Look at the bridge.
- Are you gonna fight here, papa ? - You'll have to ask the director.
For two decades now, I've been a storyteller.
This journey has led me to meet incredible artists
and craftsmen all over the world.
Every character is an opportunity and a privilege
to build a story alongside these artists.
I'm going to venture out to some of my favorite artists and craftsmen,
to discover what inspires them
and I'm going to enlist them
to build custom one-of-a-kind pieces for stories I'm telling.
Growing up, I used to always be introduced as Ricky's son
and it used to drive me nuts and I told my dad when I was little:
"One day nobody will know you except for Neil's dad."
I just always had that weird, like, drive.
My great grandfather was the first blacksmith
that was shipping his cane knives to other islands,
to the pineapple plantations, to many different places
and he ended up opening a blacksmith shop in Hilo.
It was there from, like, 1932, to when he died in 1990
and he was the last living blacksmith in Hawaii.
And when I was born, they named me Neil Teiji Kamimura,
which after the blacksmith
and so I've always kinda carried that weight.
And this is a replica sign of my great grandfather's original sign in Hilo.
My buddy had made it for me
off of a photo that was in a newspaper article.
Made for first season and second season made my finale swords.
We turn them into rubbers
and then I go and do all the damage that I do, right ?
- You make snake skin ones uncle ? - Yeah.
- That's so cool. - That's my prized possession.
I can make real knives, I can't make this.
- The soft ones ? - No, I can't make that.
Jason DM'd me through Instagram and asked me if I could make a sword
in 48 hours and bring it up on Monica and I did it.
I need something very quick and I put it out there to him,
the total Hail Mary, like, I need this knife now.
It needs to look like this, can you pull it off ?
And this guy just, like, 48 hours, bangs this thing out,
shows up on Monica with it. I'm like: "It's perfect."
And it's what I use in See for the finale.
It was a beautiful thing and then through that,
I just kinda like, tried to have friends each character I play,
I just move to another artist and we build stuff together.
When we start a movie, you'll have the wardrobe department,
the props department and you get to see the best of the best.
I love that, that's my favorite department, that and props, I love.
Finding these unique pieces, helps me form a character,
and I love that process, but it's even more meaningful
to have them handcrafted by some of my closest friends.
Neil and I both have multi-generational roots in Hawaii
and that definitely influences our eye and the way we look at art.
Being born in Hawaii and raised in Iowa,
I definitely, most of my life, wanted to get back to Hawaii,
even though I have a solid foundation in Iowa.
I feel like, if you're rooted into craftsmanship in the first place,
your grandpa and your uncles they're like, work with their hands.
My mother is so heavy into antiques and photography
and all my uncles and my grandfather are musicians.
The things that I ended up liking kind of got me out on my own path.
Climbing and skateboarding, all these things,
kinda gave birth to me always constantly leaving
and wanting to get out and journey to different places,
so, hence the name "On The Roam".
- How's it going, dude ? - Welcome to Texas.
My man !
How many fucking years does it take to get to see you again ?
Along my journey to build these custom pieces,
I went to Texas to see my friend Richard Baggett,
an extremely skilled knife and jewelry maker.
Yeah.
I wanna soak in as much as I can from him,
about his process and where he finds his inspiration.
And the sun is just gonna set right here bro ?
It sets right here, don't it ? Man, it's beautiful.
And this is all inspired by Navajo jewelry,
but I'm not a Navo and nor would I ever claim that my jewelry is Navajo.
I try to put the old west sort of mountain man feel on everything.
That's beautiful.
She's important, little tomahawks on the back...
And these are from friends, pieces I've collected.
I'm trying to remember how was it that I contacted you.
- That was from Chopper Supply Co... - Yeah.
I guess you met Kenny and you met Justin.
And somebody said my name and I get a telephone call.
It was like: "Hey there." I was like: "What's up man ?"
"I want you to make something for me." I was like: "Okay."
There's a lot of those phone calls and there's a lot of stories about me,
where you get a phone call going:
"It's Jason Momoa, I really love your stuff."
"Could you do this, do this, but I need it in six hours ?"
Ever since that first call with Richard,
we've had a creative partnership
and a bond between us that's still going strong.
These are ones that I've made over the past two years.
I've got, as for my first year for being sober.
I made this for my two year anniversary.
Bro, that's a hammer !
I have so much to learn from him.
He has this incredible wealth of knowledge
and he's so enthusiastic about sharing it.
She fought alongside Jeronimo.
She could feel it in her hands where the enemy was.
So she was known as like a medicine woman too.
She'd feel it in her hands. I'm gonna use her.
I love all that, I love taking that and putting that in the characters.
- I still make knives and everything. - Yeah.
But I'm trying to learn some new things and this is my...
This is my silver studio.
Richard and I share that eye for the imperfect.
We just see things the same way and we're drawn to the same style.
I try to keep a real personal relationship with the clients,
as much as you can being over the internet.
They feel like they're really investing in something that I really cared about
and I had them in mind while I was making it
and I can't tell ya how much that means to somebody.
Just watching him slowly form a stone or scrap metal
into some beautiful piece that only he could have made.
Here you go !
My mom really collects a lot of old antiques
and she used to take me antiquing and I would be like: "Annoying."
But then I started seeing, like, these old vintage bowl jars
and I'd see these old vintage spoon, it's been so read into me
to see these things and see the patina and what it's been through,
nature's effects on man-made things, it was instilled into me at a young age.
That black, hopefully it'll weather in really nice.
It just looks like it's been around for...
- I get a kick out of that. - It's beautiful. Look at that !
And you know what ? To be honest with you,
being involved with you and doing stuff, it has affected my art,
because I didn't realize that
I liked the way you like things that were beat up and...
I didn't realize that, that that's okay,
that everything that I thought was cool and rustic
is loved by other people, which gives me even more fuel
to keep doing things the way I do.
I discovered wabi sabi, it's a Japanese philosophy,
it's like, imperfection, perfection and what is the definition of perfection.
Is it, you know, Spring and it's blossoming ?
Is it the perfect, you know, flower in Summer ?
When I look at something that's water or a pair of pants or something,
there's just this style that you go, man I don't know, I just had it.
As long as I keep my eyes open
and look at all the overlooked details of life,
I just see so many gorgeous things and it makes me happy.
I give a lot of credit to my mother and how she saw the world.
I kind of now have become this, you know, appreciate all these things
and then can use it to make my art.
There are artists that you've worked with
and then we all get to know each other.
We kinda build this bond and a support system with each other
and we're always there and it makes this so enjoyable,
to know that there's a community.
The things that I do whether it's painting,
like a set of jewelry or metal or whatever,
is, I try to bring my own art, my own style to it.
So when you look at it, you go: "Okay, that's Richard Bag."
You know what I mean ? It may not be the best or the most beautiful,
but by God, it's something I made with everything that's in me,
at the best of my ability, at the time you got it from me.
So every piece is a piece of my journey.
Richard and I have collaborated on weapons for shows and movies,
but I really wanted to task him with building something unique
for Baba Voss, on my series See.
So made tones of weapons on Frontier,
so right now I'm making ones for...
There's these wolverine claws on See that kinda when...
But that looks so right and he had a bundle of elk tines and deer tines,
so I'm making some right now, look at that.
Put a bit knife right there, like that, so I'm just gonna...
You scare the shit out of me with that.
One right there.
In. Dude, nice !
You know what I'm saying ?
There is a ratio. It's a sacred mathematic.
But when you have a plant that grows, will always grow in the perfect ratio.
It's a pattern that the universe use to create life.
One incredible thing that I've noticed,
is that I have the natural ability to feel it, without calculating it.
This is how it starts, I usually have a flash vision of it.
It comes in my mind, like a flash.
Like, if somebody puts a photo and remove it.
So I see it, I'm like, oh, and I try to hang on to that vision.
His art is like nothing I've ever seen before.
I don't know, when I'm doing something,
like, I don't have that sense of perfection.
His is perfect and meticulous.
Jason likes me to do a scar, on the left eye like he has,
and I planned that there would be some scar-looking stuff,
but this is gonna land exactly across the eye
and that's like the natural vein of the stone in fact.
As an actor, it's my job to study different behaviors and how people are.
I think Judicael is a very interesting character.
He's a visionary. I don't have that kind of artistry in my DNA.
He's a fine painter.
He's working with like, the most precious stones and jewels.
If he makes one, that imperfection, it's gonna crack and fall apart.
The gemstone is like the cherry on the cake.
This is what's gonna make it, and there's some frequency and energies.
Sometime it's the smell, it's the texture, the color.
I am such a fan of Judicael's art. I wanted to collaborate with him
on some jewelery ideas I have for a character I'm developing.
- Look at that. - Yeah, welcome to my den.
When Jason got in touch with me,
I guess that was when he was filming Justice League
and he's representing Aqua Man which is the king of Atlantis, right ?
And which is very interesting, because those skulls I was making
and the skull that he got, was the name of an ancient king of Atlantis.
And so, without knowing it all made sense.
I think there's a big inspiration when I first saw one of those pieces
and it was a very much, an ode to Atlantian kings and I was like:
"It would be really cool, this is so beautiful, we make this."
I wanted to make a green stone, a pounamu,
so we needed to get the proper material, and so...
We then decided to make it out of pounamu which is Jade
that came from down here.
It's really one of a kind, nobody will have that.
And obviously I brought these to Aqua Man and kinda going like:
"This would be amazing for Aqua Man right ?"
And the good thing is I get to build these characters
and find these different little things for each different guy,
so it leads me to Fast X,
I have a very flamboyant villain, extremely dangerous and patient.
I wanted this character to be very... He had everything taken away from him.
He is definitely the devil and we were just step up some ideas.
It would be nice to have something that just...
I'm planning on having my shirt open,
very much like a rosary in a way, but it ain't a rosary,
it's an opposite version.
Maybe put the little bone. I love it.
I love building this character, I'm like:
"This is gonna help me with this and this is gonna help me with that."
It's such an honor to be able to highlight your buddies,
then to put it on another show and play a character using their stuff.
To me it's just... That's the top of the top, so.
I wanna make them proud and they're making me proud.
Sitting still for me is brutal, I'm not very... I've gotta be moving.
During this quest, I finally met some new knife makers
that I've been admiring for a while: Terry Shanks and Jason Keen.
I wanna challenge them with a custom knife idea for my show See.
It's where it all happens, right here.
This is an old shitty garage but I turned it into a knife shop.
It's your knife shop. How long you been here for ?
I actually grew up in this house. I inherited it after my folks passed.
- You grew up here. - Yeah.
And my wife and I have been working on it ever since.
It was everything I wanted it to be.
What I thought Terry and Jason would be like
and going to Texas and building a knife.
At first, I think everyone was just kinda like, who is this ?
I'm very excited to be there, so they're all like:
"Relax a little bit, everyone's from Texas."
They get to know me and then they just know it's me.
I'm just excited to be there and hang out with them.
I don't think I've ever seen another craftsman like Terry.
His work is immediately recognizable.
Every single piece that he creates, creates it's own story
and you would never guess
that it came from a little small garage in the middle of Texas.
I play so many different characters on shows
where I like to build different things for my characters and so,
I came across you, making brass knuckles
and I wanted to have that for my character on See,
'cause I wanted something to come from different wars
and I wanted to have a trench knife.
He rode down from Wyoming and he pulls out a trench knife idea
we were bouncing back and forth and when that thing was finished,
one of the first people I thought of and I told him, I was like:
"You know who's gonna want this thing ?"
And he goes, like: "Jason fucking Momoa."
We were eating dinner, we had just sold it to a preferred client,
all three of us share or whatever.
And I shit you not, I just said:
"Fucking watch right when we sell this, dude,"
"I'm gonna get a message from..." You sent a message...
I was like: "Why the hell would you post this and not tell me ?"
Because then I've gotta get all you artists together, that was cool.
But regardless, whoever got it, lucky you, I'll find you.
No, I'm sorry !
It was like being in the furnace. This is his childhood home,
but all his buddies were there and we're just sweating over the forge.
It was very surreal.
Six years ago, I was dealing... I've been taking care of my mom
my whole life, you know, since I was 18.
My mom had mental issues and she kinda was losing it a bit
and I had to, like, step away from her,
'cause I was going through a divorce and I had a nine year old son Maddox
and so, like, it was a pretty difficult time
and she ended up taking her life.
She wrote me a letter.
She left me a voice mail
and she was very unhappy with me.
That was like a fork in the road for me
and at the same time, my life was full of problems,
by that point in my life, I'd probably tried to kill myself ten times.
It just so happened, this buddy of mine gave me a forge
and gave me an anvil and he told me, he's like:
"Dude, you ain't got shit in your life, like, you know,"
"you should forge your problems out."
I put in a piece of leaf spring that I had from my '49 Cadillac
and I forged a knife and the first hit that I took,
I knew that this is what I was supposed to do for the rest of my life.
Knife making and blade-smithing
just gave me an identity, a purpose.
Being recognized for it allowed me
to actually love myself enough to let good things happen to me.
Alright, let's make some knives.
We're gonna make our first ever Momoa family knife,
'cause I'm never got to make a knife with you guys before.
And so we're gonna need to hammer this to a point,
so that it's gonna look like this.
Okay.
Him being a family man, me being a family man
and having our babies in Hawaii and we're doing Chief of War now.
I get to bring my kids to a shop and both of us hammer on this metal
and make our knife together, something I will always treasure.
You wanna be able to pick it up and kinda come straight up with it
and you're gonna swing as hard as you know you can accurately hit,
because if you miss, it'll rebound and it will bounce
and it can hit you in the teeth, you know what I mean ?
Well what I tell people is, every knife that you get from me
is a problem that I've had in my mind, that I'm getting out.
Knife making takes a throttling of pressures, right ?
So at some point, you need the most abusive force you've ever seen,
you need to actually smash steel with a hammer.
To be able to make something together, that's what it's all about
and my son's very much into knives, but my daughter she's a toughie too,
so it's fun to watch her just hammering away at it
and just put all our love and strength in there.
To have our own family knife is pretty amazing.
And we live in a world right now is where you go
and if you need a kitchen knife, you buy the cheapest,
blue-colored handle or it's like, blue for pork, green for vegetables.
You use it and when it gets dull, it was ten bucks so you just lose it.
To buy a handcrafted thing, you have to love it and take care of it
and you have an emotional connection to it
and people sometimes don't have their eyes open to it.
I'm a caveman. I live like I'm in the '50s still,
we still cook dinner every night, we still live off grid,
and I want people to have a little piece of that.
I like things that have soul within these pieces
that can be handed down to your kids and your grandkids
and I hope it inspires people to buy things that last a lifetime.
So this is from Richard Baggett and we were there and we picked out...
Picked out the antlers that I wanted, the style of knife that I wanted
and finally it's here.
I'm gonna do it for See and this will be on the battlefield.
Yeah. Look at that !
I wanted to have an old butcher knife that's perfect.
Richard, I love you !
Bro !
Richard Baggett, look at that !
Man !
Terry Shanks. So the knife was Jason Keen, Terry Shanks.
That is amazing.
So he engraves his skulls on his brass knuckles.
Just the craftsmanship. I love it. Damn Terry.
Look how beautiful that is !
Your friends come together and do these collaborations
and then I get to be able to put them on my show
and put another art form together, my friends building fight scenes
and then, they'll make something that everyone can be proud of
and unite all these different art forms,
so, got a couple of ideas for this.
Man, they feel so good !
Here we go. The depths of my...
So this one's from Judicael
and I wanted to have, like, the Dom's version.
Dom's version of the cross is the ram and the goat for me...
Taking Judicael's work, showing up, not knowing if they're gonna love it
and go, like: "what do you think of this ? I had this made."
They're like: "Where did you get this ? My god, it's amazing."
I get to support my friends and it's all hand-made artists.
- You dig it, man ? - I love it.
Have you ever met an actor so obsessed with these little bits ?
There's not one out there. You're the only one.
- I'm a freak, it's so weird. - You're a freak.
Thank you. Alright.
I love these artists.
I love that they're making it in their backyard
and I love showing the world what you can do.
Being able to highlight it, not only just see it in the final product
but also put it on a TV show, take it into battle
and then have them be stoked by that.
There it is, Jason Keen, Terry Shanks.
I can make knives, I make knives for the richest people in the world
and it's amazing and I'm so lucky and fortunate,
but you are the only one that's put it on the screen
and so, that's forever.
The finale of my show Chief of War and my babies.
- What do you think ? - It was amazing.
I get to have my babies here with me, pretty much all my friends are here
but while we were here, I had the opportunity to make
these beautiful knives and Uncle finished our knives.
Our handmade Momoa Ohana knives that we all hammered.
My God, bro !
- This the one we made ? - Yeah.
- Is that the one we made ? - Yeah.
Every one of these stripes, I watched you make those stripes.
This is so freaking cool !
15 years I've been trying to make Chief of War, directing it,
like, on my weekend, when I'm spending time with my kids
we make a knife and then when it's finished, they bring it to me,
when we wrap, is emotional, 'cause there's so many things going on.
To be holding my babies and see it together, it's there forever.
I think a lot of people would fold under the pressure
of Jason Momoa asked you to make a sword in such a short amount of time,
a lot of people will fold and not take it,
'cause they don't wanna be rushed.
I take it because, one, I love the pressure
and two, like, my sons are watching.
That's all I ever remember, every day,
is that my sons are watching.
My relationship and my connection to my mom now,
is that, I try and think about that she's watching me
and that I don't wanna have it in vain.
And so that's why I always have this picture on my desk,
because when I hit the wall and I can't work anymore
and everything is going wrong, I push through and I won't leave.
I'll stay here till two o'clock in the morning to fix what I fucked up.
Now I know that even though things are good,
my sons are healthy, I love them,
we're as one unit, everything is going good.
I know that I still need to be on guard, still need to be pushing,
still need to be driven and never be complacent in life
or with raising them or in my career.
Just through life, all the things that kinda guide us to who we are,
obviously has an effect on what we do with our lives.
Some people sink, some people swim.
What Neil has done with his life and how much it's changed him,
he's used something that's very tragic in a positive way
to then inspire not only kids but someone like me
and push forward and you really see it in his work.
Give me some love.
- I love you. - Love you.
I had a buddy and this is why it really solidified everything for me,
when the coronavirus hit, my buddy and I work,
he made knives out of his house and we go ride:
"Bro, I'm like, I'm losing my house, I'm losing my family."
- I've been there. - Yeah.
And I'm like, bro, give me a knife, I'll post it, let's get it out there.
I made one for my kids, I'd love to buy it
and so he made 'em and I just did a little thing,
he's just the homie that I just ride with and he's just my buddy
and I'm like, you know, he came to me and just like,
I cried and he's like: "I had 52 orders."
It's been a really cool trip and I have to publicly...
You know I've thanked you many times but, you know,
for someone in your position to spotlight people like myself,
musicians, artists that all thing, is a big deal
because we go our whole lives, some of us, way more so than others,
but you wanna have that feeling of okay, I've reached people,
you know what I mean ?
It's great if anybody loves your work, if it's one person, it's beautiful.
But to be able to reach more people, especially in this day and age,
but thank you for promoting my tool.
I think everyone has passions and things that they've always wanted to do
and they didn't do them, there's people out there
that can teach you, probably in your home town
and you could go and try something new.
I hope that inspires people
because I think having these family heirlooms are important.
I had a picture of Johnny Cash on my wall
and everybody thought it was super weird
that some local kid had a picture of Johnny Cash on his wall.
And so when I started making knives, I told myself that I wanna be
the Johnny Cash of knife-making and everybody's like,
that's ambitious.
But Johnny Cash, to me, what he represented was,
his songs are simple, anybody can pick it up and play it,
but can they replicate it ? No.
You have to protect the joy that you have in your skillset
and in your trade and I tell people all the time,
money can buy you anything but time.
I hope it identifies with something in your life that you could go like,
I'm gonna pick this back up,
or I'm gonna do that thing I've always wanted to do,
'cause there's too many things I wanna do in this life
and I'm probably not gonna learn them all,
but I sure as hell can celebrate everyone else that does it.
And that dream come true,
every one of these knives were made by my friends.
This is from Hawaii. This is from Texas
and these are from Texas.
Pretty amazing !
And action !
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