Mauricio Dobruski Shows Off His Personal KnifeRecently, a new custom maker broke onto the balisong scene with a big splash. The quality of Mauricio Dobruski's work impresses the most demanding collectors. The smooth action of his knives pleases the most demanding artists. And his dramatic, flowing blades delight all who see them.
So, who is this Dobruski who's balisongs are so wonderfully made?
Mauricio Dobruski's grandfather, a skilled gunsmith, fled World War Two from Poland to Brazil. (This explains the somewhat non-Brazilian Dobruski name.)
Mauricio's father learned the gunsmithing profession from his father, but he found that in rural, agricultural, Southern Brazil, there was more demand for plowshares than guns -- literally. So, he turned to plowshares and hoes eventually starting a manufacturing company producing such parts.
At twelve years old, Mauricio started working in his uncle's gun shop. Between his father's factory and his uncle's shop, Mauricio literally grew up in machine shops surrounded by lathes, milling machines, grinders, saws, and all the tools and processes of knife making.
But, he didn't try making a knife until his was eighteen years old. After three years, he started selling a few of his knives locally. It was two more years, 1997, before he created his logo and became a full-time professional knife maker.
(In 1999, Brazil enacted significant new gun-control laws that reduced the demand for gunsmithing services, so leaving gunsmithing and taking up knife making proved a fortuitous decision.)
Since starting full-time in 1997, Mauricio Dobruski has built a fully-equipped, modern knife-making shop in Ponta Grossa in Parana State in the southern part of Brazil.
(These helpful maps appear courtesy of Vicinity Corporation, http://www.mapblast.com, and are used by permission.)
In his well-equipped shop, Mr. Dobruski creates blades by stock-removal (milling and grinding techniques) from raw bar stock, performs his own heat-treating, and sharpens and polishes the finished blades. His favorite steel is ATS-34, but he uses fine Damascus and other steels too.
Heat Treating Oven
Sharpening and Polishing
He hand-crafts the handles for balisong knives using a milling machine and lathe. Balisong handles are a challenging task for any milling machine operator, but, being a skilled machinist, Mauricio has even made special tools for specific balisong-creating operations.
At the Lathe
Milling Out a Balisong Handle
A Special-Purpose Tool Just For Balisong Handles
In just a few years, Mauricio Dobruski's products have achieved critical acclaim. Today, he's hard at work trying to reduce a sizable backlog for balisongs, conventional folders, and a wide range of fixed blade knives.
If you'd like to join that backlog, Mr. Dobruski prefers that you contact his dealer, Mauro Machado of Taymo Knives in Campinas, Brazil.
Mauro Machado Taymo Knives Rua Presidente Bernardes 29 13093-260 Campinas SP Brazil Phone (++55) 19 3255 1380 (from the US, dial 011-55-19-3255-1380) Fax (++55) 19 3255 1027 (from the US, dial 011-55-19-3255-1027)
e-mail taymo@taymo.com
You can look at Taymo's website, http://www.taymo.com. Most of it is in Português, but there's a good section in English and the pictures, of course, transcend language.
Mauro Machado and Mauricio Dobruski
Dobruski balisongs start at about US$175. Fortunately, the rather favorable exchange rate makes them quite a bargain for US customers.
While many still associate balisong knives with the Philippines, some of today's best are now coming from Brazil.
