Matt Gentry

Bucket Talk

OVERVIEW

For our second episode of season 5, we caught up with Matt Gentry, owner of Gentry Custom Knives. Based out of southwest Michigan, Gentry crafts each custom knife himself, to the exact specifications of the customer. Amongst Matt’s work, you’ll find hog splitters, fixed-blade bird and trout knives, gut-hook skinners and even chef’s knives. Listen in as Matt chats with our hosts Jeremy and Eric about learning a craft with the help of YouTube, the ins and outs of getting into social media, how COVID impacted his career trajectory, and much more.

ABOUT MATT

When Matt started making knives about eight years ago, it was just a hobby. After receiving a handful of inquiries into how to buy one of these custom knives, he realized this could be more than a hobby. He took it on as a side hustle to supplement his income and things took off from there. Once COVID hit and his day job took a hit, however, he realized this knife business could be something much bigger.

“After doing that for like a week, I was like, man, we got to make a change. And I got to sell this business because it's just way more lucrative to make knives and just I enjoyed it a lot more, you know.”

He sold his half of his auto shop to his business partner and went all-in on the knife work, which has taken off in a big way. He’s now seen so much success that he just takes custom orders; he’s already booked into 2023. What makes his business special is that anyone can contact him, share their vision for the knife and from there, the rest is up to him. While it is still a job, he’s in a place he wants to be — and he doesn’t take it for granted.

“A lot of people that reach out to me like, Matt, what do you do? And how do you do it? And I think I'm not saying it's locked [in], because I've worked my ass off to promote and grow and do all this stuff. But I just am really, really grateful for all the awesome customers that I've gained over the years.”