Pacific/Hoe Saw & Knife Company

The history of Pacific/Hoe is really the history of two companies: Pacific Saw & Knife Company, and R. Hoe & Company, Inc. These two companies, founded nearly 150 years apart, shared a common desire to constantly improve their products and manufacturing processes.

R. Hoe & Co., Inc. was founded during the second term of President Thomas Jefferson in New York. At that time R. Hoe & Company manufactured the first production printing presses in America.

Robert Hoe
1784 - 1833

Ten-cylinder type revolving press
c. 1856

Saw manufacturing began as a sideline. Hoe needed saws capable of cutting the heavy mahogany used for construction of printing press side frames and bases. This led to a growing business producing commercial saw blades. At one time, R. Hoe & Company was the world's largest manufacturer of bits and shanks and chisel tooth saws.

Pacific Saw & Knife Company began as a small saw repair and distribution business in Portland, Oregon in the late 1940's. One of the first companies to experiment with carbide on the periphery of circular saw blades, Pacific Saw & Knife Company prospered and grew to have manufacturing plants in both Portland, Oregon and Decatur, Georgia, as well as branch operations throughout the country and in Canada. Always eager to explore innovative ideas and technologies, Pacific Saw & Knife Company has a string of "Firsts" in its long history: First carbide saw production, First patented accu-ground tipping, First licensee of strob saws and First to introduce the strob saw to the world. First production laser and more recently, the First (patent pending) full face contact spline arbor.

In 1984 Pacific Saw & Knife Company purchased R. Hoe & Company to become one of the largest saw and knife manufacturers in the world. Today Pacific/Hoe Saw & Knife Company continues its long tradition of innovation and excellence in manufacture to provide its customers with the finest saws, knives and paper mill blades available anywhere.