When he was 14, he altered his birth certificate and joined the Merchant Marine and later served as an Air Corps control tower operator on Iwo Jima.
He ground his first blade from a 1937 Packard Automobile spring found in a Newark, New Jersey junkyard and forged it on the oil-fired galley stove of the ship on which he was serving.
After showing this homemade knife to the head of the Abercrombie & Fitch cutlery department he formed a relationship with the retailer to sell his knives.
[3][4] From 1954 to 1960 Loveless made knives called "Delaware Maids" and they became Abercrombie & Fitch's best-selling handmade items, outselling the Randall blades.
Loveless admitted that these knives were copies of Randall's designs, but by 1960 he began making his own innovations which set them apart.
In Loveless' knives the entire piece of steel used to make the knife ran to the end of the butt as opposed to being cut to half the length of the handle and either pinned or glued in place.
However, Loveless refused to sell a customer one of his fighting knives unless the buyer could provide either police or military identification and could require a knife as a weapon.
Loveless had been a participating maker from 1993 through 2006 in the Art Knife Invitational Show which is a closed association of the 25 most collectible knifemakers.