Hello all and Happy Holidays. Ordered this past weekend from ragweed forge(Ragnar) a Leuko and Puuko to go with it. These are specifically models #5229 and #5226b. Well he mailed them yesterday and I rec. them today. How is that for service. He onlylives about 100 miles away but still it is fast service. My wife each year buys me a knife or knives for Xmas. Well I wanted something traditional to go along with an overbuilt osage self bow I have. Well these were elected. For a total of 86 bucks trust me you can't go wrong with these.
First off my initial impressions on opening the box. These knives are kind of lite wt feeling. I thought that with the wooden handles and all that they would have a more subastantial feel to them. This is not necessarilly a bad thing mind you. The blades are forged carbon steel and have almost a convex grind to them. This starts about half way down the blade. I am assuming doing it this way leaves more thickness down the center line of the knife and hence a bit of strength where needed. The hanldes are arctic birch with end caps to match the nickel silver hilts around the base of the handle and blade. You have very little ricasso showing so the blade is ground almost all the way back the nickel silver "guards". I have the carbon steel blades so the convex edge grind that starts about half way down the blade doesn't have the carbon, the rest of the blade has the rustic carbon look. The grind on the Puuko is higher than the grind on the Leuku.
The spines of the knife are straight and they are thin. Maybe a bit over .125" wide. The sheaths have a traditional nordic design on them and are lined with a plastic liner in both so as not to cut through when resheathing the blade. The overall fit and finish is very very well done both on the knives and the sheaths. I have looked this particual brand up on the net at several places and by far ragweed forge was way less expensive. The brand name is IISAKI JARVENPAA oy. This brand name is etched in free hand on the right side of both knives. Kind of a nice hand made touch. I believe the grinds are put on by hand too. The smaller Puuko has the grind slightly higher on the right side of the blade than the left. No worries though as it just adds that handmade touch also. On the Leuku it is much more even.
Now on to the edges etc themselves. In a word SHARP. As sharp as any fixed blade I have ever had. This includes my CS Master hunter of which I judge all fixed blades by. They are ground extremely thin down to the edge. There is no cantle to speak of either. Almost a 0 edge I guess you would say. They cleanly shaved hair, more like popped it off and cut two sections of newpaper in two. This is with very little effort on my part. The grinds on the primary bevel was a bit dirty on both though I suspect from dried oil. So I cleaned them each abit and then stropped them on some newspaper. Holy crapola did this tune the edges up even more. Now they grab like no tomorrow and actually grab the skin on my left arm. This is on both sides of the blades on both knives. The spine as mentioned is very straight on both knives without any drop or upturn towards the point. So this puts the spine in line with the meaty portion of ones grip for good leverage on cuts etc. I couldn't resist sinking the Leuku into some very well seasoned hickory. What a bite to it. Sunk to just a little over half the depth of the blade. Didn't bind on yanking it out either. Now here is where I may have a bit of problem with the Leuku. I actually bought it to clear some trails etc on the piece of land I bowhunt on. Lots of rose bush and thorn apple trees and the like. I think that it will handle these chores with ease. I am not quite so sure of using it a pure chopper by any means. The thing is just a bit to light weight for that sole purpose. Doesn't bother me a bit though. It will make one outstanding camp knife. Keep the chopping to a reasonable size chunck of wood and it should be fine. It will definetly slice and dice with the best of them. I can assure you of that. the puuko on the other hand is to lite for any type of chopping but that isn't really what this type was designed to be used for. It will make fuzzy sticks, dig out an occasional judo point, slice, cut and dice with aplomg and of course gut, skin, and just be a very useful all around hunting knife.
I have only rec. these two knives within the last two hours and obviuosly cutting hair and newspaper and sinking a knive into some hickory doesn't really mean much in the longevity of the knives. what does matter though is the quality of the construction that is apparent in these two knives. There are no gaps in the nickel silver hilts where they attach to the handle juncture and blades, and the butt caps are like wise. They are very lite weight but seem robust enough to be more than useful for what a knife is meant to be used for. Lite chopping, carving, and food prep around a camp. They are scary sharp, they are very inexpensive for the quality of the tools and the service from Ragnar was outstanding. The only thing I wish is that the handles were about .250" longer on the puuko and .5" longer on the Leuku. I can live with them though just the way they are. I will report more on them after XMas and when I go down to do a bit of scouting and small game hunting. Keepem sharp and happy holidays.
First off my initial impressions on opening the box. These knives are kind of lite wt feeling. I thought that with the wooden handles and all that they would have a more subastantial feel to them. This is not necessarilly a bad thing mind you. The blades are forged carbon steel and have almost a convex grind to them. This starts about half way down the blade. I am assuming doing it this way leaves more thickness down the center line of the knife and hence a bit of strength where needed. The hanldes are arctic birch with end caps to match the nickel silver hilts around the base of the handle and blade. You have very little ricasso showing so the blade is ground almost all the way back the nickel silver "guards". I have the carbon steel blades so the convex edge grind that starts about half way down the blade doesn't have the carbon, the rest of the blade has the rustic carbon look. The grind on the Puuko is higher than the grind on the Leuku.
The spines of the knife are straight and they are thin. Maybe a bit over .125" wide. The sheaths have a traditional nordic design on them and are lined with a plastic liner in both so as not to cut through when resheathing the blade. The overall fit and finish is very very well done both on the knives and the sheaths. I have looked this particual brand up on the net at several places and by far ragweed forge was way less expensive. The brand name is IISAKI JARVENPAA oy. This brand name is etched in free hand on the right side of both knives. Kind of a nice hand made touch. I believe the grinds are put on by hand too. The smaller Puuko has the grind slightly higher on the right side of the blade than the left. No worries though as it just adds that handmade touch also. On the Leuku it is much more even.
Now on to the edges etc themselves. In a word SHARP. As sharp as any fixed blade I have ever had. This includes my CS Master hunter of which I judge all fixed blades by. They are ground extremely thin down to the edge. There is no cantle to speak of either. Almost a 0 edge I guess you would say. They cleanly shaved hair, more like popped it off and cut two sections of newpaper in two. This is with very little effort on my part. The grinds on the primary bevel was a bit dirty on both though I suspect from dried oil. So I cleaned them each abit and then stropped them on some newspaper. Holy crapola did this tune the edges up even more. Now they grab like no tomorrow and actually grab the skin on my left arm. This is on both sides of the blades on both knives. The spine as mentioned is very straight on both knives without any drop or upturn towards the point. So this puts the spine in line with the meaty portion of ones grip for good leverage on cuts etc. I couldn't resist sinking the Leuku into some very well seasoned hickory. What a bite to it. Sunk to just a little over half the depth of the blade. Didn't bind on yanking it out either. Now here is where I may have a bit of problem with the Leuku. I actually bought it to clear some trails etc on the piece of land I bowhunt on. Lots of rose bush and thorn apple trees and the like. I think that it will handle these chores with ease. I am not quite so sure of using it a pure chopper by any means. The thing is just a bit to light weight for that sole purpose. Doesn't bother me a bit though. It will make one outstanding camp knife. Keep the chopping to a reasonable size chunck of wood and it should be fine. It will definetly slice and dice with the best of them. I can assure you of that. the puuko on the other hand is to lite for any type of chopping but that isn't really what this type was designed to be used for. It will make fuzzy sticks, dig out an occasional judo point, slice, cut and dice with aplomg and of course gut, skin, and just be a very useful all around hunting knife.
I have only rec. these two knives within the last two hours and obviuosly cutting hair and newspaper and sinking a knive into some hickory doesn't really mean much in the longevity of the knives. what does matter though is the quality of the construction that is apparent in these two knives. There are no gaps in the nickel silver hilts where they attach to the handle juncture and blades, and the butt caps are like wise. They are very lite weight but seem robust enough to be more than useful for what a knife is meant to be used for. Lite chopping, carving, and food prep around a camp. They are scary sharp, they are very inexpensive for the quality of the tools and the service from Ragnar was outstanding. The only thing I wish is that the handles were about .250" longer on the puuko and .5" longer on the Leuku. I can live with them though just the way they are. I will report more on them after XMas and when I go down to do a bit of scouting and small game hunting. Keepem sharp and happy holidays.