can you hit a 10 or is it just like holidays?

[00:06:24] Well, everyone's got their own.

[00:06:25] I think a 10 would be me being on vacation, fishing, sipping on whiskey or something and

[00:06:30] not having issues.

[00:06:31] That would be a 10 for me.

[00:06:33] We could bump you up till an eight right now.

[00:06:35] Yeah.

[00:06:36] Oh, that would be, I would have a glass of whiskey.

[00:06:39] That would be a hard 10.

[00:06:42] There's your answer.

[00:06:43] Yeah.

[00:06:43] You want to see me at a 10 for the first time ever?

[00:06:45] Fucking give me five minutes.

[00:06:49] How about yourself?

[00:06:51] Oh, like a four.

[00:06:53] Okay.

[00:06:53] Yeah.

[00:06:54] I fucking hate everything right now.

[00:06:56] Yeah.

[00:06:57] Yeah.

[00:06:57] It's been all of it.

[00:06:58] Just all of the whole everything.

[00:07:00] It all sucks.

[00:07:00] So you did say, you say something before to show that you're quitting.

[00:07:03] You're quitting the not drinking.

[00:07:05] I fucking want to so bad.

[00:07:08] Yeah.

[00:07:08] I don't think I can at this point.

[00:07:10] I mean, I think we're, you're so far already that.

[00:07:14] What are we?

[00:07:15] Like we're almost, we're almost two months in.

[00:07:19] Well, no.

[00:07:20] Almost.

[00:07:20] Like a month and a half.

[00:07:22] Month and a half.

[00:07:23] You know, halfway there.

[00:07:23] We're halfway there.

[00:07:24] It's awful.

[00:07:26] And I'm not going to spend the whole show bitching about it, but you asked.

[00:07:29] So it's fucking awful.

[00:07:30] It might happen.

[00:07:31] Part of the show, I'm guessing.

[00:07:34] It sucks shit.

[00:07:35] And I'm giving up darts.

[00:07:37] So that's a lot.

[00:07:38] Like, are you completely off now?

[00:07:39] Just vaping?

[00:07:40] I think I've had like one today.

[00:07:42] Okay.

[00:07:42] One.

[00:07:43] Yeah.

[00:07:43] I've had one today.

[00:07:44] Okay.

[00:07:44] That's, that's a big jump for you.

[00:07:46] Cause it's too cold outside.

[00:07:48] Really why I'm doing it is because it's just cold outside.

[00:07:50] I don't.

[00:07:51] That's good motivation.

[00:07:52] Like, and you know, it's going to be better for you down the line.

[00:07:56] I don't feel like, I don't feel, I don't cough as much in the mornings and stuff.

[00:08:01] That was my biggest.

[00:08:03] All the bad shit in it is like staying inside, which is good.

[00:08:07] Yeah.

[00:08:08] Yeah.

[00:08:09] I don't know.

[00:08:10] I don't think it's any better, but I think it's my next stage to like, cause I'm trying

[00:08:13] to quit all of it before spring.

[00:08:16] Cause once spring hits, forget it.

[00:08:18] Right.

[00:08:19] Like once I'm golfing, forget it.

[00:08:20] You're going to want to keep going.

[00:08:22] Yeah.

[00:08:22] It's not going to happen.

[00:08:23] So this is, I don't know.

[00:08:24] I'm doing this now.

[00:08:25] I don't fucking know why I hate myself.

[00:08:27] It's going to be hard for you to, um, doing like strict diet.

[00:08:32] Well, no darts.

[00:08:33] Well, but no booze.

[00:08:35] But once you get back to the booze, I should be a two.

[00:08:37] Yeah.

[00:08:38] But once you go back to the booze, the five minutes and it's going to be hard for you

[00:08:42] to not smoke.

[00:08:43] No, I think it'll be fine.

[00:08:45] I fucking hate winter.

[00:08:46] It's cold.

[00:08:47] I don't like it.

[00:08:47] Yeah.

[00:08:48] It's deadly.

[00:08:49] And I'm getting more angry about it year after year.

[00:08:52] And so I'm just like, it got, we had that one day that was really windy and cold.

[00:08:56] And I was like, I'm getting a fucking vape.

[00:08:58] I'm not doing this bullshit anymore.

[00:09:00] Like, fuck this.

[00:09:01] Yeah.

[00:09:01] Uh, how are you doing, Justin?

[00:09:03] Uh, pretty good.

[00:09:04] I've had a bunch of ups and downs since, uh, Cedar and Steel.

[00:09:08] Thanks guys for, for sponsoring that event.

[00:09:11] And, uh, yeah, I, I was expecting it though.

[00:09:14] Cause it's like, I've been dealing, doing just crazy projects over the last 10 years,

[00:09:22] all my life really.

[00:09:23] Anyway, I, I throw myself, myself into things and I knew, I recognized that, okay, I'm going

[00:09:30] to do this like high energy, like time consuming all output that I can do for this event.

[00:09:38] And, and usually after I do that kind of thing, I'll like, I'll hit like, not depression,

[00:09:45] but like wondering why do I feel this way?

[00:09:49] Yeah.

[00:09:49] And then I was starting to feel that and I was like, no, no, I'm just going to take

[00:09:53] a couple of days off.

[00:09:54] And like, I've worked hard.

[00:09:56] I can take a break.

[00:09:57] Yeah.

[00:09:57] I deserve it.

[00:09:59] Absolutely.

[00:10:00] Yeah.

[00:10:00] And I knew it was coming.

[00:10:01] So I was expecting it.

[00:10:03] And then, uh, COVID hit and then, oh my God, sick for a week.

[00:10:09] I couldn't do anything.

[00:10:10] And then, uh, the first day back in the shop was like, it was a drag.

[00:10:14] I was like probably a three or something that day where it was like, what the heck am

[00:10:19] I doing?

[00:10:20] That's tough.

[00:10:21] Dude.

[00:10:21] Yeah.

[00:10:21] Yeah.

[00:10:22] But like, I feel like I've, I've swung up and down with kind of just dealing with, uh,

[00:10:31] just being an entrepreneur and just, and I was a teacher for 13 years and that is a stressful

[00:10:38] job.

[00:10:38] And like, I've, I've gone on walks and laid down in the bush and just like sat in a sunny

[00:10:45] spot and went, oh, this is good.

[00:10:47] Maybe I'll just stay here forever.

[00:10:50] Yeah.

[00:10:51] Maybe I should stop teaching.

[00:10:52] But yeah.

[00:10:53] So today I'm probably at, uh, uh, let's say a seven or an eight.

[00:11:00] Okay.

[00:11:00] Yeah.

[00:11:01] Yeah.

[00:11:01] I feel like I bounced back.

[00:11:02] Look at you happy motherfuckers over here.

[00:11:04] There was a point today where I was like a five, but right now I'm an eight.

[00:11:09] I'm happy to be here.

[00:11:11] So well, and I'm happy to have you here.

[00:11:13] Thank you for being here.

[00:11:14] Thanks for joining.

[00:11:15] I, it's one of those things like I can fluctuate a lot faster than let's say Tim.

[00:11:20] Oh yeah.

[00:11:20] Like you will.

[00:11:22] I don't move quickly.

[00:11:23] No, you don't.

[00:11:23] Yeah.

[00:11:24] Like four will like, I likely won't, it'll take me days to like, something will have to

[00:11:30] change over days to shift that.

[00:11:32] Right.

[00:11:33] Yeah.

[00:11:33] But it's the same as if I'm like a seven, which is kind of my, my, my good normal.

[00:11:40] Yeah.

[00:11:40] Uh, that, that will last for a while.

[00:11:43] Like that'll, like something has to happen to change that and it can't change very quickly.

[00:11:48] Okay.

[00:11:48] Yeah.

[00:11:49] I'm a pretty like slow move on that.

[00:11:53] My roller coaster doesn't go, there's not a lot of up and down.

[00:11:56] Yeah.

[00:11:57] Yeah.

[00:11:57] That's.

[00:11:58] It's good and bad.

[00:11:59] Yeah.

[00:11:59] Cause when it sucks, it sucks for a while.

[00:12:01] And when it's good, it's great for a while.

[00:12:03] And like, I'm not like my wife who could be a one and a 10 at the same time.

[00:12:10] Okay.

[00:12:11] That happens.

[00:12:12] But there's benefits to that too.

[00:12:14] You can shift out of it fast.

[00:12:15] Like you don't have to.

[00:12:16] For sure.

[00:12:16] I think I get stuck in it and I get, I can't like, I haven't yet figured out how to shift

[00:12:21] that.

[00:12:22] And so I'm in some senses envious of people who can do that.

[00:12:26] Yeah.

[00:12:26] Yeah.

[00:12:27] Yeah.

[00:12:27] So you talked about entrepreneurship.

[00:12:29] Yeah.

[00:12:29] Let's talk about your business.

[00:12:31] What do you do?

[00:12:31] Let's get that out of the way quick.

[00:12:33] And then we'll start talking about how that happened.

[00:12:35] Sure.

[00:12:36] Yeah.

[00:12:37] Quick.

[00:12:37] We don't need to be quick.

[00:12:38] I feel rushed now.

[00:12:39] Cause Tommy.

[00:12:41] Blacksmith, bladesmith.

[00:12:41] Blacksmith.

[00:12:42] Um, I ran the Manitoba Blacksmith Guild as well.

[00:12:45] So I'm president of that, uh, that association.

[00:12:48] Um.

[00:12:49] Is that like a Freemasons type organization?

[00:12:52] No.

[00:12:53] Pretty much.

[00:12:54] It's like, like fire and steel.

[00:12:56] Yeah.

[00:12:57] That's pretty sweet.

[00:12:57] Beer.

[00:12:58] Nice.

[00:12:59] Yeah.

[00:12:59] Yeah.

[00:13:00] Beer has to be in there.

[00:13:01] Yeah.

[00:13:01] It happens.

[00:13:02] How do I join this?

[00:13:03] Yeah.

[00:13:03] Yeah.

[00:13:04] Oh, totally.

[00:13:04] It's.

[00:13:05] I just want the beer part, right?

[00:13:06] Yeah.

[00:13:08] Generally we do an event in, in June, uh, another one in August and another end of September.

[00:13:15] Okay.

[00:13:15] So we organize events.

[00:13:16] Um, we're trying to do more in the winter, but it's just, it's tough.

[00:13:20] Yeah.

[00:13:20] Who has a large enough shop that wants a bunch of, I don't know, sweaty dudes in their shop.

[00:13:29] What are you guys doing?

[00:13:30] With fire.

[00:13:31] And like.

[00:13:32] Yeah.

[00:13:32] Yeah.

[00:13:33] It's just not as convenient.

[00:13:35] We can do smaller like events in the winter time and it's been on our radar to do, but

[00:13:40] it's, uh, yeah, it just, we're fairly new as an association.

[00:13:44] We're only like four or five years old.

[00:13:46] So.

[00:13:47] Oh wow.

[00:13:47] Yeah.

[00:13:47] Yeah.

[00:13:48] And is that like the purpose of that?

[00:13:50] Just a community thing?

[00:13:51] Is it about building community amongst yourselves or each other or?

[00:13:54] It's about community, but our mandate's more about education.

[00:13:59] Okay.

[00:13:59] And the arts.

[00:14:01] Okay.

[00:14:01] So promotion of, uh, blacksmithing as an art form.

[00:14:04] Yeah.

[00:14:05] Okay.

[00:14:05] Nice.

[00:14:06] So yeah, we will, an event basically is composed of, uh, a morning session where there's a

[00:14:12] demonstrator showing everyone how to do a different project.

[00:14:17] Yeah.

[00:14:18] Yeah.

[00:14:18] And, uh, the rest of the day is pretty much people trying to recreate that project.

[00:14:23] Oh, okay.

[00:14:23] And our executive kind of walks around and helps everybody out that's, uh, a little bit

[00:14:29] younger, a bit newer to the, to the craft.

[00:14:32] And, uh, we hope no one gets burnt really.

[00:14:36] Yeah.

[00:14:37] Yeah.

[00:14:37] It happens.

[00:14:38] Yeah.

[00:14:38] But yeah.

[00:14:39] Well, it's gotta be part of it.

[00:14:40] Oh yeah.

[00:14:41] It's part of the trade.

[00:14:42] Yeah.

[00:14:42] Yeah.

[00:14:43] Yeah.

[00:14:43] Yeah.

[00:14:43] Definitely.

[00:14:43] Yeah.

[00:14:44] So how did you end up doing that?

[00:14:48] Uh, well for myself, it was forged in fire.

[00:14:52] Saw it on TV.

[00:14:53] That kind of like opened my eyes.

[00:14:56] That show was awesome.

[00:14:57] Yeah.

[00:14:57] I watched it.

[00:14:58] I only watched like few episodes.

[00:15:00] Yeah.

[00:15:00] I like binged on it for a little bit.

[00:15:02] Yeah.

[00:15:02] Cause you get into it wherever, wherever there's like entertaining and there's fire and there's

[00:15:07] time constraints.

[00:15:08] Yeah.

[00:15:09] It's, it is art.

[00:15:09] So.

[00:15:10] And what I like about the, these, uh, skills, yeah.

[00:15:14] Like that, that these are skills that have been around for years.

[00:15:18] Oh yeah.

[00:15:19] And some of it, yeah.

[00:15:20] And then there's some of it, some of it that has, you know, the automation came out, right?

[00:15:25] The new modern technology.

[00:15:27] And, and it kind of took away from that.

[00:15:29] Right.

[00:15:29] Because like, I mean, you can get these knives mass produced, you know, in a factory and,

[00:15:35] but they're really like, there are some good knives that are mass brewed, but they're,

[00:15:38] most of them are, let's be honest, they're shit.

[00:15:40] Yeah.

[00:15:41] Yeah.

[00:15:41] Like you're trying to sharpen them and it'll last you like, you know, through five tomatoes

[00:15:46] and then you got to sharpen it again.

[00:15:47] It's like, fuck, it's just a tomato.

[00:15:49] For a while, my Instagram algorithm had fucking knife ads in it.

[00:15:54] Oh yeah.

[00:15:54] Yeah.

[00:15:55] So crazy though.

[00:15:56] Like, Oh, Japanese Santoku knife.

[00:15:58] And I was like, I want one of those so bad.

[00:16:00] And I'm like, it's only like 60 bucks.

[00:16:03] I'm like, that's not a knife for me.

[00:16:04] Like, no.

[00:16:05] Yeah.

[00:16:05] That should not be $60 if it's worth anything.

[00:16:08] No.

[00:16:08] Yeah.

[00:16:08] Like that's not going to cut shit.

[00:16:10] Exactly.

[00:16:10] Yeah.

[00:16:10] So it's, it's, it's just nice to see that like this, this old profession is coming back

[00:16:17] to more of a art almost.

[00:16:21] It's always been art component.

[00:16:22] Always been, but before they built it because it was out of necessity.

[00:16:27] Right.

[00:16:27] Yeah.

[00:16:27] Uh, you needed, uh, like, you know, for wars, right?

[00:16:31] Like back in the days where there was no guns.

[00:16:33] Um, what did they use?

[00:16:35] They used, uh, yeah.

[00:16:37] Right.

[00:16:38] Yeah.

[00:16:38] I mean, they, they used knives and swords and axes and those are all handmade.

[00:16:43] Yeah.

[00:16:44] Yeah.

[00:16:44] By a plaques.

[00:16:45] I think a lot of it comes from, and I've heard someone say it, so I'm just repeating

[00:16:50] what someone else is saying, but from food network, as soon as like celebrity chef started

[00:16:55] to appear and then it was like, Holy, that guy is not using my piece of crap Walmart knife

[00:17:00] that I've got.

[00:17:02] What does he have?

[00:17:03] What is that?

[00:17:03] What kind of knife is that?

[00:17:05] Like I learned so much about what kind of knives from watching food network.

[00:17:09] Right.

[00:17:09] That's what got me interested in cooking.

[00:17:11] Like when I was a little kid, I watched cooking shows, which is so weird, but I haven't talked

[00:17:15] to a lot of other people that did, but like, man, I gotta say this one, uh, two years ago

[00:17:22] at Christmas, my mother-in-law found me a walk with Yan cookbook.

[00:17:27] Oh no way.

[00:17:28] Yeah.

[00:17:28] It's fucking awesome.

[00:17:29] Yeah.

[00:17:29] Like from way back.

[00:17:30] It's like, Oh, I, when we had cable, I watched food network and there's nothing better

[00:17:35] than eating a big meal and watching food network.

[00:17:38] Somebody prepping meal.

[00:17:39] Yeah.

[00:17:39] It's like you're double dipping, you know?

[00:17:41] It was amazing.

[00:17:42] And yeah, like you look at the tools.

[00:17:44] Yeah.

[00:17:44] And Chopped, which is on food network is the inspiration for fortune fire.

[00:17:49] That's right.

[00:17:50] Yeah.

[00:17:50] Okay.

[00:17:50] The guy that produced that saw it and thought, Oh, I wonder if we could do it in like in

[00:17:55] a different format.

[00:17:56] Yeah.

[00:17:56] Making knives.

[00:17:58] And it's the same.

[00:17:59] It's the same show.

[00:18:00] Same.

[00:18:00] Yeah.

[00:18:01] It's the same.

[00:18:01] Yeah.

[00:18:02] They found a formula.

[00:18:03] Yeah.

[00:18:03] So you watched some fortune fire and you're like, I think I can do this.

[00:18:07] And you just kind of, well, it was always something I wanted to do.

[00:18:11] Like I grew up shops teacher or what was your, I was a

[00:18:14] kid that like just roamed around the bush and like cut down trees.

[00:18:20] Yeah.

[00:18:20] Outdoorsy.

[00:18:20] Like I was super outdoorsy fishing all the time and some hunting as well.

[00:18:24] And, uh, just my dad was a tinkerer, always putting around in the garage, making stuff.

[00:18:30] So I kind of followed suit kind of making stuff as well.

[00:18:35] And, and when I saw it, I was like, man, that's something I've always wanted to do.

[00:18:40] Like heat steel up to like, it's glowing.

[00:18:44] It's emitting light.

[00:18:45] That's awesome.

[00:18:46] Yeah.

[00:18:47] And then you hit it and you change the shape of it.

[00:18:50] Like wicked.

[00:18:51] Yeah.

[00:18:51] So when I saw some of their setups and the, like the first episodes and I was like, oh

[00:18:56] man, I could do that.

[00:18:57] No problem.

[00:18:58] So yeah.

[00:18:59] And then through the guild, well, through the guild, met a few people, formed the guild

[00:19:05] and then like just kept going with it until people were like, yeah, I'll give you money

[00:19:10] for one of your knives.

[00:19:11] And I was like, okay.

[00:19:13] Now anybody else?

[00:19:14] Like that's a big, that's a big, uh, that's a big shift.

[00:19:19] Yeah.

[00:19:20] Yeah.

[00:19:21] Dude.

[00:19:21] It has been, it's been a rough ride.

[00:19:25] Like it hasn't been easy at all.

[00:19:26] Entrepreneurship is always that way.

[00:19:28] Yeah.

[00:19:29] I don't know if anyone's had it easy.

[00:19:30] From going from a steady income, right?

[00:19:33] Yeah.

[00:19:33] Yeah.

[00:19:34] And teachers here in Manitoba make good money.

[00:19:37] Yeah.

[00:19:37] And, um, you know, to make that leap of faith, let's call it, where you just like, okay, I'm

[00:19:44] going to ignore this steady income and I'm going to try to do this, something, something

[00:19:52] that I love or enjoy doing.

[00:19:54] Well, I wasn't happy in the situation where I was teaching.

[00:19:58] It just felt, it didn't feel right to me.

[00:20:02] And for how long?

[00:20:04] Like what, what was your, what was your.

[00:20:06] A few years.

[00:20:07] Talk to us a bit about your teaching career.

[00:20:09] Like what, where'd that come from for you?

[00:20:11] Why did you get into teaching?

[00:20:12] When?

[00:20:14] I had little cousins.

[00:20:15] They always like, man, we like Justin.

[00:20:19] Like he's such a nice guy.

[00:20:22] Oh man, that sounds terrible.

[00:20:23] Just pat my own back.

[00:20:25] Look at this fucking guy over here.

[00:20:26] I'm the best in the world.

[00:20:28] Strolling in here at an age fucking.

[00:20:32] Anyway, so I, when I met my wife, she was going into education and I was like, yeah, you know

[00:20:40] what?

[00:20:40] That sounds good to me as well.

[00:20:42] Like I, I get along well with younger people.

[00:20:46] I can do this.

[00:20:48] So went through that process.

[00:20:49] I taught for about 10 years where elementary, middle years.

[00:20:57] So grade five to eight.

[00:20:58] And, uh, when you're like the one guy amongst just women.

[00:21:04] Yeah.

[00:21:04] Like the connections are nice.

[00:21:07] Like, but you're not like, I've never had like a workmate where I want to like, you want

[00:21:12] to go for a beer after work?

[00:21:13] Oh yeah.

[00:21:14] Like that, that connection never happened.

[00:21:17] Um, not, not deeply anyway, or not like it towards the end a little bit.

[00:21:22] Um, but I was like.

[00:21:24] You weren't already checked out.

[00:21:25] I was checked out.

[00:21:26] Yeah.

[00:21:27] I didn't like the system.

[00:21:28] Um, I feel like I was a good teacher and I think my students would say so as well, but,

[00:21:35] um, yeah, just maybe socially it was a disconnect and now we're completely alone.

[00:21:42] So, well, and you know, so.

[00:21:44] Total freaking hard.

[00:21:45] That's true.

[00:21:45] Yeah.

[00:21:46] And so like having, you know, the, the money's good, but that's not everything.

[00:21:50] Right.

[00:21:50] Like if you're unhappy.

[00:21:52] Right.

[00:21:53] Right.

[00:21:53] Then screw all the money.

[00:21:55] Really?

[00:21:55] Like you, you need to make that switch.

[00:21:57] I, I, at one point I was like, okay, I need to disconnect from the people even more in

[00:22:02] my school.

[00:22:03] So I would just take off at lunch, go for a walk, listen to a podcast.

[00:22:07] And they were always like business podcasts that were saying like, if you're going to

[00:22:11] do it, you got to like, like, like burn the, burn the ships.

[00:22:15] Yeah.

[00:22:16] So at some point you have to take the dive.

[00:22:19] You gotta, you gotta go in.

[00:22:21] Yeah.

[00:22:21] Yeah.

[00:22:21] So that's what I did.

[00:22:22] So I've walked into my principal's office.

[00:22:25] Now there's a ton of things that complicate that and make that really hard to do.

[00:22:28] Like quitting a, quitting a good, well, you had a good union job and you have a good, like

[00:22:34] that's, that's a hard thing to walk away from.

[00:22:36] Yeah.

[00:22:37] Yeah.

[00:22:37] I did transition a little bit where I did some, some shorter contracts.

[00:22:41] I was able to do some subbing and that, that was good.

[00:22:46] That, that created a smoother transition, but yeah, we're still, we're still trying to figure

[00:22:52] out how to be an entrepreneur, how to do it right and sell knives properly.

[00:22:57] Yeah.

[00:22:58] It's a, it's a tough game.

[00:22:59] What's your, so how long have you been doing, how long has knives been your business?

[00:23:04] Like how long have you been doing knives?

[00:23:05] I've been making knives for about eight years now and business wise, I probably sold my first

[00:23:10] knife about four or five years ago.

[00:23:13] Okay.

[00:23:13] When'd you leave your job?

[00:23:15] About three.

[00:23:16] Okay.

[00:23:16] So you're three years in.

[00:23:17] Yeah.

[00:23:18] Yeah.

[00:23:18] That's good.

[00:23:19] Three years is good.

[00:23:20] Yeah.

[00:23:20] I think so.

[00:23:21] Yeah.

[00:23:21] Yeah.

[00:23:21] How much have you learned in that three years about everything?

[00:23:25] Oh, dude.

[00:23:26] Like, okay.

[00:23:28] So I'm alone in my shop and.

[00:23:30] Is your shop at home?

[00:23:31] Yeah.

[00:23:31] Like is it on your.

[00:23:32] Yeah.

[00:23:32] It's at home.

[00:23:32] Yeah.

[00:23:33] It's on my property.

[00:23:34] So I could, I don't need to commute.

[00:23:36] Which can be good or bad.

[00:23:38] Well, it cuts down expenses on vehicles.

[00:23:40] Yeah.

[00:23:40] And gas and like insurance.

[00:23:43] I hate working at home.

[00:23:45] That's why I'm like, that's a nightmare for me.

[00:23:47] I love it.

[00:23:48] Like I don't miss driving anywhere.

[00:23:51] But if your shop was in your backyard, it might be a little bit different.

[00:23:56] I would hate it.

[00:23:57] Yeah?

[00:23:57] I like, I like going somewhere.

[00:23:59] Okay.

[00:23:59] Yeah.

[00:23:59] Yeah.

[00:24:00] I don't know.

[00:24:00] Yeah.

[00:24:00] For me, it's like the act of going to a place rather than sitting at home.

[00:24:06] I do work from home some, but like most of the time I try and if I'm just doing like computer

[00:24:10] work and shit, I try and actually go to the office and just be there and do it there.

[00:24:14] Right.

[00:24:14] Yeah.

[00:24:14] Even though I know that I can only get about 25% as much done.

[00:24:18] I like going somewhere.

[00:24:19] It gives me, it gives me a sense of purpose.

[00:24:22] Yeah.

[00:24:22] More so than being at home.

[00:24:24] Yeah.

[00:24:24] Yeah.

[00:24:25] I do have that transition point where when I walk into my shop, it is a totally different

[00:24:32] environment.

[00:24:33] Yeah.

[00:24:33] Yeah.

[00:24:33] Okay.

[00:24:34] It's not, it's not home anymore.

[00:24:37] You treat it differently.

[00:24:38] Yeah.

[00:24:38] Yeah.

[00:24:38] Does your wife just walk in freely?

[00:24:41] If you're in there working or do you get a courtesy text or something?

[00:24:44] Like, is it?

[00:24:44] No, I'm just trying to, I'm trying to establishes their boundaries.

[00:24:47] Like when I'm in there, I'm working, that's work.

[00:24:49] Like I'm at work.

[00:24:50] No, she leaves me alone.

[00:24:51] Okay.

[00:24:52] Yeah.

[00:24:52] Yeah.

[00:24:52] Sometimes I'll call her for help.

[00:24:54] Yeah.

[00:24:54] Okay.

[00:24:54] That's fair.

[00:24:55] Come do some striking.

[00:24:57] Like I'll hold the steel a certain way and a top tool and be like, all right, hit it

[00:25:02] there.

[00:25:02] Hit it again.

[00:25:03] Yeah.

[00:25:03] Yeah.

[00:25:04] So like, no, there's, there's good boundaries.

[00:25:07] So you've created good separation between work and home.

[00:25:10] And she's working for yourself too.

[00:25:13] I'm not just picking on your wife for the record.

[00:25:15] Yeah.

[00:25:15] I don't even know.

[00:25:17] She's a nice lady.

[00:25:18] She'll bring me cookies.

[00:25:20] We're just making cookies.

[00:25:22] Yeah.

[00:25:24] Cool.

[00:25:25] And so you're obviously enjoying it.

[00:25:28] Yeah, definitely.

[00:25:29] How do you find, are you selling most of your stuff here?

[00:25:33] Like locally?

[00:25:35] Are you, is it all over the place?

[00:25:37] What's the kind of all over the place?

[00:25:40] Like what was finding a market like for you?

[00:25:41] Like, where did you, like someone just offered to buy one.

[00:25:44] And so you were like, oh shit, maybe people want to buy these.

[00:25:47] Yeah.

[00:25:47] I often it's those first connections that lead to like word of mouth where I just had a lady

[00:25:55] from Regina reach out.

[00:25:56] Oh, hey, I need a knife.

[00:25:58] I got your name from Dustin.

[00:25:59] He's a blacksmith out in that area.

[00:26:02] And I was like, okay, perfect.

[00:26:05] Here's, here's what it'll cost you for a custom.

[00:26:08] And give me, give me a week, please.

[00:26:12] Like, like.

[00:26:14] It's a week kind of like every knife's different.

[00:26:17] I'm not going to try and pigeonhole that, but like, what are the timelines?

[00:26:21] I haven't seen your knives yet.

[00:26:22] I want to, I want to wait till later to actually get into it.

[00:26:25] But what's like, yeah, it's art timeline creating art.

[00:26:29] And so do you have a vision and then you kind of build around that?

[00:26:33] Do you work with the person who you're making it for to kind of get, yeah.

[00:26:37] What are you looking for?

[00:26:38] Like, is it a consultative thing?

[00:26:40] And then you're creating a piece of art for them.

[00:26:42] Right.

[00:26:43] Is that kind of how you do it?

[00:26:44] Maybe all of that, where sometimes I'll just do a run of knives.

[00:26:50] I'll get them water jetted and I'm making a stock knife that I think people will purchase.

[00:26:56] Yeah.

[00:26:56] Okay.

[00:26:57] Yeah.

[00:26:57] And then other times it's someone who reaches out and says, okay, I want such and such Damascus.

[00:27:03] I want this kind of handle and we'll, we'll work on those specifics.

[00:27:09] I want a Hattori Hanzo.

[00:27:11] That's what I want.

[00:27:12] Oh, yeah.

[00:27:13] Yeah.

[00:27:14] Just as like challenge accepted.

[00:27:15] Yes.

[00:27:16] He's not a Hattori Hanzo.

[00:27:17] He can't make it.

[00:27:19] Katana is so terrible.

[00:27:21] Yeah.

[00:27:22] Like I've made one.

[00:27:24] It took me about a month to make.

[00:27:26] Really?

[00:27:27] And that was for like a YouTube challenge.

[00:27:29] And yeah, it's, it's, there works about it.

[00:27:34] You understand why there's like not just one guy making it.

[00:27:37] There's a team of like craftsmen working on the different components to put it together.

[00:27:42] Yeah.

[00:27:43] What's been the hardest lesson you've learned transitioning to being an entrepreneur?

[00:27:48] Um, oh man.

[00:27:50] You may not have learned it yet.

[00:27:52] Sorry.

[00:27:52] Hardest lesson so far.

[00:27:53] Yeah.

[00:27:54] Hardest lesson so far is, or maybe the hardest thing to deal with is just financially.

[00:28:01] You see like awesome tools that you think, oh shit, that would probably step up my game

[00:28:08] a little bit.

[00:28:09] And like, but I'm going to wait.

[00:28:12] I don't need it right now.

[00:28:14] So, um, there has been.

[00:28:16] It would be nice, but yeah.

[00:28:16] Yeah.

[00:28:16] There's been a few purchases like that where you think, okay, now let's just do it because

[00:28:21] otherwise it's not going to happen.

[00:28:23] Yeah.

[00:28:23] Like.

[00:28:23] Well, especially if tools that make, make your job easier or faster, right?

[00:28:28] Like it's an investment, right?

[00:28:29] Like you need to.

[00:28:31] Yeah.

[00:28:31] Yeah.

[00:28:31] Yeah.

[00:28:31] Things.

[00:28:32] Yeah, definitely.

[00:28:33] What's the best thing about it?

[00:28:35] Best thing about it is that the creative aspect and learning like every day, not every

[00:28:42] day, maybe not every day, but I feel like every new project that I'll take on, there's

[00:28:48] usually an element of like, Ooh, I've never dealt with this issue.

[00:28:52] And how do I overcome this?

[00:28:54] Now, are you like, would you consider yourself an artistic person by historically and in your,

[00:29:02] through your youth?

[00:29:03] Like there's, there's some people who can draw and there's some people who can't.

[00:29:06] And there's a very clear line between the two and like, I've got my draw for shit.

[00:29:10] I have my box at home of like the drawings I did as a kid still.

[00:29:14] So you've always been artistic.

[00:29:16] Yeah.

[00:29:16] I've always been artistic.

[00:29:17] And like, like I said, going in the bush, cutting down trees is also like grabbing a

[00:29:22] bunch of branches and making stuff out of it.

[00:29:25] Yeah.

[00:29:25] Yeah.

[00:29:26] Like always making, making, making.

[00:29:29] Crafting things.

[00:29:30] Yeah.

[00:29:30] Yeah.

[00:29:32] Um, why don't we take a little break?

[00:29:34] We will run your ad now.

[00:29:35] All right.

[00:29:36] Nice.

[00:29:37] And by the way, I, like I said, it was before the show.

[00:29:40] Do you have an ad?

[00:29:40] I haven't even heard it.

[00:29:41] No, that's cause you don't listen to our show.

[00:29:43] No, I don't.

[00:29:43] But it's a, it's a really, a really great ad.

[00:29:46] I, I, first time I saw it, I chuckled.

[00:29:49] So that's like, this is amazing.

[00:29:50] That's my buddy, Nick Tobin.

[00:29:52] He's a bladesmith out East, uh, pickle cutters.

[00:29:55] If you find them on Instagram and then AI generated voice.

[00:30:00] Oh, is it, is it a good ad?

[00:30:02] Okay.

[00:30:02] Nice.

[00:30:03] Yeah.

[00:30:03] Oh, now I want to hear it.

[00:30:05] It's great.

[00:30:05] It's awesome.

[00:30:06] And, uh, some footage from the Katana builds.

[00:30:09] Yeah.

[00:30:09] Yeah.

[00:30:10] No, that was great.

[00:30:10] Yeah.

[00:30:11] So, uh, we'll run that right now and then we'll be right back.

[00:30:13] People appreciate the fact that you're genuine and authentic.

[00:30:17] Just be yourself.

[00:30:17] Like I complimented, uh, Justin Lamoura from Rainy Day Forge.

[00:30:22] He put his YouTube video out and I've seen every other video he's done, but this one was

[00:30:27] different and I reached out to him.

[00:30:29] And then when he answered, he said that, uh, he was just being himself.

[00:30:35] Guys, listen up.

[00:30:36] You know what makes life better?

[00:30:38] Great knives, but not just any knives, custom knives.

[00:30:42] Need a knife that'll handle your outdoor adventures or a kitchen knife sharp enough to make you

[00:30:46] feel like a pro?

[00:30:47] Check out Rainy Day Forge, crafted right here in Winnipeg.

[00:30:51] Get yours today at rainydayforge.ca.

[00:30:54] It's captivating.

[00:30:55] Why?

[00:30:56] Because he's being himself.

[00:30:59] There we go.

[00:31:00] Okay.

[00:31:00] So I want to touch a little bit more on, uh, the, the, the hard times that you went through

[00:31:06] as a teacher because, you know, a lot of people, I think people become teachers because that's,

[00:31:13] you're looking at it as a career.

[00:31:15] This is what I want to do it.

[00:31:16] Yeah.

[00:31:16] This is what I want to do.

[00:31:17] I want to retire.

[00:31:18] Right.

[00:31:19] And, um, and not sure if you went into this in that mindset, but clearly you found something

[00:31:28] else.

[00:31:28] And, but so going through the hardship, uh, during, during those days when you, like you

[00:31:34] said, you didn't have any necessarily male, male coworkers, you didn't have that connection.

[00:31:40] Going to work is like your second family.

[00:31:43] Right.

[00:31:43] Because you spent like, spent at least eight hours of.

[00:31:46] I spent more waking hours while I work.

[00:31:48] Yeah.

[00:31:49] Like, but just generally, you know, like the minimum is eight hours, right?

[00:31:52] At least.

[00:31:52] So when you don't have that happiness, right?

[00:31:55] Yeah.

[00:31:56] It sucks, right?

[00:31:57] Yeah, definitely.

[00:31:58] I enjoyed my class time, like with students, those relationships that you're, you're developing

[00:32:06] with, with pupils that you're trying to develop into better learners.

[00:32:12] That was, that was great.

[00:32:13] Like no, no issues against that.

[00:32:16] Obviously some years are rougher.

[00:32:18] Some groups are a lot more difficult to deal with.

[00:32:21] Um, but, but that, that would be usually just, you have the odd people that are, you

[00:32:27] know, disrupting the classes, right?

[00:32:28] Like.

[00:32:30] Yeah.

[00:32:31] But it's like, it makes it, makes it.

[00:32:33] One.

[00:32:34] Yeah.

[00:32:34] It kind of like makes two others kind of like.

[00:32:37] Okay.

[00:32:37] Okay.

[00:32:37] Kind of.

[00:32:38] When you do the same.

[00:32:39] I know I couldn't be a teacher.

[00:32:40] You said grade kind of five to eight.

[00:32:43] Yeah.

[00:32:43] Those are huge transition periods in kids' lives too.

[00:32:47] Like my daughter's 13, so she's in grade eight.

[00:32:48] Right.

[00:32:49] And like what I've seen, if I think of her in grade five and her now, like.

[00:32:54] Big difference.

[00:32:55] Huge transitions in life.

[00:32:57] And so much like, so many life skills you start learning.

[00:33:01] And like, you got to learn how to fucking take a shower more often.

[00:33:04] Like there's just a million things piled on.

[00:33:06] And then you get to that seven and eight and it's like fucking hormones start.

[00:33:09] Yeah.

[00:33:10] Yeah.

[00:33:10] Like you, you were, that was your career.

[00:33:12] Grade six is great.

[00:33:14] Cause you're right in between like.

[00:33:15] In the pocket.

[00:33:16] I'm not a baby.

[00:33:17] Yeah.

[00:33:18] Grade five, they're like pretty juvenile.

[00:33:20] And then grade six, they're not quite attitude.

[00:33:23] By the end of the year, you can like.

[00:33:26] Yeah.

[00:33:26] You're ready to shuffle.

[00:33:27] Yeah.

[00:33:28] When I taught grade seven, eight, I was towards the end of my career as well.

[00:33:32] And I thought I had skilled up and, you know, you know where to set the line.

[00:33:37] Okay.

[00:33:37] Not to take bullshit pretty much.

[00:33:40] And, uh, yeah, that, that definitely helps.

[00:33:43] I, I had done a little bit at the beginning of my career and that was not good.

[00:33:49] I did not enjoy it.

[00:33:51] Would you say it takes practice to like practice?

[00:33:54] It takes development to learn how to teach those other.

[00:33:58] Self-discipline, man.

[00:33:59] Like.

[00:34:00] Okay.

[00:34:00] Yeah.

[00:34:01] Yeah.

[00:34:01] To like squish your emotions down and ball it up.

[00:34:05] Okay.

[00:34:05] Where you're like, if I freak out on these kids, I'm going to lose their respect and

[00:34:11] they're going to be disrespectful towards me.

[00:34:13] So, okay, I'm going to take 30 seconds here and just breathe.

[00:34:18] So.

[00:34:18] And then they're kind of like, Ooh, what's wrong?

[00:34:21] Maybe we shouldn't have done that.

[00:34:22] They know when they pushed you too far.

[00:34:24] Yeah.

[00:34:24] Yeah.

[00:34:25] Um, but if you figure out the tricks and stuff, like there's definitely self-discipline

[00:34:30] in there and like experience.

[00:34:33] So how hard was it for you to actually do that while you were not happy at work?

[00:34:42] Yeah.

[00:34:42] Cause like, um, but when you're happy, it's easily, easy to motivate yourself to.

[00:34:46] I don't think I was ever like truly unhappy.

[00:34:50] Okay.

[00:34:51] There are moments where I was like, maybe, I don't know if it was seasonal depression

[00:34:56] or what, just like, just that feeling of like being alone, I suppose.

[00:35:02] Um, but what was your question?

[00:35:06] No, like, so, cause you said that sometimes like you had to like suppress your feelings

[00:35:10] and just kind of deal with the kids and set the boundaries.

[00:35:13] But like when you're not in the right mindset.

[00:35:16] Right.

[00:35:17] How, how hard was it for you?

[00:35:19] Or how, how did it affect your personal life outside of work?

[00:35:23] Oh, dude.

[00:35:25] Yeah.

[00:35:26] Cause you have to, as a teacher, you had to put on a face, right?

[00:35:29] Right.

[00:35:29] So my wife is also a teacher and my cup was full by the end of the day.

[00:35:36] So when she would want to just talk about her like classroom experiences, I'd be like,

[00:35:43] talking about work, dude, I couldn't, I, I had a real, that was probably one of the hardest

[00:35:49] parts of it actually was like, she'd be like, Oh, can you believe this happened?

[00:35:54] I'd be like, I don't want to hear about it.

[00:35:56] I can't.

[00:35:56] I just, I can't.

[00:35:57] I just dealt with like all my stresses and now you're wanting to put some of your stress

[00:36:03] and not necessarily put stress on me, but like that was the resulting action.

[00:36:08] I would just like, okay, and now I'm feeling all tense from your day as well.

[00:36:15] And that, that I found really difficult.

[00:36:18] So yeah.

[00:36:19] Did that create tension between you and your wife?

[00:36:22] Oh yeah, definitely.

[00:36:23] Yeah.

[00:36:24] We would carpool and I'd be like, you need to stop.

[00:36:28] Please talk.

[00:36:29] I'm taking my own vehicle.

[00:36:31] It's interesting.

[00:36:32] And that's super insulting.

[00:36:33] It's interesting though.

[00:36:34] Well, but it's not.

[00:36:36] To her, Wes, right?

[00:36:37] In that moment, the delivery maybe is part of the strategy, but like it, I do that too.

[00:36:45] Like I, I won't, I don't say it soon enough that it's just like, well, I'm not, I can't.

[00:36:51] Yeah.

[00:36:51] Like mentally.

[00:36:52] I can't do this right now.

[00:36:53] Like I get home from work.

[00:36:55] My work is very intense.

[00:36:57] Right.

[00:36:57] And like, I get home from my work day before I go back to my work evening.

[00:37:04] And like, I have a daughter at home.

[00:37:07] I have a dog at home and I have a wife at home and they all want my attention and they all want it like right away.

[00:37:11] And they want to tell me about their days and this and that.

[00:37:14] And like, I'm not good enough.

[00:37:15] I'll admittedly say I'm not good enough at like coming home and being like, okay, I love you guys.

[00:37:21] I'm happy to see you.

[00:37:22] I need 20 minutes.

[00:37:25] I need half an hour.

[00:37:26] Or I'm just going to go downstairs or whatever.

[00:37:29] And just like, give me half an hour and I'll come out and I'm ready.

[00:37:32] Yeah.

[00:37:32] Cause I want to hear it.

[00:37:33] Like I want to talk about it.

[00:37:34] I want to be, I want to be empathetic to them.

[00:37:37] And like, I want to feel like I'm contributing and that I can be a sounding board, but like,

[00:37:42] and, and I don't know if it's a man thing or it's not a man thing, but it's a me thing.

[00:37:46] And like, I don't do that well enough.

[00:37:49] I'm just like, yeah, I can take more.

[00:37:50] I can take more.

[00:37:51] I can take more.

[00:37:51] But then it's like, they're talking to me and my response and my, my engagement is low

[00:37:56] or I'm not, they're just talking to a wall.

[00:37:59] Like what's the point?

[00:38:00] They're not getting what they're looking for out of you.

[00:38:03] And they think they are because I'm letting them do that.

[00:38:05] And so like, I'm not setting a boundary where it's like, Hey, I need 20 minutes and like,

[00:38:09] let's go.

[00:38:10] I'm in.

[00:38:10] But like, I can't do this right now.

[00:38:13] Yeah.

[00:38:13] Yeah.

[00:38:13] And so maybe you went through some of that.

[00:38:15] I don't, everyone has their own experience, but like I get where you're coming from, where

[00:38:19] it's like, it is important to listen to your wife or your kid or whatever, how their day

[00:38:24] was.

[00:38:24] Cause they had an experience.

[00:38:25] And I'd also never talk about my day.

[00:38:27] How's your day?

[00:38:28] Good.

[00:38:29] Yeah.

[00:38:29] I don't want to talk about it.

[00:38:30] I just got home.

[00:38:31] Give me two hours without thinking about it.

[00:38:33] Like, I don't want to talk about it, but they want to know.

[00:38:35] And I'm, I'm even worse at that.

[00:38:37] Yeah.

[00:38:37] Yeah.

[00:38:38] Oh, I was the same.

[00:38:38] I was great.

[00:38:39] Great.

[00:38:39] And then like two weeks later, I'll say something.

[00:38:41] My wife will be like, you never told me that.

[00:38:43] I'm like, well, I'm telling you now.

[00:38:45] She's like, yeah, but I would have, nah, it's fine.

[00:38:50] I don't know.

[00:38:51] That's my experience.

[00:38:52] So, and you guys both had the same career.

[00:38:55] Yeah, exactly.

[00:38:56] Did you teach at the same school?

[00:38:58] No, different schools.

[00:38:59] So she's, she's still teaching and, uh, that's awesome.

[00:39:03] Yeah.

[00:39:04] Now when you shifted into your business and she was still, did, did that dynamic change?

[00:39:11] Yeah, definitely.

[00:39:12] Like it changed a lot of things before I would do my career job, working at school, have supper

[00:39:20] or whatever, and then head out into the shop.

[00:39:22] And like most of my nights were spent there.

[00:39:25] Cause at this point you were already making and selling product.

[00:39:29] Yeah.

[00:39:29] A little bit.

[00:39:30] Yeah.

[00:39:30] I do like the occasional little show or whatever, like craft show.

[00:39:33] So, and then, yeah.

[00:39:34] Yeah.

[00:39:35] So a lot of my time was being consumed with that and then come in late at, at, into the

[00:39:41] evening and they'll have that relationship with, with her, with the kids as much.

[00:39:46] So now that I'm just doing this now, maybe my mind is occupied with business stuff, but

[00:39:54] I can, I feel like I could spend more time with the kids and with my wife.

[00:39:57] So it's definitely positives in that, in that respect and, and way more receptive where

[00:40:03] she'll be like, you know what happened with my grade six students?

[00:40:06] And I'll be like, Oh no, tell me.

[00:40:07] Yeah.

[00:40:09] I am honestly kind of curious.

[00:40:11] Yeah.

[00:40:12] Yeah.

[00:40:12] Well, and you're on an Island, you're by yourself in the shop all the time.

[00:40:16] So like.

[00:40:17] I am, but there's still like, I have my community.

[00:40:20] Yeah, of course.

[00:40:21] There's a bunch of guys on, on Instagram that I've, I've met and chatted with and we'll,

[00:40:25] we'll send each other messages and yeah.

[00:40:28] Yeah.

[00:40:29] That's good.

[00:40:29] So you're not like, yeah, you talked about your community and your, your group, your

[00:40:33] association.

[00:40:34] Yeah.

[00:40:34] Yeah.

[00:40:34] Totally.

[00:40:35] Guild.

[00:40:36] The guild.

[00:40:37] Sorry.

[00:40:37] It's a guild.

[00:40:38] Yeah.

[00:40:39] I don't do anything that constitutes the name guild.

[00:40:42] So like I'm kind of jealous.

[00:40:44] I'm only part of association.

[00:40:46] That's not nearly as exciting as a guild.

[00:40:49] It is the same thing.

[00:40:51] I know, but the name itself just gives it a better feel.

[00:40:54] Yeah.

[00:40:54] Yeah.

[00:40:55] Absolutely.

[00:40:55] Like, I mean, I don't think you could.

[00:40:57] Yeah.

[00:40:57] You say guild.

[00:40:58] I think of like the fucking Renaissance.

[00:41:00] Yeah.

[00:41:01] That or Vikings or whatever.

[00:41:02] Yeah.

[00:41:02] Like part of a guild.

[00:41:05] I mean, and it's very fitting for, for black.

[00:41:08] Yeah.

[00:41:08] Yeah.

[00:41:09] I want to be in Lord of the Rings.

[00:41:12] And yeah, I just wanted to say like, I'm, I'm, I can relate to what you were going through

[00:41:17] because I'm there right now.

[00:41:19] I have my daytime job and then I'm, I come home and I have about an hour to myself.

[00:41:24] So I, that's when I like, okay, try to catch up on emails and, uh, you know, or like what

[00:41:29] would I need to do?

[00:41:30] Okay.

[00:41:30] Then the kid gets home.

[00:41:31] Then the second kid gets home with my wife.

[00:41:34] Okay.

[00:41:34] Is dinner made?

[00:41:35] Shit.

[00:41:35] I forgot.

[00:41:36] Cause I was doing this quickly, you know, cooking, whatever.

[00:41:38] Like we spent some time and then it's like, okay.

[00:41:41] Um, I got nothing now going on.

[00:41:44] It's seven o'clock.

[00:41:45] I'm going downstairs.

[00:41:46] And then I work for about three, four hours, you know?

[00:41:48] And, and it's, it's that it's, at first it was super hard because you were just like,

[00:41:54] Oh my.

[00:41:54] Well, it's all started with, we were watching shows for three, four hours every day.

[00:41:59] Right.

[00:42:00] And I'm like, fuck, it's time to learn a new skill, you know, instead of wasting my time.

[00:42:05] And that I kind of, that's why I reinvented the designing and just kind of started doing

[00:42:08] stuff like that.

[00:42:09] I'm like, Oh, this is fun.

[00:42:10] And so now I'm just like, man, I wish I had some, wish I had time to watch a new show with

[00:42:14] my wife, you know?

[00:42:15] Right.

[00:42:15] Right.

[00:42:16] But it's like, okay, now we, and she, my wife is at that point where like, she knows

[00:42:21] I tell her like, Oh, sorry, I really need to do this.

[00:42:23] She's like, okay, go do your thing.

[00:42:25] And it's really nice, but she can only do so much as well.

[00:42:29] So there's always that, that tension that kind of gets bigger and smaller, bigger and

[00:42:35] smaller.

[00:42:35] And my house too.

[00:42:36] It's a dance, right?

[00:42:37] A balance.

[00:42:38] Yeah.

[00:42:38] And my wife and I both work for ourselves.

[00:42:41] And so that's a whole other journey.

[00:42:42] Yeah.

[00:42:43] Two entrepreneurs in a home.

[00:42:44] Wow.

[00:42:46] Trying to raise a daughter.

[00:42:47] Like it's tough.

[00:42:48] Yeah.

[00:42:49] Yeah.

[00:42:49] I can only imagine.

[00:42:50] Because you're just always working.

[00:42:51] Yeah.

[00:42:51] So it's like, you have to, you really, really have to carve out time or else it never happens.

[00:42:57] That's right.

[00:42:58] Yeah.

[00:42:58] Yeah.

[00:42:59] For sure.

[00:42:59] We're not great at it.

[00:43:01] We're working on it.

[00:43:02] It's tough.

[00:43:02] It's always worked.

[00:43:03] It's tough because you're trying to grow and you're trying to push yourself and you want

[00:43:08] better.

[00:43:09] Yeah.

[00:43:09] And, uh, and sometimes it just feels like you're spinning your wheels and, oh man.

[00:43:14] Yeah.

[00:43:14] Well, and that's just it.

[00:43:15] Like I have a couple, I have a couple steady customers and those are the ones that I'm like,

[00:43:21] thank you.

[00:43:22] I want to, but those are the ones I'm taking care of.

[00:43:24] Like that's always my priority.

[00:43:25] And then I have a couple like, uh, customers that I, I do some sponsors work for them,

[00:43:30] you know, but now, okay.

[00:43:33] I'm not getting paid for it, but I'm hoping to get my name out there.

[00:43:36] Right.

[00:43:36] So it's important on a different level and I'm scared to like, I understand I need to

[00:43:44] grow my social media.

[00:43:45] I need to grow, you know, get, get my name out there.

[00:43:48] But all that requires time to learn how to do everything and, uh, like actually doing

[00:43:56] it.

[00:43:56] Like I don't have the time for that right now.

[00:43:59] You know, drop two hours into designing a logo.

[00:44:01] Yeah.

[00:44:02] Like I literally tried to talk my daughter into taking a web website design this year

[00:44:08] at school because I was like, dude, you can help me out.

[00:44:11] Like you can make some serious money.

[00:44:13] And what was her response to that?

[00:44:15] Nope.

[00:44:16] No.

[00:44:16] You can't tell them any, you got to tell her don't do it.

[00:44:19] Yeah.

[00:44:20] No.

[00:44:21] And she wants to be a teacher.

[00:44:22] She wants to become a teacher.

[00:44:23] So she's chosen classes that will help her.

[00:44:26] And also in like, she did like personal financing.

[00:44:29] I was like, okay.

[00:44:30] Like responsible.

[00:44:31] She is.

[00:44:32] She is.

[00:44:33] She's more responsible than you are.

[00:44:34] Way more.

[00:44:35] Um, but yeah, so anyways, you know, like I'm trying to, trying to, I'm trying to find like

[00:44:42] this perfect balance between like making sure I can grow my business, still be there for

[00:44:50] my family and not be too tired for my day job because I still have to perform there.

[00:44:55] So.

[00:44:55] Right.

[00:44:55] Well, and I think it's not, um, it's not a, for me, it's not a routine thing.

[00:45:02] It's just like an everyday decision you have to make.

[00:45:04] Yes.

[00:45:05] Cause like the time is different.

[00:45:06] The time you have available to do it is different.

[00:45:08] I can get into some people have these routine things in their lives and occasionally I'm

[00:45:12] envious.

[00:45:12] And then I wouldn't actually, I would hate it so much, but it's like, it's the routine

[00:45:19] of like, here's the activities every day I need to do.

[00:45:21] Yeah.

[00:45:21] So like that I'm, that I'm into, like, yeah, don't tell me when to do them, but

[00:45:25] like I need to spend time with my wife.

[00:45:27] I need to catch up with my daughter on her day and help her with whatever.

[00:45:31] And the dog needs this and the kitchen, like, those are all things that, but at least you

[00:45:35] can, what I like about being an entrepreneur is like you can choose when you're going to

[00:45:39] do those things for the most part.

[00:45:41] Yes.

[00:45:41] Yeah.

[00:45:42] Obviously there's like customers and I have staff and so that's different than those

[00:45:46] things, but like deadlines and whatever deadlines and all kinds of things.

[00:45:49] But like, there is a portion of that life where you get, you are in your own control

[00:45:53] and you're kind of in charge of your own destiny.

[00:45:55] Yeah.

[00:45:56] I love that part of because I know I grew up in an entrepreneurial home.

[00:46:00] Okay.

[00:46:00] So I've just always known that, but how was that for you?

[00:46:04] Like what, was there a freedom aspect to what you did that you chased or was it not even,

[00:46:10] was it not about that for you?

[00:46:11] It was about freedom.

[00:46:13] Um, um, it was about lowering stress, which I think probably happened.

[00:46:22] Um, teaching is stressful, like dealing with kids and all their needs.

[00:46:28] Yeah.

[00:46:28] Like for sure.

[00:46:29] It's intense.

[00:46:30] Um, so that, that reduction was really good.

[00:46:34] Um, it probably created, you created new stresses though.

[00:46:38] Yeah, definitely new stresses and, and lack of freedom as well.

[00:46:43] Like, um, I'm not looking at new cars every few years because I'd like a new vehicle.

[00:46:50] Like pretty sweet.

[00:46:52] Yeah.

[00:46:53] Like, oh, I'd sure like a boat.

[00:46:55] That'd be awesome.

[00:46:56] Like stuff like that's like, okay, it's not on my radar.

[00:46:59] Like I'll get new tools.

[00:47:02] Yeah.

[00:47:03] It's there, but yeah.

[00:47:04] Start looking at money differently and you look at life differently.

[00:47:07] Where, but I don't like, I don't miss that terribly.

[00:47:13] Like I, I miss.

[00:47:14] There's a little glimmer in your eye that says you do a little better.

[00:47:17] Yeah, totally.

[00:47:19] Definitely.

[00:47:20] But that's fair.

[00:47:21] And that's like, that's the trade off.

[00:47:22] Oh, a hundred percent.

[00:47:23] Yeah.

[00:47:23] Yeah.

[00:47:24] Like I like listening to a bunch of podcasts and audio books and I think Gary Vaynerchuk

[00:47:30] is one that talks about entrepreneurship.

[00:47:33] Oh, I love that guy.

[00:47:34] Yeah.

[00:47:34] So do I.

[00:47:35] And he says like, are you pissed off or upset in your Ferrari and happy in your Toyota?

[00:47:41] Like I'm happy driving my shitty car.

[00:47:45] Yeah.

[00:47:45] Like, yeah, I'm fine with it.

[00:47:47] It takes you from A to B just the same way as a Lamborghini, right?

[00:47:53] Maybe slow.

[00:47:54] Yeah.

[00:47:54] Yeah.

[00:47:55] Maybe slower, but it takes you there.

[00:47:57] Yeah.

[00:47:57] Yeah.

[00:47:58] So yeah, you can cut back in life on certain things and, and, and other aspects I'm like,

[00:48:04] no, I'm not cutting back.

[00:48:05] And if I end up having to go back and teaching for a year or two, well.

[00:48:09] Well, you always have that option because I mean, there's the jobs are out there.

[00:48:13] So I don't want to cut whiskey or beer.

[00:48:16] Like I'm going to have that.

[00:48:18] That's stupid.

[00:48:18] Yeah.

[00:48:18] Why would you have to do that?

[00:48:19] Nobody in their right mind would ever do that.

[00:48:22] What's wrong with us?

[00:48:23] Today.

[00:48:25] So why don't you show us a little bit of what you have here?

[00:48:28] Yes.

[00:48:29] Sure.

[00:48:29] Yeah.

[00:48:30] We don't know if we only had like one other guest who brought stuff.

[00:48:34] And, and I'd imagine.

[00:48:35] Oh yeah.

[00:48:36] The intergalactic guys brought hot sauce.

[00:48:37] This guy brought knives.

[00:48:38] Yeah.

[00:48:39] Yeah.

[00:48:39] Yeah.

[00:48:39] I'd imagine most people listen on like Spotify or.

[00:48:43] Yeah.

[00:48:44] So this part's not going to be as exciting.

[00:48:45] So go on YouTube.

[00:48:47] Oh yeah.

[00:48:47] Go on YouTube.

[00:48:48] We are on YouTube as well.

[00:48:49] Yeah.

[00:48:49] Yeah.

[00:48:49] So switch to YouTube.

[00:48:50] Sweet.

[00:48:51] All right.

[00:48:51] I'm going to start.

[00:48:52] And subscribe to our page too.

[00:48:53] There you go.

[00:48:55] I, this one.

[00:48:56] There it is.

[00:48:57] I love.

[00:48:58] Yeah.

[00:48:58] This is one that if it doesn't get sold, I'm like cool with it.

[00:49:03] It's a cleaver.

[00:49:05] It's got, I think it's five layers of steel, wrought iron jacket, and I believe 1084 and maybe

[00:49:13] 50, I'm not sure.

[00:49:16] 50.

[00:49:16] So I had a commission back in November and not that it was, I had stuff to learn and I

[00:49:27] destroyed like a bunch of steel.

[00:49:29] Yeah.

[00:49:29] This was the result of one of the broken parts.

[00:49:33] Oh, okay.

[00:49:35] Like, like happy, happy that it turned out.

[00:49:38] Like this piece turned out great.

[00:49:38] So this was supposed to be longer?

[00:49:40] Is that what you're saying?

[00:49:41] No, it was a different part of the knife.

[00:49:43] Oh, okay.

[00:49:44] Okay.

[00:49:44] And this was like the scrap, but each piece of scrap is just another knife.

[00:49:49] That's right.

[00:49:49] Yeah.

[00:49:49] And this piece survived, the other knife didn't.

[00:49:52] Yeah.

[00:49:52] And yeah, so I'm kind of, I kind of lost track on which, which steels are in this knife,

[00:49:59] but you can definitely tell the wrought irons on the exterior.

[00:50:02] Oh yeah, totally.

[00:50:03] You can tell.

[00:50:03] There you go.

[00:50:04] I have no clue.

[00:50:06] No wrought iron.

[00:50:07] There's some wrought iron on this one as well.

[00:50:09] So wrought iron is like old steel.

[00:50:12] Oh, okay.

[00:50:13] Okay.

[00:50:13] So it was like processed in a factory that wasn't able to like pull out all the contaminants.

[00:50:19] So like that's actually from a wagon wheel.

[00:50:23] So is this one.

[00:50:24] So the jacket's a wagon wheel.

[00:50:26] That's awesome.

[00:50:27] Yeah.

[00:50:28] Yeah.

[00:50:28] So you can like take different materials and weld them together.

[00:50:31] And basically what I'm doing is taking like a ton of heat.

[00:50:37] Yeah.

[00:50:37] Sure.

[00:50:38] That's awesome.

[00:50:39] Did you just, I just, did I see a motion like this?

[00:50:44] Did you like that?

[00:50:45] Not to him, you maybe, but this is beautiful.

[00:50:49] So this is more like.

[00:50:49] It's got some nice weight to it.

[00:50:51] I like that.

[00:50:51] I'm, I'm, I dig that one.

[00:50:53] This one, there's something odd with the transition between the bolster area to the handle, but I'm, I'm really digging the blade shape.

[00:51:01] More of a French kind of accentuated French chef design.

[00:51:08] But that one I've got really thin and I'm really happy with how thin it is.

[00:51:14] That one would definitely cut some, cut some veg.

[00:51:19] I love the different handles that you've been doing.

[00:51:22] Yeah.

[00:51:23] Thanks, man.

[00:51:24] Thanks.

[00:51:25] What's your favorite part of the process?

[00:51:27] The steel.

[00:51:28] Yeah.

[00:51:29] Yeah.

[00:51:29] Yeah.

[00:51:29] Getting it hot, pressing it together to make Damascus.

[00:51:33] That is my favorite part.

[00:51:36] And then you've got like the, like the scientific portion of it where like you've kind of screwed up the steel by overheating it.

[00:51:47] And then you got to like do different processes to like get it back.

[00:51:51] Yeah.

[00:51:52] Get it back to a point where it'll perform well and be like resistant to like shock and hold an edge properly.

[00:52:02] And then you're like doing the heat treatment where you're like actually hardening the steel.

[00:52:07] And then you got to.

[00:52:08] I was going to ask.

[00:52:08] Is that one?

[00:52:09] Should I not be touching the blade?

[00:52:10] Uh, no, that one's got a, it's already etched.

[00:52:14] So your fingers should be fine on there and I'll wipe it when I get home too.

[00:52:17] Yeah.

[00:52:17] I just don't want to wreck anything.

[00:52:18] No, no, those are fine.

[00:52:19] I shouldn't be touching the blade.

[00:52:21] Yeah.

[00:52:21] So those are like some of my chef knives.

[00:52:24] This is a Nesmuk.

[00:52:26] Um, this is Poferro and stabilized Manitoba maple burl.

[00:52:32] Um, purple.

[00:52:34] Yeah, dude.

[00:52:35] I love the stabilized burl.

[00:52:36] That's a beautiful knife, dude.

[00:52:37] Yeah.

[00:52:38] Yeah.

[00:52:38] Um, I just sold one of these to a local in Winnipeg and got to make a sheath for it.

[00:52:47] Use, use for this one.

[00:52:48] What would you use it for?

[00:52:49] Uh, it could be like for skinning, like hunting knife.

[00:52:53] Um, it, it would be a general camp knife.

[00:52:57] Cutting up sausages.

[00:52:59] It's multi-purpose.

[00:52:59] Yeah.

[00:52:59] It's a multi-purpose knife.

[00:53:01] Um, but definitely like towards hunting and bushcraft.

[00:53:05] Man, that's beautiful.

[00:53:06] Yeah, it's my, I think it's my favorite design of knife.

[00:53:10] Getting ideas now.

[00:53:11] This is going to be fun.

[00:53:12] Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[00:53:13] Yeah.

[00:53:14] Yeah.

[00:53:14] Yeah, this is beautiful.

[00:53:15] So that's a Nesmuk.

[00:53:16] Uh, and this is my Cisco.

[00:53:19] So this is, uh, a smaller kind of like EDC kind of camp knife.

[00:53:23] Um, these, I sold a whole bunch of them in, uh, in May, last May.

[00:53:30] I guess right before summer, people were interested in getting more.

[00:53:36] More bushcraft knives.

[00:53:38] Okay.

[00:53:39] Oh yeah.

[00:53:40] And, uh, yeah, I sold a whack of them.

[00:53:41] And then this summer I was like, you know, I'm just going to make a bunch more.

[00:53:45] And then, uh, those sales kind of dried up.

[00:53:47] So I'm kind of like, okay, where, what changed?

[00:53:51] So it's either seasonal or I kind of like, my market consumed everything they could.

[00:53:59] They bought what they were going to buy and now you need new customers.

[00:54:03] So now I'm going back towards like making shit to impress.

[00:54:08] Yeah.

[00:54:08] Yeah.

[00:54:08] Okay.

[00:54:08] This is a kick-ass knife.

[00:54:10] Yeah.

[00:54:11] Yeah.

[00:54:12] And then, yeah, another Cisco except this one has, uh, uh, cherry blossoms etched into the steel.

[00:54:20] So, so this one, this blade feels rougher.

[00:54:23] This hasn't been etched yet or?

[00:54:25] That one is, yeah.

[00:54:27] So these ones here are hand sanded.

[00:54:30] Okay.

[00:54:30] So these are like, you sit there and you're, you're, you're going from that texture.

[00:54:36] Yeah.

[00:54:36] To sanding it by hand.

[00:54:39] Yeah.

[00:54:39] And then you, you, you gradually changing.

[00:54:41] An hour on this side, an hour on that side.

[00:54:43] Like at one point you're like, okay.

[00:54:45] Wet or?

[00:54:46] Yeah.

[00:54:47] Wet.

[00:54:47] Yeah.

[00:54:47] Yeah.

[00:54:48] Either like a stoning oil.

[00:54:50] Yeah.

[00:54:51] A WD-40 works all right, but.

[00:54:53] Some kind of lubricant.

[00:54:54] Yeah.

[00:54:54] Yeah.

[00:54:55] Yeah.

[00:54:55] Um, yeah.

[00:54:56] Just figuring stuff out all the time.

[00:54:58] It's not a process that you can rush, right?

[00:55:00] No.

[00:55:01] Yeah.

[00:55:01] Now you can see like a, almost a grain, like a linear grain pattern in this blade.

[00:55:08] Yeah.

[00:55:08] That's the.

[00:55:09] Explain that to me.

[00:55:09] Uh, that's just the grit pattern from.

[00:55:11] From sanding.

[00:55:12] Okay.

[00:55:13] Yeah.

[00:55:13] That one's right off the machine.

[00:55:14] Gotcha.

[00:55:15] And then put into a tumbler with like abrasive material.

[00:55:19] Yeah.

[00:55:20] So it kind of knocks some of the, the texture off and then etched in ferric, uh, chloride.

[00:55:27] So then that darkens the steel.

[00:55:28] So it kind of protects it as well.

[00:55:30] Kind of locks oxides into the steel.

[00:55:33] Uh, you mentioned that.

[00:55:34] The cherry blossom.

[00:55:36] Looks good.

[00:55:36] Really neat.

[00:55:37] Yeah.

[00:55:37] I like that.

[00:55:38] You mentioned that you have to, like you heat treat it.

[00:55:41] Do you have to heat treat every single blade?

[00:55:44] Yeah.

[00:55:44] Because that's what strengthens the knife, right?

[00:55:47] Like those, because that's a water jet cut.

[00:55:51] It comes annealed.

[00:55:52] The steel is ready for heat treatment.

[00:55:54] Okay.

[00:55:55] You, you, you grind the bevels, quench it and temper it.

[00:56:00] Mm-hmm.

[00:56:00] Where with these ones here, you have to do these extra processes.

[00:56:06] Yeah.

[00:56:06] So that you can refine the grain in the steel.

[00:56:08] Yeah.

[00:56:09] Yeah.

[00:56:09] And so.

[00:56:09] So a few extra hours just with that.

[00:56:13] So watching a few episodes of, uh, Forged in Fire, sometimes they try to heat treat it

[00:56:19] and then something happens to the blade where like, oh, it went wrong.

[00:56:23] It cracks.

[00:56:23] And like, so is that the cause of just, uh, bad process, bad steel or.

[00:56:31] Yeah.

[00:56:31] You can like, they're using recycled steel sometimes.

[00:56:34] So they're like ripping it off a vehicle.

[00:56:36] Mm-hmm.

[00:56:36] So there could be like micro fractures already in the steel from usage.

[00:56:40] Okay.

[00:56:41] Um, you could, yeah, just get a wonky piece of steel that just.

[00:56:46] And then back to step one.

[00:56:48] Develops a crack.

[00:56:49] Yeah.

[00:56:49] And you're back to step one.

[00:56:50] Yeah.

[00:56:50] Yeah.

[00:56:51] Shit.

[00:56:51] Or, or warps, right?

[00:56:53] And that could be like from having ground more on one side than the other and the steel

[00:56:58] contracts and, uh, moves over.

[00:57:01] Tedious work.

[00:57:02] Dude.

[00:57:02] Yeah.

[00:57:03] The katana to get that thing straight.

[00:57:06] It took me.

[00:57:07] You said there's a video, right?

[00:57:08] Of that one?

[00:57:09] Yeah.

[00:57:09] Yeah.

[00:57:09] That's on YouTube.

[00:57:10] I want to watch that.

[00:57:11] Yeah.

[00:57:12] And it's in our ad too.

[00:57:13] And it's in the ad.

[00:57:14] I won't see that.

[00:57:15] There's a shorter version.

[00:57:16] I won't see that.

[00:57:17] Um, did you bring one of the little ones?

[00:57:20] No, I didn't.

[00:57:21] Okay.

[00:57:21] So those are my favorite.

[00:57:22] What do you call them?

[00:57:23] Ultralight knife.

[00:57:24] Sorry?

[00:57:25] Ultralight.

[00:57:25] Ultralight.

[00:57:26] Yeah.

[00:57:26] So there, it's just literally like a two inch blade maybe.

[00:57:30] Yeah.

[00:57:30] It's a two inch blade.

[00:57:31] Like it's perfect for your pocket, but like you can really use it for anything like in

[00:57:36] the bush, uh, cut up sausages.

[00:57:38] Uh, that one's marketed to hikers and that one, I pretty good deal.

[00:57:44] I actually retail those out to the States.

[00:57:46] There's a shop out there.

[00:57:47] Oh, okay.

[00:57:48] Oh, nice.

[00:57:48] Sweet.

[00:57:48] Yeah.

[00:57:49] Yeah.

[00:57:49] That's great.

[00:57:50] Yeah, definitely.

[00:57:51] Um, I honestly like knowing what I know now, I should have gone like all in on those

[00:57:58] when they were like, we want more.

[00:58:00] And I was like, I'm still trying to figure shit out.

[00:58:03] Yeah.

[00:58:03] Yeah.

[00:58:04] Yeah.

[00:58:04] Hindsight and lessons learned.

[00:58:06] Yeah.

[00:58:06] Yeah.

[00:58:06] Yeah.

[00:58:07] Yeah.

[00:58:07] Because he's like, he had messaged me.

[00:58:08] He's like, do you want money to invest in like your shop?

[00:58:12] And I was like, build more.

[00:58:13] So like, what do you need to make me more of these?

[00:58:15] And I was like, just like so green that I was like, yes, I want your money, but I don't

[00:58:20] know what I would do with it really.

[00:58:22] And like, I'm not sure like what I should be doing.

[00:58:25] So let's go slowly.

[00:58:27] Yeah.

[00:58:27] And then, yeah, it was a hot trend there for a little bit.

[00:58:32] Is that, I guess, I guess knives no different than anything else.

[00:58:35] There's new designs and trends and things that people all of a sudden this year, everybody

[00:58:40] wants this thing.

[00:58:41] And that's a normal, is there lots of new, do you mess around with different knife shapes

[00:58:46] or do you kind of, like you had said that one is definitely a, this kind of a modified

[00:58:50] French type book.

[00:58:52] Do you, do you do, do you like doing that?

[00:58:55] Like that's an artistic piece where it's like, here's this traditional knife style.

[00:58:59] What can I do to change it?

[00:59:00] Modify it.

[00:59:01] Yeah.

[00:59:02] Does functionality obviously play into a lot of functionality first?

[00:59:06] Yeah.

[00:59:06] Yeah.

[00:59:06] That's where I'm, I'm working within that framework.

[00:59:09] Yeah, exactly.

[00:59:11] So I'm, I'm interested in a lot of the Japanese designs.

[00:59:14] Um, I'm, I'm waiting on a book that's got like all the information that I kind of need

[00:59:20] to be able to make them.

[00:59:22] Cause some of their bevels are really specific where on like the backside will be concave.

[00:59:28] So it's like actually hollowed out a little bit and then it's a one bevel side and it's like,

[00:59:34] they're really interesting pieces and they function different than your traditional like German or French knives.

[00:59:42] But that basically we all use here in Canada.

[00:59:45] That's our standard.

[00:59:46] Yeah.

[00:59:47] Yeah.

[00:59:48] Walmart.

[00:59:49] Mm-hmm.

[00:59:49] You forgot this guy.

[00:59:50] Oh, is there one there too?

[00:59:51] Oh, that's right.

[00:59:52] We didn't get you.

[00:59:53] Right.

[00:59:54] Yeah.

[00:59:54] Yeah.

[00:59:54] Yeah.

[00:59:54] You kind of pulled it out and, uh, and put it.

[00:59:57] So this is a piece of tiger wood and, uh, it was a, I, I made this for a YouTube series,

[01:00:07] just a short series.

[01:00:08] So I produced, I think 15 videos of myself making this.

[01:00:12] So this is, uh, Unukubi Tonto and Unukubi is just defined by this grind pattern.

[01:00:20] So there's, uh, a fuller towards the, the bolster of the blade.

[01:00:24] And then this, uh, this recess here and, uh, you can see the pattern.

[01:00:30] Do those have purpose or?

[01:00:31] Uh, yeah, they do actually.

[01:00:34] Um, if I recall correctly, this creates, this area creates more spring in the blade.

[01:00:39] So if you're puncturing through like medieval, like armor and it, you're not like penetrating,

[01:00:48] it'll deviate and try to get like between the, the leather pads or whatever.

[01:00:53] Okay.

[01:00:53] Okay.

[01:00:54] And, uh, the fuller, well, the fuller for weight loss, some people call it like a

[01:01:01] bloodline.

[01:01:02] So that's a blood.

[01:01:03] I don't know.

[01:01:04] I don't like making weapons, but I'll make like the occasional art piece.

[01:01:07] So that's a weapon.

[01:01:08] This is a weapon.

[01:01:10] That's a weapon.

[01:01:10] Okay.

[01:01:11] And it's in the style of like.

[01:01:13] Practical use, not designed for that.

[01:01:15] No, no.

[01:01:16] This is a shelf piece.

[01:01:17] Um, the idea with the, this build, I forget what the, the name is called, where the, the

[01:01:24] blade is kind of hidden.

[01:01:25] And that's after, uh, the katanas and the weapons like this were outlawed in Japan.

[01:01:32] So they would, uh, hide them in like walking sticks and stuff.

[01:01:36] So that's kind of reminiscent of that.

[01:01:38] Very beautiful.

[01:01:39] Yeah.

[01:01:39] Thanks man.

[01:01:40] Like all your, uh, sheaths and everything are all just very well thought out.

[01:01:44] Thank you.

[01:01:46] Yeah.

[01:01:47] Not everybody who makes guitars.

[01:01:48] And so much of this reminds me of like the work he does on his guitars.

[01:01:51] Cause he builds acoustics.

[01:01:53] Oh, and so, so much of that, like fretboard work and stuff is so similar to what you're

[01:01:57] doing just here.

[01:01:58] It's different material.

[01:02:00] Monotonous kind of like.

[01:02:01] Yeah.

[01:02:01] Hiding out the places for the frets.

[01:02:04] Yeah.

[01:02:04] Yeah.

[01:02:07] Yeah.

[01:02:07] You can't, uh, you can't take away material.

[01:02:10] That's like, you can't add material.

[01:02:12] That's gone.

[01:02:13] That's right.

[01:02:13] Yeah.

[01:02:13] Yeah.

[01:02:14] Yeah.

[01:02:14] Yeah.

[01:02:14] Go slow.

[01:02:15] Yeah.

[01:02:15] Yeah.

[01:02:16] And that blade was, uh, covered in clay.

[01:02:19] The spine is covered on in clay.

[01:02:21] And then when you quench it, you get that homone line.

[01:02:25] So you see kind of like a wavy line near the edge.

[01:02:28] So that's a, uh, a softer spine with a harder edge because the steel on the edge doesn't

[01:02:36] have that clay.

[01:02:37] It cools off quickly in the oil or I could have done water, but I was just too scared

[01:02:43] because bad things happen.

[01:02:45] Crack your steel just shocks it so much.

[01:02:48] And, uh, the spine cold cools off slowly.

[01:02:51] So you don't get that hardness and then you see the different colors of the steel.

[01:02:57] Yeah.

[01:02:57] It's beautiful.

[01:02:58] So there's like, it's a pallet.

[01:03:00] Steel is a pallet.

[01:03:01] The handles are a pallet and you could just do all these different things.

[01:03:06] Nice.

[01:03:07] And it locks in so nice.

[01:03:09] Yeah.

[01:03:09] It's like, I like that.

[01:03:12] Thanks man.

[01:03:14] They're beautiful, man.

[01:03:15] They're just like, you're doing the right thing.

[01:03:19] Yeah.

[01:03:19] Thanks.

[01:03:19] Thanks.

[01:03:20] So yeah, every now and then I'll do like a project that's kind of out of my wheelhouse

[01:03:25] out of like either or out of my skill level where I'm like, I can't do this.

[01:03:31] I'm not sure how it's going to happen, but I'm going to like, I don't have many orders

[01:03:35] right now.

[01:03:36] I'm going to dedicate some time to, uh, to figuring it out and pushing myself.

[01:03:40] Yeah.

[01:03:41] Now how, how, how booked out are you?

[01:03:44] Uh, right now I'm probably, if, if I just, if people are listening and actually want to

[01:03:52] stuff, I'd be kind of mid January.

[01:03:54] Okay.

[01:03:55] Christmas was slower this year.

[01:03:56] Okay.

[01:03:57] So far.

[01:03:58] Yeah.

[01:03:58] Yeah.

[01:03:59] Yeah.

[01:03:59] After I'm on this podcast, the whole crap.

[01:04:02] I hope you didn't promise them that.

[01:04:06] No, I think with inflation, like things, people have less money.

[01:04:12] Yeah.

[01:04:12] This is like, I see, I disagree with that.

[01:04:15] Well, that's an investment.

[01:04:16] It's an investment.

[01:04:17] Yeah.

[01:04:17] And it's also like, it's a luxury item.

[01:04:21] Yep.

[01:04:21] So people aren't going out to the mall and buying necessarily new watches and stuff like

[01:04:26] that right now.

[01:04:27] They're more busy with food and getting that on the table.

[01:04:30] So knives there, there.

[01:04:33] Yeah.

[01:04:34] Yeah.

[01:04:34] See, I have to disagree because you look, look at the, the shopping malls, they're fucking

[01:04:39] full.

[01:04:40] Oh yeah.

[01:04:40] People like there, there, people are for that.

[01:04:43] No, not for that.

[01:04:44] But that's, but people are spending money on stupid shit.

[01:04:46] Yeah.

[01:04:46] Like, you know what?

[01:04:47] It's insane how, like I've been hearing that like, Oh, you know, times are tough and blah,

[01:04:52] blah, blah.

[01:04:53] No, they're not.

[01:04:55] Like the, you know, people are still spending money on now.

[01:04:59] It's cause your listeners are saying, fuck you, man.

[01:05:01] Times are tough.

[01:05:03] Yeah.

[01:05:03] Continue to get credit cards.

[01:05:05] That's why.

[01:05:05] But that's just it.

[01:05:06] Yeah.

[01:05:06] Like, you know, it's, and it, it creates like, I've, I, I, it's very easy to get used

[01:05:12] to a higher standard, you know?

[01:05:14] Standard of living.

[01:05:15] Yeah.

[01:05:15] Like it's, it's very easy to go up and then when things get kind of tougher and tighter,

[01:05:21] Oh, everyone's like, Oh my God, well this sucks.

[01:05:23] You know?

[01:05:23] It's like, well, no, you just need to cut back on certain things.

[01:05:26] Right.

[01:05:26] Like, yeah.

[01:05:27] And, and that's where.

[01:05:28] I don't know why we chose booze.

[01:05:30] I know.

[01:05:31] Right.

[01:05:31] Well, it wasn't a financial decision.

[01:05:33] Well, for you, probably financially.

[01:05:35] Oh, it's made a significant impact.

[01:05:37] For me, it didn't really.

[01:05:38] Cause, uh, I, I don't drink.

[01:05:40] I didn't drink as, I didn't drink daily.

[01:05:42] Right.

[01:05:42] So, um, but no, just overall, like, you know, we, we've noticed it ourselves, but yeah.

[01:05:49] So that means we don't eat out two, three times a week.

[01:05:52] Right.

[01:05:52] They don't want to necessarily.

[01:05:55] No, nobody wants to give up their luxuries.

[01:05:57] No.

[01:05:57] Yeah.

[01:05:58] Nobody wants to.

[01:05:59] And then easiest thing is to complain.

[01:06:00] Right.

[01:06:01] Yeah.

[01:06:01] So absolutely.

[01:06:03] So anyways, yeah, that's my rant for today.

[01:06:07] Um, a congratulations on taking the jump.

[01:06:11] Yeah.

[01:06:12] Thank you.

[01:06:12] That's a huge move.

[01:06:13] And I, I don't know what your business is like.

[01:06:15] I actually want to talk off mics a little bit about some more of that stuff, but like, um,

[01:06:20] um, you're, you're building something very beautiful and obviously you're very skilled

[01:06:24] at doing so.

[01:06:25] And you found something that's good for you and for your life and for your family.

[01:06:29] And that's so hard.

[01:06:32] It is.

[01:06:33] It's a struggle and everything's a struggle at times and everything's great at times.

[01:06:37] I think it's seven around 70 or 75% of people don't like their jobs.

[01:06:42] Yeah.

[01:06:42] Yeah.

[01:06:42] Most.

[01:06:43] It's like, holy shit.

[01:06:44] Yeah.

[01:06:45] That's crazy.

[01:06:46] Yeah.

[01:06:46] I love what I do.

[01:06:47] Like there's days that I don't, there should be.

[01:06:51] Yeah.

[01:06:51] Yeah.

[01:06:51] It'd be fucking weird if you didn't have any of these.

[01:06:53] Yeah.

[01:06:53] Yeah.

[01:06:54] But most of the time I'm like, yes, I get to go in my shop and make these awesome things.

[01:07:00] Tinker around.

[01:07:01] Yeah.

[01:07:01] Yeah.

[01:07:01] Yeah.

[01:07:02] That's super exciting, man.

[01:07:03] I just, I love that.

[01:07:05] Yeah.

[01:07:05] That's so, uh, it's inspiring when you sit with someone who take that and took that jump

[01:07:10] and like, thank you.

[01:07:11] And as I'm, and you're doing something artistic, which is even kind of a level beyond.

[01:07:16] Yeah.

[01:07:16] Yeah.

[01:07:17] Well, as I mentioned earlier that, you know, like this, I'm not sure how much you knew about,

[01:07:22] uh, making videos and editing, taking photos and all that.

[01:07:25] But like, I've seen your website, I've seen your Instagram, I've seen your YouTube and I

[01:07:29] could see the progress too, from like older videos to what you're producing today.

[01:07:34] Right.

[01:07:34] Um, you were on TV too, right?

[01:07:37] On the channel with, uh, you had a show.

[01:07:40] Through MTS5 TV.

[01:07:42] Yeah.

[01:07:42] That's what, yeah.

[01:07:43] You had a show, right?

[01:07:44] Yeah.

[01:07:44] Is that still on or that?

[01:07:45] Yeah.

[01:07:46] It's, you can still stream it there or it's on my YouTube.

[01:07:48] Yeah.

[01:07:49] But basically, yeah.

[01:07:51] Just to like go back a bit, I had, I was working on a wakeboard documentary.

[01:07:56] Okay.

[01:07:56] When the, the cable park was on the West side of, of Winnipeg adrenaline adventures.

[01:08:02] Yeah.

[01:08:03] And I was like, I was like, I was like, I was like, I was like, I was like, no, I'm going

[01:08:06] to like, one more lap and I'm going to like break my back.

[01:08:10] Yeah.

[01:08:11] Blow up my knees.

[01:08:12] Who knows?

[01:08:13] So I was like, you know, I'm going to like film for a year.

[01:08:16] And it ended up being let's film for two summers.

[01:08:19] Yeah.

[01:08:20] And, uh, and we produced a documentary.

[01:08:22] We went to Churchill to go wakeboarding out there.

[01:08:25] That was like, yeah, it was, I've never been up there yet.

[01:08:28] It's beautiful.

[01:08:29] Yeah.

[01:08:30] Yeah.

[01:08:30] It's beautiful.

[01:08:32] Um, definitely go out there.

[01:08:33] It's, uh, it's worth the trip and made this documentary, but like in that two years met

[01:08:39] up with a bunch of different people within like the film industry, just like whoever.

[01:08:44] Yeah.

[01:08:45] And then, uh, had a, had a podcast as well, did 50 episodes of that.

[01:08:51] And on that podcast, we were talking about how do we, how do we take the podcast and like

[01:08:58] bring it out into a different form of media?

[01:09:00] And we're talking about like, how would we film like a documentary or something?

[01:09:04] And I was like, Oh, I've got, I've got the connections.

[01:09:07] I'll reach out to a couple of these guys and see what they think.

[01:09:10] And it just morphed into, uh, fire and slice, which was making a knife for someone who is

[01:09:17] interesting and kind of like showing their story and building their, their custom knife

[01:09:23] at the same time.

[01:09:24] That's awesome.

[01:09:25] Yes.

[01:09:25] So that's really cool.

[01:09:26] So you're getting into this new adventure.

[01:09:27] It opened up a door for you in, in other areas too, that you've, you've developed and

[01:09:33] photography film is something that like your photos are beautiful.

[01:09:38] Yeah.

[01:09:38] And, and so congratulations.

[01:09:41] Um, super happy for you.

[01:09:43] Uh, love, love our interactions on Instagram too.

[01:09:48] Once in a while we chat mainly is just videos, but, um, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[01:09:52] But you know, like I saw a kid falling, I'm a seven now.

[01:09:57] We all talk to each other.

[01:09:58] Yeah.

[01:09:58] That's how we do it now.

[01:09:59] But you know, like I just sent you that video I've seen, I was like, Oh, this is whatever.

[01:10:02] Like it's a cool recipe, but there, there's an interesting knife.

[01:10:05] Right.

[01:10:05] And so it's nice when, when I see that right away, think of you, you know, like, and, and,

[01:10:10] and, uh, there's, I guess anything can spark an idea, right.

[01:10:13] For you and, and just to make a little practice piece and let's see if we can make this.

[01:10:18] And that's amazing that you can do that.

[01:10:19] You have, you have the time now you don't have a full-time job that you need to focus

[01:10:24] on.

[01:10:24] And, and I'm kind of jealous and I hope I get there at one point, uh, with my job, you

[01:10:29] know, where I'll be able to do these things.

[01:10:31] So, um, it's amazing, man.

[01:10:33] Congratulations.

[01:10:34] Thank you.

[01:10:34] So before we, before we let you go, uh, we, I have, uh, I want to start a new thing

[01:10:39] and I want to do this with, with our, um, um, with our guests.

[01:10:43] All right.

[01:10:44] Oh God.

[01:10:45] Yeah, I know.

[01:10:45] It's, you know what?

[01:10:46] I've been, uh, I've been on, uh, on a binge of listening to like, uh, motivational videos

[01:10:52] because I feel like I've lost my mojo a little bit in the designing, you know?

[01:10:56] So I've been, I've been wanting to kind of gain that back and, and there's times

[01:11:01] where I'm like, I don't feel like doing, you know, like I need to, need to find a drive

[01:11:05] a little bit more.

[01:11:06] And, and so I, I saw some really cool quotes and, um, so I want to bring this to our show

[01:11:14] where we, if there's a quote that stood out this week for you, you know, then just we'll

[01:11:18] bring it up and maybe just have a quick discussion over it.

[01:11:21] So the one thing I saw that, uh, it was, uh, the quote went, if you're, if you're not

[01:11:28] changing it, you're choosing it.

[01:11:31] Right.

[01:11:31] Okay.

[01:11:32] And I was like, I was like, holy shit.

[01:11:33] Like that, that, that like hit me hard.

[01:11:35] I'm like, yeah, like I, I literally have these two options.

[01:11:40] Do I do it or do I not do it?

[01:11:42] And I choose to not do it.

[01:11:45] Right.

[01:11:45] You know?

[01:11:46] So, so I'm not changing that behavior that's making me choose that other one.

[01:11:50] And then like, and I really, I told my wife actually, I want to get like a little white

[01:11:55] board and I want to start putting it like on there where it's like on the fridge or somewhere,

[01:12:00] you know?

[01:12:00] Like, so I look at it every day.

[01:12:02] I do it more.

[01:12:03] So I read it and because videos will only pop up when you bring your phone up and now I'm

[01:12:08] not as often on my phone.

[01:12:10] I'm trying to not be as often on my phone either.

[01:12:12] And, um, so yeah, I just want to have this, these little, almost like flashes of like,

[01:12:18] oh shit, that's right.

[01:12:19] Okay.

[01:12:19] There it is.

[01:12:20] So it goes into like surrounding yourself with the things that drive you forward.

[01:12:25] That's right.

[01:12:25] So the people, the things like even having that next to your computer or by your laptop,

[01:12:30] like when you're working on, cause, cause what you're trying to do is make that transition

[01:12:33] out of your job into entrepreneurship.

[01:12:36] And so keep that close by where you do that.

[01:12:39] And then also I would encourage you to put it where you are least likely to be working

[01:12:43] on that stuff.

[01:12:44] Yeah.

[01:12:44] So you see it when you're not.

[01:12:46] Yeah.

[01:12:47] Yeah.

[01:12:47] Yeah.

[01:12:47] Yeah.

[01:12:47] And it's okay to do that.

[01:12:49] On the TV screen.

[01:12:50] Yeah.

[01:12:51] Again, it is all choosing.

[01:12:53] Yeah.

[01:12:53] Like once you do it all for yourself and only yourself, like, and for you, you don't have

[01:12:57] a boss.

[01:12:57] Yeah.

[01:12:58] You really are choosing.

[01:13:00] Yeah.

[01:13:00] Everything is a choice and it's very, it can be very easy to not do it.

[01:13:04] Yeah.

[01:13:05] So, and then the other thing, uh, is.

[01:13:09] So do I get to say my quote then?

[01:13:12] Oh, you guys both have one?

[01:13:13] I don't have one.

[01:13:13] If you have one, yeah, please.

[01:13:14] Yeah, sure.

[01:13:15] When Tommy was talking, I was like, oh man, what?

[01:13:17] I know.

[01:13:17] When is mine going to be?

[01:13:19] And then you mentioned like writing.

[01:13:20] Put me on the fucking spot.

[01:13:20] Writing.

[01:13:21] Sorry, Tim.

[01:13:23] You can skip it.

[01:13:24] We planned this out earlier.

[01:13:26] Yeah, that's fine.

[01:13:26] I know.

[01:13:27] Let's fuck around with Tim and say these awesome quotes.

[01:13:31] And the perfect.

[01:13:32] What do you got?

[01:13:33] So just like you, when you said your whiteboard and you want to write it down, I have a big

[01:13:38] locker in my, in my shop and listening to podcasts and audio books.

[01:13:42] Sometimes I'll be like, okay, that's got to go on my locker.

[01:13:46] I'll write it there.

[01:13:46] So I've got two things written on there right now.

[01:13:50] One, a few things.

[01:13:52] 1%.

[01:13:52] So just trying to like push myself a little bit more in a different way every day so that

[01:13:59] I'm always progressing.

[01:14:01] But even if it's a little bit.

[01:14:02] Um, the other one is the bunker.

[01:14:06] So like sometimes I'll sit down on my computer and get on my phone, get distracted.

[01:14:12] And it's like, no, this place is my work.

[01:14:17] Like I shouldn't be like just scrolling through Instagram.

[01:14:20] Yeah.

[01:14:22] It's a trap.

[01:14:23] Doom scroll.

[01:14:23] It is.

[01:14:24] It's just a trap.

[01:14:25] It is.

[01:14:25] And then it's like, no, this is the bunker.

[01:14:28] Like I should be focused on like creating product.

[01:14:32] And if I am on my phone, I should be filming something, editing, creating some form of media

[01:14:37] to put out there.

[01:14:39] And, uh, the other one is find the click.

[01:14:42] So I'm still trying to like figure out my market, like what is going to click with people.

[01:14:49] Yeah.

[01:14:50] And like doing this kind of thing, it's just another potential connection to the world.

[01:14:56] Yeah.

[01:14:56] Absolutely.

[01:14:57] And I like, I love putting myself out there.

[01:14:59] So although tomorrow I'll probably be burnt out because I'm a bit of an introvert and

[01:15:04] putting out energy like this is going to be like, Oh, I'll be down to a six tomorrow.

[01:15:10] Yeah.

[01:15:10] Okay.

[01:15:11] Maybe not.

[01:15:13] Cool.

[01:15:13] I don't have a quote.

[01:15:14] Okay.

[01:15:15] Um, so we have a little thank you.

[01:15:18] We're doing.

[01:15:18] I didn't.

[01:15:19] A little thank you for joining us today.

[01:15:21] Beautiful.

[01:15:22] Thanks, man.

[01:15:22] These are our new mugs and, uh, every guest gets one of the, those and, uh, hopefully the

[01:15:28] whiskeys will taste good from it or coffee or whatever.

[01:15:30] They're probably great for whiskey.

[01:15:32] Oh, they, I'm sure they would be.

[01:15:33] Should we try it right now?

[01:15:34] Yeah, we should.

[01:15:35] Yeah.

[01:15:36] Thanks for being here, man.

[01:15:37] We really appreciate it.

[01:15:38] Um, I, Oh, plug your business.

[01:15:40] Yeah.

[01:15:41] Oh, first, what it says on your cup, I think is awesome.

[01:15:44] Healing starts with a single conversation.

[01:15:46] So yeah, if you're having a hard time, reach out to someone.

[01:15:49] Absolutely.

[01:15:50] There's, there's, there's people out there that are struggling and you might not notice

[01:15:55] it.

[01:15:56] If someone's being quiet, that's normally more talkative, just pat on the back and how's

[01:16:01] it going, buddy?

[01:16:02] Check in.

[01:16:03] Check in.

[01:16:03] Yeah.

[01:16:03] Check in.

[01:16:04] Well, and like you said, you know, like you sitting here, I would have never, you know,

[01:16:10] said that you're an introvert.

[01:16:11] So, so you're, you're here, you know, putting out this energy, but inside it's, I know my

[01:16:18] wife is an introvert and I've gotten used to it where like when I would podcast, I'd have

[01:16:22] notes in front of me, be like put out energy.

[01:16:26] And so be pleasant.

[01:16:28] And a lot of people are, you know, probably, you know, let's call it putting on a, putting

[01:16:33] on a show, putting on a mask, a face, you know, um, and inside they might be really struggling.

[01:16:39] And so, yeah, that's why it's, it's, I, when I, when I heard that quote, that that's one

[01:16:44] of the quotes.

[01:16:45] That's my quote for today.

[01:16:47] And that's why I decided to, to put it on there because it's, it's, it really, it starts

[01:16:52] with a single conversation.

[01:16:54] So, um, please plug your, in this camera, that camera, which is like hot ones.

[01:17:00] I know I'm stealing it.

[01:17:01] They got sold.

[01:17:02] Hot ones got sold.

[01:17:03] Did they finally?

[01:17:04] No way.

[01:17:05] Um, interesting.

[01:17:05] I just read that today, but yeah, plug your business, uh, your Instagram, YouTube, uh,

[01:17:11] website, whatever you want.

[01:17:12] Cool.

[01:17:12] Uh, I'm Justin Lamru.

[01:17:14] I run rainy day forge.

[01:17:16] You can find me on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube on my website.

[01:17:22] You can look at my knives.

[01:17:23] Um, yeah.

[01:17:25] Send me a message.

[01:17:26] If you've got something interesting that you'd like to, for me to make.

[01:17:31] Um, also knife repairs too.

[01:17:33] I've gotten a few people recently that like, Hey, can you like, this is my grandfather's

[01:17:38] favorite knife, but the handle's rotten.

[01:17:40] So can you put fresh, uh, fresh scales on it and give it a cleanup?

[01:17:45] So nice.

[01:17:46] Yeah.

[01:17:47] Awesome.

[01:17:48] Quick, quick, quick work that way.

[01:17:49] And it's, it's good.

[01:17:51] Awesome.

[01:17:51] Well, thank you again for joining us here in the studio and, uh, we'll, uh, we'll, we'll,

[01:17:56] we'll catch you at the next market.

[01:17:58] Hopefully.

[01:17:58] Do you have any plans for that or nothing said in stone yet?

[01:18:02] So this summer we, the Manitoba Blacksmith Guild is hosting the national event.

[01:18:07] Okay.

[01:18:08] So we've got like, I'm, I'm organizing a national conference.

[01:18:11] Yay.

[01:18:12] Nice, nice.

[01:18:12] Good for you, man.

[01:18:13] So we've got someone from Pennsylvania coming in, California, Vancouver.

[01:18:18] Like these are like world-class demonstrators.

[01:18:21] So yeah, doing another market is going to wait till after that's all done.

[01:18:26] Well, uh, let us know if there's room for a little bit of mental health, uh, stuff, uh,

[01:18:31] at that event.

[01:18:31] And I would be happy to, to join you.

[01:18:34] Yeah.

[01:18:35] Anyways, take care.

[01:18:36] Thank you.

[01:18:44] Man, I love that.

[01:18:47] Do you?

[01:18:48] Yeah.

[01:18:49] Yeah.

[01:18:49] That was awesome.

[01:18:50] Right?

[01:18:50] Like, and I know he only brought like few of his knives, but I know I'm already, so I

[01:18:56] already like, yeah, you, you, you already talked a little bit and you have ideas, which

[01:19:02] are by the way, fucking great ideas.

[01:19:04] I got to say like, I don't think we, yeah, I don't think we need to tell our listeners,

[01:19:09] but I think once you have the job completed, I think it would be nice to just show everyone

[01:19:14] like, I'm so excited.

[01:19:16] I'm excited to see what he's going to come up with and right.

[01:19:18] Yeah.

[01:19:18] So, um, and like a couple of other pictures that he showed us, like those are cool knives.

[01:19:23] So I can see you having something like that.

[01:19:26] Yeah.

[01:19:26] Yeah.

[01:19:27] Oh yeah.

[01:19:28] It's a cool story too.

[01:19:29] Like, like to go from, you don't, you don't, I don't hear a lot of people that make that

[01:19:37] jump.

[01:19:38] Yeah.

[01:19:39] Yeah.

[01:19:39] Like from, from, I shouldn't say that, but like not a lot of people do make that jump

[01:19:45] and like, he could have easily just treated that as like a side hustle and he does it

[01:19:50] in his spare time and like whatever.

[01:19:52] But to see him like full on, just go like, no, this is what I'm going to do.

[01:19:56] Yeah.

[01:19:56] And like, we didn't even scratch the surface of all of that.

[01:19:59] Like we'll have them back.

[01:20:01] Oh, for sure.

[01:20:01] I always feel like everybody we have to have back twice.

[01:20:04] Well, it's one of those things.

[01:20:05] I don't want to have a three hour episode because it's, it's, it would be long for people to

[01:20:09] listen.

[01:20:10] Yeah.

[01:20:10] So, but it's, you know, we'll see what the response is from the listeners.

[01:20:14] And then, you know, if it's something that the listeners are truly interested in, then yeah,

[01:20:17] we can definitely explore more.

[01:20:19] He's good on the mic.

[01:20:20] Oh yeah.

[01:20:20] Well, he's, he's done, he's done podcasts.

[01:20:22] I was very surprised when he said he was a total introvert.

[01:20:27] Right.

[01:20:27] I was kind of surprised.

[01:20:28] It kind of made sense because he works alone.

[01:20:30] Yeah.

[01:20:31] So, okay.

[01:20:32] That you're comfortable doing that.

[01:20:34] So that makes sense.

[01:20:35] But like, he's, I don't know.

[01:20:37] He's what a nice guy.

[01:20:38] Oh, so he's super nice.

[01:20:39] And like, uh, I know.

[01:20:40] Can I just do a show with him?

[01:20:41] Sure.

[01:20:42] Yeah.

[01:20:42] Done.

[01:20:43] I'll just sit in the background.

[01:20:44] Yeah.

[01:20:45] I'll just charge you guys for a rental.

[01:20:47] Oh, here we go.

[01:20:51] But no, it was great.

[01:20:52] I really appreciate that he came and that he shared his art, his craft with us.

[01:20:59] And I don't know how the fuck people do that.

[01:21:01] I've watched that show and all those things.

[01:21:03] It's just like, that is cool as shit.

[01:21:05] Yeah.

[01:21:06] Part of me was kind of thinking before he even got here and before we, like a couple days

[01:21:11] ago, I was thinking about like, okay, how, how does this relate to men's mental health?

[01:21:17] And, um, and it doesn't necessarily have to be men's mental health.

[01:21:22] You know, it just truly like he focused on his own wellbeing of just doing what he loves

[01:21:30] doing.

[01:21:30] Like there's nothing more satisfying, I think is, is to, to have a job where you truly enjoy

[01:21:38] the work you do.

[01:21:39] Yeah.

[01:21:40] And, and this is where I think this is a great example of that quote that if you love

[01:21:44] what you're doing, you'll never work a day in your life.

[01:21:47] And yeah, there's challenges with that and stuff, but like, you know, it's, you can look

[01:21:52] at those challenges like, okay, this is a hurdle.

[01:21:54] I just need to jump over it.

[01:21:55] And, and that's it.

[01:21:56] And it's just, I love that we had him on.

[01:21:59] Yeah, me too.

[01:21:59] And I love that.

[01:22:00] It's just like when you do what he he's doing or what you're doing or what I'm doing, like

[01:22:05] when, when you do your own thing, it all falls on you and that's a lot of pressure.

[01:22:10] It is.

[01:22:10] But the wins and the losses are all yours.

[01:22:14] Yeah.

[01:22:14] Like you own them.

[01:22:15] That's right.

[01:22:15] Like there's something, it's not for everybody, but like, man, when you do that and it's something

[01:22:20] that you love to do, it's nothing, I wouldn't trade it.

[01:22:23] Like I wouldn't trade it for anything.

[01:22:25] Yeah.

[01:22:25] And you know, I, I, I just had a conversation with my son today.

[01:22:28] We had a busy day and, and, uh, they played volleyball and he asked about the score, you

[01:22:33] know, I'm like, well, I don't think they were keeping score.

[01:22:36] And, and he's like, well, that's okay.

[01:22:37] And I was like, well, yeah, it is, but it also, it's important to know that, you know,

[01:22:45] like where you ended up because I think I absolutely hate the, oh, let's not keep score.

[01:22:52] Everyone's got to have fun.

[01:22:54] Participation award.

[01:22:55] And, uh, and Justin mentioned, uh, Gary Vaynerchuk and he's one of those guys like, you know,

[01:23:00] like I saw a baseball game and this 11 year old kid, like, you know, was crying because,

[01:23:06] um, they lost.

[01:23:07] And I, I went, I jumped there before the parents got there saying, oh, it's okay.

[01:23:11] It's just a game though.

[01:23:12] I wanted to say like, Hey, it's a tough loss.

[01:23:15] Yeah.

[01:23:15] You know, like it's, it's, and it's okay to lose as long as you know, you've done your

[01:23:20] best.

[01:23:20] Yeah.

[01:23:21] There will be losses in life, you know?

[01:23:23] Always.

[01:23:24] And what you do with that instead of like, oh, it's okay.

[01:23:27] Everything's fine.

[01:23:28] No, that's not life.

[01:23:29] It's a lesson.

[01:23:30] You, you learn from it.

[01:23:31] You, you, okay.

[01:23:32] We lost because of this, this, this, this, this.

[01:23:36] Let's try to improve on those things.

[01:23:38] Right.

[01:23:38] So the same in a business, right?

[01:23:40] You, you try something, you lose money, you lose your time, you lose products, employees,

[01:23:46] whatever.

[01:23:46] All kinds of things.

[01:23:47] You learn from it.

[01:23:48] Yeah.

[01:23:48] What do I need to do going forward?

[01:23:50] So that doesn't happen again.

[01:23:52] Yep.

[01:23:52] Right.

[01:23:53] And if you don't learn from it, well, then.

[01:23:56] Not going to last.

[01:23:57] Exactly.

[01:23:57] Yeah.

[01:23:57] And nothing life will.

[01:23:59] Like, no.

[01:23:59] It's not even business.

[01:24:01] It's, it goes for everything.

[01:24:02] Like if you, yeah.

[01:24:04] Yeah.

[01:24:04] If you don't learn, if you don't, uh, take your medicine.

[01:24:07] Yeah.

[01:24:07] If you don't take your medicine, nothing's going to change.

[01:24:10] Absolutely.

[01:24:10] So, so yeah.

[01:24:11] Hope you guys enjoyed this episode.

[01:24:13] Um, we certainly did.

[01:24:15] And, uh, we'll, we'll try to give you guys an update on, uh, on what's going on with Justin.

[01:24:20] And, uh, we'll, we'll, we're going to try to collaborate more with him.

[01:24:24] Um, follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok at Quiet Riot Show.

[01:24:30] Uh, on YouTube, if you want to, you should check out YouTube for sure.

[01:24:34] If you listen to this because he did bring some knives in and they were absolutely beautiful.

[01:24:38] Oh my God.

[01:24:39] And yeah, send us an email just, uh, about anything and everything, uh, that you'd like

[01:24:44] to ask us, tell us, or, uh.

[01:24:46] Or want to hear about it.

[01:24:47] Want to hear about it.

[01:24:47] Yeah.

[01:24:48] If you want to be a guest or whatever.

[01:24:49] Yeah.

[01:24:50] Anything.

[01:24:50] It's quietriotshow at gmail.com.

[01:24:52] And yeah, tune in next time.

[01:24:53] Thanks.

[01:24:54] See you guys.

[01:24:56] All Quiet Riot Show episodes have been recorded and produced by Suver Media.

[01:25:00] If you think you have an idea for a podcast, but don't have the space or proper equipment,

[01:25:05] please visit suvermedia.com for more information.

[01:25:08] We hope you enjoyed this episode.

[01:25:10] And if you did, please hit the follow button and leave us a review.

[01:25:13] If the platform you are listening on allows you to do so.

[01:25:16] Subscribe to our YouTube channel, The Quiet Riot Show, and follow us on the Instagram page

[01:25:21] at Quiet Riot Show.

[01:25:23] Please share this episode with others that may be interested in these topics.

[01:25:27] If you know anyone that would enjoy these topics, feel free to share our podcast with

[01:25:31] them.

[01:25:31] Also, let us know what topics you'd like to see covered in future episodes.

[01:25:36] Get in touch with us in the comments on our channel and social media, or send us an

[01:25:40] email to quietriotshow at gmail.com.