Bill Moran was born in Frederick, Maryland, he made his first knife at the age of 12, by the age of 14 he was making knives to sell,As a teenager he taught himself how to forge a blade. In the 1950s he was one of the last few bladesmiths in the United States .In 1960 he sold the family farm to become a full-time knife maker. In 1976 he founded the American Bladesmith Society (ABS), in 1988, Moran and the ABS founded a Bladesmithing School. Moran reintroduced the process of making pattern welded steel to modern knife making.