Al Mar founder of the brand was born in the United States and was the son of Chinese immigrants. He served in a Special Forces Reserve Unit and volunteered to serve in a Green Beret special operations group in Vietnam. After serving in Vietnam, and completing his undergraduate education by earning a master's degree in industrial design from the Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles he continued to work on Gerber® Legendary Blades under the direction of Pete Gerber and concluded his tenure there as "Head of Knives Design ".
In 1979, Al founded AL MAR® Knives. His mission was to combine mass production methods with the quality of custom knives. Initially, most of his knives were designed for police and military use, due to his vast experience as a Judo and Kendo practitioner and his background as a Green Beret. In fact, the S.E.R.E. from Al Mar, the knife (Survive-Escape-Resist-Evade) was the first knife accepted for use by Special Forces Colonel Nick Rowe for the S.E.R.E. Instructor School at Camp McCall North Carolina. And as the company grew, his designs evolved to include high-quality hunting and fishing knives, kitchen knives and gift knives for men with the best materials of the time. Very famous are its Warrior, Special Forces, Applegate Fairbairn, Shadow, Fang, Pathfinder, Presidential Bowie models well known, desired and followed even today by fans and collectors around the world.
Al Mar was a life member of the Special Forces Association, a member of the Special Operations Association and a reserve deputy sheriff. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame by Fighting Knives and Blade Magazine. Al Mar was a man worthy of the greatest respect.
Today, the Al Mar brand continues its mission of manufacturing knives with personalized quality design and innovation.
