About Oliphant Tool Company

Three Generations of Southern California Tool & Die Craftsmen

Horace Oliphant

Photo: Horace Oliphant (left) with C.L. "Kelly" Johnson (right).

December 18, 1972 at Lockheed's Skunk Works in Burbank, California

Horace spent most of his life employed as a machinist and tool maker, including making war materials at Chrysler during World War II. Then beginning in 1952 be began working in the famed Skunk Works at Lockheed in Burbank, California. Throughout the height of the Cold War he worked on many secret projects including the U-2 and Article 121, the precursor to the legendary SR-71 “Blackbird”, garnering multiple awards from top Lockheed executives including C.L. “Kelly” Johnson.

Bill Oliphant

Chris and Bill Oliphant c. 1984

Having been honorably discharged from the U.S. Army where he served in the 6th Missile Battalion, 52d Artillery, the first HAWK missile battery in Germany during the building of the Berlin Wall, Bill got his start in tool and cutter grinding at the same Lockheed plant his father worked. After managing a tool & die shop in the early 1970s and later partnering in another, Bill founded Oliphant Tool Company in 1983, in Santa Ana, California — where we continue to operate today.

Chris Oliphant

14 year old Chris Oliphant, setting up to grind a carbide end mill

c.1985 at Oliphant Tool Company, Santa Ana, CA

75 years since it began, Chris carries on this proud family tradition of tool making in Southern California. Chris started with Oliphant Tool as a middle schooler in 1984, first sweeping the floors on the weekends and then as a manual tool and cutter grinder operator and tool & die polisher during the summers that followed. Having graduated in the top 1% of his class with a degree in business from Penn State, he has been serving as General Manager, providing over 30 years of carbide tool and cutter grinding experience to Oliphant Tool Company and its valued customers.