This 39-year-old quit his lineman job during the pandemic and built a $50 million company in his backyard | Fortune

Josh Smith left a union journeyman lineman position during the pandemic and invested everything in a knife company he had dreamed about for decades. He was 39, with a garage, some equipment, and a business name registered years earlier. Four years later, Montana Knife Company reached $50 million in revenue. His knife journey began in 1992 when he received a knife at age 11 and his Little League coach invited him into a shop to make one. He pursued bladesmithing through saving money, buying a grinder, and apprenticing with the American Bladesmith Society. By 15, he tested into journeyman level through demanding performance requirements. At 19, he became the youngest master bladesmith in the world.

"On December 30, 2020, Josh Smith did something most people would consider reckless. He walked away from his job as a journeyman lineman for the power company - a union position, with union pay, in the middle of a pandemic - and bet everything on a knife company he'd been dreaming about for two decades."

"Four years later, Montana Knife Company did $50 million in revenue. He was 39 years old. He had a garage, some equipment, and a business name he'd registered 20 years earlier and never used."

"The story doesn't start in 2020, though. It starts in 1992, when an 11-year-old Josh Smith got a knife for Christmas and his Little League baseball coach invited him into his shop to make one. "I think in order to get rid of me, he said, 'If you want to be a knife maker, you have to have your own shop,'" Smith recalled, speaking with Fortune from his office in Missoula."

"By the time he was 15, Smith said, he'd been an apprentice with the American Bladesmith Society for three years and successfully tested into the journeyman level - a grueling practical exam requiring a blade that can chop a one-inch rope in a single stroke, split two-by-fours without resharpening, and still shave hair off your arm, then bend 90 degrees in a vice without breaking. At 19, he became the youngest master bladesmith in the world."

Read at Fortune