20 Feb 27th-March 5th, 2025 phoenixnewtimes.com PHOENIX NEW TIMES | NEWS | FEATURE | FOOD & DRINK | ARTS & CULTURE | MUSIC | CONCERTS | CANNABIS | Sharp Turn How former chef Corey Dunlap became a custom bladesmith. BY MELISSA PICKERING O n Smith Road, just a couple of blocks from the bustling Tempe Marketplace, sits a quiet industrial park. Behind the roll-up garage doors, there are various businesses, one of which is Corey Dunlap Custom Knives & Sharpening. The exterior of the space is very unassuming. Enter, however, and impressive machinery used to forge steel as well as work benches and various hand tools come into view. Working in the back is Dunlap. Tattoo- clad, wearing boots and safety glasses, he forges steel at more than 2,100 degrees Fahrenheit. Some of the most beautiful, custom Damascus steel knives are made here. Damascus steel, composed of thousands of layers of high carbon steel alloy compressed together, is prized for its ability to hold a severely sharp edge and for its beautiful wavy pattern. Before he fell in love with knife-making and sharpening, Dunlap was a chef in the Valley for nearly a decade. First completing his education at the Arizona Culinary Institute, Dunlap started working at Different Pointe of View at the Pointe Hilton Tapatio Cliffs Resort and then went on to other notable resorts and restaurants in the state, including L’Auberge in Sedona and St. Francis in Phoenix. Dunlap eventually wanted a change from the kitchen. “From cooking, I just got burnt out, and I was obsessed with knives and sharp- ening, so I started sharpening knives professionally,” he says. For more than a decade, Dunlap sold imported Japanese knives at a local cutlery and kitchen tools shop. That experience piqued his interest in learning to make knives, “more so to understand knives and the sharpening process, pre-finishing and things like that,” he says. He soon met Master Bladesmith Ray Rybar from The American Bladesmith Society and his forging education truly began. Being a former chef, Dunlap knows how to create blades that will serve their user well. “It does greatly help that I know how a knife is supposed to be used and how a knife should function,” he says. “So when it comes to the final shaping of my knives and why I make them the thickness I do, or the shape I do, it’s because through my experi- ence, I’ve decided this is what works best.” Dunlap’s knowledge of >> p 22 Corey Dunlap’s culinary career began as a chef, crafting food. Now, he crafts the tools for chefs to use. (Courtesy of Corey Dunlap) Dunlap creates knives out of Damascus steel, a material prized for its ability to hold a severely sharp edge and its beautiful wavy pattern. (Courtesy of Corey Dunlap) ▼ Food & Drink
