Our Story: The Making of a Hoback Knife

I don’t just make knives. I make tools I trust my life with.

This is the core belief that drives everything I do. It’s a commitment to engineering, materials, and craftsmanship that ensures every tool bearing the Hoback name is one you can depend on when everything is on the line. Here's how it all started.

The Spark: A Weapon in the Dirt

From Jake Hoback,

So there I was, sitting cross-legged in the scorching Nevada dirt in front of an abandoned mining crane counterweight. The year was 1992. I was 10 years old and needed a weapon to fight off the savage beasts of the Great Basin desert. After a midnight raid on my uncle's shed, I found a piece of 1/4-inch thick mystery steel.

I began to pound that steel with a framing hammer like a screen door in a hurricane. With absolutely no clue what I was doing, I somehow managed to forge something akin to a Persian short blade. That was my first foray into making tools, and it sparked a lifelong passion.

The Journey: From Raw Skill to Precision Engineering

My path wasn't a straight line; it was a constant cycle of learning, testing, and refining my skills in both the workshop and the wild.

Learning the Craft: My journey took me from that first rough blade to a friend's family blacksmith shop in Virginia City, where I learned the fundamentals of forging real tools. After high school, I took a job in a turbine engine factory, which gave me an incredible education in high-level machining. I was even part of a team that built one of the first 3D laser sintering robots—a 6-axis robotic arm using a 3000W fiber laser to repair turbine blades.

A close-up image showing the precision work of welding a turbine blade.

Testing in the Field: True understanding doesn't come from a workshop alone. I spent every day off work in the woods, pushing my new blade designs to their limits. I would venture into the Sierra Nevada mountains for a week at a time with just a knife and a sleeping bag, learning firsthand what worked and what didn't—not just from a maker's perspective, but from a user who depended on that tool for survival.

Our Philosophy: Forged and Proven in the Field

My professional life continued this cycle of building and breaking. While working for Washington Fish and Wildlife, I was part of an invasive species group, spending weeks at a time in the remote backcountry. It was here, needing a tool I could use inside a dry suit to process fish and still have for setting up camp, that I designed and built the first Choppa fixed blade.

Image from Washington Fish and Wildlife work. Image from Washington Fish and Wildlife work. Image from Washington Fish and Wildlife work.

Simultaneously, I was welding and fabricating rock crawling rigs, learning critical lessons about structural design and how metal behaves under extreme stress. This wasn't theoretical; it was about building rigs, taking them out on the trails, breaking them, and fixing them stronger than before. This real-world, high-consequence experience is the foundation of the Hoback philosophy: a tool must be proven to work without fail.

A custom-built off-road rig in a rugged environment.

From Craftsman to Company: A Legacy of Innovation

What started in a Costco tent with a Harbor Freight grinder grew into a full-time obsession. In 2003, my work led to the creation of the A10, the legendary Kwaiback, and the patented HRD (Hoback Rolling Detent).

By 2012, I took the biggest leap of my career: funding the first-ever production run of the Kwaiback. When the project fell behind with outside shops, I took out a loan, bought my first CNC mill, and took control of my own production. It was a trial by fire, learning to run the machine while hand-grinding blades through sleepless nights to fulfill every order. This commitment to perseverance and quality is the foundation of our business today.

The Expert Behind the Experts

Beyond the knives that bear my name, a significant part of our work is providing confidential design, prototyping, and manufacturing solutions for some of the most respected names in the knife industry.

While my agreements prevent me from showcasing this work publicly, the experience is invaluable. Industry leaders trust our shop's discretion and expertise to solve their most complex challenges. The same commitment to precision engineering and innovative problem-solving that we provide to these major brands is forged into every single tool that carries the Hoback name.

Jake Hoback's Promise to You

When you buy one of our products, you're not just getting a knife; you're getting a piece of my story. You're getting the passion of that 10-year-old kid in the desert, the hard-won lessons from the mountains of the Sierra Nevada, the precision of the turbine engineer, and the battle-tested expertise trusted by the best in the business. That is my commitment, and it's built into every tool we make.

Thank you for reading, God bless.

Jake Hoback