OUR GUIDING PRINCIPLES AND MISSION
Not the color, Not to only cut olives, Not Popeye's Wife's knives
The word Olive, inspired by the Latin word "oliva" (scientifically known as Olea europaea), embodies the Olive tree's timeless utility, resilience, longevity, and a symbol of hope like in Genesis 8. This is how we measure the quality of a personal knife.
Before you ask, no, we're not named after the color, a fruit knife that only cuts olives, or that one girl from that cartoon your grandparents watched. Though we'll admit the olive tree connection sounds very impressive, the Olive tree is even more impressive than meets the eye, once you start digging. The olive tree is nearly indestructible, useful in a dozen different ways, and has been around since humans figured out that sharp rocks were better than dull ones. Turns out, that's exactly what we wanted our knives to be.
Why Olive? Why Knives?
Knives can last years if they stay in your drawer, collecting dust and guilt every time you see them. But what if you actually use it daily? Over a lifetime? What if it becomes the knife you reach for whether you're opening Amazon boxes, preparing dinner, or doing actual work in the great outdoors? Olive Knives' vision for design and engineering responded by fusing versatile functions for daily tasks into a single do-it-all knife and to always focus on best quality, no matter the delivery schedule. The Olive knife options show quality through broad utility, resilience for tasks from carving to culinary preparation, and this over a lifetime.
This was the start of Carry One, the idea that if you could go back to carrying only a single knife—enhanced with the latest innovative materials, design, and engineering—you would choose a knife designed to last. A knife that doesn't force you to compromise.
Why All the Latin Names?
Latin, being a language of universal appeal, enduring scholarship, literature, philosophy, and science, is also timeless and serves as the inspiration for Olive Knives' naming of our different knife models. Latin serves as a bridge or common language for communication, but also forms the basis for much of the scientific terminology used today, particularly in biology and medicine. This emphasizes Olive Knives' focus on the science, engineering, and design behind making quality knives.
Also, it makes us sound smarter than we actually are, which is a nice bonus. But honestly, using Latin isn't just about sounding fancy—it's about connecting to something that's lasted thousands of years, much like we want our knives to do.
Our Mission
At Olive Knives, our slogan embodies the olive tree's enduring spirit, fused into every blade we craft. Or at least that's what we tell people at dinner parties to sound profound. The truth is, we just really like the idea of making knives that don't dissapoint.
Outplay
Outplay represents our love for competition—whether it's cooking, camping, or carving, it's the tangible camaraderie that pulls everyone together. We're constantly challenging ourselves to make better knives, test our designs in ridiculous new ways, and refuse to settle for "good enough" (even though "good enough" would probably be easier and involve less arguing). This drive for improvement pushes us to create something worth carrying every day. It's not about winning. OK it is about winning, but it is also about the process of making tools that actually perform when it matters, and maybe proving we were right about that one design argument from six months ago.
Outlast
Outlast captures Resilience. Our knives are engineered to withstand daily use, tough environments, and relentless tasks without failing, just as the olive tree thrives through storms and seasons. We're not interested in making knives that look impressive for a few months and then end up forgotten in a drawer next to that avocado slicer you bought on impulse. We build tools that perform on day one and still perform years later—whether you're preparing dinner every night, working at a remote site, or handling whatever life throws at you (hopefully not literally). Resilience isn't just about fancy steel or exotic handle materials—it's about designing a knife that becomes more valuable the longer you own it, because it actually earns its keep instead of collecting dust and guilt.
Outlive
Outlive honors Longevity. Designed for a lifetime of service, these knives become heirlooms, outlasting trends and generations, symbolizing hope and endurance. We create tools meant to be passed down—not as collectibles that sit unused in some display case, but as trusted companions with stories etched into every scratch and patina mark. The kind of knife that comes with tales of "remember when we used this to..." instead of "yeah, that's still in the original box somewhere." In a world of disposable products and planned obsolescence, we're building knives that refuse to quit, just like the olive tree that inspired our name. Also, we're stubborn, and if we're going to make knives, they're damn well going to last longer than we do.
Outplay. Outlast. Outlive.
That's not just marketing speak—it's how we measure whether we're doing this right. If our knives don't help you outplay the competition, outlast the challenges, and outlive the trends, then we haven't done our job. Simple as that. And we'll probably argue about what went wrong over an early morning camp coffee until we figure it out.
Introducing the O'Team
A knife company is only as good as the people who obsess over every detail, debate blade geometry at inappropriate times, and actually use the products daily. Meet the crew responsible for Olive Knives—a collection of hunters, cooks, designers, adventurers, and general knife enthusiasts who take this stuff seriously (in the best way possible).
Andre – The Founder Who Started All This
Andre is the reason this whole operation exists, which means he's also the person to credit when things go right. As a hunter and design innovator, he spends most of his time obsessing over blade geometry, handle ergonomics, and whether a knife can survive being dropped off a cliff—which he's tested more times than he'd like to admit. When he's not sketching knife designs on napkins or discussing steel types, Andre is living his best healthy life, which apparently involves eating mainly meat and pretending that hiking counts as cardio. He's also fascinated by patterns and the Fibonacci sequence, which means he sees golden ratios and mathematical perfection in everything from knife curves to the spiral of a pinecone. Try having a casual conversation with him about blade design—it will inevitably involve references to nature's geometry and why certain proportions just "feel right." He founded Olive Knives because he wanted a blade that could keep up with his outdoor adventures without failing, and somehow convinced the rest of us that this was a good idea.
Tim – The Co-Founder Who Makes Things Happen
Tim is the "drive everything" type of guy, which is a polite way of saying he's the one who actually gets stuff done while the rest of us are still debating which steel alloy makes the best kitchen tool. Living deep in the forests of New Hampshire like some kind of outdoorsman, Tim is an avid hunter, fisher, and general woodland dweller who probably has more conversations with trees than people. He co-founded Olive Knives because Andre needed someone to turn his innovative knife ideas into actual products that perform reliably and he understands numbers more than most of us. If there's a problem, Tim solves it. If there's a deadline, Tim meets it. If there's a way, Tim finds it.
Travis – The Culinary Encyclopedia With a Camera
Travis is the guy who can cook up anything and will absolutely judge your brisket technique (but his is better, so fair enough). He’s a photographer, a knife guy, and makes the kind of barbecue that might just make you rethink everything you thought you knew about good food. Travis joined the O’Team because someone had to test whether these knives could actually dice an onion without turning it to mush, and because it gave him an excuse to take artsy photos of sharp objects for Instagram. His mix of cooking know-how, creativity, and obsession with blade performance makes him the one we all turn to when we need to know if a knife is actually built for the job or just looks the part. When he's not perfecting his smoked meat technique, Travis is out there trying to sell knives, which mostly involves demonstrating to chefs and outdoor enthusiasts why they need our knives while occasionally getting distracted by talk of sous vide temperatures and dry rubs.
Jono – The Designer, Dog Trainer, and Biltong Maker
Jonathan is a product designer by passion, a dog trainer by necessity, and a South African biltong maker by heritage and stubbornness. He's the person responsible for making sure our knives don't look like they were designed by someone who only uses CAD software and has never actually held a knife. When he's not sketching new knife concepts or doing obedience training with his dog (spoiler alert: it’s a Rottweiler so naturally it’s about managing expectations), Jonathan is making biltong in his kitchen and insisting it's better than any jerky you've ever had - and honestly, he's probably right. He brings a practical, hands-on perspective to knife design because he actually uses them for everything, from day to day jobs to prototyping, and he's not afraid to tell us when our ideas are “probably not a good idea”.
Roux – The "Try Everything Once" Adventurer
Roux is a traveler, an adventurer, and the kind of person who thinks "let's try everything at least once" is a reasonable life philosophy. If it's a new experience, he's in. If it's edible, he'll try it. If it's a knife, he'll test it in scenarios that push the limits. Roux joined the O'Team because he needed knives that could keep up with his adventurous lifestyle of trying new things, visiting interesting places, and generally refusing to live a boring existence. He's the reason we test our knives in challenging scenarios like cutting rope underwater, opening packages in remote locations, and preparing fish on a kayak. His feedback usually starts with "So I was in [unheard of country] and I needed to..." which is how we know our products actually work in diverse real-world conditions. At least now he's selling more knives than he buys.
The Production Team – The Mystery Masters Behind the Curtain
We could tell you who they are and what they do, but we won't.. It is a secret. What we can say is this: Our production team is highly skilled, ridiculously dedicated, and probably a little crazy. They're the ones working late into the night when normal people are asleep, still showing up with their hands in bandages from yesterday's "learning experience," and constantly arguing about whether there's a better way to do literally everything. They debate heat treatment processes like some people debate sports statistics. They can spot a microscopic imperfection from across the room. And they take the whole "measure twice, cut once" thing to levels that would make a surgeon nervous.
Are they perfectionists? Absolutely. Are they stubborn? You have no idea. Do they sometimes redesign a process just because they thought of something better at 2 AM? More often than we'd like to admit. But that's exactly why our knives turn out the way they do. These are the people who make sure that mathematical obsessions and Fibonacci spirals actually translate into functional blades and practical requirements get met.
We keep their secrets close because, frankly, we don't want anyone else stealing our methods. But if you ever wonder why an Olive Knife feels different in your hand or performs better than expected, it's because somewhere in our shop, someone with bandaged fingers just spent three hours perfecting a process that most people would consider "good enough" after ten minutes.