Spyderco
Golden, Colorado maker of folding knives, fixed blades and sharpeners, founded in 1976.
Spyderco was founded in 1976 by Sal and Gail Glesser, who traveled the country in a converted bread delivery truck selling their first patented product, the "Portable Hand", along with knife sharpeners and knives at fairs and trade shows. In 1978 they settled in Golden, Colorado, and began making the Tri-Angle Sharpmaker, a ceramic-rod sharpener that could hone serrated edges.
The company's first knife, the C01 Worker, arrived in 1981. It introduced a round hole in the blade for one-handed opening, now a Spyderco trademark, and a pocket clip on the handle; a year later it added a serrated-edge option.
Today Spyderco makes folding knives, fixed blades, kitchen knives and sharpeners, with manufacturing in the U.S., Japan, Taiwan, Italy and China. The company collaborates with custom knifemakers on many designs, was the first manufacturer to use powder-metallurgy blade steel in a production knife in the mid-1990s, and co-developed Crucible's CPM SPY27 steel. Its lower-priced Byrd knives are made in China and use a comet-shaped opening hole.
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