Maasepän puukko

[Frederick89]

Like saying "old villagers blacksmith knife".

I think this could be interesting for someone...

The maasepän puukko is the simpliest and oldest style of puukko and has parallel equivalents in Sweden and Norway too. They have their origin in early Middle Age as all around belt knives of the free men. In higher classes knives were obviously more refined (metal bolsters, pattern welded blade, engraved handle, metal decoration/retentions on the sheath) but we are now talking of the original humble man knife.

All pics of knife and sheath making by Ilkka Seikku.

The making process, in this case, tries to be the closest possible to how it was done in the old days.

Let's start with the block of wood and the blade, which tang has a sharp point. The wood is rawly carved with axe.

Then is drilled a hole in the wood and it's enlarged with a hot iron rod.

The blade is sticked in and the wood is then beated on a large log to "nail" the tang well into the wood. If the operation is done properly the blade will stay in place without any glue or wedges against the tang.

The handle is then carved and sanded with #120 paper.

Finally the handle is treated with pine tar. Ilkka makes his own tar in the old way.

Sheath could be the usual backsewed leather one

or made out of folded birch bark stripes.

To conclude, a few other examples of the style.

Markku Vilppola


from left to right, Esa Laaksonen, Kay Vikström, Antti Mäkinen


Pasi Hurttila



Hope you liked it.

 

[Humppa]

That´s a nice made knife, Sir.

Thank you for sharing the pics of the process of making this nice puuko. May I ask which steel is used for the knife?

Kind regards
Andi

 

[scruffuk]

Nice...VERY nice.

I think this type of knife is often refered to as a 'fast knife' in Sweden.

One of these days I'll head to the woods with a blade and make one with as minimal tools as possible.

The examples I've seen often have a carved sheath also. Taken from the same piece as the handle and split down the middle so that the blade space can be carved out. It can then be woven around with bark, glued and or wrapped together with natural cordage.

Great post, thanks for sharing.

 

[kamagong]

I've said this before, but very nice Frederick. With all the puukkos you have, which design do you like the most?

- Christian

 

[puukkoman]

Very cool post! Thank you for sharing. As you may guess, I'm a big fan of that type of traditional knife. My ancestors used them, in generations past, as they fished and sailed in the Baltic Sea. I keep a special place in my heart for these old-style blades.
Alex

 

[Frederick89]

@Humpaa: I think Ilkka used a blade, forged by him too, from a silversteel/Böhler K510.

@scruffuk: yes the swedish quick knife is similar. I was thinking to the simpliest swedish brukskniv/slojkniv and norvegian tollekniv. Those ones usually have a laminated flat blade, while finnish ones have sinlge layered blades, sometimes with rhombic section.

@kamagong: I don't have that much puukkos, in reality. Anyway my two favourites ones have barrel handle and rhombic blade. One is the last shown and the other is my birch bark one.

@puukkoman: thank you! Glad you like it.

 

[lambertiana]

Very nice, looks like a very useful design.

 

[Campbellclanman]

THAT ....was really interesting, thank you for sharing your talents with us!

 

[Frederick89]

Thanks guys.

Like said in the first post, the skills shown are of finnish blacksmith Ilkka Seikku.
http://tuluskivi.suntuubi.com/?cat=27

I just wrote down the making process.

 

[Riverwarrior]

Thanks so much for sharing this post. Thoroughly enjoyed it...:thumbup::thumbup: