A knife or a handle?

penguin9

penguin9

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Jan 23, 2019
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This is a knife handle given to me by my brother-in-law. It was given to him by his grandmother probably 40 years ago, when she was in her '90's. As far as he knows, she brought it over from Norway when she immigrated here as a child in the early 1900's.

As you can see, it's a nicely carved wooden handle that has lost it's blade. The wood is somewhat worn and the knife and appears to have been lightly used, up until the blade was broken off of course. :oops:

I'd like to find out more about what kind of knife this originally was and what style of blade it would have likely had. If anyone has any information or pictures of similar knives, I'd love to see them.

If I can find that out, I'd also like to explore the idea of replacing the blade. I don't know if that is a good idea or if it's better to just leave it as it is and appreciate it as just a nicely carved handle.

What are your thoughts?

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Mark
 
Mora Number 1 (just under 4 inch) or Number 2 (just over 4 inch) blade, maybe laminated, if they still offer that one, or the carbon steel blade would be my suggestion.
I know they offer the Number 1, and I think the Number 2 blades without a handle.

I believe it is a Puukko handle.
 
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It's pretty fancy. Maybe it was a meat-carving knife?
Is that a bit of metal in the middle of the slot, or did the blade fall out?
 
There's a pin going across the center of the slot and there appears to be metal in the slot on at least one side of the pin. It's hard to see in there and I didn't try to pick at it to see exactly whats what.

It looks to me like the blade broke at the point where the pin went through the tang.
 
Extremely nice work, I'd certainly look at having a new blade fitted, shame to let that quality go to waste.

Question: What is the length of this handle please? It may shed light on what sort of a knife it was originally.

Style of the carving is indeed reminiscent of Viking type and there was a vogue for this in the late c19th / early c20th when Sweden & Norway became separate kingdoms . Wood looks like Oak, but that's a guess.

Possibly a carver, maybe a bread knife or meat carving knife, even a dressy dagger? All depends on size.

Very interesting background to it too.
 
penguin9 said:
There's a pin going across the center of the slot and there appears to be metal in the slot on at least one side of the pin. It's hard to see in there and I didn't try to pick at it to see exactly whats what.

It looks to me like the blade broke at the point where the pin went through the tang.
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Very cool! If you could be sure not to destroy it drilling the old tang out, it seems like it would be a good candidate for a Mora 1/0 3” or similar stick-tang blade:
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(depending on size of course)
You could try to make a wooden sheath for it, too…
 
It's a fairly large handle, at least to someone like me who is not usually into fixed blades.

It's about 5 3/4 inches (145 mm) long and the circumference at the largest part is 4 3/8 inches (112 mm). I have long fingers and it's a handful for me.

Mark
 
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