Ken Onion

Ken Onion (born January 16, 1963) is an American custom knifemaker based in Kaneohe, Hawaii, United States who invented the "SpeedSafe" assisted opening mechanism for Kershaw Knives. Ken Onion was the Premier Knife Designer for Kershaw Knives.

Designs As a US Marine, Onion devised a helicopter mechanism that was adopted for use by the military. In 1989, Ken's wife, Noel, made arrangements through a friend for Onion to meet custom knife maker Stanley Fujisaka. Most notable of these is the Speed-safe mechanism used by Kershaw Knives. For these many designs and his work throughout the cutlery industry promoting the art of knife making, Onion was inducted into the Blade Magazine Cutlery Hall of Fame at the 2008 Blade Show in Atlanta, Georgia as the 45th and youngest living member.

In 2005, Onion collaborated with Spyderco on the Spyker knife design. In 2010 Onion parted ways with Kershaw Knives to start his own production company and to collaborate with Columbia River Knife and Tool on several designs.

Celebrity knives An article in Blade Magazine asserts that celebrities, such as Steven Seagal, Steven Tyler, Nicolas Cage, Kid Rock, Pamela Anderson, Wayne Newton, Emily Ahern, Stephen Lefebvre, Wayne LaPierre, Brett Morss, and Ziggy Marley collect custom knives made by Onion.