About OLFA

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Our OLFA® Story

While many people know that the OLFA® rotary cutter was introduced in 1979, our story really begins in 1956.

In 1956 Mr. Yoshio Okada, the founder of OLFA CORPORATION, invented the world's first Snap-Off Blade Cutter. The inspiration for this incredible idea came from breaking off segments of chocolate bars and analyzing the snap edges of broken glass.

 

 

This unique invention has since become a worldwide best seller and is commonly referred to as an OLFA® Cutter. Yoshio Okada also invented the world's first rotary cutter in 1979. It revolutionized how people cut fabric by switching them from using scissors to rolling a circular blade over the material. OLFA's rotary cutters are used around the world today by quilters. 

 

Since then, OLFA® has been committed to making tools that improve how people cut materials by developing products that not only attain an inimitable level of sharpness but that are also practical to use from the user's standpoint. This includes -- for example -- professional-grade tools used at construction sites, in packaging and shipping operations, and office work, as well as tools used in the artistic world for papercrafts, quilting, modeling and more. OLFA® makes a wide range of products that are used in diverse ways. 

 

OLFA® brand blades are made with top quality materials, forged with technologies that stem from traditional sword-making, sharpened with technologies that give a blade life, and ultimately finished with the craftsmanship that brings all of this together. The holders and handles that allow users to gain the full cutting performance of these high-quality blades are designed, developed and manufactured in Japan and subjected to stringent quality checks throughout the process. OLFA® is proud of the unwavering quality that goes into every product it makes. 


"Safety" is the underlying principle of OLFA yellow.


"Safety" is the underlying principle of OLFA yellow. The body color of OLFA® products was selected in 1967 by Yoshio Okada. He decided on a soft yellow color, similar to egg yolk, because it was associated with “safety” and “familiar” images. With hand-held cutting tools, quality weighs heavily on user safety. And, because safety is always a top priority, OLFA® is very demanding when it comes to quality. This is the underlying principle of OLFA's official corporate color -- yellow.
 

The name of “OLFA” comes from two Japanese words, which, when translated, mean “to break a blade”. The OLFA® parallelogram logo is taken from the shape of a snap-off blade.