October 22, 2025 • 39 mins
Martha welcomes woodworker and YouTube creator Jonathan Katz-Moses, who turned a backyard shed and a single dovetail jig into KM Tools—a 33,000-sq-ft, direct-to-consumer company built on American craft and entrepreneurial drive. Jonathan’s smart, maker-first inventions (including a no-Allen-key adjustable countersink and a folding chisel knife) is revolutionizing the way people return to the timeless craft of woodworking. With 600k+ learners following along, Jonathan shares with his audience how calculated risks, patents, social media savvy, and small-batch 3D printing fuel a modern take on U.S. manufacturing.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
Jonathan Katz Moses is a crafter, an entrepreneur, a father,
a philanthropist, an inventor, a YouTube creator, and the founder
of k M Tools, a Santa Barbara based company known
for its beautifully engineered woodworking products. He has a good
story to share. Welcome to my podcast, Jonathan, Thank you
(00:24):
for having me.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Martha.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
You look like a woodworker here he is. He has
a like a flannel shirt on, jeans, tan shoes, and.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
A watch yep, and that pocket knife.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
And a pocket knife and a pair of glasses and
a short, nice trimmed, nicely trimmed beard. Your story is fascinating. Actually,
you went from working out of your backyard on a
shed to running a thirty three thousand square foot warehouse.
How did you do that?
Speaker 2 (00:53):
Gosh, yeah, it was about ten years ago.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
I started woodworking out of my shed where I used
to have to run electrical cords out of the house
to be able to power tools. And it was after
a you know, I'd been a victim of a gang
violence and had in my recovery, decided that I was really.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Unhappy with what I was doing. I wanted to do
something else.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
What were you doing?
Speaker 3 (01:12):
I was working in construction, and then I had a
Christmas light installation company. Oh fun, it was, but I
hated it because it was so intense. It was twenty
hours a day, you know, three months straight, every single
day during the holidays. And the construction company was tough
because I'm sure you know you've built many things. Is
that everybody's kind of unhappy at the end of a project.
It took too long, it costs too much, and.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
I'm always so happy when I finished your project. I'm
sure I always have another project, right.
Speaker 3 (01:39):
And it's probably tough to find good people, and we
were good contractors. But it was just very hard, competitive
business and it did.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
It's very seasonal too. If you're just if you're doing
Christmas lights, did you do Halloween? Pumpkin no arrangements at
the time.
Speaker 3 (01:54):
I mean, it was so lucrative, which is why I
did it for eighteen years that I kept doing it,
And you know we did it Monticito, California, which you're
familiar with, you know, every celebrity and every you know,
there's just mansions everywhere you look.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
Yeah, did you work for my friend Dick Wolf?
Speaker 2 (02:09):
Of course, Oh I did.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
It's a beautiful property.
Speaker 3 (02:12):
There Heale's like a whole block, and one year, I
believe it was Arlene asked me to put up lights
on that entire block two days before Christmas for a
December twenty seventh party they were having, and it was
pretty hard to find lights that late in the season.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
Those are simple challenges compared to other challenges, like how
did you get into this big kurfuffle?
Speaker 2 (02:33):
Oh, I was walking my dog.
Speaker 3 (02:34):
I was I'd been a bartender at the time, and
it was a Saturday night and I saw my neighbors
who had moved in a few months prior and had
progressively been become more kind of boisterous and loud at
night and were harassing people walking by. And I just
happened to walk up and they had a couple surrounded
and they had knives and bats.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
Wow, it was.
Speaker 3 (02:53):
Terrifying, And I used a flashlight that I used to
bartend with to try and scare them off by pretending
I was the police, and I think really quickly they
realized I wasn't chasing them when they ran, so they
came back and two minutes later I woke up on
the ground and pretty injured.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
And you're a good Sumaraitian. Yes, yeah, sure.
Speaker 3 (03:14):
But in my recovery, I decided I was really frustrated
with everything I was doing, and I wanted to make
things that people loved. And that's where furniture came out.
With something I always wanted to do. I started doing
it right away.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
Oh great, Well, I think there's nothing more interesting or
more creative, or more satisfying than building or making. My
whole business is based on makers. We love making things.
We like making things in the kitchen, we like making
things in the basement, we like making things in the garden.
Just making things is really one of the most I
(03:48):
think satisfying occupations. So I'd like to learn about your business,
because when this bad thing happened, what were you thinking
of furniture or tools or were you set up with
woodworking tools already?
Speaker 2 (04:01):
No, not at all.
Speaker 3 (04:02):
In fact, I was so kind of hell bent on
doing something that I loved that I took every piece
of savings that I had and I started buying tools,
and I started building furniture, and it was you know,
first it started as jewelry boxes or like watchboxes for men.
I used to like to do these things with secret compartments,
but very quickly. Early on, I invented a tool for
(04:25):
cutting dovetails, and I thought, this is really no.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
If you don't know what a dovetail is, will you
please describe a dovetail?
Speaker 3 (04:33):
Sure, it's the oldest known join in woodworking. There's examples
in Egyptian tombs before there was glue. And it's essentially
a set of opposing triangles that can't be pulled apart
once you put them together. And it's sort of the
litmus test of a good craftsman.
Speaker 2 (04:47):
I think. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
And when you're buying a like you're buying a beautiful
bureau of drawers, look on the sides of the drawers
to see if there are these strange they're not exactly triangles.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
It's like part of a trapezoid. Yeah, it's like half
a trapezoid. And there's the name.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
Along the sides of the drawers, adjoining the front of
the drawer to the sides of the drawer. What's the
other symbol of a of a well made older bureau.
Speaker 3 (05:14):
Certainly handcut dufftails, but you know Mortison tennin joinery.
Speaker 1 (05:18):
And then underneath the drawer, if to feel if it's handmade,
you can feel the plane marks on the bottom. Yes,
new furniture is always very flat, so you always have
to feel under the drawer for kind of a sloping
up into the sides of the drawer.
Speaker 3 (05:33):
Certainly they did all that by hand, sort of. I'm
sure your brother was doing.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
Oh yeah, Eric, doctor Scott. Eric Scott a dentist, so
handy with his hands for from the time he was
a young boy. I mean, I remember he taught me
a lot. But he was always building things, always crafting things.
That's why it became a dentist, rebuilding people's mouths actually.
(05:58):
But his furniture and tiffany glass work and his decoy
carving all very very fine, and and he worked with
all the all the great guys. He would take those
courses who name some of these fabulous.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
Wouldwork Gosh, Samlouf, Yes, oh yeah, he went. He worked
with Sam.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
Yeah, and he went with other guys down south, with
a lot of a lot of good furniture makers. But
I have a chair of his that I use just
for makeup and hair. It's the perfect, perfect chair. It
has the support in the small of my back. I
can sit in that chair for a long time and
never feel uncomfortable. And it's a hard wooden cherry chair.
Speaker 3 (06:36):
It's amazing short, sure hardwood can be comfortable. Did he
make it for you personally?
Speaker 1 (06:40):
Yes he did.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
What a treasure.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
Yeah, it's really special. But as I say, I really
admire craftsmanship, and craftsmanship of the highest order is one
of the things that I think has made our country
really great. Certainly, it certainly popularized English culture, French culture,
Italian those furnitures, those beautiful things that were made, and
(07:04):
the woodworking at homes was something to be greatly admired
and greatly appreciated.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
Yeah, I mean, I think that when you look back
on the history of woodworking, and really the sort of
invention of tools powered by electricity has only happened in
the last seventy years, and you look back at how
people were producing furniture a mass scale in the twenties
and thirties, it's just it's simply incredible what they did.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
From the Art Nouveau to the Art Deco to the mission.
Oh my gosh, mission is mission furniture really the easiest
kind of furniture to make.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
Certainly, maybe Shaker style, which is like what theot.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
Shaker is easy, but not, but it's so beautiful Oh,
it's gorgeous. I have a few pieces of real shaker
from Hancock, Massachusetts, and I think is some of the
most beautiful woodwork that it's ever been done. I agree,
And that done completely by hand. They had no electric tools.
Speaker 3 (08:04):
The Green and greenhouses are incredible. They use a lot
of ebony plugs. They have a very signature style, and
they were architects and so they built all the furniture
for their houses.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
Those are the ones that are in Pasadena. Yeah, I
visited a lot of those houses. I really love that
architecture and that geechailing.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
I do too.
Speaker 3 (08:22):
I think I strive for perfection and everything I do,
I'm obsessive about it. And they really were able to
take designs and boil them down to their best qualities.
Speaker 1 (08:32):
But so, what made you think that making tools to
make this stuff was that a necessary thing? Were tools missing?
There were your hand tools, right, Yeah?
Speaker 2 (08:41):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (08:42):
I think so it was more that tools were missing
the perfection that I required. And I think that it
was done a certain way, and it was passed down
from masters to journeymen over and over and over, and
people felt, if you don't do it the way that
the masters did it, you're doing it wrong. And so
I think there were a lot of tools that were
just lacking simple details that would make them great. And
(09:03):
so I just started going after everything that made me
upset or frustrated, and I'd fix it, and I'd believe
in innovation through simplicity, so I'd boil things down to
their core use case. Here's an incredible one. This is
when we released three days ago, and it's a counter
sink drill bit and it's the first ever one where
you can adjust the counter sink without an Allen key,
(09:24):
So you simply pull out this magnetic ring and this
gets deeper or oh small.
Speaker 1 (09:30):
Oh, so the drill bit can become shorter or taller,
and it stops here with a stop.
Speaker 3 (09:35):
Right and the counter sink recesses a space for the
screw head so you can mount it flush to the
material and it doesn't straight out or ruin the wood
when you drive it home.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
So this fits right into your electric or battery run drill. Absolutely,
how fabulous that is.
Speaker 3 (09:52):
And this is the first ever chisel knife, first ever
folding chisel knife.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
Oh wow, so we like something out of the army.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
It totally is. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (10:03):
Another woodworking friend of mine said how come nobody's ever
put a chisel on a knife together and for every
day carry in the wood shop, because you never want
to abuse your very nice chisels, because we.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
Spent I have a whole hit of chisels, different sized chisels.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
This is very nice, beautiful to close it, you pull
that back.
Speaker 1 (10:22):
Oh yeah, yes, it looks like a hunting knife.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
Certainly, it's big and robust, and we designed it.
Speaker 3 (10:28):
We put a hammer strike on the back so he
didn't have to hit these G ten scales.
Speaker 1 (10:34):
That looks fantastic. And then how much does that sell for?
Speaker 2 (10:38):
I think one hundred and sixty nine to ninety nine.
Speaker 1 (10:39):
That's a very nice stocking stuffer for Oh my god,
her dad or husband, right or boyfriend really is.
Speaker 3 (10:45):
And we're launching a smaller, easier to everyday carry version
in about six weeks.
Speaker 1 (10:50):
That's really fabulous, which.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
Is really exciting.
Speaker 3 (10:52):
Oh yeah, and this is something we released a month ago,
which is a patented chisel and plane iron sharpening. Oh
and it's the first everone to have a fence on
the body. And then this red part is a fence
that keeps it square, but it also sets the angle.
Speaker 1 (11:08):
Every year you set this at the edge of a
table or something.
Speaker 3 (11:10):
Yeah, so you would actually put your chisel in here,
and I can use the Bourbon blade, which is what
this other one is called to show you. You have
a fence here that sets ninety degrees, okay, and then
you can put your chisel in here. Oh and see
these numbers here. They represent an angle that you would
sharpen the bevel to, so you can set it exactly
(11:32):
to thirty degrees or twenty five degrees, which are very
common angle.
Speaker 1 (11:36):
So those of you listening, if you don't understand what
the heck he's taught Jonathan is talking about. It's very
visual and I think he is a YouTube channel where
you can see how all these things actually operate. And
it is fascinating. And you have quite a big following
on YouTube. How many how many people watch you?
Speaker 2 (11:53):
Yes? Man, we have a six hundred and three thousand subscribers.
Speaker 1 (11:56):
Wow, that's fantastic.
Speaker 3 (11:57):
And close to a million across all platforms. I've been
doing it for about ten years.
Speaker 1 (12:02):
Yeah, really fascinating. How lovely that is. And what's that
other tool over there?
Speaker 2 (12:06):
Oh, this is our top selling product.
Speaker 3 (12:07):
This was my second product I ever created that is
a stop block for repeatable cuts on a cross cut sled.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (12:14):
So you use a crosscut sled on a table saw? Yeah,
and you would bump something repeatedly up to it. So
if you were, you know, cutting steaks or legs for table,
you need to cut four exactly the same.
Speaker 1 (12:24):
Length cutting steaks. Cutting steaks on your table saw.
Speaker 4 (12:29):
I think I meant to say, like wood Excuse me,
I thought you were listen woodwork different frozen tender ones.
Speaker 1 (12:37):
But yeah, but that's what we make, so many of those.
We have to make one by ones and two by
twos for road steaks, right, farm, Do you know? I
have a saw mill portable saw mill.
Speaker 2 (12:49):
No way, is it a chainsaw, A band saw mill.
Speaker 1 (12:51):
No band saw It's the most beautiful one. It's huge,
and we do we can put into I think we
can go up to twenty four inchine diameter logs.
Speaker 2 (12:59):
Wow, isn't that nice? I have one of those two,
and they're amazing.
Speaker 1 (13:02):
They are, and I try. I bought it right before COVID,
and you couldn't get them during COVID because everybody wanted
All these guys were at home doing their woodworking and
sawing and stuff. But I got it early and it
is a fabulous tool, and we really do cut a
lot of boards.
Speaker 2 (13:17):
I'm sure, do you take down a lot of trees
on your property?
Speaker 1 (13:19):
Well, we have the ashboard disease. Have you heard about that?
Speaker 3 (13:23):
No?
Speaker 1 (13:23):
Okay, So every ash tree, which is what the baseball
bets are made out of. By the way, every ash
tree in America is dying or dead. So that's many
millions of trees, and it's a very sad thing. I
had probably six hundred to eight hundred on my property,
big ones. They had to all come down. And now
we have a beach tree disease the Great Old Beaches,
(13:46):
and I'm trying to keep mine alive, but I don't
know if it's gonna work. But all that wood does
not go to waste. I tried to cut it into
boards and we make floorboards out of it, and you know.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
It's perfect for that. Yeah, ash is fantast and.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
I have a beautiful table we lost. You would love
how I try to preserve the wood. We had trees
which are taxes, you know, the big old but they
were giant and the wood is pink, and the trees
were they must have been maybe over twenty four inches
in diameter, and I saved that wood and I just
had a beautiful table. I didn't make it, but somebody
(14:20):
else made me a table out of the beautiful pinkish
wood of the yew Tree's gorgeous wood.
Speaker 3 (14:27):
CoA wood from Hawaii which is now endangered, but there's
you can find old boards of it.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
Do you teach you about wood on YouTube? Too?
Speaker 3 (14:35):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (14:35):
Absolutely?
Speaker 1 (14:35):
Oh see that's I think wood is one of the
most beautiful materials.
Speaker 3 (14:39):
It is and it's alive, and it moves and it
does so many beautiful things as in ages.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
Yeah, it's just incredible.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
And I love I love watching the woodworkers chopping like
these six hundred year old black wallnut trees into tabletops.
You know it's nice.
Speaker 2 (14:53):
I've done it.
Speaker 3 (14:54):
I took down a one hundred and twenty year old
tree in sant ynez, California that was dying on a
friend's property, and we used our sawmill and cut it up.
We couldn't do the trunk because it was sixty two
inches wide, but it's what my desk is made out of.
Speaker 2 (15:06):
My conference table. That's just absolutely wonderful. Walnut, black walnut,
so beautiful.
Speaker 1 (15:11):
I think that's my favorite I have a lot of
walnut trees on my property.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
Oh my gosh.
Speaker 1 (15:15):
I had a large one that didn't die. I had
to come down because we were building a building, and
I gave it to a sculptor.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
Oh, I'm sure they loved that.
Speaker 1 (15:22):
He made a lot of stuff out of that tree.
It's really nice. So there are hundreds, if not thousands
of tools used for woodworking, right, what was the one
tool that really launched your company?
Speaker 2 (15:43):
It's this one stop block, the stop block.
Speaker 3 (15:46):
There's actually an interesting gamble that I took, which is
I had my Christmas Light insulation company, which I was
not a fan of, and the manufacturer wanted when you
extrude aluminum, you have to purchase certain amount as a
minimum order quantity. And the manufacturer wanted eighty five thousand
dollars as a minimum order for producing these.
Speaker 2 (16:07):
And at the time I had maybe fifty grand in
my name.
Speaker 3 (16:11):
And I said, well, will you ship to me in
two batches and I'll pay you net thirty And I said, well,
we don't normally do that, but we'll do it. So
I sold my Christmas like company, and I took a gamble.
I put up a video. I said, Oh my gosh,
this has to do eighty five thousand dollars or I'm
in big trouble. And it did one hundred grand and in
three days and salesree and it's the number one selling
(16:31):
stop block on the market.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
Now. People love it.
Speaker 1 (16:34):
And what's your company called? KM Capitals?
Speaker 3 (16:37):
As tools are K toolsk camtools dot com?
Speaker 1 (16:40):
Now do you sell retail?
Speaker 2 (16:42):
Also, no, ma'am.
Speaker 3 (16:43):
I think that I've built my business direct to consumer
because I really believe in controlling the brand narrative and
I want to talk directly to my customers. I spend
time answering emails and reaching out to people directly, and
I think that's incredible way to do business and retail.
I feel like people have such a connect with my
YouTube channel. Retailer may find a tool and not know
(17:04):
how to use it or all these things. So I
like to sell direct to consumers where I can reach them.
Speaker 1 (17:09):
That's good. There are some really good hardware stores now.
I like these artisanal hardware stores that are popping up
here and there, which would be a good spot for
your tools. But I'm always thinking about sales. Yes, where
are these manufacturers?
Speaker 3 (17:25):
We manufacture them all over the world. So China Taiwan, Italy, Connecticut.
We manufacture a lot of tools ourselves India. I think
that finding a good manufacturer is it's very global thing.
There's certain companies that do things really well, and it's
so hard to find. As I'm sure you know you've
done so many products in your life that you really
(17:46):
have to test a lot of manufacturers and find people
that can do it right.
Speaker 1 (17:49):
So if you were going to go to home depot,
which brand of tool do you recommend if you can't
get your tools? Oh, gosh, non electric?
Speaker 2 (18:00):
Non electric.
Speaker 3 (18:00):
But Lee Nielsen tool works out of out of Maine.
Tom Lee Nielsen, I believe he's in his eighties now
and he's there every day casting the iron for the
bodies of the planes and watching over the quality control.
And he just sent me an email the other day
which felt like getting an email from you know, I
don't know who, you know, just Babe Ruth of my world.
(18:22):
He's just something else. He's unbelievable.
Speaker 1 (18:25):
Up in Maine.
Speaker 2 (18:25):
Yeah, up in Maine.
Speaker 1 (18:26):
There's so much ingenuity up in Maine. I remember I
bought a house up there about thirty years ago, and
the property manager of my house I was asked on
so do we have sprinklers for the woods? And he
showed me all the different sprinklers and he had made
something called the Norwood sprinkler, which is just as simple.
Two prongs stick in the ground like long enough so
(18:49):
they really are secure. And then a little head that
has a slight curved place where the water comes out,
attached the host to it and it waters corners. Oh really, yeah,
it's brilliant. So I asked him if I could adapt
it for Kmart when I was doing tools, garden tools
and Kmart, and we sold millions of these, Oh my gosh,
(19:11):
because they were cheap. They were like nine to ninety five.
Speaker 2 (19:13):
But they work.
Speaker 1 (19:14):
I still have all my Kmart once and they work beautifully.
But he had handcrafted that, and I gave him a royalty.
It was an amazing tool. But there I love. I
love this kind of ingenuity. Yours are much much, much
more advanced than that.
Speaker 3 (19:30):
But I think it just depends on who you're selling to.
I think you find innovation in the weirdest places, right
like the stop block. I bought the leading one on
the market and it was terrible. It moved eighth and
inch when you bumped up against really bad.
Speaker 2 (19:42):
It's terrible. And by the next day I had a
drawing of this.
Speaker 3 (19:45):
I said, why don't they just do the most simple thing,
which is out a second bolt.
Speaker 1 (19:49):
Up top, that's the second one.
Speaker 2 (19:50):
Yeah, and make it robust and it won't move. That's all.
Speaker 1 (19:52):
Well, I'm going to be sending you notes because if
I often find a void right and what's not there
like so hard to find, I always call it the
right tool for the right job. And you're not allowed
to use the wrong tool for the job. No, you're
not allowed to because it makes it much harder and
much more difficult, and also you ruin things by using
(20:13):
the wrong tool.
Speaker 3 (20:14):
I teach that relentlessly on my YouTube channel. Is like,
do it the right way and you'll be so much happy.
Speaker 1 (20:20):
You say, the right tool for the right job.
Speaker 3 (20:21):
No, I say, I say it more like buy once,
cry once about like you know you can use mine,
I will create say. My friend Martha said, I think
that's a great way of saying it.
Speaker 1 (20:30):
It is so fun. So what are the basic tools
that every woodworker should have in the toolbox?
Speaker 3 (20:38):
So this is what's in mind. A drill and an impact.
It is a set of driver bits, so you know
you got your Phillips flat.
Speaker 1 (20:45):
This is a battery powered yes.
Speaker 3 (20:47):
And then I have a hammer and a set of screwdrivers.
I have a multimeter, which I think comes in handy
so much more than people think.
Speaker 2 (20:57):
And then a small level. We call them corpedo levels.
Speaker 1 (21:01):
Do you use the one on your iPhone two?
Speaker 2 (21:03):
I've never tried. It scares me. I don't trust that
we use that now.
Speaker 1 (21:07):
And we're using also the phone for distance we're measuring
everything is so accurate.
Speaker 2 (21:13):
It's amazing.
Speaker 1 (21:14):
Oh no, you should try it. It's really great. Because
we do so much stuff outside in the garden, you
have to know that five hundred feet or something right,
and it's real.
Speaker 2 (21:22):
It really works.
Speaker 3 (21:23):
I'll use a laser tape measure in my warehouse when
I'm laying stuff out.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
But does the level past the Martha eye test? Oh yeah,
it looks level to you. And okay, well I trust you.
And square yep, absolutely, a combo square.
Speaker 1 (21:35):
And a tape measure. H yeah? How long a tape measure?
Speaker 2 (21:39):
Do you have? Twenty five feet? Okay? Yep?
Speaker 3 (21:41):
You got to have a pencil a marketing knife. A
market knife is for striking a very fine line when
you need to be really accurate and go. You have
a tactile thing you can go right up to. You
can feel with a saw blade and things like that.
A handsaw of course, both cross and rip cut. That's
most of a center punch is great for drilling holes
in the exact spot.
Speaker 1 (21:59):
That's good in the cord of the drill. You know
your jig. You have a jigsaw and a circular saw yep, absolutely,
and an orbital sander.
Speaker 2 (22:08):
Of course, this is going to be a big toolbox.
Speaker 1 (22:11):
I know this is a room. This is already we're
into a room. Don't you think every house should really
have some space like that, at least a bench with
all these things handy.
Speaker 3 (22:20):
The amount of self confidence and self worth you feel
when you fix things is so great, and that's why
we founded the charity. Was we really just saw what
a difference it made in people's lives, and I think
that people should do that. Everybody should have the opportunity
to fix and make things in their home.
Speaker 1 (22:35):
Yeah. You listen to your audience so much I do.
And have they helped you develop some of your best
selling inventions?
Speaker 2 (22:41):
Sure?
Speaker 3 (22:42):
Yeah, which this counter sink is a great example. We
released this three days.
Speaker 2 (22:47):
Ago and We've already sold almost five thousand of these.
Speaker 1 (22:49):
How much is that?
Speaker 3 (22:50):
This is seventy dollars?
Speaker 1 (22:53):
Oh wow?
Speaker 2 (22:54):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (22:55):
It saves so much time, no it And it's everything
else on the market is with inexpensive parts to hit
a certain price point, and I don't believe in doing that.
Speaker 2 (23:03):
I believe in making quality.
Speaker 3 (23:04):
So we have like high quality bearings in here and
machining and magnets and all those things.
Speaker 1 (23:08):
And all these tools are very professional looking. By the way, audience,
this is this looks like it belongs in a spaceship.
Speaker 2 (23:16):
It certainly does.
Speaker 1 (23:17):
It really does.
Speaker 3 (23:18):
And that was one where I released a product last
year that we filed a patent on for squaring a
crosscut sled, which gets very technical. But the number one
comment on that video was what is the counter sinc bit?
Speaker 2 (23:31):
You're using this video?
Speaker 3 (23:32):
And there's when I hate it, And I was frustrated
by because you could adjust the depth with this screw
on the shaft, but it would change its depth all
the time when I'm spinning.
Speaker 1 (23:41):
What kind of bits do you use? Do you make
your bits too?
Speaker 2 (23:44):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (23:44):
We make those high speed steel, Oh you do, We
custom make them for this. We custom make the counter
syncs as well. With braised carbide.
Speaker 1 (23:53):
It's a different middle.
Speaker 2 (23:54):
Yeah, it's it's aluminum.
Speaker 3 (23:56):
It's a softer aluminum than steel, so that it doesn't things.
Speaker 2 (24:00):
It doesn't mary your wood and all those kind of things.
Speaker 1 (24:04):
But it feels very substantial and long lasting.
Speaker 3 (24:07):
That we designed it to be made something you can
have for the rest of your life.
Speaker 1 (24:11):
So what size bit can you use in there?
Speaker 3 (24:13):
We have half inch, three eighths and quarter inch counter
sinks and then the bit. The drowbits are two millimeters
three and three and a half. Man Really, that covers
everything from a number three to a number sixteen screw,
which is most anything anybody's ever going to use.
Speaker 1 (24:28):
Really nice it. We just are building a pergolo. I
could use that on my pergola. Well, dear, this is
free you Oh wow.
Speaker 2 (24:34):
Yeah you would. You're gonna love using that.
Speaker 1 (24:36):
See are you surprised that I know all this? I
had to I had to sit next my father, like
chained us to his workshop. We had to go and
sit and watch and he would tell us every tool,
and he was so proud of his skills, and he
was a good he was a very good craftsman. But
it was so interesting that I really, I really kept
(24:59):
it in my head. And my older brother, of course did.
He went off and became, you know, a dental surgeon.
He couldn't do anything, create anything. It was fun to
learn all that stuff and know the tools.
Speaker 2 (25:12):
Well.
Speaker 3 (25:12):
I think I get my daughter in the shop all time.
I have a beautiful six year old girl.
Speaker 1 (25:15):
Oh how nice.
Speaker 3 (25:16):
She's the light of my life and she loves I
have little versions of everything for her, and I even
came out with a product. I have a signature apron
that's twenty ounce wax canvas and has some leather accessories
for holding tools. And I came out with a miniature
version just so that she could have one.
Speaker 2 (25:31):
That matched me.
Speaker 1 (25:31):
Oh how nice?
Speaker 2 (25:32):
Yeah, which is unbelievable.
Speaker 1 (25:34):
Nice. How have you partnered with investors and kept control
of your quality and your mission? I know you have
one investor that he actually told me about you and
(25:56):
piqued my interest. That's why you're sitting here today. How
did you go and find these investors?
Speaker 2 (26:01):
So slow? Ventures? Kevin? Who's your friend?
Speaker 3 (26:04):
They started something called the Creator Fund, which is they
put aside sixty two million dollars. They announced it in
February this year to partner with content creators, saying they
are the sort of future of entrepreneurship. And I'm sure
you know this as the original content creator, that you
have so much power when you can speak directly to
a brand and you are the voice of that brand.
(26:25):
And so they met with me and said, Jonathan, we
love your business model. I was working with other content
creators too to develop products. We want to invest two
million dollars and I've been down that road with investors before,
but a big thing for me was control. I wouldn't
give up any control. We don't want to take any control.
We just want to support your entire mission. And so
they invested in me, not just cam tools. They said,
(26:47):
we want to invest in this business, the next one,
and everything else you do, so that you can bring
great things to life, like the tools you've already brought.
Speaker 1 (26:54):
It's fantastic. How are you going to build this business
even more?
Speaker 2 (26:58):
Well?
Speaker 1 (26:59):
How many people work for currently?
Speaker 2 (27:00):
Twenty five?
Speaker 1 (27:01):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (27:01):
Yeah, we've brought on ten since the investment, which was
in March.
Speaker 1 (27:05):
Are these engineers? Are these what are they? Are they? Draftsmen?
Are they?
Speaker 2 (27:09):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (27:09):
We've brought on multiple product developers and engineers, drafts people,
three D modelers. That's the big thing now instead of drafting,
people are modeling at three D in the computer. Brought
in marketing team, and then we hired logistics people and
we've just grown really fast. We've doubled or tripled in
size every year for ten years.
Speaker 1 (27:26):
Oh great. What about patents and how many of your
tools are patented?
Speaker 3 (27:31):
Three of the ones sitting on this table have been
have had patents filed. I mean, as you know, it
takes three years to get approved, you know, but we
filed fourteen patents in the last couple of years. It's
my patent attorney loves me, you know. I'm putting these
kids through college. But I feel like we're doing innovative stuff.
And I feel like I've watched how the tool industry
(27:52):
works for the last ten years, which is something great
comes out and a year.
Speaker 2 (27:55):
And a half later, somebody copies it.
Speaker 3 (27:57):
We want to protect it, and I think I believe
so much in what we've done, it's important to file
all those things.
Speaker 1 (28:02):
Will you collaborate with over thirty five content creators on
everything from product development to distribution? How do you foster
these partnerships. What's your process for turning a creator's idea
into a tangible product.
Speaker 3 (28:16):
That's a great question. I think one is I look
for people who have a loyal audience. I don't care
what size it is, as long as their audience really
believes in what they're doing and they have a message
that they stand behind and they're not just trying to
generate revenue for the sake of generating revenue. From there,
we have to find people with good ideas, and this
chisel knife is one of those.
Speaker 2 (28:36):
This was done with a friend of mine.
Speaker 1 (28:38):
You're going to sell millions of those chisel knives. They
really are, that you really are and I have some
uses for that in the kitchen, Oh my gosh.
Speaker 3 (28:47):
And you can beat it up a stainless steel that's
very sharpenable and very tough.
Speaker 1 (28:53):
And it has a hook on it so that you
can hook it onto your belt.
Speaker 2 (28:55):
Yep. You know.
Speaker 1 (28:57):
It's an amazingly attractive tool too.
Speaker 2 (28:59):
Thank you.
Speaker 3 (29:00):
It is.
Speaker 1 (29:00):
It looks like a boy scout tool.
Speaker 3 (29:02):
It's We designed it to take the beatings that a
shop would give it. Yeah, And so they come up
with an idea, We draw it, we go to engineers.
We then refine it for manufacturing. After we have a
prototype that works, and we designed it to be manufacturable.
Speaker 1 (29:16):
So you're sort of an old fashioned inventor working in
a very very high tech world. Yes, so that's what's
so different about it. You're not high tech, but you
have to use high tech to build your tool absolutely well.
Speaker 3 (29:31):
In your in your experience, how long did it take
you to bring products to market at Kmart?
Speaker 1 (29:36):
Very short time that that store when I when I
joined with kmart. Originally that store that was the largest
retailer in America. They had places all over the world
with they had buyers out in you know, in India,
they had them in Bangladesh, they had them in China,
they had them in Vietnam, everywhere in the world creating
(29:58):
their products. Brazil. My best towels were made in Brazil,
really yep, from cotton grown in Brazil. The best towels
I still have. I still have all those towels. They're
still good after forty years.
Speaker 2 (30:13):
Really yeah, in the market for new.
Speaker 1 (30:14):
Towels, extraordinary, But they don't we don't. You know, Kmart's
non existent now, you know. It died and that was
not because of they didn't have good product. It died
because they didn't advance in technology, right, but certain pots
and pans take a longer time to get the right
the right to finish, the right versatility in a pot
and pan, also the feel, I mean everything it's and
(30:35):
I really, I really work hard on making sure that
it works. They would show me a teacup and I
couldn't put my finger in the in the handle of
the teacup. What good is it? You know why I
have a handle?
Speaker 2 (30:47):
And why did nobody catch that before it got to you?
Speaker 1 (30:49):
Yes? Right, right, And that's kind of irritating, but you
can just say no, good right, we're not doing it
and you're not doing anything like that. But that's how
you are. I'm sure you are a perfectionist obviously, because
you have perfect tools here.
Speaker 3 (31:06):
And I demand it because I remember what it was
like to be a beginner. Would worker and buy tools
that were made all these promises and then we're just terrible.
They didn't do the finger didn't fit in the teacup.
I mean, it was just like, this doesn't work. And
so you know, I think the fastest we've ever gotten
to market on a product that was ground up development
was about fourteen months. But they take a long time,
(31:28):
and I think It's why a lot of people are
gun shy about getting into this world because it's hard.
Speaker 2 (31:33):
It's very hard.
Speaker 1 (31:34):
So does everything come package in these little boxes?
Speaker 2 (31:37):
And we need to get better at this. But this
is how they come now, in these craft boxes, our
logo on them with a foam inserts.
Speaker 3 (31:44):
But I think in my dream world I would love
to design like real beautiful packaging.
Speaker 1 (31:48):
Yeah, but you know what, it gets thrown away, that's true,
and it's a ways and I get really upset with overpackaging.
Don't overpackage, sure, because your customers that the kind of
person you don't need so much stuff. I got a
present the other yesterday. I must have been engineered by
some crazy, crazy engineer. It was a huge box. It
(32:11):
had five items in it, all set into a foam
that was covered beautifully with fabric. But the foam was
about eight inches thick. Nothing would have broken, no matter
how many you could have dropped it from one hundred
feet and nothing would have broken. But it was so
overdone it was irritating. And I had to get rid
of a giant.
Speaker 2 (32:30):
Box, a big waist, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (32:32):
Big waste. And you know how many trees that took
to make that cardboardure.
Speaker 2 (32:37):
Are you doing any three D printing at your farm?
Speaker 1 (32:39):
We got a three D printer early on and we
would fabricate, say, say a teacup. We would do a
lot of things on the three D printer. I don't
have one presently, but I know how they work. I
think they're quite amazing and so useful.
Speaker 3 (32:54):
Right, we have a three D print farm, so we've
got thirty two three D printers going wow, twenty four
hours a day. And one of the things when you
talk about packaging that we do is we'll sell them
like this. But then I have a three D printed
box that people who own three D printers can buy
the file from us, or they can buy it we
can print it. How great, and it's a beautiful container
for this. It'll live in their shop. It's you know,
(33:15):
it'll protect it. When we talk about waste, it's a
good way to stop waste, right because only if you
want it, and it's going to not take up more
than you know, the.
Speaker 2 (33:24):
Square footage of this tool.
Speaker 3 (33:25):
Yeah, I think three D printing is sort of the
future of small batch American manufacturing. We do a whole
wall patented wall holding cleat system, organizational system.
Speaker 2 (33:34):
You do.
Speaker 1 (33:34):
Yeah, Oh, I want to see that.
Speaker 2 (33:36):
Oh, it's so neat.
Speaker 1 (33:37):
I just put up a new storage building and shelving
is solving is a problem because it doesn't all work,
it's not all as nice as it should be. So
this is going to hold what kind of shelves anything?
Speaker 3 (33:50):
This is we've designed it to be. You can custom
size the shelves. Everything is custom made for different kinds.
Speaker 2 (33:56):
Of tools or holders. It's locking. It's the first ever
French cleat system that is locking. Wow.
Speaker 3 (34:02):
And so if you take a look at this, you
can see these are sort of a bunch of our
different products.
Speaker 2 (34:09):
We three D print them all for the customers.
Speaker 3 (34:11):
The thing we filed a patent on is this spring
loaded locking pin and we created a custom French cleat
extrusion out of aluminum.
Speaker 2 (34:18):
Oh.
Speaker 1 (34:18):
So everything's hanging right on those right on the horizontal wall. Oh,
these are fabulous.
Speaker 3 (34:23):
Well, and it's the first ever system that doesn't require
support under the lower part of the holder because it's
locked in there with that spring loaded pin.
Speaker 2 (34:31):
Wow. And the incredibly real.
Speaker 1 (34:33):
The cleats that you hang pictures on. Yeah, is this
similar to that?
Speaker 2 (34:37):
It's the same thing. Oh, it is the same, the
same thing you hang cabinets on.
Speaker 3 (34:40):
Oh yeah, it's a very old technology that I looked
at and said, why doesn't this lock? And so we
worked about two years on that program.
Speaker 1 (34:48):
Oh wow, you have to go to kmtools dot com
and you can look at all of these amazing things.
Drill press pro bundle. It's only sixty four dollars and
ninety nine cent and these are great. Over the knives,
all your your chisel knives hanging is that magnetic?
Speaker 2 (35:04):
That's all magnet?
Speaker 1 (35:05):
Oh wow.
Speaker 3 (35:06):
And we install those magnets for people, so they come
just ready to go, just.
Speaker 1 (35:10):
Like wow, this is very good.
Speaker 2 (35:11):
And that has five magnets.
Speaker 1 (35:13):
We how long are these pieces?
Speaker 2 (35:14):
Can they get them in? Six? Twelve, twenty four and
thirty six inch? Oh thanks?
Speaker 1 (35:18):
Yeah, so you.
Speaker 2 (35:19):
Could build out a whole wall.
Speaker 3 (35:20):
One of the things I love is I have them
on my workbench so I can take something off the
wall and bring it to my work bench.
Speaker 2 (35:25):
It's not sitting on.
Speaker 3 (35:26):
Top taking up real sting and go right back up,
and then it goes right back up when.
Speaker 1 (35:29):
I'm doing this is quite amazing.
Speaker 2 (35:31):
Thank you. I'm absolutely flattered to that for me. Thank you.
Speaker 1 (35:35):
Now you have also created a really interesting foundation. You've created,
the Cats Moses Woodworkers with Disabilities Fund, and that is
such a really amazing initiative. Can you tell us about that?
Speaker 2 (35:48):
Sure?
Speaker 3 (35:49):
Five years ago I met a kid named Vlad who
lived in the Ukraine. He'd been in an orphanage and
a family for Oregon had moved over there to sort
of help get kids into loving homes. Vlad was having
the best time would working and he had a pert
syndrome where your bones don't diffuse in utero. He did
three hundred surgeries, nonverbal, but his dad said he came
(36:09):
alive when he started building things. And I saw this
and said, well, you know, as a content creator, people
want to give us stuff all the time, and I'll
never take it because I don't want to be beholden
to anybody. But I said, you know what, if I'm
giving it to people who need it, I'll take everything
you got. So I sent a crate full of ten
thousand dollars worth of tools to the Ukraine, which probably
costs about ten grand a ship, and it changed Lad's life.
(36:30):
He built out a whole shop and it was incredible.
I saw the difference that it made in people's lives
where they got a feeling of self worth and self confidence.
And so now we've helped hundreds of makers with ADA
recognize disabilities, build their hobby, their profession, or their side hustle.
And we've given away almost a half a million dollars
in the last five years.
Speaker 2 (36:48):
So nice.
Speaker 1 (36:49):
It's nice to see a company like yours encourage others
to do what you love so much. Thank you, and
your daughter, Laila must use quite a role model. Six
years old years.
Speaker 3 (37:00):
I'm gonna probably cry when I say this, but the
other day she was doing a presentation in class and
she said, I want to be just like my daddy.
She brought this little tape measure I got from her
or got for her, and it was just the cutest.
Speaker 2 (37:12):
So she's my little shadow. She's spent so much time
in the shop. She loves it.
Speaker 1 (37:16):
So what do you hope that she, in the next
generation of makers, takes away from your work and the
legacy that you're building.
Speaker 3 (37:23):
I think that, just like you said, I hate waste
and making things on your own is something that I
think every person should learn how to do, but that
it just gives you such a joy to create something
with your own hands, whether that's a tool piece of
furniture or make a difference in somebody's life like we
did with the charity.
Speaker 1 (37:42):
What invention are you most proud of creating?
Speaker 3 (37:47):
Oh, I think that has to be my first one,
the Cat's Moses magnetic dovetail jig. When I created that,
I said, well, this is cool, but only big, mega
corporations developed products like not a guy like It's just
not a little guy like me. But you know, YouTube
had come out six six years prior, and I said,
(38:07):
you know what, I'm going to post a video and
I got this opportunity to come home today because I said,
I don't care if I only think big people get this,
I'm gonna try.
Speaker 2 (38:15):
And that was the hardest fight ever. I made them
buy myself for a year and a.
Speaker 3 (38:19):
Half in my shop out of Maple Wow. And then
now it's a retail product. But yeah, that definitely has.
Speaker 2 (38:25):
To be it.
Speaker 1 (38:26):
And what's next for Jonathan Katz Moses.
Speaker 3 (38:30):
I think I want to grow one hundred million dollar
company that really believes in if it's in my store,
it's in my shop. Like I want to deliver so
much value to people that they don't even have to
question when they buy my products. I want them to
know that I care and that I remember what it
was like to be a beginner wood worker and own that.
Speaker 1 (38:46):
Here's a very passionate man who is so enthusiastic about
his work. Is really nice to see this.
Speaker 2 (38:53):
Thank you, Martha.
Speaker 1 (38:53):
Tell our guests where they can find your woodworking content
on YouTube and beyond.
Speaker 3 (38:58):
Yes, ma'am, you can go to camtools dot com to
check out our tools, or you can check me on on.
Speaker 1 (39:02):
YouTube KM not cam.
Speaker 4 (39:04):
Yeah, like cats cats Moses, which is a m My
My name on YouTube, that's how you find me is
Jonathan Katz Moses k A t Z hyphen Moses like
the guys split the c right.
Speaker 1 (39:16):
Well, thank you so very much. This was very interesting
and I can't wait to use your chisel.
Speaker 2 (39:22):
Thank you, Mark. It's such a pleasure and honor to
be here. I really appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (39:25):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (39:25):
I might.
Speaker 1 (39:26):
I might carve a watermelon pad. Wouldn't that be fun?
Speaker 2 (39:29):
It would be amazing. Thank you, Thank you so much,
Jonathan Katz Moses is a crafter, an entrepreneur, a father,
a philanthropist, an inventor, a YouTube creator, and the founder
of k M Tools, a Santa Barbara based company known
for its beautifully engineered woodworking products. He has a good
story to share. Welcome to my podcast, Jonathan, Thank you
(00:24):
for having me.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Martha.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
You look like a woodworker here he is. He has
a like a flannel shirt on, jeans, tan shoes, and.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
A watch yep, and that pocket knife.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
And a pocket knife and a pair of glasses and
a short, nice trimmed, nicely trimmed beard. Your story is fascinating. Actually,
you went from working out of your backyard on a
shed to running a thirty three thousand square foot warehouse.
How did you do that?
Speaker 2 (00:53):
Gosh, yeah, it was about ten years ago.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
I started woodworking out of my shed where I used
to have to run electrical cords out of the house
to be able to power tools. And it was after
a you know, I'd been a victim of a gang
violence and had in my recovery, decided that I was really.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Unhappy with what I was doing. I wanted to do
something else.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
What were you doing?
Speaker 3 (01:12):
I was working in construction, and then I had a
Christmas light installation company. Oh fun, it was, but I
hated it because it was so intense. It was twenty
hours a day, you know, three months straight, every single
day during the holidays. And the construction company was tough
because I'm sure you know you've built many things. Is
that everybody's kind of unhappy at the end of a project.
It took too long, it costs too much, and.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
I'm always so happy when I finished your project. I'm
sure I always have another project, right.
Speaker 3 (01:39):
And it's probably tough to find good people, and we
were good contractors. But it was just very hard, competitive
business and it did.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
It's very seasonal too. If you're just if you're doing
Christmas lights, did you do Halloween? Pumpkin no arrangements at
the time.
Speaker 3 (01:54):
I mean, it was so lucrative, which is why I
did it for eighteen years that I kept doing it,
And you know we did it Monticito, California, which you're
familiar with, you know, every celebrity and every you know,
there's just mansions everywhere you look.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
Yeah, did you work for my friend Dick Wolf?
Speaker 2 (02:09):
Of course, Oh I did.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
It's a beautiful property.
Speaker 3 (02:12):
There Heale's like a whole block, and one year, I
believe it was Arlene asked me to put up lights
on that entire block two days before Christmas for a
December twenty seventh party they were having, and it was
pretty hard to find lights that late in the season.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
Those are simple challenges compared to other challenges, like how
did you get into this big kurfuffle?
Speaker 2 (02:33):
Oh, I was walking my dog.
Speaker 3 (02:34):
I was I'd been a bartender at the time, and
it was a Saturday night and I saw my neighbors
who had moved in a few months prior and had
progressively been become more kind of boisterous and loud at
night and were harassing people walking by. And I just
happened to walk up and they had a couple surrounded
and they had knives and bats.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
Wow, it was.
Speaker 3 (02:53):
Terrifying, And I used a flashlight that I used to
bartend with to try and scare them off by pretending
I was the police, and I think really quickly they
realized I wasn't chasing them when they ran, so they
came back and two minutes later I woke up on
the ground and pretty injured.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
And you're a good Sumaraitian. Yes, yeah, sure.
Speaker 3 (03:14):
But in my recovery, I decided I was really frustrated
with everything I was doing, and I wanted to make
things that people loved. And that's where furniture came out.
With something I always wanted to do. I started doing
it right away.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
Oh great, Well, I think there's nothing more interesting or
more creative, or more satisfying than building or making. My
whole business is based on makers. We love making things.
We like making things in the kitchen, we like making
things in the basement, we like making things in the garden.
Just making things is really one of the most I
(03:48):
think satisfying occupations. So I'd like to learn about your business,
because when this bad thing happened, what were you thinking
of furniture or tools or were you set up with
woodworking tools already?
Speaker 2 (04:01):
No, not at all.
Speaker 3 (04:02):
In fact, I was so kind of hell bent on
doing something that I loved that I took every piece
of savings that I had and I started buying tools,
and I started building furniture, and it was you know,
first it started as jewelry boxes or like watchboxes for men.
I used to like to do these things with secret compartments,
but very quickly. Early on, I invented a tool for
(04:25):
cutting dovetails, and I thought, this is really no.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
If you don't know what a dovetail is, will you
please describe a dovetail?
Speaker 3 (04:33):
Sure, it's the oldest known join in woodworking. There's examples
in Egyptian tombs before there was glue. And it's essentially
a set of opposing triangles that can't be pulled apart
once you put them together. And it's sort of the
litmus test of a good craftsman.
Speaker 2 (04:47):
I think. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
And when you're buying a like you're buying a beautiful
bureau of drawers, look on the sides of the drawers
to see if there are these strange they're not exactly triangles.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
It's like part of a trapezoid. Yeah, it's like half
a trapezoid. And there's the name.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
Along the sides of the drawers, adjoining the front of
the drawer to the sides of the drawer. What's the
other symbol of a of a well made older bureau.
Speaker 3 (05:14):
Certainly handcut dufftails, but you know Mortison tennin joinery.
Speaker 1 (05:18):
And then underneath the drawer, if to feel if it's handmade,
you can feel the plane marks on the bottom. Yes,
new furniture is always very flat, so you always have
to feel under the drawer for kind of a sloping
up into the sides of the drawer.
Speaker 3 (05:33):
Certainly they did all that by hand, sort of. I'm
sure your brother was doing.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
Oh yeah, Eric, doctor Scott. Eric Scott a dentist, so
handy with his hands for from the time he was
a young boy. I mean, I remember he taught me
a lot. But he was always building things, always crafting things.
That's why it became a dentist, rebuilding people's mouths actually.
(05:58):
But his furniture and tiffany glass work and his decoy
carving all very very fine, and and he worked with
all the all the great guys. He would take those
courses who name some of these fabulous.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
Wouldwork Gosh, Samlouf, Yes, oh yeah, he went. He worked
with Sam.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
Yeah, and he went with other guys down south, with
a lot of a lot of good furniture makers. But
I have a chair of his that I use just
for makeup and hair. It's the perfect, perfect chair. It
has the support in the small of my back. I
can sit in that chair for a long time and
never feel uncomfortable. And it's a hard wooden cherry chair.
Speaker 3 (06:36):
It's amazing short, sure hardwood can be comfortable. Did he
make it for you personally?
Speaker 1 (06:40):
Yes he did.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
What a treasure.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
Yeah, it's really special. But as I say, I really
admire craftsmanship, and craftsmanship of the highest order is one
of the things that I think has made our country
really great. Certainly, it certainly popularized English culture, French culture,
Italian those furnitures, those beautiful things that were made, and
(07:04):
the woodworking at homes was something to be greatly admired
and greatly appreciated.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
Yeah, I mean, I think that when you look back
on the history of woodworking, and really the sort of
invention of tools powered by electricity has only happened in
the last seventy years, and you look back at how
people were producing furniture a mass scale in the twenties
and thirties, it's just it's simply incredible what they did.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
From the Art Nouveau to the Art Deco to the mission.
Oh my gosh, mission is mission furniture really the easiest
kind of furniture to make.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
Certainly, maybe Shaker style, which is like what theot.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
Shaker is easy, but not, but it's so beautiful Oh,
it's gorgeous. I have a few pieces of real shaker
from Hancock, Massachusetts, and I think is some of the
most beautiful woodwork that it's ever been done. I agree,
And that done completely by hand. They had no electric tools.
Speaker 3 (08:04):
The Green and greenhouses are incredible. They use a lot
of ebony plugs. They have a very signature style, and
they were architects and so they built all the furniture
for their houses.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
Those are the ones that are in Pasadena. Yeah, I
visited a lot of those houses. I really love that
architecture and that geechailing.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
I do too.
Speaker 3 (08:22):
I think I strive for perfection and everything I do,
I'm obsessive about it. And they really were able to
take designs and boil them down to their best qualities.
Speaker 1 (08:32):
But so, what made you think that making tools to
make this stuff was that a necessary thing? Were tools missing?
There were your hand tools, right, Yeah?
Speaker 2 (08:41):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (08:42):
I think so it was more that tools were missing
the perfection that I required. And I think that it
was done a certain way, and it was passed down
from masters to journeymen over and over and over, and
people felt, if you don't do it the way that
the masters did it, you're doing it wrong. And so
I think there were a lot of tools that were
just lacking simple details that would make them great. And
(09:03):
so I just started going after everything that made me
upset or frustrated, and I'd fix it, and I'd believe
in innovation through simplicity, so I'd boil things down to
their core use case. Here's an incredible one. This is
when we released three days ago, and it's a counter
sink drill bit and it's the first ever one where
you can adjust the counter sink without an Allen key,
(09:24):
So you simply pull out this magnetic ring and this
gets deeper or oh small.
Speaker 1 (09:30):
Oh, so the drill bit can become shorter or taller,
and it stops here with a stop.
Speaker 3 (09:35):
Right and the counter sink recesses a space for the
screw head so you can mount it flush to the
material and it doesn't straight out or ruin the wood
when you drive it home.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
So this fits right into your electric or battery run drill. Absolutely,
how fabulous that is.
Speaker 3 (09:52):
And this is the first ever chisel knife, first ever
folding chisel knife.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
Oh wow, so we like something out of the army.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
It totally is. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (10:03):
Another woodworking friend of mine said how come nobody's ever
put a chisel on a knife together and for every
day carry in the wood shop, because you never want
to abuse your very nice chisels, because we.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
Spent I have a whole hit of chisels, different sized chisels.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
This is very nice, beautiful to close it, you pull
that back.
Speaker 1 (10:22):
Oh yeah, yes, it looks like a hunting knife.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
Certainly, it's big and robust, and we designed it.
Speaker 3 (10:28):
We put a hammer strike on the back so he
didn't have to hit these G ten scales.
Speaker 1 (10:34):
That looks fantastic. And then how much does that sell for?
Speaker 2 (10:38):
I think one hundred and sixty nine to ninety nine.
Speaker 1 (10:39):
That's a very nice stocking stuffer for Oh my god,
her dad or husband, right or boyfriend really is.
Speaker 3 (10:45):
And we're launching a smaller, easier to everyday carry version
in about six weeks.
Speaker 1 (10:50):
That's really fabulous, which.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
Is really exciting.
Speaker 3 (10:52):
Oh yeah, and this is something we released a month ago,
which is a patented chisel and plane iron sharpening. Oh
and it's the first everone to have a fence on
the body. And then this red part is a fence
that keeps it square, but it also sets the angle.
Speaker 1 (11:08):
Every year you set this at the edge of a
table or something.
Speaker 3 (11:10):
Yeah, so you would actually put your chisel in here,
and I can use the Bourbon blade, which is what
this other one is called to show you. You have
a fence here that sets ninety degrees, okay, and then
you can put your chisel in here. Oh and see
these numbers here. They represent an angle that you would
sharpen the bevel to, so you can set it exactly
(11:32):
to thirty degrees or twenty five degrees, which are very
common angle.
Speaker 1 (11:36):
So those of you listening, if you don't understand what
the heck he's taught Jonathan is talking about. It's very
visual and I think he is a YouTube channel where
you can see how all these things actually operate. And
it is fascinating. And you have quite a big following
on YouTube. How many how many people watch you?
Speaker 2 (11:53):
Yes? Man, we have a six hundred and three thousand subscribers.
Speaker 1 (11:56):
Wow, that's fantastic.
Speaker 3 (11:57):
And close to a million across all platforms. I've been
doing it for about ten years.
Speaker 1 (12:02):
Yeah, really fascinating. How lovely that is. And what's that
other tool over there?
Speaker 2 (12:06):
Oh, this is our top selling product.
Speaker 3 (12:07):
This was my second product I ever created that is
a stop block for repeatable cuts on a cross cut sled.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (12:14):
So you use a crosscut sled on a table saw? Yeah,
and you would bump something repeatedly up to it. So
if you were, you know, cutting steaks or legs for table,
you need to cut four exactly the same.
Speaker 1 (12:24):
Length cutting steaks. Cutting steaks on your table saw.
Speaker 4 (12:29):
I think I meant to say, like wood Excuse me,
I thought you were listen woodwork different frozen tender ones.
Speaker 1 (12:37):
But yeah, but that's what we make, so many of those.
We have to make one by ones and two by
twos for road steaks, right, farm, Do you know? I
have a saw mill portable saw mill.
Speaker 2 (12:49):
No way, is it a chainsaw, A band saw mill.
Speaker 1 (12:51):
No band saw It's the most beautiful one. It's huge,
and we do we can put into I think we
can go up to twenty four inchine diameter logs.
Speaker 2 (12:59):
Wow, isn't that nice? I have one of those two,
and they're amazing.
Speaker 1 (13:02):
They are, and I try. I bought it right before COVID,
and you couldn't get them during COVID because everybody wanted
All these guys were at home doing their woodworking and
sawing and stuff. But I got it early and it
is a fabulous tool, and we really do cut a
lot of boards.
Speaker 2 (13:17):
I'm sure, do you take down a lot of trees
on your property?
Speaker 1 (13:19):
Well, we have the ashboard disease. Have you heard about that?
Speaker 3 (13:23):
No?
Speaker 1 (13:23):
Okay, So every ash tree, which is what the baseball
bets are made out of. By the way, every ash
tree in America is dying or dead. So that's many
millions of trees, and it's a very sad thing. I
had probably six hundred to eight hundred on my property,
big ones. They had to all come down. And now
we have a beach tree disease the Great Old Beaches,
(13:46):
and I'm trying to keep mine alive, but I don't
know if it's gonna work. But all that wood does
not go to waste. I tried to cut it into
boards and we make floorboards out of it, and you know.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
It's perfect for that. Yeah, ash is fantast and.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
I have a beautiful table we lost. You would love
how I try to preserve the wood. We had trees
which are taxes, you know, the big old but they
were giant and the wood is pink, and the trees
were they must have been maybe over twenty four inches
in diameter, and I saved that wood and I just
had a beautiful table. I didn't make it, but somebody
(14:20):
else made me a table out of the beautiful pinkish
wood of the yew Tree's gorgeous wood.
Speaker 3 (14:27):
CoA wood from Hawaii which is now endangered, but there's
you can find old boards of it.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
Do you teach you about wood on YouTube? Too?
Speaker 3 (14:35):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (14:35):
Absolutely?
Speaker 1 (14:35):
Oh see that's I think wood is one of the
most beautiful materials.
Speaker 3 (14:39):
It is and it's alive, and it moves and it
does so many beautiful things as in ages.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
Yeah, it's just incredible.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
And I love I love watching the woodworkers chopping like
these six hundred year old black wallnut trees into tabletops.
You know it's nice.
Speaker 2 (14:53):
I've done it.
Speaker 3 (14:54):
I took down a one hundred and twenty year old
tree in sant ynez, California that was dying on a
friend's property, and we used our sawmill and cut it up.
We couldn't do the trunk because it was sixty two
inches wide, but it's what my desk is made out of.
Speaker 2 (15:06):
My conference table. That's just absolutely wonderful. Walnut, black walnut,
so beautiful.
Speaker 1 (15:11):
I think that's my favorite I have a lot of
walnut trees on my property.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
Oh my gosh.
Speaker 1 (15:15):
I had a large one that didn't die. I had
to come down because we were building a building, and
I gave it to a sculptor.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
Oh, I'm sure they loved that.
Speaker 1 (15:22):
He made a lot of stuff out of that tree.
It's really nice. So there are hundreds, if not thousands
of tools used for woodworking, right, what was the one
tool that really launched your company?
Speaker 2 (15:43):
It's this one stop block, the stop block.
Speaker 3 (15:46):
There's actually an interesting gamble that I took, which is
I had my Christmas Light insulation company, which I was
not a fan of, and the manufacturer wanted when you
extrude aluminum, you have to purchase certain amount as a
minimum order quantity. And the manufacturer wanted eighty five thousand
dollars as a minimum order for producing these.
Speaker 2 (16:07):
And at the time I had maybe fifty grand in
my name.
Speaker 3 (16:11):
And I said, well, will you ship to me in
two batches and I'll pay you net thirty And I said, well,
we don't normally do that, but we'll do it. So
I sold my Christmas like company, and I took a gamble.
I put up a video. I said, Oh my gosh,
this has to do eighty five thousand dollars or I'm
in big trouble. And it did one hundred grand and in
three days and salesree and it's the number one selling
(16:31):
stop block on the market.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
Now. People love it.
Speaker 1 (16:34):
And what's your company called? KM Capitals?
Speaker 3 (16:37):
As tools are K toolsk camtools dot com?
Speaker 1 (16:40):
Now do you sell retail?
Speaker 2 (16:42):
Also, no, ma'am.
Speaker 3 (16:43):
I think that I've built my business direct to consumer
because I really believe in controlling the brand narrative and
I want to talk directly to my customers. I spend
time answering emails and reaching out to people directly, and
I think that's incredible way to do business and retail.
I feel like people have such a connect with my
YouTube channel. Retailer may find a tool and not know
(17:04):
how to use it or all these things. So I
like to sell direct to consumers where I can reach them.
Speaker 1 (17:09):
That's good. There are some really good hardware stores now.
I like these artisanal hardware stores that are popping up
here and there, which would be a good spot for
your tools. But I'm always thinking about sales. Yes, where
are these manufacturers?
Speaker 3 (17:25):
We manufacture them all over the world. So China Taiwan, Italy, Connecticut.
We manufacture a lot of tools ourselves India. I think
that finding a good manufacturer is it's very global thing.
There's certain companies that do things really well, and it's
so hard to find. As I'm sure you know you've
done so many products in your life that you really
(17:46):
have to test a lot of manufacturers and find people
that can do it right.
Speaker 1 (17:49):
So if you were going to go to home depot,
which brand of tool do you recommend if you can't
get your tools? Oh, gosh, non electric?
Speaker 2 (18:00):
Non electric.
Speaker 3 (18:00):
But Lee Nielsen tool works out of out of Maine.
Tom Lee Nielsen, I believe he's in his eighties now
and he's there every day casting the iron for the
bodies of the planes and watching over the quality control.
And he just sent me an email the other day
which felt like getting an email from you know, I
don't know who, you know, just Babe Ruth of my world.
(18:22):
He's just something else. He's unbelievable.
Speaker 1 (18:25):
Up in Maine.
Speaker 2 (18:25):
Yeah, up in Maine.
Speaker 1 (18:26):
There's so much ingenuity up in Maine. I remember I
bought a house up there about thirty years ago, and
the property manager of my house I was asked on
so do we have sprinklers for the woods? And he
showed me all the different sprinklers and he had made
something called the Norwood sprinkler, which is just as simple.
Two prongs stick in the ground like long enough so
(18:49):
they really are secure. And then a little head that
has a slight curved place where the water comes out,
attached the host to it and it waters corners. Oh really, yeah,
it's brilliant. So I asked him if I could adapt
it for Kmart when I was doing tools, garden tools
and Kmart, and we sold millions of these, Oh my gosh,
(19:11):
because they were cheap. They were like nine to ninety five.
Speaker 2 (19:13):
But they work.
Speaker 1 (19:14):
I still have all my Kmart once and they work beautifully.
But he had handcrafted that, and I gave him a royalty.
It was an amazing tool. But there I love. I
love this kind of ingenuity. Yours are much much, much
more advanced than that.
Speaker 3 (19:30):
But I think it just depends on who you're selling to.
I think you find innovation in the weirdest places, right
like the stop block. I bought the leading one on
the market and it was terrible. It moved eighth and
inch when you bumped up against really bad.
Speaker 2 (19:42):
It's terrible. And by the next day I had a
drawing of this.
Speaker 3 (19:45):
I said, why don't they just do the most simple thing,
which is out a second bolt.
Speaker 1 (19:49):
Up top, that's the second one.
Speaker 2 (19:50):
Yeah, and make it robust and it won't move. That's all.
Speaker 1 (19:52):
Well, I'm going to be sending you notes because if
I often find a void right and what's not there
like so hard to find, I always call it the
right tool for the right job. And you're not allowed
to use the wrong tool for the job. No, you're
not allowed to because it makes it much harder and
much more difficult, and also you ruin things by using
(20:13):
the wrong tool.
Speaker 3 (20:14):
I teach that relentlessly on my YouTube channel. Is like,
do it the right way and you'll be so much happy.
Speaker 1 (20:20):
You say, the right tool for the right job.
Speaker 3 (20:21):
No, I say, I say it more like buy once,
cry once about like you know you can use mine,
I will create say. My friend Martha said, I think
that's a great way of saying it.
Speaker 1 (20:30):
It is so fun. So what are the basic tools
that every woodworker should have in the toolbox?
Speaker 3 (20:38):
So this is what's in mind. A drill and an impact.
It is a set of driver bits, so you know
you got your Phillips flat.
Speaker 1 (20:45):
This is a battery powered yes.
Speaker 3 (20:47):
And then I have a hammer and a set of screwdrivers.
I have a multimeter, which I think comes in handy
so much more than people think.
Speaker 2 (20:57):
And then a small level. We call them corpedo levels.
Speaker 1 (21:01):
Do you use the one on your iPhone two?
Speaker 2 (21:03):
I've never tried. It scares me. I don't trust that
we use that now.
Speaker 1 (21:07):
And we're using also the phone for distance we're measuring
everything is so accurate.
Speaker 2 (21:13):
It's amazing.
Speaker 1 (21:14):
Oh no, you should try it. It's really great. Because
we do so much stuff outside in the garden, you
have to know that five hundred feet or something right,
and it's real.
Speaker 2 (21:22):
It really works.
Speaker 3 (21:23):
I'll use a laser tape measure in my warehouse when
I'm laying stuff out.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
But does the level past the Martha eye test? Oh yeah,
it looks level to you. And okay, well I trust you.
And square yep, absolutely, a combo square.
Speaker 1 (21:35):
And a tape measure. H yeah? How long a tape measure?
Speaker 2 (21:39):
Do you have? Twenty five feet? Okay? Yep?
Speaker 3 (21:41):
You got to have a pencil a marketing knife. A
market knife is for striking a very fine line when
you need to be really accurate and go. You have
a tactile thing you can go right up to. You
can feel with a saw blade and things like that.
A handsaw of course, both cross and rip cut. That's
most of a center punch is great for drilling holes
in the exact spot.
Speaker 1 (21:59):
That's good in the cord of the drill. You know
your jig. You have a jigsaw and a circular saw yep, absolutely,
and an orbital sander.
Speaker 2 (22:08):
Of course, this is going to be a big toolbox.
Speaker 1 (22:11):
I know this is a room. This is already we're
into a room. Don't you think every house should really
have some space like that, at least a bench with
all these things handy.
Speaker 3 (22:20):
The amount of self confidence and self worth you feel
when you fix things is so great, and that's why
we founded the charity. Was we really just saw what
a difference it made in people's lives, and I think
that people should do that. Everybody should have the opportunity
to fix and make things in their home.
Speaker 1 (22:35):
Yeah. You listen to your audience so much I do.
And have they helped you develop some of your best
selling inventions?
Speaker 2 (22:41):
Sure?
Speaker 3 (22:42):
Yeah, which this counter sink is a great example. We
released this three days.
Speaker 2 (22:47):
Ago and We've already sold almost five thousand of these.
Speaker 1 (22:49):
How much is that?
Speaker 3 (22:50):
This is seventy dollars?
Speaker 1 (22:53):
Oh wow?
Speaker 2 (22:54):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (22:55):
It saves so much time, no it And it's everything
else on the market is with inexpensive parts to hit
a certain price point, and I don't believe in doing that.
Speaker 2 (23:03):
I believe in making quality.
Speaker 3 (23:04):
So we have like high quality bearings in here and
machining and magnets and all those things.
Speaker 1 (23:08):
And all these tools are very professional looking. By the way, audience,
this is this looks like it belongs in a spaceship.
Speaker 2 (23:16):
It certainly does.
Speaker 1 (23:17):
It really does.
Speaker 3 (23:18):
And that was one where I released a product last
year that we filed a patent on for squaring a
crosscut sled, which gets very technical. But the number one
comment on that video was what is the counter sinc bit?
Speaker 2 (23:31):
You're using this video?
Speaker 3 (23:32):
And there's when I hate it, And I was frustrated
by because you could adjust the depth with this screw
on the shaft, but it would change its depth all
the time when I'm spinning.
Speaker 1 (23:41):
What kind of bits do you use? Do you make
your bits too?
Speaker 2 (23:44):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (23:44):
We make those high speed steel, Oh you do, We
custom make them for this. We custom make the counter
syncs as well. With braised carbide.
Speaker 1 (23:53):
It's a different middle.
Speaker 2 (23:54):
Yeah, it's it's aluminum.
Speaker 3 (23:56):
It's a softer aluminum than steel, so that it doesn't things.
Speaker 2 (24:00):
It doesn't mary your wood and all those kind of things.
Speaker 1 (24:04):
But it feels very substantial and long lasting.
Speaker 3 (24:07):
That we designed it to be made something you can
have for the rest of your life.
Speaker 1 (24:11):
So what size bit can you use in there?
Speaker 3 (24:13):
We have half inch, three eighths and quarter inch counter
sinks and then the bit. The drowbits are two millimeters
three and three and a half. Man Really, that covers
everything from a number three to a number sixteen screw,
which is most anything anybody's ever going to use.
Speaker 1 (24:28):
Really nice it. We just are building a pergolo. I
could use that on my pergola. Well, dear, this is
free you Oh wow.
Speaker 2 (24:34):
Yeah you would. You're gonna love using that.
Speaker 1 (24:36):
See are you surprised that I know all this? I
had to I had to sit next my father, like
chained us to his workshop. We had to go and
sit and watch and he would tell us every tool,
and he was so proud of his skills, and he
was a good he was a very good craftsman. But
it was so interesting that I really, I really kept
(24:59):
it in my head. And my older brother, of course did.
He went off and became, you know, a dental surgeon.
He couldn't do anything, create anything. It was fun to
learn all that stuff and know the tools.
Speaker 2 (25:12):
Well.
Speaker 3 (25:12):
I think I get my daughter in the shop all time.
I have a beautiful six year old girl.
Speaker 1 (25:15):
Oh how nice.
Speaker 3 (25:16):
She's the light of my life and she loves I
have little versions of everything for her, and I even
came out with a product. I have a signature apron
that's twenty ounce wax canvas and has some leather accessories
for holding tools. And I came out with a miniature
version just so that she could have one.
Speaker 2 (25:31):
That matched me.
Speaker 1 (25:31):
Oh how nice?
Speaker 2 (25:32):
Yeah, which is unbelievable.
Speaker 1 (25:34):
Nice. How have you partnered with investors and kept control
of your quality and your mission? I know you have
one investor that he actually told me about you and
(25:56):
piqued my interest. That's why you're sitting here today. How
did you go and find these investors?
Speaker 2 (26:01):
So slow? Ventures? Kevin? Who's your friend?
Speaker 3 (26:04):
They started something called the Creator Fund, which is they
put aside sixty two million dollars. They announced it in
February this year to partner with content creators, saying they
are the sort of future of entrepreneurship. And I'm sure
you know this as the original content creator, that you
have so much power when you can speak directly to
a brand and you are the voice of that brand.
(26:25):
And so they met with me and said, Jonathan, we
love your business model. I was working with other content
creators too to develop products. We want to invest two
million dollars and I've been down that road with investors before,
but a big thing for me was control. I wouldn't
give up any control. We don't want to take any control.
We just want to support your entire mission. And so
they invested in me, not just cam tools. They said,
(26:47):
we want to invest in this business, the next one,
and everything else you do, so that you can bring
great things to life, like the tools you've already brought.
Speaker 1 (26:54):
It's fantastic. How are you going to build this business
even more?
Speaker 2 (26:58):
Well?
Speaker 1 (26:59):
How many people work for currently?
Speaker 2 (27:00):
Twenty five?
Speaker 1 (27:01):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (27:01):
Yeah, we've brought on ten since the investment, which was
in March.
Speaker 1 (27:05):
Are these engineers? Are these what are they? Are they? Draftsmen?
Are they?
Speaker 2 (27:09):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (27:09):
We've brought on multiple product developers and engineers, drafts people,
three D modelers. That's the big thing now instead of drafting,
people are modeling at three D in the computer. Brought
in marketing team, and then we hired logistics people and
we've just grown really fast. We've doubled or tripled in
size every year for ten years.
Speaker 1 (27:26):
Oh great. What about patents and how many of your
tools are patented?
Speaker 3 (27:31):
Three of the ones sitting on this table have been
have had patents filed. I mean, as you know, it
takes three years to get approved, you know, but we
filed fourteen patents in the last couple of years. It's
my patent attorney loves me, you know. I'm putting these
kids through college. But I feel like we're doing innovative stuff.
And I feel like I've watched how the tool industry
(27:52):
works for the last ten years, which is something great
comes out and a year.
Speaker 2 (27:55):
And a half later, somebody copies it.
Speaker 3 (27:57):
We want to protect it, and I think I believe
so much in what we've done, it's important to file
all those things.
Speaker 1 (28:02):
Will you collaborate with over thirty five content creators on
everything from product development to distribution? How do you foster
these partnerships. What's your process for turning a creator's idea
into a tangible product.
Speaker 3 (28:16):
That's a great question. I think one is I look
for people who have a loyal audience. I don't care
what size it is, as long as their audience really
believes in what they're doing and they have a message
that they stand behind and they're not just trying to
generate revenue for the sake of generating revenue. From there,
we have to find people with good ideas, and this
chisel knife is one of those.
Speaker 2 (28:36):
This was done with a friend of mine.
Speaker 1 (28:38):
You're going to sell millions of those chisel knives. They
really are, that you really are and I have some
uses for that in the kitchen, Oh my gosh.
Speaker 3 (28:47):
And you can beat it up a stainless steel that's
very sharpenable and very tough.
Speaker 1 (28:53):
And it has a hook on it so that you
can hook it onto your belt.
Speaker 2 (28:55):
Yep. You know.
Speaker 1 (28:57):
It's an amazingly attractive tool too.
Speaker 2 (28:59):
Thank you.
Speaker 3 (29:00):
It is.
Speaker 1 (29:00):
It looks like a boy scout tool.
Speaker 3 (29:02):
It's We designed it to take the beatings that a
shop would give it. Yeah, And so they come up
with an idea, We draw it, we go to engineers.
We then refine it for manufacturing. After we have a
prototype that works, and we designed it to be manufacturable.
Speaker 1 (29:16):
So you're sort of an old fashioned inventor working in
a very very high tech world. Yes, so that's what's
so different about it. You're not high tech, but you
have to use high tech to build your tool absolutely well.
Speaker 3 (29:31):
In your in your experience, how long did it take
you to bring products to market at Kmart?
Speaker 1 (29:36):
Very short time that that store when I when I
joined with kmart. Originally that store that was the largest
retailer in America. They had places all over the world
with they had buyers out in you know, in India,
they had them in Bangladesh, they had them in China,
they had them in Vietnam, everywhere in the world creating
(29:58):
their products. Brazil. My best towels were made in Brazil,
really yep, from cotton grown in Brazil. The best towels
I still have. I still have all those towels. They're
still good after forty years.
Speaker 2 (30:13):
Really yeah, in the market for new.
Speaker 1 (30:14):
Towels, extraordinary, But they don't we don't. You know, Kmart's
non existent now, you know. It died and that was
not because of they didn't have good product. It died
because they didn't advance in technology, right, but certain pots
and pans take a longer time to get the right
the right to finish, the right versatility in a pot
and pan, also the feel, I mean everything it's and
(30:35):
I really, I really work hard on making sure that
it works. They would show me a teacup and I
couldn't put my finger in the in the handle of
the teacup. What good is it? You know why I
have a handle?
Speaker 2 (30:47):
And why did nobody catch that before it got to you?
Speaker 1 (30:49):
Yes? Right, right, And that's kind of irritating, but you
can just say no, good right, we're not doing it
and you're not doing anything like that. But that's how
you are. I'm sure you are a perfectionist obviously, because
you have perfect tools here.
Speaker 3 (31:06):
And I demand it because I remember what it was
like to be a beginner. Would worker and buy tools
that were made all these promises and then we're just terrible.
They didn't do the finger didn't fit in the teacup.
I mean, it was just like, this doesn't work. And
so you know, I think the fastest we've ever gotten
to market on a product that was ground up development
was about fourteen months. But they take a long time,
(31:28):
and I think It's why a lot of people are
gun shy about getting into this world because it's hard.
Speaker 2 (31:33):
It's very hard.
Speaker 1 (31:34):
So does everything come package in these little boxes?
Speaker 2 (31:37):
And we need to get better at this. But this
is how they come now, in these craft boxes, our
logo on them with a foam inserts.
Speaker 3 (31:44):
But I think in my dream world I would love
to design like real beautiful packaging.
Speaker 1 (31:48):
Yeah, but you know what, it gets thrown away, that's true,
and it's a ways and I get really upset with overpackaging.
Don't overpackage, sure, because your customers that the kind of
person you don't need so much stuff. I got a
present the other yesterday. I must have been engineered by
some crazy, crazy engineer. It was a huge box. It
(32:11):
had five items in it, all set into a foam
that was covered beautifully with fabric. But the foam was
about eight inches thick. Nothing would have broken, no matter
how many you could have dropped it from one hundred
feet and nothing would have broken. But it was so
overdone it was irritating. And I had to get rid
of a giant.
Speaker 2 (32:30):
Box, a big waist, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (32:32):
Big waste. And you know how many trees that took
to make that cardboardure.
Speaker 2 (32:37):
Are you doing any three D printing at your farm?
Speaker 1 (32:39):
We got a three D printer early on and we
would fabricate, say, say a teacup. We would do a
lot of things on the three D printer. I don't
have one presently, but I know how they work. I
think they're quite amazing and so useful.
Speaker 3 (32:54):
Right, we have a three D print farm, so we've
got thirty two three D printers going wow, twenty four
hours a day. And one of the things when you
talk about packaging that we do is we'll sell them
like this. But then I have a three D printed
box that people who own three D printers can buy
the file from us, or they can buy it we
can print it. How great, and it's a beautiful container
for this. It'll live in their shop. It's you know,
(33:15):
it'll protect it. When we talk about waste, it's a
good way to stop waste, right because only if you
want it, and it's going to not take up more
than you know, the.
Speaker 2 (33:24):
Square footage of this tool.
Speaker 3 (33:25):
Yeah, I think three D printing is sort of the
future of small batch American manufacturing. We do a whole
wall patented wall holding cleat system, organizational system.
Speaker 2 (33:34):
You do.
Speaker 1 (33:34):
Yeah, Oh, I want to see that.
Speaker 2 (33:36):
Oh, it's so neat.
Speaker 1 (33:37):
I just put up a new storage building and shelving
is solving is a problem because it doesn't all work,
it's not all as nice as it should be. So
this is going to hold what kind of shelves anything?
Speaker 3 (33:50):
This is we've designed it to be. You can custom
size the shelves. Everything is custom made for different kinds.
Speaker 2 (33:56):
Of tools or holders. It's locking. It's the first ever
French cleat system that is locking. Wow.
Speaker 3 (34:02):
And so if you take a look at this, you
can see these are sort of a bunch of our
different products.
Speaker 2 (34:09):
We three D print them all for the customers.
Speaker 3 (34:11):
The thing we filed a patent on is this spring
loaded locking pin and we created a custom French cleat
extrusion out of aluminum.
Speaker 2 (34:18):
Oh.
Speaker 1 (34:18):
So everything's hanging right on those right on the horizontal wall. Oh,
these are fabulous.
Speaker 3 (34:23):
Well, and it's the first ever system that doesn't require
support under the lower part of the holder because it's
locked in there with that spring loaded pin.
Speaker 2 (34:31):
Wow. And the incredibly real.
Speaker 1 (34:33):
The cleats that you hang pictures on. Yeah, is this
similar to that?
Speaker 2 (34:37):
It's the same thing. Oh, it is the same, the
same thing you hang cabinets on.
Speaker 3 (34:40):
Oh yeah, it's a very old technology that I looked
at and said, why doesn't this lock? And so we
worked about two years on that program.
Speaker 1 (34:48):
Oh wow, you have to go to kmtools dot com
and you can look at all of these amazing things.
Drill press pro bundle. It's only sixty four dollars and
ninety nine cent and these are great. Over the knives,
all your your chisel knives hanging is that magnetic?
Speaker 2 (35:04):
That's all magnet?
Speaker 1 (35:05):
Oh wow.
Speaker 3 (35:06):
And we install those magnets for people, so they come
just ready to go, just.
Speaker 1 (35:10):
Like wow, this is very good.
Speaker 2 (35:11):
And that has five magnets.
Speaker 1 (35:13):
We how long are these pieces?
Speaker 2 (35:14):
Can they get them in? Six? Twelve, twenty four and
thirty six inch? Oh thanks?
Speaker 1 (35:18):
Yeah, so you.
Speaker 2 (35:19):
Could build out a whole wall.
Speaker 3 (35:20):
One of the things I love is I have them
on my workbench so I can take something off the
wall and bring it to my work bench.
Speaker 2 (35:25):
It's not sitting on.
Speaker 3 (35:26):
Top taking up real sting and go right back up,
and then it goes right back up when.
Speaker 1 (35:29):
I'm doing this is quite amazing.
Speaker 2 (35:31):
Thank you. I'm absolutely flattered to that for me. Thank you.
Speaker 1 (35:35):
Now you have also created a really interesting foundation. You've created,
the Cats Moses Woodworkers with Disabilities Fund, and that is
such a really amazing initiative. Can you tell us about that?
Speaker 2 (35:48):
Sure?
Speaker 3 (35:49):
Five years ago I met a kid named Vlad who
lived in the Ukraine. He'd been in an orphanage and
a family for Oregon had moved over there to sort
of help get kids into loving homes. Vlad was having
the best time would working and he had a pert
syndrome where your bones don't diffuse in utero. He did
three hundred surgeries, nonverbal, but his dad said he came
(36:09):
alive when he started building things. And I saw this
and said, well, you know, as a content creator, people
want to give us stuff all the time, and I'll
never take it because I don't want to be beholden
to anybody. But I said, you know what, if I'm
giving it to people who need it, I'll take everything
you got. So I sent a crate full of ten
thousand dollars worth of tools to the Ukraine, which probably
costs about ten grand a ship, and it changed Lad's life.
(36:30):
He built out a whole shop and it was incredible.
I saw the difference that it made in people's lives
where they got a feeling of self worth and self confidence.
And so now we've helped hundreds of makers with ADA
recognize disabilities, build their hobby, their profession, or their side hustle.
And we've given away almost a half a million dollars
in the last five years.
Speaker 2 (36:48):
So nice.
Speaker 1 (36:49):
It's nice to see a company like yours encourage others
to do what you love so much. Thank you, and
your daughter, Laila must use quite a role model. Six
years old years.
Speaker 3 (37:00):
I'm gonna probably cry when I say this, but the
other day she was doing a presentation in class and
she said, I want to be just like my daddy.
She brought this little tape measure I got from her
or got for her, and it was just the cutest.
Speaker 2 (37:12):
So she's my little shadow. She's spent so much time
in the shop. She loves it.
Speaker 1 (37:16):
So what do you hope that she, in the next
generation of makers, takes away from your work and the
legacy that you're building.
Speaker 3 (37:23):
I think that, just like you said, I hate waste
and making things on your own is something that I
think every person should learn how to do, but that
it just gives you such a joy to create something
with your own hands, whether that's a tool piece of
furniture or make a difference in somebody's life like we
did with the charity.
Speaker 1 (37:42):
What invention are you most proud of creating?
Speaker 3 (37:47):
Oh, I think that has to be my first one,
the Cat's Moses magnetic dovetail jig. When I created that,
I said, well, this is cool, but only big, mega
corporations developed products like not a guy like It's just
not a little guy like me. But you know, YouTube
had come out six six years prior, and I said,
(38:07):
you know what, I'm going to post a video and
I got this opportunity to come home today because I said,
I don't care if I only think big people get this,
I'm gonna try.
Speaker 2 (38:15):
And that was the hardest fight ever. I made them
buy myself for a year and a.
Speaker 3 (38:19):
Half in my shop out of Maple Wow. And then
now it's a retail product. But yeah, that definitely has.
Speaker 2 (38:25):
To be it.
Speaker 1 (38:26):
And what's next for Jonathan Katz Moses.
Speaker 3 (38:30):
I think I want to grow one hundred million dollar
company that really believes in if it's in my store,
it's in my shop. Like I want to deliver so
much value to people that they don't even have to
question when they buy my products. I want them to
know that I care and that I remember what it
was like to be a beginner wood worker and own that.
Speaker 1 (38:46):
Here's a very passionate man who is so enthusiastic about
his work. Is really nice to see this.
Speaker 2 (38:53):
Thank you, Martha.
Speaker 1 (38:53):
Tell our guests where they can find your woodworking content
on YouTube and beyond.
Speaker 3 (38:58):
Yes, ma'am, you can go to camtools dot com to
check out our tools, or you can check me on on.
Speaker 1 (39:02):
YouTube KM not cam.
Speaker 4 (39:04):
Yeah, like cats cats Moses, which is a m My
My name on YouTube, that's how you find me is
Jonathan Katz Moses k A t Z hyphen Moses like
the guys split the c right.
Speaker 1 (39:16):
Well, thank you so very much. This was very interesting
and I can't wait to use your chisel.
Speaker 2 (39:22):
Thank you, Mark. It's such a pleasure and honor to
be here. I really appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (39:25):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (39:25):
I might.
Speaker 1 (39:26):
I might carve a watermelon pad. Wouldn't that be fun?
Speaker 2 (39:29):
It would be amazing. Thank you, Thank you so much,
Host
Martha Stewart
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