Bergam Dalibor

Croatian knife-maker Dalibor Bergam

Dalibor Bergam is a Croatian knife maker who is specializing in making tactical knives, more precise, overbuilt tactical knives. Also, there are the rarest collectible knives from premium materials in his batch of works.

Like many other makers, Dalibor loved knives since childhood. His grandfather gave him his first knife when he was a 7-year-old boy, and ever since then he was hooked.

Bergam tried to make his first knife after finishing college of Civil Engineering.

He talks about that period with irony:  “I couldn't find a job...so I thought that was the perfect time to try and build my own knife. I always wanted to make my own knife...but that proved to be harder than I thought!”

He had absolutely no initial knowledge how to work with metal, work with mill, lathe or a surface grinder.

However, the master was full of enthusiasm. He started to work by buying sheet of Ti and two sheets of s30v. There were a grinder and a drill press in the improvised workshop. At that time, it was all the available tools.

“Needless to say I screwed up titanium and s30v completely… my grinder was a piece of crap, took about one day to grind a blade pre heat treat, after I got it back from HT it would take another day to finish it :)”

Bergam was investing all his spare cash into new equipments, step by step filling the workshop with the necessary tools and simultaneously improving the skill.

Dalibor developed his own recognizable style, inspired by Mick Strider's designs:

“I remember when I first saw a Strider.. fell in love at the first glance, soon after I got my first SMF and was blown away by the toughness and yet simplicity of the design! As you can all see Strider was a huge influence on my work, love the huge pivot and the external stop pin as in my opinion it's the absolute toughest combination for a hard use knife!!!”

Bergam’s works are characterized by complex shapes of blades with combined grinds and spectacular color schemes. Favorite decoration materials are Mokuti, timascus and Damascus steel. The blades are made of high-grade steel CPM 3V or author’s Damascus.

The story of Dalibor easily could be set as an example for people taking their first steps in the field of any art. The master began to make folders in 2012 having nothing but the desire to create them. The moral is old and well-known: the diamond of talent is faceted by experience.

Today it is almost impossible to buy Dalibor’s rare knives.