Genes and Knives

Juha Perttula

Juha Perttula

Joined
Mar 27, 2013
Messages
209
Do you think your ancestry DNA may have an influence on what knives you need? I made 23andme gene test. I am 88.8% Finnish, and no surprise, I have many puukkos. I am 75% more Neanderthal than average and I have a few stone knives. I have also 0.1% native American genes, maybe I should buy a tomahawk.
 
Hello fellow Finn (that rhimes!)

I was thinking just today how axe splitting is so natural for me, despite doing it only few times a year. Maybe genes, or just like riding bicycle?

I've thought if I had relations to Native Americans because I've always been interested in them.
 
Did you really need to do a DNA test to find out you were Finnish, Juha Perttula?;)

OT: nah, I don't think there's a connection, but it's a fun idea. I'm Norwegian, have a few standard Scandinavian knives, but a whole lot more that aren't typical Scandi at all.
 
This is amazing. I noticed that my san's little Fiskars axe is like a tomahawk. And if I really have Native American blood maybe I can successfully throw a tomahawk. So I tried and instantly got a perfect hit (I have not yet make the second throw).
kirves1.JPG kirves2.JPG
 
Juha Perttula said:
Do you think your ancestry DNA may have an influence on what knives you need? I made 23andme gene test. I am 88.8% Finnish, and no surprise, I have many puukkos. I am 75% more Neanderthal than average and I have a few stone knives. I have also 0.1% native American genes, maybe I should buy a tomahawk.
Click to expand...
Yes, our genes determine our tool use: We are all Great Apes who use tools to build and break things and control other animals for our benefit. Specifically the inclined plane, lever, and wedge. So very ethnic! :D

And I sincerely hope my ethnicity does not require me to use specific knives! I love hunting, which is forbidden to us Jews, and many of my knives are hunters. I also do not intend to efface the crosses on my Victorinox knives. And I LOVE puukot and leukut and Scandinavian axes. I have no Scandinavian ancestry at all. My great grandfather was a German cavalryman before and in the Great War (WWI), and I am a horse trainer and riding instructor, and I practice mounted saber, so there's one ancestral connection . . . Maybe my people were Khazars! :eek:

Zieg
 
Last edited:
I have a wooden sword about 9" long that my mother whittled in 1914, so maybe that's where I got my addiction to things sharp.
 
No, I don't believe that genes determine the knives we gravitate to, but that we do consciously prefer them due to positive experiences with them, or our choices were made for us by what was was available.

I'm of Japanese descent, and on my maternal side even have documented Samurai lineage, but my most-used knives are Victorinox. Then Spyderco, then CRK. My late dad had used up several Camilus pocketknives over the years, had one well-worn old Buck 110, and a few Christy knives. My older brother has no interest in knives at all, but started carrying a Victorinox Classic after I gave him one for Christmas years ago. He lost that one, but bought a replacement, which he still carries.

I fully embrace who and what I am and who my ancestors were, but I've never been the biggest fan of Japanese cuisine, either.

Jim
 
Scottish English here..... don't own a dagger or a sword and I dont carry a steak knife around either.
 
Honestly, I think people wildly overstate the role of genes in most things. Other than a few conditions and diseases I think nurture has vastly more to do with almost every aspect of life.

In this case, I would almost promise you enjoy the particular knives you enjoy because of external factors, not internal. :)
 
I always thought of myself as mostly Swedish and Welsh. My DNA sample pretty much confirmed that, with English, Irish and Scottish thrown in along with some generalized Northwestern Europe. I like my Moras and Marttiinis, but there is nothing there to correlate to my attraction to Opinels.

The one outlier is a small percentage of “Cameroon, the Congo and southern Bantu peoples”, not a complete surprise, but it would probably be a stretch to suggest a link to Okapi.
 
Insipid Moniker said:
Honestly, I think people wildly overstate the role of genes in most things. Other than a few conditions and diseases I think nurture has vastly more to do with almost every aspect of life.

In this case, I would almost promise you enjoy the particular knives you enjoy because of external factors, not internal. :)
Click to expand...
This pretty much sums it up, IMO.

Jim
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top