My grandfathers influenses on my knifeusing.

N

NirreBosse

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Jan 7, 2003
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Ever since I was a small boy my grandfather helped me with small projekts whet it came to cutting pistols, rifles, swords and wooden knifes for me to play with. By growing ages he also thought me how to whittle myself.
From mabye age around five years old I sat beside his stove and cut small things and afterwards we sweaped the flor and put it into the stowe. My grandmother didnt always aprove about the place for the training but a woman of those times knew the walue of knowing how to handle a knife and an axe.
First he thought me how to puchcut from body and hands and later he thought me in a gentle manner to cut towards the body for increased control.
I always had a knife in my belt and a fair amont of time was spent making Bows and Arrows. We also used the knifes for cleaning fish, mostly pikes we cooked for the pig to eat. My grandfather often used the knife for cutting carrots and rutabaga for us to eat.

The thing that impressed most on me was how he used his moraknife to cut his nails, bouth hands and toes. Man, I wanted to do that also but even today Im to scared of cutting myself to have a pleasure in doing that. I never saw my grandfather cut himself though and he used it for his nails to well after 90 years of age when parkinson has made his hands weaker and a little trembly. He still has a special reedhandle mora in his toilett for the purpose and it is seriously sharp for the task.

My grandfather was one of the lokal carpentars beside his work with lumber in the forest and he also was a farmer using his knife in everything from hay-harvest to butchering the animals he cept for food.

Bosse
 
Bosse,

There is just something special about the way you relate a story. My grandfather(dad's dad) was born and raised in Eskilstuna. It would have been cool to sit in the corner and watch your grandfather and mine have a conversation.

Thanks for sharing your stories,
 
The year I turned 15 me and my grandfather was supposed to do a lot of building on our summer cowshed. It inwolved building a new peice of the building for the running water tap and the milkmachine my parents bought to modernice the barn. Our cows went outside in the forests during the day and didnt need any drinking water otherwise but it was nice with some water for the washing.

My grandfather gave me a hammer and a knife before the work started. The hammer was a stanley and I still keep it, a 16 oz hammer of best quality as my grandfather judged it. The knife was a Frost mora nr 1 laminated carbon steel and reed birch handle with black plastic sheat, best quality as my grandfather judged it.
He thought that my old boysknife was too nice and also to small for construktion work.

That summer he thought me a lot of how to use a knife in the old fassioned ways in building houses, inkluding hammering it through boards as a chisel without breaking the knife. This was also the summer he thought me how to use the grinding wheel for bouth knifes, axes and shythes.
This was an importans summer for us. The last one I lived as a child/youth. The following summer I started working in the forests with plantation of pinus contorta.
We bouth new this was the summer of working together and we tryed to do the best of it, he knowing this was his last summer of teaching me things for the farm and Me knowing it was the last summer to learn this things fulltime.
I remember us being together all the time.
Even after that year we did a lot together but this was good times.

I cant remember any period before or after I have used a knife so much, bouth working my first long passes with carpenting and also by wittling bows, arrows spears etc. And this was a summer before girls occupeing any attention, not much anyway, so we had lots of eveningtime to spend on spinning for pikes and angling for trout in the small creeks and streams. During this holiday activitys I used my martiini lappinleuku though.

Bosse
 
A big and heavy work during the summer on our little farm in digerberget was the hay-harvest. In the old times everything was made by hand and sometimes with help of a hourse and some simple machines. In 1972 though we bought our first tractor, a gray fergusson. It was a big help in bouth the mowling and the transportation of hay.

My grandfather walued the old traditions and he also wanted the meadows to look very nice after the work. In the late 70-ties when I was a young teenager he spent much time with me teaching me to harvest with a scythe. Its important how to mowe it so that the hay lies nice for bringing in after the mowling. Its also important to moove the scythe close to the ground without hitting the soil making the scythe dull. We used the grinding wheel to make it sharp and maintained the edge with a whetstone. I dare to say a scythe is one of the most difficult tools to make sharp as its so big and requires souch a perfekt an thin edge.This has to be done quite often as the edge is thin and the grass is abressive. When the job is done there is always blades of grass left around stones. My granfather then told me how to use my knife to cut down the last straws to make it look nice. You have to thiss cutting with a sweeping movement with the blade towards yourself to give the edge best kontact with the blades of hay left. They are soft so one needs a wery sharp knife. Mabye a long knife would be good but as this was the place it was we did it with moraknifes with blades of quite a decimeter. If you was uncotious an hit a stone it was straight away to the grindingwheel.

I still use the scythe for a day or two in the summer, and I use my birch handle moraknife from Bröderna Jönnson to cut the last straws of grass around the stones. This is probobly a activity belonging to museums but my grandfather thought me well and i want to maintain my skills. I plan to pass this knowledge to my sons also.

Bosse
 
I agree with Ken. I enjoy your stories very much and hope you continue to share them.
 
Nice stories Bosse , you don't find many people who still practice the old skills anymore. Thanks for keeping the tradition going.
 
Thank you for your kind coments.

Writing this posts felt a little special as it kind of very personal to write about the childhood not dressing it up with opinions. This is the kind of things I talk about with my friends but after many years of reading and sometimes writing here you people isnt strangers, but a kind of friends from different suroundings of the world.
Gives me a pleasure to tell you a little about my place.

The knife content in this storys goes like the reed line but its my grandfathers walues. This means that a knife for him is is as important as any of us think, but he wasnt interested in different or rare knifes, he just wanted a sharp tool in his life. For him a good axe and a high quality scythe was as important as sharp tools. He tought me well in that way I also appritiate axes and scythes but He cant realy understand my deep interest in knifes. He looks at them and thiks Im good at sharpening tools and using them but he doesnt understand why I bye and keep many of them.
One thing I leart him though is to use a slipjoint. When he moved from the farm to an appartment in a little bigger village after a bigger operation I gave him a EKA 38 wood that he actually uses.

Bosse
 
Ken, It would have been nice to hear the grandfathers talk, but I think that it would have been even nicer to talk ourselfs. I belive that looking at you in a workshop would be an experience.

Rat, I belive that our custom builders of slipjoints here should be counted upon as defenders of tradition. I know they probably use some electric and modern tools but its the same sort of eye and hand that makes the wonders one for example see in the Ken Eriksson or Kerry Hampton threads.

Bosse
 
Your stories always provide me with a picture in my head Bosse. I had to look up your area.

J%C3%A4mtland+locator+in+Sweden.jpg


I found your province and city. It appears you are on the eastern side of the mountains. Lots of lakes and forests, with large amounts of snow in the winter. Beautiful countryside as you describe.

fabod_glenfjallen_te.jpg


Appears to be similar to the Pacific Northwest, British Columbia and Alberta area in North America

Thanks for sharing your stories with us!
 
thawk, a little bigger and steaper mountains and that cenery could have been from Fatmomakke. our lappland village. Fatmomakke started off as a churchplace for the Samis. The priest and the law visited 2 times a year it was weddings, baptising and funerals and desiding in leagal matters. Many of the people in those days had special Clothes for the hollidays and they often included beautiful knifes.

As for your maps, in the small one Digerberget lies in berg and Fatmomakke is just abowe the upper corner of strömsund.

JDW. We traditionally have úsed blocks of sandstone from Dalarna where the moraknifes is made and holds good quality. We also have used Grindingwheels of diameters above 1/2 meter. In the old times those very valued items they used with care and they were inherited between generations.
I have two grindingwheels with motors and one is cource and one is finer. With training the knife or axe hangs on the nail after the wheel so its just a little job to hairpopping with a stone. I use sandstone for scythes, axes and working moras but for the knifes I demand most from I use diamonds and cheramic.

Bosse
 
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