In November of 1991, Ken Onion began making knives under the guidance of Stan Fujisaka.  After his first session with Mr. Fujisaka, Ken knew he was hooked and ordered his Burr King grinder.

Ken has always been fascinated by high speed machinery with precision tolerances.  His background as a jet mechanic in the Marine Corps. and later as a robot mechanic helped to hone his technical skills.

Furthermore, Ken is blessed with a talent for design.  The combination of these two gifts set the groundwork for the creation of the SPEED SAFE mechanism in 1997.