The success of John Phillips’ artisanal cutlery brand, Primeaux, results from the intricate layering of more elements than can be found in the feather-patterned Damascus finish on a mini-cleaver of VG10 stainless steel. That is to say, in the technical jargon of a self-trained East Tennessee bladesmith, that a lot of science, study and hustle go into making a luxury knife.
For Phillips, the journey to entrepreneurship started when he was a child in Asheville, N.C. “I was an Eagle Scout, and knives and tools were always a part of my growing up,” he says. But it was a high school job in a restaurant kitchen in Goodlettsville, Tenn., that introduced Phillips to knives as artistic instruments for expression. “Chefs brought their own knives to work and nobody was allowed to touch them. I was intrigued,” Phillips remembers. “That’s when a knife became more than a tool. It became more like a paintbrush.”
Phillips headed to the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, where he studied fine art. He worked in more restaurants, eventually designing and building restaurant spaces. After working on big projects with big budgets, Phillips wanted to get back to a craft with greater intricacy. He always liked knives, so he started hammering on metal and dabbling in metallurgy. He experimented with steel at different temperatures and explored different edge geometries for sharpening blades.
He was still working out of his Knoxville garage, selling a couple knives a month, when he brought his Phillips Forged wares to the Porter Flea makers market in Nashville, and Chef Sean Brock stopped by his booth. That’s when things changed. Brock gave Phillips’ knives a shout-out on Instagram and included photos in his book, South. Blackberry Farm found Phillips Forged too and began a collaboration through which the luxury resort sells Phillips’ knives. Perhaps most significantly, Phillips earned a slot on the History Channel show Forged in Fire, where he won top honors.