STEPHEN, S.C.—Filming recently wrapped for Maxwell House’s ‘Made Right Here’ series which highlights talented people behind some amazing goods made right here in America.
Hosts Joe Gannon and Max Wastler recently traveled to St. Stephen to interview Quintin Middleton, the owner of Middleton Made Knives.
Middleton Made Knives was one out of 10 companies highlighted in the upcoming ‘Made Right Here’ series by Maxwell House.
For the last decade, Middleton has made a living from creating knives used by high-end chefs from the west coast to the east coast.
“I had a dream God was telling me to make chef knives. Once that dream came to me, I said, ‘Okay, Lord, I need to make chef knives,’” Middleton told the hosts.
And that’s what he’s been doing ever since. A very spiritual guy, Middleton wakes up early each morning crafting his new piece of work all while listening to sermons and gospel music, he says.
“I think of this as a ministry. My knives go out to different chefs, and these chefs feed thousands of people,” explained Middleton. “So if I pass it (the knife) on to a chef, that knife is blessed already.”
Middleton says it was a friend who first got him interested in making knives right in his backyard. Even when others told him he would never 
make knives professionally, he proved them wrong.
“You have to believe in yourself before anybody else will. If you don’t believe in it, nobody else will. Once you put yourself out there, and say ‘Hey, this is what I do. This is what I love. This is my passion. When people see your passion, and everything that you put into it, everybody else is going to flock to it,” explained Middleton.
Craig Deihl, the executive chef at the fine-dining restaurant Cypress in downtown Charleston is one of the many chefs around the country using Middleton’s handmade knives.
“A lot of the guys in the kitchen are proud to be able to say, ‘Hey, we know Quintin. We’ve worked with Quintin, and we’re getting some great tools in return that help Cypress as a restaurant in general do some nice stuff,” stated Deihl.
Middleton says in the future he hopes to open a factory and employ people in the community to make American-made knives.
“It’s one thing to sell my designs to another company, and they make the knives overseas. But it’s another thing where I can hire people from my community and make the knives in the United States,” said Middleton. “All these other Fortune 500 companies, they had to start somewhere. They started in somebody’s basement, garage, so why can’t it start with me if I have the passion and the drive for it?”
To learn more about Middleton’s business, click here.
Prior Story:
Alvin businessman to be featured in new series called “Made Right Here”
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