BY TIM NEVILLE A FEW MONTHS AGO Ron Khormaei, the founder and CEO of Steelport Knife Co. in Portland, was in Colorado wandering around a Scheels sporting goods shop when he noticed something that made him pause. Steelport has a factory on Sandy Boulevard and makes exquisite carbon- steel kitchen knives — arguably some of the best in the world, with a price point to match. A full, six-piece set of the American-forged 52100 steel knives, complete with a patented magnetic knife block, will set you back about $2,750. For $1,000 more, you can add an eight-piece steak-knife set that comes in a walnut box. They’re meant to be heirlooms passed between the cooks in the forks of the family tree. Scheels is a dealer. That’s why Khormaei was there. “I was looking at the kitchen-knife display and I was lamenting that they had four or five of our knives but the rest were very standard Japanese and German knives,” he said. “I don’t necessarily like to do a lot of competition, but I was thinking, how long is it going to take to have more American-made knives?” Khormaei has taken a particular pride in his work with manufacturing and selling American-made metal. In 2012 he launched the Portland-made ⁄Spotlight⁄ More than half of all the knives made in the U.S. come from Portland. The makers of those knives want the world to know. The Cutting Edge Ron Khormaei, founder and CEO of Steelport, in the knife maker’s Northeast Portland factory. Below: a set of Steelport knives 16
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