(upbeat music)
- Conan O'Brien needs a fan.
Wanna talk to Conan? Visit teamcoco.com/callconin. Okay, let's get started.
“- Hey, Josh, welcome to Conan O'Brien needs a fan.”
- Hi, how are you doing? - Hey, how are you, Josh? - I am fantastic. - I'm nervous. - You shouldn't be nervous.
- No, you shouldn't be nervous, Josh. We're just people. - Well, David and Sona are just people. (laughing) - But you shouldn't be nervous
'cause it's two people and a living dog. - Where it is? - Right, right. So no, no pressure. - No pressure at all.
- Just two regular fans. - Two regular fans for 30 years. - Oh wow. (laughing)
- Well, Josh, nice to chat with you.
You're coming to us from Liverpool, New York. I didn't know there was a Liverpool in New York, but so that's upstate. - There is, yeah. - Yeah, upstate, Syracuse.
- Okay, very good. And you forge blades, is that correct? - That's true. - Yeah, I'm a professional bladesmith. - You're a bladesmith.
I didn't know it was called "Bladesmith." I love that. - Yeah. - I love a knife. - I'm gonna tell you upfront right now, Josh.
- I do. I really do love a knife. - Yeah, he does. - Yeah, I love a knife. I love it when I need to do something
and there happens to be a knife in my pocket. You know what I mean? - No, I don't know why everyone's laughing.
- I'm not laughing at me, I agree with you.
- I'm really happy with you. - That seems like the knife that really would suit you. - What's that? - Well, you know, a little tiny, you know, a little cock in my plate.
And maybe like in the nail clippers, you know, you click out that thing and the nail clippers and he's not gonna risk anymore. - You have it. - He keeps eating.
- He just, he has a good hand. - He literally drove a knife through your heart. - Yeah, his, hey, his finest blade is the one he just slipped between my fifth and sixth rib. - I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I had to do this.
- Well, nicely done, Josh, I guess. - I don't want to create an adversarial environment. - I don't, you don't, you don't, you don't know I don't. - You don't? - No, that was a weird choice, then.
- Yeah, I'll get on Conan's glass. - Yeah, I don't know. - Yeah, okay, let's talk about, 'cause I don't know anything about knives, really how they're made. And I wonder how you got into this.
Tell us the origin story of Josh Frost up in Liverpool, New York, what happened? How did you start making blades? - Right, so I was working in middle management. In sales and you wanted to kill some more.
(all laughing)
“- I mean, it was not that extreme, I think,”
but I just wanted a nice knife. And I found out that I did some research and I found out that really nice knives were between $3 and $10,000, so. - Yeah, why is that?
- For a number of different reasons, it can be for the materials, it can be for the crashmanship, the provenance of the knife who made it. But also the difficulty in constructing the knife.
There are a number of different materials that you can use and processes that exist. But some, not all knives are created equal. So, yeah, different types of steel makes make one type or another.
- Sometimes materials, you've got a little, you've got a certain kind of steel in there, but then a different kind of steel, and then you put a little tungsten in there, and then you put a little, right?
- You like melt it and stuff? - Is that true? Am I just grabbing this crap? - No, why not? - Why not?
- I don't say, I do not. - I ask you how a knife is made. And then I don't you guys are trying to think about, my theory of how knives are made, when I'm talking to a man who makes knives.
- You said tungsten. - Right, so, no, that's not possible. Anyway, it's a various polymers. You can't, actually, or, well, allies, you can say ally.
- Yeah, I don't. (laughing) - David, I'm an ally, and I love allies. - My problem is, ally, it can get really nerdy, so I'm just gonna, like, you over the base.
- Can't be the right place.
“- Okay, so, all right, I think it says in my notes”
that you claim there's only three things you need to make a knife, tell us what those three things are. - So you need to forge a knife. So you can, I think any asshole can just put a knife, put a piece of steel on a file and just file the metal away
and kind of make the general knife-shaped object. - Uh-huh. - This is one asshole who could not do that, right? But you could, and I am making a key to head. - I represent a giant swath of assholes,
and I would not be able to do that. - All right. - Do you have any polymers? - Yeah. - No, no, no, no.
- Yeah, polymers. Let's just, let's put some epoxy in there. - I put polydent in there, and then he's there for dentures. We'll put some little squirt, some glue on it. - Oh, yeah, yeah, I don't know.
- Okay, so you need, anyway, you need a, you need a heat source, so it's a forge a knife. So you need, you need steel, which is something like this.
This is, this is what my knives are made of.
- Wow, yeah.
- And what I'm showing is about an inch and a half
by a quarter inch bar of steel. This particular steel is called Cheragami White Paper Number Two, and it's probably my favorite blade steel to forge and make knives out of. - Is it come from Japan? - I do.
- Okay, that's what I guess, you know. - It's hot. - If it was so calahand, great, seven steel, I said, "Okay, that's it, my shot." - That's a double knife.
- That's a double knife. - I got to have me all put a hand steel. - So you need a heat source, and you need a heat source, because it's got to be heated up to forging temperature, which is about, it varies,
but it's right around 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit. - What's the surface of the sun?
“- What's the temperature of the surface of the sun?”
- I don't. - Did you think we all like that, you know? - I mean, 4,500 degrees, something like that. - Is it 4,500 degrees, I'd want us looking it up, but I just, I think it's really cool.
- What's that? - It's warm. - Oh, that's the southern Illinois scientist over there. - Yes, what do you got? - 5500 degrees. - 5500 degrees. - It is. - Okay, 55.
- So that would be, we all know. - That would be a good heat source, I guess, the sun, of course it powers the planet. So, yes. - So you need a spaceship, of course.
- Yeah, of course. - So you need a heat source, and you need, and you need something like a hammer. This is what I made. I like my own blacksmithing bladesmithing hammers,
that's a cool looking hammer, it's like, "No, 4, carries that hammer." (laughing) - Yeah, there you go, you know. And I know you can grow up.
- I know you couldn't swing this, Conan, but I've got a smaller one like this, where it probably would be easy for you to swing. - Oh, Josh, Josh, what's going on here? - What's going on?
- Oh, I came to you in friendship. You say you're a big fan, and yet the distance.
- You always tell people you're looking out
for your girlish figures, so I want to make sure that I, that I, that I, that I, you know, cater to that desire. - I understand. - Well, I, so, yeah.
- What I'm saying is I'm looking out for a girlish figure, you know what I mean? - Oh, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow. - Oh, okay, I heard you. Oh my God.
- Oh my God. - So yeah, no, you need an anvil, you need something to smash the steel. - Yes, you need a hard surface, a couple of hammers. - Uh, heat source.
Now, you have risen in the ranks. You are a proud, you're a master bladesmith. How do you become a master bladesmith? - I am not. - Oh, you're not.
- It's just here. - Unfortunately, no, I'm a, I'm a journeyman. - You're a journeyman bladesmith. Oh, I see, this is my fault. It's not the researchers fault.
“You present, you have to, in order to become a journeyman,”
you have to, you're rated by master bladesmiths. Is that correct? - Right, that's correct. So after you, you join the American Bladesmith Society as an apprentice, and you have to go through
schooling and learning and all that other good stuff. And then you have to test to see whether or not you've acquired enough knowledge and skill to proceed to the journeyman bladesmith level. So the tests are really rigorous.
What you have to do is you have to build a knife. It's got to ten inch long blade. Actually, I have mine. Let's check it out. This is the, this is the test knife that I made.
And I've got to see it. - It's like a simitar. - It cuts around corners now. - Yeah, yeah, if your phone was just, if your phone or the, or the watermelon you're slicing
is just around a corner, this is the blade for you. But I didn't make this curve myself deliberately. So, oh, that's the state. Was that a mistake? - No, that was from the testing.
- Oh, so, what you, what you have to do is you have to make a blade that can,
one first cut through a one inch rope and one swipe.
Then it has to chop through two, two by fours entirely. Then it has to, then it has to shave hair after because, you know, the chopping of the two by fours would dull a knife with a bad heat treatment.
“And so you have to shave, you have to shave hair with it.”
And then what hair do you choose? - What shave? - I chose my arm hair. - Okay. - Can you choose any hair to shave?
- I think so, you could, yeah. Could you in front of the master blade smiths? Man'scape with your blade. (laughing) - I'm just a question, it's about a question.
- Drop well. - It's about 100% the knife. - Yeah. - Drop trial. - It's a show confidence.
- Yes, it's a show confidence. - It's a show confidence. - I would be a great strategy. - I would drop trial when I'd say it's time to go to work on the old Don Giants.
- I would watch this and I'd not scare it at all. - Yeah, no, it's, it might not be that kind of crowd. - The blade smithing folks are... - Much of squares. - Yeah.
- You just want to see a bunch of dicks at this thing. - Hey. - Hey. - If I got a, if I got a journeyman blade smith contest and I'm not seeing dicks, something's wrong.
(laughing) - Something's wrong. - But I say that about everything. - I watch the great British dark dicks.
- I wonder something wrong.
- No, I watched the great British fake off
and I say, "What are the cops?" - Not no dicks. - They're making stones and I'm not seeing cops. - What the fuck? (laughing)
- Okay, so, all right, let's put what's raining in Josh. Josh, you took us down a really dirty road there.
“And that's how you got that was all Josh.”
- Who brought up my skis? - He started nearly, he started it with his little knife comment. - Right. - You know, right. - Here we go.
- So you got to shave, you got to be able to shave the hair. Okay, got it. - Yeah, yeah, then you stick the knife into a vice and you have to bend it 90 degrees. So the blade has to be in a knife
and you have to take the handle. - That just ruined the knife, doesn't it? - Well, no, I mean, it doesn't. It does, if your knife is a piece of crap and breaks.
So, but this, I mean, I kept this just
for nostalgia purposes. I could heat this back up, straighten it out and re-finish it and it would be just fine. There are no cracks in it, there's no other stresses in there. So, but I choose to keep it like this.
Obviously, it'd be for sentimental life. - Sure. - That's right, yeah, that's so accurate. - That's right. - It's a nice blade and you've got it, you know.
- Cool, it's cool memory. - I have one. - Straighten it out. Fix it. - Fix the knife.
- Okay. - Cool memory. - It's nice. - I literally do have an OC thing going on right now where I'm like, I want that knife fix.
- But it's a nice momento. From when he had to do this test, isn't it?
- Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, you know what I did?
I was someone let me borrow a BMW, a really nice one and I backed it up into a fence and it cracked it up. But I keep it that way, just for sentimental values 'cause not the same thing. - That didn't make you a journey man.
- I'm just saying, fix the knife. - No. - Yeah, it bothers me, that's right now. It's in pressure car. (laughing)
- I'll make a deal with you. If you come out here to my forge and get your hands dirty and get in the fire, I will let you hammer on that knife and straighten it. - Okay, okay, that's a good deal.
(upbeat music) - So if I get to come to Upstate New York to Liverpool, New York and climb inside some fire, you'll straighten a bent knife for me. That's a good deal.
- You will straighten the knife. - Okay, you will, you will put it in the fire. You will take this hammer. If, well, I do have a smaller hammer again, you know, in case you have,
- Oh, thank you my arms, you're so weak. (laughing) - Yeah, so my time, you hammered. So, but I'll teach you how to do it and you can straighten the knife out for me
thereby alleviating all of the OCD problems you have with my bent knife. - Yeah. - Josh, the time has come for you to tell me, do you think I'd be any good at this?
Could I learn this?
“'Cause I think it would be nice to have a manly skill.”
At the moment, I do not have any manly skills. I have some unmanly skills, but you know what I'm saying? Is this something I could learn? Do I have the qualities of a good blade's myth? - Absolutely.
Absolutely, and it's shocking how many people have a natural aptitude for forging. I was just teaching a student three days ago who was worried it would scare it of the forging. It gives a big, hot, scary thing, you know, and you're beaten
on this glowing incandescent piece of steel. And you know what the hell you're doing, but would just a little bit of instruction, it just comes out. I don't know, there's a weird thing.
It's one of the reasons why I really like the inacronistic stuff of pre-industrial humanity. - Yeah. - Because I don't just do knives. I'm a beekeeper, I weave my own yarn, I crochet,
I knit, I mean, the list just goes on and on. - You burn witches, yeah. - I don't, I like witches. - All the old fun rounds. - All the old fun stuff.
- But yes, absolutely, you can do it. - Absolutely, you can do it. - So if you don't, if you don't do it with me, do it somewhere else. - I don't know, I let you hear me out, see how it comes out.
- I do think that, you know, a guy who comes to mind who I admire greatly is Nick Offerman, talented actor, just a wonderful man. He's really good at making things, he can make a canoe, he can build a house,
he builds beautiful furniture, I've been to his house and he just will point to some of the furniture that's as gorgeous and he's like, oh yeah, I've made that. - I'm just so, you know. - Well, there's something cool too,
like when he said he made swords, I was like, is it like back in the, you know, - Yeah, you're banking over here. - Yeah, they're wearing an apron and they're just banging.
“- Do you wear it like it sounds like it's the same?”
- Do you wear an apron? - That's exactly what it is, yeah. Is it on leather apron? - Yes, it is. - Yeah, I thought it would.
- And I made it myself. - Yeah. - Oh my God. - So yeah, it's a leather apron and I made it. But yeah, my sword smithing is, I do it.
I do all, I do blades smithing and sword smithing
and tool work and tooling, black smithing.
So, okay, I am into knives and if I was going to get a knife, purchase a knife from you, do you sell them? - Yeah, I took a, if I was to purchase a knife from you, which I think is highly probable. - I want a knife.
- What kind of, you can't have a knife? - What kind of knife do you think I would be looking for? Well, if you were to purchase a knife from me, we would have to, all the people who buy my knives are collectors and I make them custom one at a time.
I don't, I don't just, I don't make one off knives, although I do have my signature knives that I make. - You don't have these sword? - I don't, no, come on. All of my, all of my businesses were to mouth, so.
- Okay. - All of the work is done custom, so I would talk to you about it and I would say, you know, what are the qualities
and how are you going to use it?
That's very important because you could have like kitchen, cutlery or a camping knife or, you know,
“fighting knife if you want to get into that kind of stuff,”
which are really highly doubtable. - Yeah, I don't think, I mean, I would like, I don't want to fight someone else who has a knife. I'd fight someone, I would fight someone if I had a knife and they didn't, that's a cool knife
for you, Cones. - This knife is a, is a fighter, so it's one of the, this is one of my signature blades, it's beautiful. - So that's a, that's a fighting knife. - And because it's a podcast, it tells us it's a,
it looks to be, it's smaller than a bowie knife, right? - It's about, it's about the size of a bowie, but it's not fighting knife, so the, the taper is, is tighter towards the, towards the tip for better penetration, I guess you would say.
- Wow. - It's got a, a coffin, a, a, a stainless coffin guard and a nickel silver bolster, it's got coa handle with a nickel silver pin for the mechanical connection. - A beautiful one, a handle in the knife.
- But see, that's a knife that, that's, that's, it's fantastic knife. - Do you want to sort? - No, I don't want to sort, and I, I'll just reveal this now. My friend, Joel McCail, wonderful fellow,
beloved by all, well, by some, Joel loves knives, swords, all kinds of stuff like that. And so for a long time, he's been gifting me the most dangerous things in the world. I think sometimes they're illegal.
- Yeah. - He'll give me like a switchplay that shoots out of the handle, which I don't think is, oh yeah. - In the United States, but I love it.
And I have them, I always, you know,
'cause I have had young kids for a long time, and I, so I would hide them all over the house, away from kids, and sometimes to fool the kids that would put them in the chest of toys,
“'cause I think that's the last place they're gonna look,”
which turned out not to be true. They would go to their toy, just all the time. So there were those murders to clean up. But, I, I, I, I have to, a ton of knives from Joel, and I can see the appeal.
But I do think the most useful thing for me is a blade that can go in your pocket. It's because I'm not someone who wants to be carrying a knife around in a sheath. Do you know what I mean?
That's just not gonna happen. - Right. - That's what I was walking in a forest that was filled with bears than maybe. - Or how about your belt?
- Look, I make these little guys. - Ooh, that's cool. - And this, this is what's called a blacksmith knife. So there's, there's no like handle material. This, these are the kind of knives that blacksmiths
would hammer out just as like whittling knives. Or, you know, whatever the case is. - Right, it's got a metal handle. It's got no wood, it's got a little looped. - It's on one piece.
So it's all one piece. So this is the, this is the blade part and then this part right here. I don't know, you probably can't see 'cause my camera's crappy. But it comes all the way down and then it loops up
and then there's another curl right in here. - Yeah, it's the first. - So let's say you're being able to hold it in your hand and so it doesn't cut you when you stab somebody with it. - Does that, did I say that, not stab somebody?
- You know, when you use it to poke at the end. - You said, when you, when it's tough, when you, it's a good, it's handy thing to have when you kill and kill again as we said. - What's the stabbing thing?
- Over a wide swath of the Pacific. - Yeah, north, west, north, west, west. - Yeah, you don't know what to have at totally different knife though. - What would you want to have?
- We don't have a different knife. - Yeah, so, okay, so I think about some as like this, you know, beautiful, dark curvacious person. You're not really easy, buddy. That will, that's a lot better at least.
“Life is open, and that'll literally slice you open”
and shit inside your heart. So, yeah, she would do that. - Now you just is exactly, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh,
Nine hours and have a lot of coffee I know you stay right there yes is this
Boston market of a like a three Thanksgiving dinner is brought over me to
immediately and some coffee lots of black coffee and you stay right there hey victims stay right there oh I got some shit coming your way so Josh but yeah anyway that's a cool nice cool nice and it looks like a feather I mean you're very you're an artist you're an artist so cool very cool do you
“I mean yeah I just think here's the thing it's been deadly for your”
business the TSA so many times right so many times someone will give me a knife and I what I don't want to do is you know forget and it's in my pocket and then bing bing bing bing bing bing and then you have to either your
tackled or you have to give it to them and they take it I mean there was a
period of time there where I would forget because I used to I loved caring around the knife and it comes in so handy but you know you go to the airport you're in a hurry and that's like oh shit you know I've got my knife I forgot I have my knife with me and my gun and my and my sword that I hide in a cane you don't want to do that my ninja throwing stars I mean I would forget all that stuff some of my
pocket no that's a big detail but it in your chicken bag you should put it in your chicken I try not to chat I almost do carry I know but you can't have knives and weapons no no I'm listen I'm totally down with a TSA and TSA I salute you it's good work you do and you know what sometimes I go back again for an extra pen if you know what I'm saying you know I'm in gets lonely so I've said you
know I I'm not satisfied I'm not satisfied I am not satisfied I'd like you to work me over one more time and really get in there yeah yeah yeah
“Miami drink first oh my TSA is so good it's also funny but I think you are”
very talented these look like and I and I salute you because you know how to do something we live in a world we're increasingly people don't know how to do things other than scroll there they're little devices and I I I'm so impressed by that I'm so impressed by what you're doing and how do we do you have a website or anything how do people find look at your where's I do but it's a
janky website that's like that's all that doesn't get really updated very smart you have a great pretty I don't do I yes can I say you're a terrible business man I I speak to a huge audience I'm asking you well how was one get these as well yeah that's a whole story not sure it's a weak site so it's J for us knives let's see I'm assuming I find it oh he forgets it you're trying
to find your own site you can't I don't have it like okay well let's say you know somebody you're gonna be dead in that house you weeks before they find you I
“think if you were actually knives dot com I think frost knives dot com it's J”
frost knives J stuff's J frost knives dot week site dot J no what J anyone listening don't even try to look these up do not buy these knives you have to be punished for your and you know what you're gonna learn over time I
was handed an amazing business opportunity anyone else would die for
yeah and you were like I don't know website hmm well there's one no that's not it I don't know I usually be okay it doesn't matter you see doing now he's just looking himself he's just looking at point I really yeah he took a break to look at pornography kind of upsetting me I need a knife porn yeah oh good knife porn there must be knife porn people being sliced open and
shitting me there is knife porn and it's not not fun okay Josh your time is up don't don't do it Josh I salute you it's so nice to meet you and yeah when you want to man can't find that's like you can't find your own asshole with a map you know if you can't find your own website you know it's okay it's it's come full circle now for the for the you know the fingernail clipper knife
okay that I'm earlier it's all circles yeah can't find your website that you don't deserve to have a room look at him look at him drinking his bad business man juice Josh I salute you I really do I think you're very you're funny or cool guy and I think these knives look awesome and if I ever find a way to look at them my
buy one yeah I thought you I really thought you guys had a link already so oh is that our fault well we'll do a pickup okay yeah well the fact no we won't
Let's not let's not do a pickup what I want people to hear what a terrible
business man Josh is so yeah touch nothing you know we we show people are our
“every word Josh you take care and continue your fine work and I'll see”
you on the flip flop I hope we meet in person I hope so too thanks very much
for having take care man Conan O'Brien needs a fan with Conan O'Brien Sonam of
“Sessian and Matt Gorley produced by me Matt Gorley executive produced by”
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