Steve Hoel  ·  Pine, Arizona

Steve Hoel made his first knife in 1952, living in the pine country of Arizona — shaped a blade by hand with files, sold it ten years later for ten dollars. In 1974 he drove to California and spent three days in the shop of Bob Loveless and Steve Johnson. That visit changed the trajectory. He joined the Knifemakers Guild in 1978, retired from the citrus industry in 1979, and never looked back.

Hoel was one of the first makers to design handle shapes specifically with engraving in mind — not as an afterthought, but as a design premise from the first sketch. He partnered with the finest engravers working: Lynton McKenzie, Steve Lindsay, Sam Alfano, Barry Lee Hands. Jack Busfield, Warren Osborne, W.D. Pease — the whole lineage of the American interframe gent's folder traces back to what Hoel was doing in Pine, Arizona.