In 1959, after he founded OKADA & Co. in Japan, Yoshio Okada formally introduced the innovative blade to great acclaim and its popularity spread worldwide. In 1967 Yoshio started to manage the company OKADA KOGYO CO. LTD.Okada’s tool simplified and hastened the speed with which blades are changed. The snap-off blade did what conventional utility cutters could not: deliver a fresh edge in seconds.In 1984, Okada changed the name of his company to the OLFA Corporation, one that incorporated the essence of the founder’s invention. OLFA is an abbreviation of two Japanese words which translate: “to brake a blade”.The OLFA logo itself, a parallelogram, is in the shape of a typical OLFA snap-off blade.The rotary cutter’s ingenious design was introduced by OLFA in 1979, and over the past 30 years, this simple but brilliant tool has revolutionized the arts and crafts industry. At the time it was introduced, quilters and sewers discovered immediately that this novel craft tool could reduce cutting time by half or even more. And with the new cutter, multiple layers of fabric, regardless of weight, cut quickly and easily, with little pressure and without pulling or distorting fabrics or pattern lines.OLFA now offers a wide range of rotary cutters, in various sizes, and with new and innovative features such as its quick-change cutters which makes changing blades almost effortless.These days, the rotary cutter has become the standard, embraced by legions of quilters worldwide and the cutter of choice for the craft industry as a whole.