Is the puukko still one of the best wilderness choices?

Phoynix said:
I have a Kellam Slasher which I consider a Leuku/Puukko hybrid in that its thickness and width of the blade and handle are more in line with a puukko but its length is 7".

Its my favorite knife, used it for chopping, carving, peeling bark away from trees looking for grubs, digging edibles out of the ground... a ton of stuff... even "battoning"(if one considers making kindling out of 1-2 inch pieces of wood battoning. Also used it for carving up cattle etc... The lightness of "rat" tang knives allows larger blades to be used for things you would not consider them to be efficient at... such as processing poultry or rabbits.

Oddly it has not broken(sarcasm), guess I'm not using it right... never once hit the handle with anything other then my hand.
I am sure however that the day I do is the day it fails me.
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I've always wondered about the Leukus. I've never been a fan of knives in the 6-9in range but they seem to do very good work
 
Marko3 said:
I personally love puukko's . They are super comfortable . They are not hard use knives but I will take them any day. I just started trying my hand at a few of them. I still have a couple weeks to work out on my grind but I feel I'm making progress. This definitely not traditional .. And I would probably be put in jail in the home land but here it is.
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That right there is super cool. Nice work!
 
American Puukko said:
I tend to think so.

Don't see too many sharp, hidden tang fixed blade knives anymore.

Thought I'd kick off with a splash.

After having made som kit knives, I'm thinking of learning how to make my own puukkos, only with "better" steels and stabilized wood or synthetic handles, a kind of reinterpretation.

I would still use the scandi grind, but like a 440C blade and a yellow micarta or G-10 handle, or 1095 and stabilized olive wood with a steel ferrule and and a steel end cap suitable for light hammering.

Thoughts?
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DO you know where to get stabilized olive wood?
 
I can't say they have every let me down, plenty of strength and durability for my purposes. Especially since woodcarving is the main reason I carry a knife. I also generally like the way, if the right diameter, a good shaped and rounded puukko handle fits in my hand. Rarely does anything else feel as good to me as a handmade wooden puukko handle. Maybe that's because the knife I remember as a kid was my dad's Little Fin Kabar.

However, I guess it really depends on your purpose in the wilderness. There are so many shapes and sizes of puukko handles and blades, that there seems to be a knife for everybody...everything else, to me, is personal preference. For a wilderness knife some may say they want to have a full tang but a puukko would service as well as any knife for the right person doing most any wilderness knife chore.
 
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For me it's never been the stick tangs that raise concern, it's the lack of anything stopping my hand from sliding straight off the handle and onto the blade. I know the chances are probably very slim but if you are miles from anywhere then an accident like that is the last thing you'd want.
 
pitdog said:
For me it's never been the stick tangs that raise concern, it's the lack of anything stopping my hand from sliding straight off the handle and onto the blade. I know the chances are probably very slim but if you are miles from anywhere then an accident like that is the last thing you'd want.
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Here, here! I totally side with pitdog. I love Mors, and Mors is Mors – but that makes absolutely no sense to me. Just as I have an early BR Northstar whose blade I absolutely love – with the worst handle I've ever seen in my life. To me, it's almost as if it was purposely designed as the worst possible handle to nearly ensure one's hand will slide right onto the blade. I just don't get it. Not only Zero guard but a wide rear and smaller skinny tapering front. If anyone can point me in the direction of someone who will re handle it sanely, I'd be thrilled. Love that knife otherwise. Sorry to sidetrack thread
 
Slip-joints, for the most part, have no guard. All those SAKs waiting to slice you up?

Traditional butcher knives have no guard. Mountain men went out alone for a year or two with a half dozen in their "kit," and these professionals thought they well well-served

Nordic kids are taught to use a draw cut. The knob on the butt is to keep it slipping out of your hand. How does your hand slide down when you are pulling back?

Not hard to put a guard on a stick tang. Harder to make it look good and impossible to make it look right.





 
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pitdog said:
For me it's never been the stick tangs that raise concern, it's the lack of anything stopping my hand from sliding straight off the handle and onto the blade. I know the chances are probably very slim but if you are miles from anywhere then an accident like that is the last thing you'd want.
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I get it. I don't think a wood working knife requires one but for that one all-purpose or wilderness knife.. well, it's a good thing there is a puukko knife handle shape out there for everyone. ( I should note, I often use the Finnish word puukko to cover all Nordic knives like a generic trademark, think xerox or kleenex, even though not technically correct I simply can't help myself. I simply wanted to point out that I was speaking about, about traditional knives form all Nordic countries and not only Finland. I am not one of the many who believe if it has a guard it is not a puukko. A puukko can have a guard just like any other knife. Most of my knives have no guard. However, my favorite is a 3" belt knife with a hint of a guard and a large center swell. I picked it up for the blade shape and kept it for the perfect way it fit my hand. ..but I surely wouldn't recommend field dressing a deer with it or any knife with out a guard. My 8y/o son has a small puukko and a SAK Tinker. Neither blade is he currently allowed to use with out supervision. That is not based on his age but on his skill and my comfort. His puukko has a guard and is of the more common traditional shape. The one shape we all picture when we think of a puukko. However, his knife is also from Sweden, so still not technically a puukko, but he likes the name and he loves his knife. I just need to get him out in the woods to use it a bit more next year.
 
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Thomas Linton said:
Slip-joints, for the most part, have no guard. All those SAKs waiting to slice you up?

Traditional butcher knives have no guard. Mountain men went out alone for a year or two with a half dozen in their "kit," and these professionals thought they well well-served

Nordic kids are taught to use a draw cut. The knob on the butt is to keep it slipping out of your hand. How does your hand slide down when you are pulling back?

Not hard to put a guard on a stick tang. Harder to make it look good and impossible to make it look right.





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I do get what you say buddy and if this forum was the ' Lazy days of summer bushcraft ' forum we wouldn't be having this discussion at all.
As this is a survival forum lets imagine the worst case kind of scenario: It's dark the temperature is close to zero and you are being bombarded with driving rain, your fire is nearly out and you need to get some prep done fast before it goes out.
You are working under heavy stress, visibility is close to nil and due to the extreme cold and your dexterity is very poor. In ideal conditions you would use your knife correctly but under these conditions you are not thinking straight. Now which would be safer, a slick Pukko with zero guard or say a knife such a Scrapyard knife with a sticky res-C handle that is easy to index in the dark and has a semi guard ?
People on this forum often complain about the large Becker handles being too slick.....where can your hand actually go on a Becker, these same people probably own Pukko's with slick polished handles and never even think about them ?
My other train of thought is why carry a knife you don't really want to for 20 years just on the off chance that it might have a slight flaw in a worst case survival scenario that probably will never happen !
 
Ah yes, weather and wilderness. You have some up in Canada. But the folks who invented this style of knife in Norway, Sweden, and Finland have some weather and wilderness as well -- like those folks trapping in the Rockies in the 1830's.

Not that Nordic makers won't build knives with guards to sell to those that want them. They will even do trailing point skinners.

In the end, you should carry a knife in which you have confidence. No need for extra stress. So if Mors makes no sense, don't listen to him
 
Thomas Linton said:
Ah yes, weather and wilderness. You have some up in Canada. But the folks who invented this style of knife in Norway, Sweden, and Finland have some weather and wilderness as well -- like those folks trapping in the Rockies in the 1830's.

Not that Nordic makers won't build knives with guards to sell to those that want them. They will even do trailing point skinners.

In the end, you should carry a knife in which you have confidence. No need for extra stress. So if Mors makes no sense, don't listen to him
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This military Pukko would be a good compromise !

 
I don't want to sound polemical, but when I read comments about fennoscandic knives being slick and slippery I always wonder what the poster have used beside a red painted Mora Classic.
If just talking from Mora experience alone I do agree they can become slippery and the red paint doesn't help at all. Still a properly made barrell handle with oval, or better, teardrop section is surprisingly handlocking.

I've used fennoscandic knives with also guards and fingernothces from 2006 to 2009 and came to dislike the extra material near the index. I've since used puukkos and slöjdknivs, none with a guard or fingernotches, and I've never had slipping issues. On the other hand I've cut my left hand few times.

No traditional fenniscandic knives, beside seaxes, had guards. Helles don't really follow traditional designs anymore.
 
I've owned a few different types over the years and I prefer a Kephart or "modified" Nessmuk type blade vs the puukko. The thought of full tang makes me happy for some reason. I'd rather have a little too much heft then too little (if that makes sense).

By "modified" I mean something like this... (note: this is no endorsement of the maker, just the style of Nessmuk I'm referring too)

Walnut-Nessmuk1.jpg
 
A puukko is a small traditional Finnish belt knife with a single curving cutting edge and a flat back. It may or may not have a fuller. It may or may not have a rhomboid blade.







Or, because this is a public knife forum, it can mean anything your heart desires.

The top one was, in its time, the official Finnish Boy Scout knife.
 
"A puukko often has no guard to stop the hand from slipping onto the edge, but this is of no great importance, since it is primarily considered a cutting tool, not a stabbing weapon. In cases where the knife and the hand are expected to get wet, like if the puukko is meant for gutting fish or game, some form of guards are carved into the handle."
 
stabman said:
"A puukko often has no guard to stop the hand from slipping onto the edge, but this is of no great importance, since it is primarily considered a cutting tool, not a stabbing weapon. In cases where the knife and the hand are expected to get wet, like if the puukko is meant for gutting fish or game, some form of guards are carved into the handle."
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True more recently, Lawyers at work. How many million were made like this?
 
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