It began with his passion for cooking. Knoxville’s John Phillips started his handcrafted kitchen knife enterprise, Phillips Forged, in his garage literally from the ground up using found materials, like East Tennessee sawmill blades and plows – old carbon steels and recycled steels.
Today, he is an internationally acclaimed bladesmith (and History Channel’s “Forged in Fire” Champion) with a premier line of cutlery that sells out at every release to professional chefs and foodies nationally and internationally.
HOW DID YOUR BUSINESS MOVE FROM YOUR GARAGE TO AN INTERNATIONAL BRAND?
Working alone in my garage with equipment I built from scratch, like my hydraulic press, I did a monthly release of knives that sold out immediately. When Covid hit, I was inundated with requests. Several friends pitched in, but we were quickly out of space and couldn’t keep up with demand. UT’s College of Engineering studied my processes to standardize for scale. I launched Primeaux as a new cutlery line when I moved from my garage into my 3,500 sq. ft. shop.
HOW DID YOU CREATE A REPEATABLE ARTISTRY WITH PRIMEAUX?
I worked through 1,300 handle versions to standardize the perfect Primeaux handle shape and custom-built special machinery to make them. I use exotic woods (some purchased, some foraged–like bog wood dredged up, carbon-tested to 7,000 years) for the handles. For the blades, instead of carbon steels, I started working with hybrid stainless steels from Sweden and Japan, developed for the razor blade industry, which get incredibly sharp with high corrosion resistance. With my Primeaux platform, I can create thousands of combinations of knives using a few parts.
WHAT DIFFERENTIATES A CUSTOM VERSUS A PRIMEAUX KNIFE?
My Phillips Forged custom knives are one-of-a-kind, each with its own unique blade profile, metal, and presentation, taking several months to craft. More like heirloom pieces, these are crafted for those seeking something truly special. Prices start around $3,000-5,000, depending on the level of detail, with a one-year waitlist. By refining and standardizing processes, I can offer Primeaux chef knives at a more accessible price point, $300-500, without sacrificing the quality and feel of a custom piece. Primeaux kitchen knives can be crafted in a week, but even with a quicker turnaround, still deliver the same level of artistry and craftsmanship, bringing a touch of luxury to your kitchen. To bridge both worlds, I created a hybrid Founder’s Series, a collaboration of Phillips Forged & Primeaux, featuring one-of-a-kind blades with Primeaux handles.
WHERE ARE YOUR BIGGEST MARKETS FOR PRIMEAUX?
I sell a ton of knives in Nashville, Atlanta, Charleston, Asheville, New York, San Francisco, LA, and other West Coast cities. High-profile chefs promoted me, like Nashville’s Chef Sean Brock who featured my knives in his NY Times bestseller cookbook, South. Blackberry Farm carries my Phillips Forged line and several custom-designed lines. As awareness grows online, so does our newsletter subscriber base. Typically, I do a monthly release of knives that sell out in a few days.
YOU WERE A “FORGED IN FIRE” CHAMPION. HOW DID THEY FIND YOU?
Social media. Knifemakers are few in the U.S., less than 1,000 total, less than 500 full time, and less than half of those do it well. We shot five days in New York and five days in Knoxville. Making weapons is not my thing, but for a show based on historic weaponry, I won with a War of 1812 artillery sword. It was put through performance tests by a martial arts expert, slicing through a ballistic dummy and Kevlar bags filled with lead like butter. Shot by a gun, it split the bullet into fourths … I had no idea a piece of steel I forged could do that!
WHAT WAS THE SELF-TAUGHT JOURNEY LIKE?
It’s actually been a 25-year journey, starting as a fine arts major at the University of Tennessee. I studied sculpture (learning welding and forging) while working part-time making custom furniture (gaining woodworking and machinery skills). I took a break from school and dived into stoneworking and marble work, which led to building a concrete fabrication business. After the 2009 construction crash, I pivoted to creating metal architectural pieces, and realized I wanted to make my own knives. I got into the science, history, art, and culture of metallurgy and discovered lost complex processes like Damascus steel. I layer metallurgically dissimilar metals, stack them, heat them to 2000°, and apply a few hundred thousand pounds of pressure, which reduces the stack from 6 inches to 1/8 inch thick. I then develop the ‘topography’ - grinding, polishing, and finally, using an acid path to reveal intricate patterns. The heat treatment sharpens the blade, allowing it to bend, spring back, and return to its original shape.
HOW CAN COOKS AND CHEFS SEE YOUR KNIVES?
Explore my custom knives at Phillipsforged.com. You can also direct message me about commissioning high-level custom pieces. See the Primeaux Gallery of knives at Primeaux.us. Subscribe to our newsletter to learn when a monthly kitchen knife collection drops. Take a workshop, like our popular Blacksmith Date Night where couples hand-forge a spoon to take home!
