We are back to forging heirloom quality blades and handcrafted leather goods! After leaving a small village in Alaska, we have found ourselves tucked into a small holler deep in the Blue Ridge mountains. At JackDog Forge our aim is to make practical, beautiful tools that folks will use on an everyday basis. Whether you are out in the mountains hunting and fishing, or preparing a gourmet meal at home, we intend for our knives to make your experience more enjoyable.
Will Spears, the Bladesmith behind JackDog Forge, started his knife making career in 2015 working for Maynard Linder of Dancing Man Knives and Ulus in Homer, Alaska. Will fell in love with crafting unique, one of a kind knives. Over the next few years, Will made a number of knives for friends and family, slowly developing his own style and techniques. In 2018 Will started forging knives on his own under the name JackDog Knives. In 2019 Jackdog Knives moved from Homer to Ninilchik, a small village next to the Cook Inlet, where Will continued to hone his craft. In 2022, Will, Jeannine and JackDog packed up everything they could and drove about seven thousand miles and ended up in the Appalachian Mountains. It took a while to get settled, so Will got a job cooking and started working towards getting back to forging and grinding knives. Then about the time that he had finished his knife making shack they built in the woods, the opportunity to work for Baker Forge and Tool came about. We are very excited to see what future is going to bring!
In 2011, Will Spears and Jeannine Armour adopted JackDog from the pound in Palmer, Alaska. They took him to live in Portage Valley, about 50 miles south of Anchorage. In 2012, JackDog got a brother named August. August was an eight year old sled dog who had been injured. Even though Jeannine had never met August, she heard about his plight and helped raise money to cover the vet costs so he wouldn’t have to be put down. After his successful surgery, Jeannine went to meet August. It was love at first sight for them both and home to Portage he came. This inspired Jeannine and her friend Julie to start The August Fund, a non-profit organization devoted to helping injured/retired sled dogs find loving forever homes. JackDog was extremely jealous that August had a non-profit named in his honor. so when Will started making his own knives and needed something to call them, JackDog begged and begged to be the Namesake. 😜 In all reality, anyone who knows us, knows our boys were our lives. Jeannine has always joked that Will’s a great guy but Jack is her absolute soulmate.
Will makes the knives, Jeannine makes the sheaths (along with other beautiful leather creations), JackDog is one of those supervisors that is always sleeping on the job or playing with his balls. We lost August in 2019. He was 15. While completed multiple Iditarod races and dozens of others, he really took to retirement life and was most happy cuddled up on his couch with his humans. He is so loved and is missed more than words can express. 💔 We are so thrilled that his amazing legacy lives on through the August Fund. https://www.facebook.com/TheAugustFoundationforAlaskaRacingDogs
in February of 2022, we had to let Jack go after a very unexpected and rapidly moving cancer diagnosis. Our lives were absolutely shattered. It’s been especially hard for Jeannine, as she and Jack basically spent 24/7 together from the day he picked her at the animal shelter to be his mom . He was her 100 pound shadow. Jack lived an extraordinary life and had seen and done more than a lot of humans. How many dogs can say they’ve swam all over different places in Alaska, in the Pacific Ocean, the Atlantic Ocean and a Great Lake? It's still hard to breathe when I think of you, Jack. Loving you changed my life, losing you did the same. If there is something after this, know that I will meet you there.
“I once told someone, “When your dog is your soulmate, it’s different.” They looked at me like they didn’t understand, but how could they? How could I explain the kind of bond where words don’t matter, where just their presence can shift your entire day? It’s not just love; it’s a connection so deep it feels like they were meant to find you in this lifetime. When your dog is your soulmate, they become your safe place, the one who grounds you when everything else feels uncertain. They don’t just walk beside you; they carry parts of you, your worries, your fears, your hopes in a way no one else can. It’s in the way they look at you, like you’re the most important thing in their world, no matter how messy or broken you might feel.
And when they’re gone, you feel it in your bones. You realize they weren’t just your dog; they were a piece of your heart walking around outside of you. And even though they’re no longer here, that bond never fades. It stays with you, a quiet reminder that some love is so profound, it lingers forever."
Jeannine Armour and Will Spears
SHEATH MAKER AND KNIFE MAKER
