Stakeholder of the Month

 

I thought it would be fun to feature a Stakeholder of the Month so you and I could hear from the people who help make it MT Knives Great! It is also encouraging for me  to hear from them in their own words why they decided to support MT Knives. So Here is the first one.

John wearing the famous Roehrman hat and knife

 

 
I’m John from North Dakota and I carry a custom knife made by Patrick all day, every day. My part time job is in the dental field and the rest of my time is spent as a homesteader, husband and father of 4 daughters (one of whom carries a Genesis all day, every day).
 
I’ve loved knives since I was a kid, my first being a swiss army knife when I was 5 or 6 getting it from my Dad. I still have it. I also have my first Buck knife that I used for deer hunting as a kid. Like firearms, I don’t get rid of knives; I have every one I’ve ever bought. While in dental school, I could treat myself once a year to a Spyderco, that was where my budget was back then.
 
My first exposure to MT Knives was Patrick and Emily’s time on TSP with Jack. Shortly thereafter I started buying soap from them, liking the product and helping to support the mission of a like minded entrepreneur. Like many of those reading this, I got excited about the Stakeholder program launch and it was a memorable (mostly in bad ways) time for me. I had recently broken my back in a martial arts class accident and was in my berry patch in an oxycodone induced fog (I was out of work for 5 weeks) awaiting the chance to sign up. Also like many, the technical glitches dashed my hopes of becoming a Stakeholder. I had really wanted to be a part of that and support Patrick for many reasons, one of which is that I always thought it would be fulfilling to be a knife maker myself.
 
 
After not making the group, I subconsciously stopped following Patrick’s work and didn’t even realize he had launched the Genesis until last spring when I heard Jack mention something on TSP about the Gen II being in the Gear Shop. I went there to buy one and damn, sold out! I happened to finally go to mtknives.net in hopes of buying one and I ended up buying 5 and putting in a deposit for a custom knife. Turns out Patrick had a question about my order and called me. What? At the time, Patrick was kind of a celebrity to me (he isn’t anymore, more on that later 😉 ) and I couldn’t believe how personable he was. I was even more enrolled into the “MT Knives Story” at that point. About the same time, the well publicized “first stakeholder position auction” was going on and I decided to try my first auction on eBay. Motivated by my not making it the first time, now believing even more in the MT Knives mission and some supportive “go for it” from my wife, I won the auction (within a second of it ending, I saved the screenshot) buying the most expensive knife I’ve ever had. I had just paid for a knife as much as I would for a damn nice AR! But I knew it wasn’t just “about the knife”, it was about the karma of being able to support someone I believed in and his mission.
 
As it turns out it was a great investment. A month later I made the trip to CO with a friend and my father to go to Patrick’s knife sharpening class. What a great group of guys and it impressed upon me the importance of community and camaraderie around something as simple as a knife and all it represented to so many people. Turns out, I met the guy who was bidding on the Stakeholder knife against me right to the end and he shares the passion of cooking as well as knives with Patrick and I. HE was a great guy, and I’m happy to report he’s since purchased an available Stakeholder position himself.
 
From conversations leading up to and at the class, Patrick and I had become friends. We can both cook a mean ribeye and he’s envious of my hair and I’m envious of his beard. I promptly bought a “using” Ranger because I didn’t want to beat up the Stakeholder one too much and his knives were definitely the best performing I’d ever had. After his sharpening class I’m able to finally keep them sharp, a goal of mine since I was young. I still remember being on a deer hunting trip and spitting on an arkansas stone as I sharpened my Buck knife, not really knowing at all what I was doing. 30 years later and I finally do.

teaching one of John’s daughters to sharpen 

Patrick and I are in contact almost daily about one thing or another so all celebrity has vanished and has been replaced by really knowing him and finding out how solid a person he is and represents his craft and his brand well.  Within 6 months of our first phone conversation we were together again when he took on the challenge of field dressing a deer with a Genesis only. I invited him to come to North Dakota and show me his field dressing technique as well as teach me how to finally bone out a deer the right way as we process ours ourselves. 
 
MT Knives is not just about a “beyond razor sharp knife”, it’s about a man and his mission and I’m proud to be a Stakeholder and support him in any way I can. I’ve bought Genesis knives for many of my friends, one of whom is a surgeon who wears his under his scrubs during surgery just in case he needs something sharper than his scalpel. Everyone that I’ve given one to really sees how special they are.
 
As I said, I wear a knife Patrick made every day and I use it or another of his daily. Every time I cut open a bag of chicken feed and the little knife just slices all the way through that heavy material like Luke Skywalker’s light saber, I know I’m using a tool made by an artisan, feel a sense of fulfillment (now that’s how a real knife should work!), think of my friend and wish him the best.
 
Thank you John!
 
Want to support MT Knives by purchasing things you need? I have had a couple people who didn’t like the paracord and would like to have some ball chain. Well if you are one of those people or if you would like some for another reason here is a link.  I will be sharing links to products from time to time on Amazon that I feel may be of interest to you. It is a great way for you to find what you need and in turn I make a few pennies to help support my family. 
 
 

 

 
Thank You,
Patrick