Daniluk Vladic
Swedish Knifemaker Blacksmith Vladic Daniluk
Vladic Daniluk was born in Moscow in 1968. He spent all his youth in Russia. He was fond of knives since childhood, like most boys. However, the opportunity to turn his hobby into a profession came only in Scandinavia. Vladic moved to Sweden in 1992 and settled in the small village Indal. This village is located in an extremely picturesque place at the mouth of the Indalsälven River, not far from the Baltic Sea coast. The rich nature of those places gave Vladic Daniluk another passion is fly-fishing.
Excellent bite and beautiful landscape were not the only attractions of Indal; in the very heart of the village, there was a dilapidated smithy, which Daniluk chose for forging exercises. The workshop building was built in 1775 and it looked according to its age. Vladic had to spend a lot of effort and money on the renovation and the purchase of modern equipment. In this old smithy, Daniluk created his first blades. Over time, the range of products expanded, and various types of axes, hunting knives, flippers, and lanyard beads appeared.
The turning point in Vladic Daniluk's career came in 2004 when another Knife-maker's fair brought him together with Roger Bergh. The famous Swedish Knife Maker from the age of 14 made knives, weaved baskets, curved bones, in general, he owned most of the crafts traditional for the Scandinavian north. In his youth, Roger used to work at the Moga Knifes factory, the owner of which showed the guy his collection of knives. Specifically, then Roger Berg decided to become a knife-maker. At first, he bought ready-made blades for his works. Among the suppliers was Connie Persson, whose exquisite Damascus steel overturned Berg's peace. The knifemaker asked Connie to teach him the craft of welding and forging Damascus steel and soon became an excellent blacksmith himself.
As Connie Persson once became the teacher of Roger Berg, so then Berg took under the guardianship Vladic Daniluk. Roger shared his forging secrets with a colleague, explained the benefits of a propane forge, and helped organize it. He also suggested how to equip the workshop in such a way that the forging process would be a real pleasure. Vlad visited his mentor several times and, of course, fell in love with Damascus. After obtaining several lessons from the master, Vladic Daniluk decided to organize the production of Damascus steel in his workshop.
He plunged headlong into the study of theory. Daniluk read all kinds of books about metallurgy, learned the peculiarities of the technique of creating Damascus, damask, and san-mai. Especially the master became interested in vuets — crucible damask steel with carbon content, whose patterns are manifested because of the methods of slow cooling. In 2006, the smithy was redesigned, and Vladic Daniluk began to put his knowledge into practice. Vladic's ultimate goal was not welding a package of beautiful Damascus, but developing a blade with the strongest and most durable characteristics.
For each of his works — be it an ax, a knife with a fixed blade, or a flipper — Vladic Daniluk forges a separate package of Damascus. If at least one part of the knife is scraped, the entire package is re-forged. Flippers made entirely of Damascus steel, such as the Nebula custom knife presented in our store, are especially difficult to make.
Daniluk considers the improvement of steel to be the main task of the blacksmith. The master compares the forging process with painting, only they do not paint here with paints. Mosaic Damascus knives from Vladic Knives amaze with the wealth and refinement of the pattern. The knifemaker is sure that Damascus can recreate any pattern, the main thing is not to be afraid to experiment and constantly improve your skills. Speaking of experiments, Vladic Daniluk also works with non-standard materials; one of his last masterpieces was a hunting knife entirely forged from a bicycle chain.
