Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend - Knife Porn

Episode Date: July 23, 2026

Conan talks to blade smith Josh from Liverpool, NY about how to craft the perfect knife.   Wanna get a chance to talk to Conan? Submit here: teamcoco.com/apply Get access to all the podcasts you love, music channels and radio shows with the SiriusXM App! Get 3 months free using this show link: https://siriusxm.com/conan. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Conan O'Brien needs a fan. Want to talk to Conan? Visit teamco.com slash call Conan. Okay, let's get started. Hey, Josh, welcome to Conan O'Brien Needs a fan. Hi, how you doing? Hey, how are you, Josh?

I am fantastic. I'm nervous. You shouldn't be, no, you shouldn't be nervous, Josh. We're just people. Well, David and Sona are just people. But you shouldn't be nervous because it's two people and a living God. it is. Right, right. So no, no pressure at all. No pressure at all. Just two regular phone for 30 years.

Oh, wow. Well, Josh, so nice to chat with you. You're coming to us from Liverpool, New York. I didn't know there was a Liverpool, New York. 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. You're a blade smith. I didn't know it was called blade smith. I love that. Yeah. I love a knife. I'm going to tell you up front 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 and I agree with you. I'm really happy. That seems like the knife that really would suit you. What's that? Well, you know, a little tiny, you know, a little pocket knife. like in a, and maybe like in the nail clippers, you know,

you flick out that thing in the nail clippers and he's not nervous anymore. You're complimenting him. He just, he literally drove a knife through your heart. Yeah.

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 it. Well, uh, nicely done, Josh, I guess. Um, and, uh,

I don't want to create an adversarial environment. I love you. You don't? You don't? You don't? No, I don't. You don't? No. That was a weird choice then. Yeah.

I'll get on Conan's good side. It was. Yeah. Okay. Let's talk about, because 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 somewhere. 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 three and $10,000.

Yeah, why is that? For a number of different reasons. It can be for the materials. It can be for the craftsmanship, the provenance of the knife who made it. But also the difficulty in constructing the knife. Right. 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. Yeah. Different types of steel makes it make one type or another. You have to blend sometimes materials. You know, 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 describing this correctly? No. No, I don't. Hey, Josh, I do not. I asked you how a knife is made. And then I go off talking about my theory of how knives are made when I'm talking to a man who makes knives. You said tungsten.

Right. So I, no, not tungsten. Can I just say various polymers? You can't, sure, actually. Well, alloys. You can say alloy. Alloys. David, I'm an ally.

and I love alloys. My problem is. All I. Go ahead. It can get really nerdy. So I'm just going to like go over to the basic stuff. Okay. So all right.

You need. 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 you, uh, I think any asshole can just put a knife, you know, put a piece of steel on a, on a file and just file the metal away and kind of make the general knife shaped.

This is one asshole who could not do that. Right, but you could. And I can teach you how to it. I represent a giant swath of assholes, and I would not be able to do that. Right. You would be putting polymers and tungsten in it. Polymers. Let's put some epoxy in there.

I put polydent in there, an adhesive for dentures. We'll put some, squirt some glue on it. Oh, yeah, yeah. That'll help me. Okay, so you need a, anyway, you need a heat source to forge a knife. So you need steel, which is something like this. This is what my knives are made of. And what I'm showing is about an inch and a half by a quarter inch bar of steel.

This particular steel is called shiragami white paper number two. And it's probably my favorite blade steel to forge and make knives out of. Is it come from Japan? It does, yes. Okay, that's a guest. Hitachi. If it was O'Callaghan Grade 7 steel, I'd say, I've got some of that in my shop actually.

That's a Dublin. That's a Dublin knife. Hey, you got to have the Ocalaan 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 know off the face of my 4,500 degrees, something like that? Is it 4,500 degrees? Edward was 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 you got?

5500 degrees. 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 just need a spaceship.

Yeah, of course. Yeah. So you need a heat source and you need something like a hammer. This is one I made. I like my own blacksmithing, blade smithing hammers. That's a cool looking hammer. It's like, Lil Thor carries that hammer. Yeah, there you go, Lilfo.

And I know you couldn't swing this. I know you couldn't swing this, Conan, but I've got a smaller one like this where it would probably be easier for you to swing. Josh, Josh, what's going on here? What's going on? I came to you in friendship. You say you're a big fan. And yet the dishes are flying. You always tell people you're looking out for your girlish figure, 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. Yeah. What I'm saying is I'm looking out for a girlish figure, you know what I mean. Okay. I heard you wrong. Oh my gosh.

So, yeah. No, you need an anvil. You need something to smash the steel with. Yes, you need a hard surface, a couple of hammers, heat source. Now, you have risen in the ranks. You are proud, you're a master blade smith. How do you become a master blade smith? become a master blade smith?

I am not. Oh, you're not. It says here. No, I'm a journeyman. You're a journeyman, bladesmith. Oh, I see. This is my fault. This is not the research's 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, blade smith level. So the tests are really rigorous. What you have to do is you have to build a knife. It's a 10-inch long blade. Actually, I have mine. Let's check it out. This is the test knife that I made. Oh, it's got a curved.

It's like a scimitar. It cuts around corners now. Yeah, if your foe is just, if your foe 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. Oh, that was a mistake. Was that a mistake? No, that was from the testing. Oh, I see.

So what you have to do is you have to make a blade that can first cut through a one-inch rope and one swipe. Then it has to chop through two-by-fours entirely. 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 to 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 manscape with your blade? It's a question. It's a valid question. Drop trow. It's a valid question.

It's a valid question. It's a valid question. It's a good. Drop trow. It's a show of confidence. Yes, it's a show of confidence. I think that would be a great strategy. I would drop trow and I'd say it's time to go to work on the old Don Johnson.

Watch this. I'm not scared at all. It might not be that kind of crowd. Bladesmithing folks are... Boo. A bunch of squares. You just want to see a bunch of dicks at this thing. Hey.

Hey, if I go to a journeyman blade smith contest and I'm not seeing dicks, something's wrong. Something's wrong. But I say that about everything. I watch the Great British... Is there something wrong? No, I watched the Great British Bake Off and I say, What are the Cocks? What?

No dicks? They're making scones and I'm not seeing cock? What the fuck? Okay. All right, let's bring it in. And Josh, you took us down a really dirty road there. Oh, I think that was all, Josh?

Who brought up that housekeeping? He started it. He started it with his little knife comments. And now we know where he is. Here we go. So you got to shave, you got to be able to shave the hair. Okay, got it. 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 ruins the knife, doesn't it? Well, no, I mean, it doesn't. It does if your knife is a piece. 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 refinish it, and it would be just fine. There are no cracks in it. There's no, there's no other stresses in there. But I choose to keep it like this, obviously,

for sentimental value. Sure. I'd straighten it if I were you. I'd straighten it. It's a nice blade and you've got it's, you know. Cool. It's a cool memory. I have other. Straighten it out. Fix it.

Fix the knife. Cool memory. It's nice. I literally do have an OC thing going on right now. I'm like, I want that knife fixed. But it's a nice memento from when he had to do this test. Oh, yeah. You know what I did?

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. Not the same thing. That didn't make you a journeyman. I'm just saying. fix the knife. It bothers me.

Right now, it's bent. I can crash a car. 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. So if I get, 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.

No, you will straighten the knife. Okay. You will, I'll 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 the problems. Thank you. My arms are so weak. Yeah, my tiny hammer. So, okay. And 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? I learned this because 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 bladesmith? 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, scared of the forge. It's 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 with 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 anachronistic stuff of pre-industrial, you know, humanity. 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? I don't. I like witches. All the old fun stuff. All the old fun stuff.

But yes, absolutely you can do it. You absolutely can do it. If you don't, if you don't do it with me, do it somewhere else. No, no, no. I like the idea. See what you're made out. See how come out. I do think that, you know, a guy who comes to mind who I admire greatly is Nick Offerman,

a talented actor, just a wonderful man. He's really good at making things. He can make a canoe. Yeah. He can, you know, 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 just 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, old days where they're wearing an apron and they're just banging on it? It sounds like it's the same. Do you wear an apron? That's exactly what it is. Is it a leather apron? Yes, it is.

Yeah, I thought it was cool. And I made it myself. Yeah. Oh my God. So, yeah, it's a leather apron and I made it. But yeah, my my sword smithing is, is, I do it. I do all. I do blade smithing and sword smithing and toolwork and tooling blacksmithing.

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 do. Okay. If I was to purchase a knife from you, which I think is highly a problem. 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 an Etsy store? I don't, no. Oh, okay. All my, all my.

All of my business is word of mouth. 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 of the knife? 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 I really highly doubt. 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. So like this? I would fight someone if I had a knife and they did. That's a cool knife for you, Cones. This knife is a fighter. So it's one of the, this is one of my signature blades. Beautiful. So that's a fighting knife.

And because it's a podcast, tell us it's a, it looks to be, it's smaller than a bowie knife, right? It's about the size of a bowie, but it's a fighting knife. So the, so the taper is tighter towards the tip for better. penetration, I guess you would say. It's got a coffin guard, a stainless coffin guard and nickel silver bolster. It's got coa handle with a nickel silver pin for the mechanical connection between the handle and the knife. Thanks. But see, that's a knife that's fantastic.

Do you want a sword? No, I don't want a sword. And I'll just reveal this now. My friend, Joel McHale, wonderful fellow. beloved by all, 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.

He'll gift me like a switchplay that shoots out of the handle, which I don't think is in the United States. But I love it. And I have them, I always, you know, because 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, because I think that's the last place they're going to look, which turned out not to be true. They would go to their toy chest all the time. So there were those murders to clean up.

But I have 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 going to happen. Right. If I was walking in a forest that was filled with bears, then maybe. Or how about your belt? Look, I make these little guys.

Ooh, that's cool. And this is what's called a blacksmith knife. So there's no like handle material. These are the kind of knives that blacksmiths would hammer out just as like whittling knives or, you know, whatever the case is. It's got a metal handle. It's got no wood. It's got a little loop handle. It's all one piece.

Yep. So it's all one piece. So this is the blade part and this part right here. I don't know. You probably can't see it because 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 a very sweet design. To facilitate you 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. No, you said it. When you use it to, to poke at things. You said when you, when it's a good, it's a handy thing to have when you kill and kill again, is what you said. Let's go stabbing. Over a wide swath of the Pacific Northwest. Yeah.

You know what's the-O-No would have a totally different knife, though. What would you- Would you have a different knife? Yeah. Okay, so I think about Sona as like this, you know, beautiful, dark, curvacious person. Easy buddy. That will literally slice you open. That will literally slice you open and shit inside your heart. Yes.

Yeah, she would do that. That really just is exactly. Yeah. Oh. That's cool. That's good for shitting. What? This is a.

What are you talking about? Good for shittin. What are you talking about? Because he said I sliced a guy open and shit in his heart. So I'm just saying that's good for shit. The amount of thought that would have to go into, I'm going to kill him, but first I need to eat a big Thanksgiving dinner

and wait about nine hours and have a lot of coffee. I know. You stay right there. Yes. Is this Boston Market? I would like three Thanksgiving dinners brought over. Eat immediately. And some coffee, lots of black coffee.

And you stay right there. Hey, victim, stay right there. Oh, I got some shit coming your way. So Josh. But yeah, anyway, a carambia. That's the knife. That is a cool knife. It's a cool knife.

And it looks like a feather. I mean, you're very art. You're an artist. You are an artist. So cool. Very, very cool. Do you? I mean, yeah.

I just think, here's the thing that'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.

And then you have to either you're 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 carrying around the knife and it comes in so handy. But, you know, you go to the airport, you're in a hurry.

And it's like, oh, shit, you know, I've got my knife. I forgot I have my knife with me and my gun. 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 in my pocket.

No. That's a big... Put it in your checking bag. You should put it in your checking bag. I try not to check. I almost do carry out. I know, but you can't have knives and weapons and stuff. No, no.

Listen, I'm totally down with the TSA and TSA, I salute you. It's good work you do. And you know what? Sometimes I go back again for an extra pat down, if you know what I'm saying. You know, a man gets lonely. No. So I've said, you know what? I'm not satisfied.

So sad. I'm not satisfied. Sir, I am not satisfied. I'd like you to work me over one more time and really get in there. Put the glove on. Let's go caviar. Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Buy me a drink first. All my TSA stuff is so good. It's all so funny. But I think you are very talented. These look like a... And I salute you because you know how to do something. We live in a world where increasingly people don't know how to do something. We live in a world where increasingly people don't know how to do it.

things other than scroll their little devices. And 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 wares? I do, but it's a janky website that's like, that's all that doesn't get really updated. Yes, it's from medieval times. Do you have a gram?

I don't, do I? Yes. Can I say you're a terrible businessman? Yeah, this is awful. He's giving you an opportunity. I speak to a huge audience with a very successful podcast. I'm asking you, well, how does one get these guys? Well, that's a whole other story.

Let me see. You got to go up there younger where the crick is. It's a Wixite. So it's J. Frost Knives. Let's see if we can find it. Oh, he forgets it. You're trying to find your own site. Yeah, I don't have it.

Okay, well, listen. You know, somebody wants to be dead in that house six weeks before they find you. I think it's frostnives.com, I think. Frostknives.com. It's J. Frost Knives. Is it J. Frost or Frost? Is it J. Frost? You know what?

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 going to 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. It used to be.

Let's see. Okay, it doesn't matter. What's he doing now? He's just looking He's just looking at pornography He took a break to look at pornography Kono's upsetting me I need to

Knife porn Yeah Ooh good knife porn There must be nice porn It's people being sliced open And shitting in each other There is Knife porn

And it's not fun Okay Josh your time is up Don't do it Josh I salute you It's so nice to meet you And it's your website He was looking for it.

Yeah. When a 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... It's getting me back now. It's come full circle now for the, you know, the Fingerdale Clipper knife. I know.

I had at him earlier. It's a full circle. You can't find your website. You don't deserve to have a room. Uh-oh, look at him. Look at him. Look at him. Drinking his bad businessman juice.

Oh, here we go. Josh, I salute you. I really do. I think you're very, you're funny, you're a cool guy, and I think these knives look awesome.

And if I ever find a way to look at them, I might buy one. Yeah. I really thought you, I really thought you guys had a link already. Oh, is that our fault?

We'll do a pickup. Okay. Yeah. Well, the fact, no, we won't. Let's not do a pickup. You know what? But I want people to hear

what a terrible businessman, Josh is. They will. Yeah. Well, fine. touch nothing. You know, we show people our every ward. 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 me. Take care, man. Conan O'Brien needs a fan with Conan O'Brien, Sonam of Sessian, and Matt Goreley. Produced by me, Matt Goreley. Executive produced by Adam Sacks, Jeff Ross, and Nick Leow. Incidental music by Jimmy Vivino.

Take it away, Jimmy. Supervising producer Aaron Blaird. Associate talent producer Jennifer Samples. Associate producers Sean Doherty and Lisa Burm. Engineering by Eduardo Perez. Get three free months of SiriusXM when you sign up at SiriusXM.com slash Conan. Please rate, review, and subscribe to Conan O'Brien needs a fan wherever fine podcasts are done.