Jess Horn, The Quiet Man

In 1968, while he was working for the American government as an engineer of public works responsible for highway maintenance, Jess Horn made himself a knife that he always kept on his pocket, considering those that he found on the market to be too fragile and of unsatisfactory design.

Living in a region near Oregon locally called “the other California”, Horn is of course a great devotee of fishing and hunting. For these activities he designed, but for a strictly personal use, very specific knives that suited him perfectly. But who out of his numerous hunting and fishing buddies could resist asking him to show them his knives, trying them out themselves and asking him to make identical ones for them? That is how Jess Horn started a small production for his close friends, but even in this huge country word gets around, and a number of retailers came along to place orders.

In Switzerland, Germany, Japan and now in France, people tend to consider a Jess Horn to be the Rolls Royce of knives. In the United States, he contradicts the saying that one is never a prophet in one’s own land, for his name ranks among the handful of top knifemakers specializing in folding knives. His knives are difficult to get hold of and delivery times are long, since this man is most meticulous in his work.

Jess Horn is a discreet man who will never admit having entered American cutlery legend and who continues to do his best work with the same models that are still as fascinating today as they were thirty years ago.