In 2003, two quail hunters, Hobie Smith of Smith International, Inc. and Charles Allen, Knives of Alaska's President, were teamed up at the Grand National Quail Convention, an annual fund raising event in Enid, Oklahoma for quail conservation and research. As fellow bird hunters will do through the course of the day, conversation revolved around quail hunting and management, bird dogs, the Grand National, and eventually what each did business-wise. Hobie's Smith International has two operating units in Provo, Utah-MegaDiamond and MegaStir-both concerned with manufacturing synthetic diamond and other "ultra-hard" materials for oil field drilling bits and other specialty tools. Knives of Alaska manufactures high quality outdoorsmen's knives.
The discussions eventually led to the challenge "LET'S TEAM OUR COMPANIES UP AND BUILD THE MOST TECHNOLOGICALLY ADVANCED BLADE IN THE WORLD."
Thus it was at the Grand National that a four-year research process began. Teaming mechanical and electrical engineers, metallurgists and materials PhD's from Brigham Young University, and manufacturing experts from MegaStir, MegaDiamond, and Knives of Alaska, eventually culminated with meeting the challenge. Their research yielded newly issued U.S. Patents concerning technological advancements in knife blades that are "a technological leap ahead" of any other knife in the world-FRICTION FORGED® SUPER BLADES-and resulted in the formation of the new American knife manufacturing company, DIAMONDBLADE, LLC, that builds the Friction Forged® blades.