When He Didn’t Make the Cut, God Gave Him a Knife

“I take ingredients to make a knife,” says Quintin Middleton. “I use the fire to bring out what's best in the steel. It’s dormant, but it takes the fire to bring it to its surface, to bring out its full potential. But the potter sees the flaws. The potter sees the imperfections, the unevenness and sometime that potter would crush that clay and reform it to build something again. Sometimes we go through the crushing. Sometimes we go to the brokenness.”

Renowned for his quality craftsmanship, Quintin Middleton (Middleton Made Knives) fashions culinary knives for some of the world’s best chefs and food network. However, his road to success is marked by his own brokenness.  

“That moment for me when Jesus became real is when I tried to take my life,” he says. “I was in high school when I felt like I was at my lowest and where I felt like no one loved me, no one understood who I am. And I was at my grandparents’ house, and I was standing on this chair. I put a noose in the tree and I'm in the front yard. I'm getting ready to put my head in the noose. And it seemed like the Holy Spirit allowed the whole process to happen in my head. And while I was in that process, the Holy Spirit allowed the branch to break in my mind. And then once the branch that broke in my mind, I realized, like, this is not what I want to do.”

The realization was a turning point. 

“God, you're really talking to me in a way that I can understand. The Devil has been trying to take me out for the longest, so why would I make the job easy?”

Will Dawson: “The idea of becoming a knife-maker. Where did that come from?”

Middleton: “After watching, like, movies like Conan and Star Wars and, Ninja Turtles, the passion for it really, really kind of stuck in there,” he says.

“And I would take tubing off my swing set, flatten it with a hammer and a cinder block, and I would chase my brothers around the yard like I'm He-Man.”

Dawson: “That sounds dangerous!”

Middleton: “But it was fun!”

Following that passion, at seventeen, Quintin worked in the local mall selling, among other things, swords. One day a customer offered to show him how to make custom knives.

“I was following behind him from making swords. Making Bowie knives. But I didn't want to step on his toes,” he says. “I didn't want to go the route he went. So that's when I was praying. ‘Lord, I want to do this. I want to go in the direction of making knives as a business. So you need to show me.’”

Over the next few years, Quintin learned the craft. Then, at age 26, he says God spoke to him in a dream.

“I heard a voice,” says Quintin. “The voice sounded just like mine. It was, ‘Make chef knives.’ And I just stood there looking at the ceiling like, ‘That makes sense. But how?’” So I made a long list of every top chef in Charleston. I'm calling every last one of them. I was defeated because every last one of them is turning me down. There were like 50 chefs. And, the Holy Spirit also intervened again and said, ‘Okay, I want you to call this individual back, but I need you instead of selling, I need you to ask him to help you develop a knife.’ I said, ‘Okay.’”

After changing his approach, Quintin found doors were opening. He shadowed local chefs to perfect his craft. However, some folks didn’t take kindly to the “new kid on the block”.

“I've even had somebody say, like, they asked the guy, ‘Why you allow this N-word to come to your house?’ A black knife maker, trying to traverse through, learning the craft, building a name for myself. Those roadblocks were very glaring. So, where I can see the problem, I can see the stares. I can see the snickering. I can see or you can feel them. That staring, looking at you. So, I decided not to be in certain rooms. So, I made my own room,” he says.

Dawson: “What does that do to you personally, emotionally? I'm sure in some way it drives you, but you're also human too.”

Middleton: “It really it hurt real bad. Like. So, where I didn’t do anything to you or you hate me just because. Or because you may have a perceived notion of who you may think I am. And to have that, it was one of those like, ‘Dang, I got to fight this.’”

Fight back he did by making extraordinary chef’s knives. His business quickly took off. In addition, his Charleston store front is the first ever black owned knife store.

“I wasn't trying to be like, ‘Oh, hey, I'm the first black owned, knife store,’ but I am. But also, that carries a certain type of weight, because, I believe in representation,” says Middleton. “And I believe in putting my best foot forward. I need to be able to blaze a trail for someone to come behind me.”

Will Dawson: “What do you want to be known for?”

“What I want to be known for, not really about knives. That's what I do. I want I want people to say, like, ‘He's a really good man. When he shakes your hand and look you dead in the eye, he stands on his word.’ Now, that's legacy.”

Will Dawson: What does your relationship with Christ mean to you?

“It's everything, man! When no one understands me, when no one gets me. He knows me. Before I was formed in my mother's womb. He knows me,” he says. 

“That's the relationship that I'm trying to strive for. It's not about the things, the tangible things. It's the things that where I can go to God is saying like, ‘Lord, I'm having a problem. Lord, I am at my lowest. Lord, I am having the best day ever.’ Just in including him in my life. I pray somebody that's watching this can get inspired to step out on faith. Faith can be a scary thing. When you don't see a way. Hope. Trust. Trust God. Trust in Jesus. He’ll see you through. He did it for me.”