Our Story
Jake
Cook
Thank you for your interest in WJC Knife & Tool, and for taking the time to learn about who we are!
My knife making journey officially started in the spring of 2021, when the events of 2020 spurred me into pursuing a new hobby. Unofficially, my interest in the craft started while in college, studying mechanical engineering and having a friend who was a blacksmith. In the intervening time, a certain popular TV show kept the possibility in the back of my mind. After thinking about it for nearly a decade, I took the leap of faith, ordered a forge and an anvil and started hammering. Needless to say, I was hooked from the first hammer blow, and that first knife has now turned into WJC Knife & Tool.
On a more personal note, I was born and raised in the Pacific North West, until I graduated from Washington State University in 2012. I got really lucky and married my beautiful wife in 2009, and we had our first child the day before I graduated college. I landed a job on the east coast, and 2 weeks after our daughter was born, I was in Maryland. We now have 3 wonderful children, and reside in Carroll County Maryland, where I work from home and spend as much time with my family as I can. I treasure my time in the workshop making knives, but in some ways, it is taking time away from my family. That is one of the primary reasons why I feel my knives are valuable, and why I produce relatively few of them.