The Only 2 Knives You'll Ever Need with Master Bladesmith Josh Smith | Mike Drop 220

About this video

Master bladesmith Josh Smith discusses knife design and selection with Mike Ritland, explaining how different blade thicknesses and styles serve different purposes. Smith describes his mini goat knife, tactical daggers, and hunting knives, emphasizing that blade design should match the intended task. He shares experiences from testing knives with Special Forces snipers and explains the requirements for earning his Master Bladesmith certification, including forging Damascus steel.

Key takeaways

• Smith explains that his mini goat knife, with a blade about 90,000 thick and 3 inches long, weighs only 1 oz and can process an entire elk, though he wouldn’t recommend it for extreme tactical use where operators might need to pry doors
• Smith recounts that after showing tactical knives to various Special Forces operators, he learned there is no consensus on the perfect knife design, with different operators having different preferences for their specific needs
• Smith describes that earning Master Bladesmith certification requires forging a blade from 300+ layers of Damascus steel that can bend significantly in performance testing, and presenting five knives to judges who can fail candidates for any flaws

Episode details: published December 31, 2024 · 25.4K views · 10:33 long. Summary written by Self Growth Videos from the episode itself. Stories told by Mike Ritland’s podcast guests are the guests’ own accounts, attributed to them — not independently verified. Commentary is Ritland’s, presented as his analysis.

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