KA-BAR's story begins in 1898 in Tidioute, Pennsylvania, where a group of craftsmen established the Tidioute Cutlery Company. The company relocated to Olean, New York, in 1912 — the heart of what was then the most concentrated cutlery manufacturing region in America. The KA-BAR trademark was adopted in the 1920s, inspired by a fur trapper's barely-legible testimonial about using his knife to "k a bar" — kill a bear. The name stuck. In 1942, the United States Marine Corps adopted the KA-BAR Fighting/Utility Knife as standard issue — beginning an eight-decade relationship with the American military that continues today. Veterans carried their KA-BARs through Korea, Vietnam, Desert Storm, Afghanistan, and Iraq. Today, as a subsidiary of Cutco Corporation and based at 200 Homer Street in Olean, KA-BAR produces over 100 knives including the original USMC design alongside the Becker, Dozier, TDI, EK Commando, and Jarosz series. Knifeworks is an authorized KA-BAR dealer.