anyone have info ?

T

thurso

Joined
Jun 14, 2009
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I have a knife my father picked up in finland in the 1930's with the name johannes lauri roranicmr or could be rovanicmr engraved on the blade with a picture of a man on a sled being pulled by a caribou,also made in finland on the blade.The handle is bone with some design and etched caribou head.The sheath is leather with caribou fur on the front.The blade is a little over 6" and the knife a little over10 1/2".I'd appreciate any info anyone has!
 
The puukko is made by a Finnish knife manufacturer called "Lapin Puukkotehdas", owned by Johannes Lauri who was originally a goldsmith by profession. He learned the trade of bladesmithing in the town of Kauhava, a famous knife making area in Finland. He then moved to Rovaniemi and his factory was started in 1924 in northern Finland, in Lapland in town of Rovaniemi. His trademark was extensive use of reindeer and moose bone in handles and sheaths and he used his goldsmith background in decorating the knives in traditional way such as the carvings in your father's puukko.

The original factory went bankruptcy after mr. Lauri's death but reappeared later as "Lauri Tuotteet Oy" (http://www.lauri-tuotteet.fi)

The puukko you have is similar to a model called "Loisto puukko" (Shine puukko) but the sheath is different from that design. Perhaps it was made with different sheaths...but the Loisto puukko sheath that I know was entirely of reindeer horn. Just to give you a warning, forgeries of Johannes lauri knives with forged signatures were common. Unfortunately I have no further info right now on how to tell a forgery from the real thing and what would be the sales value of the knife.

I hope this helped a little.
 
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thank for your reply more info than I ever expected.I sincerly doubt this is a forgery, my father bought this in 1932 in finland when he was there.I wasn't looking to sell it just wanted to know a little background on it.If your interested I could send you a picture of it?
 
Hey Thurso, glad to be of help:thumbup:

You could add a picture to this thread and that could give some further clue as to identifying it as a real Johannes Lauri puukko. a picture Im sure would be appreciated anyway as this is a blade forum ;)
 
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