“People are feeling loved,” says Jason Dickens. “That’s what I’m doing with the skills I have: finding ways to love on people.”
For Dickens, love isn’t abstract. It’s operational. Through ReDefined Prosthetics, the Texas-based nonprofit he founded in 2024, Dickens is giving used prosthetic devices renewed purpose by transforming them into custom-made, handcrafted knives and other tools that help people pursue what matters to them.
One of those people is Caleb Brewer.
A retired U.S. Army Special Forces soldier, Brewer was critically injured in 2015 after stepping on a pressure-plate IED while conducting combat operations in Afghanistan. The blast resulted in the loss of both legs. In the seconds afterward, he remembers trying to move and realizing he couldn’t. I am going to die, he thought.
In a video shared on ReDefined Prosthetics’ website, Brewer describes being airlifted to safety, receiving life-saving care, and learning to adjust to life as an amputee back home. “It’s the fear of not being able to function in society, the fear of not being able to take care of my kids, the fear of not being able to provide for my family,” he says. “That’s what propels me.”
Today, Brewer owns and operates Stick Sniper Archery in Tucson, Arizona. The knife he received through ReDefined Prosthetics’ partnership with Half Face Blades in San Diego, California, isn’t just a tool. It represents continuity. Brewer was able to watch the knife being made, as pieces of his old prosthesis were embedded directly into the blade. Carbon, titanium, and titanium inlays carry Brewer’s initials along with his wife’s.
But the handle carries its own meaning. One of Brewer’s long-term aspirations is to hunt a grizzly bear with a bow, so Dickens and his team found bone from a bear and incorporated it into the knife. “It’s hard enough to hunt a bear if you’re able-bodied,” Dickens says, “but if you’re missing two legs, the bear’s kind of at an advantage.”
The finished piece wasn’t meant to be displayed on a shelf. It’s meant to be used—made from a past part of his life, shaped toward a future dream.
The repurposed knife Brewer holds today closely resembles the one that first sparked the idea behind ReDefined Prosthetics. That came in 2020, while Dickens was working at a nonprofit serving veterans and first responders. While planning a faith-based hunting trip into the mountains, he and some of his cohort decided to surprise a combat-injured veteran by transforming one of his used prostheses into a knife. They presented it to him so he could use it on the hunt. “Five years later,” Dickens says, “that man still carries and uses the knife.”
The episode planted a seed that would eventually grow into ReDefined Prosthetics.
“If you’re an amputee and someone is telling you your old prosthesis is worthless, to the person who used it, it’s worth something,” Dickens says. “It means something to them. Instead of letting it collect dust, you can repurpose it into something that benefits not only you, but others as well.”
Others benefit when Donavan Hollis reaches for his knife in the kitchen. A former Airborne Army Ranger, Hollis lost his right leg in 2016 accident while stationed at Fort Benning. His road to recovery eventually led him to a different calling: In 2019, he founded Hollis Texas-Style BBQ.
“Hollis uses knives every day to prepare brisket, sausage, chicken,” Dickens says. “What more meaningful gift could you give him than a custom brisket knife he’s going to use daily to provide for his family?”
ReDefined Prosthetics partnered with bladesmith Jeff Davidson of JDCK Knives to convert pieces of Hollis’s old prosthesis into a knife designed specifically for his work. When Hollis received the finished piece, the moment carried a quiet weight. It transformed his story into something that moves with him through the workday, helping him continue to thrive in his new role.
Supporting the Broader Limb-Loss Community
ReDefined Prosthetics’ work doesn’t end with what people hold in their hands. It also extends to where the organization is willing to lead people with limb loss. Dickens has started hosting an annual 14,000-foot Peak Challenge, a free event that brings amputees together to summit one of Colorado’s highest mountains. In 2025, six amputee hikers set out for Uncompahgre Peak from Lake City, Colorado. All six successfully summited.
For Joel Legawiec, climbing the mountain wasn’t about proving anything. He was just looking to get back to something he loved doing. More than two decades after losing his left leg below the knee in a motorcycle accident, Legawiec joined the challenge with little more than a referral and trust. At the last minute, his wife joined him on the climb.
When they reached the summit together, Dickens noticed the couple embracing and visibly emotional. The next day, Legawiec explained why. After years of navigating the physical and emotional realities of limb loss, both individually and as a couple, they considered the climb more than a physical accomplishment. It was a statement of partnership and shared perseverance.
“It was the hardest thing we had ever done and accomplished as a couple,” Legawiec said afterward. The summit wasn’t the point. What it made possible—connection and community support—was.
Stories like these draw people to ReDefined Prosthetics. But they also point toward a deeper, systemic gap. In the United States, prosthetics for children are often inadequately covered by insurance. As kids outgrow their devices, the costs compound quickly, creating impossible decisions for families.
“If I were a parent, and my kid needed a $100,000 leg just to be a kid—and I couldn’t afford it—that would hurt,” Dickens says. “I would do everything I could to make it happen.”
He helps make it happen for other people by supporting organizations that provide free prosthetic devices to children. He donates at least 51 percent of the funds ReDefined Prosthetics raises to partners like Amputee Blade Runners and Limbitless Solutions, which help kids acquire prosthetic devices and/or pairs them with mentors. “We’re not doing this to build something for ourselves,” Dickens says. “We’re doing it to make sure kids aren’t left behind.”
To continue growing its impact, ReDefined Prosthetics may expand its model beyond knives. “We’ve just started a project where we’re working with a guy to make a custom putter out of his old prosthetick” Dickens says. “We’re toying with the idea of fly rods and guns and even artistic metal designs.”
The specifics may evolve. The materials may change. But the intention remains the same: to give used prosthetics new life and create new possibilities for others.
“I enjoy seeing things get reused,” Brewer says. “I don’t like the one and done mentality. The potentiality of using some of my prosthetics to help somebody else out is an amazing thought, and it’s why I want to be a part of this program.”
