Jaymes Stevens

“I own J.M. Stevens Knives and am a custom bladesmith by trade. In 2015, I started making knives on the side while still working for a large employer. Eventually, making knives on the side became a viable enough part of my income that I formed a business. Three years ago, I was allowed an opportunity to exit that employer and moved to make knives full time.

Starting my business has been a lifelong journey. A lot of my equipment can’t be found in a store. It’s not readily available or cheap, so I really have to seek it out and know exactly what product I plan to make. 

I love running a small business in Arkansas because this state has a huge heritage in the knife industry. In Old Washington, James Black lived as a blacksmith in the 1820s. He was touted for having made the first bowie knife.

The government also has a stigma around knives being scary or dangerous, but knives are a tool. For instance, every chef uses a knife to cook. A lot of my materials are heavily regulated, and some can’t be imported. Finding materials domestically and getting them shipped to us has been a challenge. There’s a large demand in the market for custom knives right now, and there are often shortages of steel or sandpaper or other random materials.

Since I run and operate the business myself, this is how I feed my family. If I have to work extra hard to overcome high taxes, that takes food off the table. [High taxes] make it harder to buy the supplies that I need to make products, to keep the lights on, and to keep food on the table. High taxes equal less money. I have to work hard for what little money we do get already, and paying high taxes isn’t helpful.

My wife used to work with the state tax software company, so she had a background in how the taxes worked for the state. But once we started getting into use taxes, taxes for materials we buy, sales tax, and overall tax…it was confusing.

One year, we had six or eight different items that we had to figure out how they fit into Arkansas state taxes. There’s no book or manual or any sort of guidance. We just did the best we could. Even with my wife’s experience, it was still confusing. I think that could be made simpler for small businesses.

‍If we didn’t have to pay such a high income tax, I could grow my business by buying supplies and upgrading machinery. I have a 130-year-old anvil that I swing a hammer on every day—I could upgrade that machinery to make my work easier. 

It’s a physically demanding job. I won’t be able to do this forever, so I could also prepare for retirement. I could keep more food in the pantry. I could keep more fuel in our cars. I could do home improvements. Having that extra money would be huge.”

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Jaymes Stevens

Owner of J.M. Stevens Knives

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