cast iron cooking company Finex, purveyors of the octagonal cast-iron skillet, now owned by Lodge, which has been the only acquisition in that company’s 126-year-long history. Steelport, Khormaei’s post-Finex act, isn’t just American-made but, specifically, Portland-made — at least mostly. The steel billets do come from a Rust Belt mine and end up at a factory in the Midwest, where they’re hammered into a rough, dull blank at a high- volume factory that specializes in forging Harley Davidson engines. After that, the remaining 133 steps that it takes to make a Steelport knife happen in Portland. That includes the intricate labor needed to transform a single piece of Oregon bigleaf maple wood into a handle. The sharpening and refining happen there on Sandy Boulevard. As a final step, Steelport blades get dipped in cold-brew Coava Coffee Roasters coffee. “Very Portland,” Khormaei jokes. “The acid seasons the metal unlike anything else we’ve tried.” At Scheels Khormaei looked around some more and happened upon the cases of outdoor knives: Gerber Gear. Leatherman. Benchmade. Columbia River Knife and Tool. Kershaw. He was stunned. “Every single one of them was not only American-made but made in Portland,” he recalls. “I’m like, wait, what?” Khormaei flew back to Oregon and dug deeper into American knife making. He discovered something even more remarkable, a tidbit he took to Congressman Earl Blumenauer of Oregon’s 3rd Congressional District. They had breakfast one morning. He presented Blumenauer with figures that showed about 30,000 knives a day are made in Portland. “I told him that, by my estimate, over half of American-made knives sold in the U.S. are actually made in Portland,” Khormaei recalls. “I said, I wonder what would happen if we got all of these companies together?” Blumenauer saw the potential of this “emerging story.” “He said, ‘Ron, that’s a great idea,’” Khormaei recalls. A few months ago, on August 24, 2024, “Knife Day,” that great idea came to fruition. That’s the day the Portland Knife Center of Excellence was born. The PKCOE, as it’s known for short, brings together five of Portland’s leading knife manufacturers — Steelport, Gerber Gear, Benchmade, CKRT and Leatherman — in an attempt to elevate Portland’s place on the global stage, plopping it along side cutting-edge cities like Solingen, Germany; Seki City, Japan; and Thiers, France; which are all known as the places for knives. In doing so, these companies hope to develop talent within the next generation of knife makers. They want to create jobs, attract conventions and spin off tourism opportunities. Beyond the business, there’s an emotional component, too. “It will be an inspiring story to tell to help revive our beloved city,” Khormaei said in a presentation announcing the center’s creation. To be sure, the center has no brickand-mortar HQ, at least not yet, and exists pretty much only on paper. (And at least one company, Kershaw, never expressed any interest in joining forces at all. “They’re probably wondering, ‘Who is this Ron guy?’” Khormaei says.) But the idea of branding Portland as the “knife-making capital” of the U.S. could go a long way toward growing a manufacturing ecosystem that floats all boats. “It’s a little bit like the Nike and Adidas world, where you have these two brands creating all of these offshoots,” says Ashley Williams, head of marketing for Gerber Gear. That company, one of the oldest knife makers in the Portland area, has recently expanded into the culinary hardware space, too, with a top-notch camping cook set that retails for about $200. “The city becomes a magnet and attracts all sorts of designers and engineers and entrepreneurs, and Ashley Williams, head of marketing for Gerber Gear Above images: Production at Gerber Gear, one of the oldest knife makers in the Portland area. 17
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