Five Generations. One Family. One Promise.

Sweet Home, Oregon

This is not a brand story. This is a family story. And like most family stories it starts long before anyone thought to write it down.

It Started With a Blacksmith

Our great grandfather Charlie Cochran ran a blacksmith shop in Antlers, Oklahoma. That's where he first learned to forge and make knives — by hand, with fire and steel, the way knives were always meant to be made. We still have Charlie's knives. The ones he made in that shop over 80 years ago. That's what built to last actually looks like.

The Move to Oregon

Charlie moved his family to Sweet Home, Oregon and the tradition came with them. His son Foy Cochran became a second generation knife maker. In 1975 Foy founded Cochran Knives and spent the next 50 years selling knives to hunters, outdoorsmen, and families across the Pacific Northwest. Foy is 89 years old and still with us today.

The Third and Fourth Generation

Mike Cochran — Foy's son — grew up around knives his entire life. A lifelong hunter and outdoorsman, Mike became the third generation of the family to carry the knife making tradition. His son joined him and together they founded Cochran Knife Company — building on everything Foy built while bringing new energy, new designs, and a new generation of hunters to the craft. Between the two of them they have taken over 70 bull elk — most of them with a bow — in the mountains and timber country of the Pacific Northwest. Every design decision they make comes from that experience.

The Fifth Generation

Our kids are already in the shop. Our 11 year old laces the sheaths. Our 7 year old punches the steel blanks. The youngest watches and learns. This is how it has always worked in this family — you grow up around it, you pick it up, and one day it becomes yours. We are not worried about the future of Cochran Knife Company.

What Has Never Changed

In 85 years and five generations one thing has never changed. Every knife we make is built to last long enough to be passed down. Charlie's knives proved it. Foy's knives proved it. We intend to prove it again. That is the only promise we have ever made and the only one we need to make. It's a privilege to keep the legacy going.

It's a privilege to keep the legacy going. — Mike Cochran, 3rd Generation