LAND OF THE BLADE

Make no mistake—manu-facturing knives in the USA comes with challenges, including regulations, taxes, high costs of doing business and much more. While imported knives oft en beat American-mades on price, companies that choose to produce knives domestically carry a long tradition of equipping the U.S. military with the best American design and manufacturing has to offer.

For Curtis Iovito, with Mark Carey cofounder of Spartan Blades, the tension between creating high-quality knives and keeping costs down has been one of the primary challenges in running Spartan for the past 13 years.

“We did everything we could to keep our costs down, from buying in bulk, streamlining production and reducing shipping costs,” Curtis observed. “Even with that, we were lambasted by our customers for being ‘too expensive.’ It was our No. 1 complaint. We even received hate mail for it!”

For Iovito—who said those who staff Spartan Blades consider themselves soldiers first and knifemakers second—patriotism was among the top reasons to make