Polidoro Mariano

25 February 2014 Author : Alessandra De Santis

Mariano Polidoro initially created handmade objects out of wood, bone and various metals but in 2006 he managed to combine into a single object all the materials that he loves to work with. He started to create knives that have now become his passion.

His previous work as a cook helped him to establish many design solutions that currently characterise his blades.
After a long period of autodidact study and bladesmithing, Mariano personally makes his knives following all the stages of processing (including heat treatment and damascus production).
Generally the materials used for his blades are 5160, 10070, 02, 52100, 15N20, carbon damascus and San Mai (with the core made of high carbon content steel and outer made of 420 steel). The materials generally used for the handles are stabilised or from natural wood, stag and buffalo horns. Even the leather sheaths, sewn and decorated by hand, are personally made by the Argentinian knife maker.
His blades are characterised by beautiful “brut de forge” finishes. Mariano generally prefers to make large dimension blades such as camp knives, bowie, Nordic knives, hunting knives and a wide range of machete (parang, barong and kennata).

Also appearing among his productions are the Piedmont Italian style knives and a line of chef’s knives which are inspired by the Japanese tradition.
In the “Culter” International Museum of the Knife in Pattada (Italy) there are exhibited some of Mariano’s knives.
In view of the splendid results obtained by Mariano since his earliest works, and since it is said that the only limit to how high a man can go to is how high a man can believe he can reach, we hope that Mariano will persevere in his promising way to make knives.