Steve Pellegrino, 34, acclaimed artisanal knife maker, has died

Steve Pellegrino, 34, an artisanal knife maker whose custom knives were a staple in Philadelphia restaurant kitchens, has died. He was injured in an early morning car crash on Feb. 19 while driving to his home in Upper Black Eddy, Bucks County.

Chefs throughout the city expressed shock at the news. “I am incredibly heartbroken over this loss,” said Chutatip “Nok” Suntaranon of Kalaya. “Not just for myself, but for all of Philadelphia.”

“Steve is a beloved craftsman,” Michael Solomonov said. “There was an intimacy and honesty to working with him in the knife forging world. It’s just so sad.”

Tributes to Mr. Pellegrino flooded the Instagram feeds of Philadelphia chefs, who posted Stories of their most prized kitchen tools and detailed how Mr. Pellegrino worked to create the specific knives they desired.

“I contacted Steve when I was at Mike’s BBQ for a new knife,” Fred Muser said. “I wanted a combination chopper and slicer, so I could slice brisket, ribs, and chickens without having to waste time switching knives. We decided that it would be a one-of-a-kind prototype as he’s never made one like that before.” The result was the “Frankenslicer,” a heavy-duty knife with a long blade, a rounded tip for plating, and a very nonslip handle.

“He made me a massive swordlike sujihiki,” said Jesse Ito of Royal Sushi & Izakaya. “He was so acute to all the movements and details — things that most people don’t pick up on. I will miss him and forever cherish my knives he made me.”

“Steve lived for his work,” Rae Pellegrino, his wife, said. “All he wanted in life was to create tools that would be used, cherished, and passed down through the generations.”

A self-taught bladesmith, Mr. Pellegrino grew up in Flemington, N.J. “When he was a young boy, he started off by building rockets,” his wife said. “He always had a curiosity for how things worked and how they came together, the intersection of function and design.”

Mr. Pellegrino was a graphic designer by training, graduating from the School of Visual Arts in New York, where also took shop classes and classes in industrial design. In 2013, he opened a shop in Lambertville, where he did fabrication work, signage, prop design, and set design. There, he began his first forays in knife making.

Mr. Pellegrino next worked as an apprentice at Portland Razor Co., a straight razor company in Portland, Ore., “where he learned all the technical aspects of creating a sharp blade,” his wife said.

When Mr. Pellegrino returned to the East Coast, he began making knives on his grandfather’s land in Upper Black Eddy. Those early knives “looked like hamburgers,” he told The Inquirer in 2018. Continuing to hone his skills, he launched Pellegrino Cutlery in 2017, and by 2018, he was supplying knives to chefs including Marc Vetri and Solomonov.

“To make tools that mean something in someone’s life, no matter how small a role it plays, is really important to me,” he told Fox 29 Philly in January. “I don’t see myself as an artist, I see myself as a toolmaker. Nothing would bother me more than to hear that someone loved my knife so much they hung it up on a mantel.”

Mr. Pellegrino was known for his sense of humor and in-person presentation of his work. R. Scott Hanson of the pop-up North by Texas BBQ said he usually delivered finished knives in person, “neatly wrapped in black paper with a Band-Aid inside to humorously remind you not to cut yourself and be careful.”

“I’ve accomplished so much with this knife,” said Matt Budenstein of Liberty Kitchen, who provided a photo of a chef’s knife placed on an altar. “Steve’s passion for his craft was and always will be an inspiration in my life. He didn’t half-ass anything. He started camp fires with flamethrowers.”

In July, Mr. Pellegrino opened a workshop in Doylestown, hiring two employees and moving from the single-car garage where he was making knives to a 3,400-square-foot space. He hoped to manufacture knives that could be more affordable to a greater range of customers, specifically line cooks. “He was going to scale back on custom pieces and he wanted to be able to make 200 knives a month,” his wife said. On Feb. 17, he told his wife that he had installed the power hammer in the workshop, the final piece of equipment the facility needed.

Rae Pellegrino expressed a desire to gather Mr. Pellegrino’s friends from the maker community to finish a run of knives that he had begun making. “He was in the early phases of the first production batch and I would like to see that through for him,” she said. “I’d like to get those knives finished to reach his goal of having a big batch of affordable knives.”

A GoFundMe started for Mr. Pellegrino’s family will remain open.

On Feb. 28, Mr. Pellegrino was honored with a flag raising for the gift of donating his organs at the Capital Health Regional Medical Center in Trenton.

Mr. Pellegrino is survived by his wife, his parents Linda Ruffa and Donald Pellegrino, a brother, a grandfather, and two dogs, Sumi and Kenzo.