About

I learned about craftsmanship from my father. As a youngster, I spent many hours sitting on a stool in Dad's workshop watching him work on projects ranging from an electric bike (early 70s) to a home made micarta violin, to aerospace parts. I now have Dad's tools in my shop and enjoy using them along side my own accumulation of "toys."

I started what was to become a new career in the knife/tactical industry in 1996 working for Blade-Tech Industries. In late 2000 I parted ways with BTI (amicably!) to found Okuden. The plan was to make Kydex knife sheaths on a custom basis. If I'd only known... I'm not totally sure how many sheaths I've built, but I AM sure that the number is somewhere well north of 50,000. The lion's share of those were for Spartan Blades USA.

In 2020, I decided to semi-retire and "re-orient" the business to pursue knife making and perhaps finally develop a new product for the industry. The product (a new attachment system for belts and load bearing systems) is well on it's way now and expected to be available in 2024.