Newbie Puukko fan reports.

S

sajuma

Joined
Sep 3, 2003
Messages
132
Hello everybody, I'm quite new here, just entered today to this Forum.
Since I'm Finn, I know little about Puukko's and scandinavik blades and I'm willing to learn more. I have done some puukkos in my time but I'm not an expert in any ways. I'm looking forward to "knife talk" with you all and if any one needs any information about puukko's, leuku's or other scandinavik knifes, I'm your servant. :)
I may not know lots of the topic but I know people who know people...
I do have my own webpage but I dont seem to get it here.:grumpy:

Cheers,
Juha
 
Welcome!

I think you'll find that there are many of us who absolutely love puukkos, leukus, etc.

And a few who even like to make their own. ;)

Come visit the Cantina sometime (The Himalayan Imports Forum on bladeforums.com) where there are more than a handful who appreciate all types of traditional knives.

http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=739

Dan
 
Hey Juha, would you mind emailing me at berettaman12000@yahoo.com

Dan, that was a great cd on convex sharpening, you really do know how it's done!! Man, that custom was what I call "scary sharp".
Thanks for making it available. I love anything on sharpening knives, etc;!!
 
I too love scandanavian knives... it's in my heritage. I'm basically a mutt of Swedish, Latvian and Russian. Sadly, I have only one puuko right now, but I will fix that with time. I'm interested in your experiance with leukus... have you used them alot out in the real world? How about the Roselli knives with the UHC steel? Are they difficult to sharpen? Looking forward to your experiences here on Blade forums.
 
Thanks guys for the warm welcome. I have to warn you, I'm new in this posting stuff so I might make some mistakes with netiquette and such but since I'm a brut anyways and dont know any other ethiquettes either... Sometimes my jokes are like thumb in your eye, so bear with me.
I come from the north of Finland so I have used Leuku in "real life".
But since I'm not Lapplander or Saami I prefer to have puukko and axe as different tools. I have a big family and one of my uncle is still herding reindeers. When I was a kid I used to go and herd them with my cousins. About 20-30 years ago it was difficult to have real handmade leukus in Finland since at that time it was the bottom of our knife culture. People did not make those and most bought their blades from Marttiini or from Iisakki Jarvenpaa. The quality was not the best and some who loved to use lapp knives left them and Leuku suffered a down fall. Now days when more blade smiths are around the situation is better and some "real stuff" is available. There are also very good Swedish and Norvegian smiths who make incredible knives.
Rosellis puukkos are good, some times really good. I have heard that there were some problems in Heat treating earlier but since Roselli gives life time waranty for his blades, one can have it fixed if...
I do not know the UHC steel he is using and I havent got a change to try those out but maybe one day...
Juha
http://valkyriacut.topcities.com/


I have been reading and posting in rec.knives past year and some might know me from there. I hope to meet new knifenuts in here too.
 
Hey guys, I cannot find a place to purchase a Rosselli hunters...does anyone have a link here in the states?
Thanks!
 
I also love puukkos! I have a question about sharpening. I hear that the way puukkos are "supposed" to be sharpened is with the primary bevel flat against the stone, so that the knife blade has no secondary bevel. It seems to me that with most puukkos the blade would be way too thin to last any length of time. When you sharpen your puukko do you lay the bevel flat against the stone?

--Matt
 
This depends the knife. Some Swedish or Norwegian "knivar" are sharpend this way (whole bevel). Normal Finnish Puukko is sharpend differently. Our Puukko's are normally "Flatgrind" but the angle is too steep if you hone the whole bevel. So take a good stone and deside an angle. (25 is mostly good for puukko.)
I think that there was somekind of misunderstanding with Cliff or someone with same name. He almost made me feel that I have shapend my puukko's wrongly for my whole life. No, Cliff was refering other skandi knifes like Helle or Mora "knivar". Puukko is totally Finnish word although is said that it comes from Germanic word "Pook" witch means knife...


Someone was asking about Mastersmith Roselli's work so here is the link in english. There is also Heimo's instructions how to sharpen the puukko. http://www.roselli.fi/1/index-eng.html
 
I always understood Puukko to be used for a particular type of grind, essentially flat bevel, no secondary edge. The traditional one is usually simple handle, no guard.

However there are knives that are referred to as puukkos that violate basically all of these descriptions. I ordered a few from Ragnar recently that are clip point, stainless, guard, synthetic handle, put a secondary bevel on them and there it little puukko left.

sajuma, is that 25 degrees per side? When sharpened at the full flat bevel angle, which is generally ~10 degrees per side depending on the knife, do you find the edge gets damaged too readily, if so what kinds of work is being done with the knife.

Kellam, has a number of new steels in their knives which are supposed to offer better perofrmance over the traditional puukkos (twice the edge retention for example), it would be interesting to see a comparion of some of them vs the ones you have used for some time.

-Cliff
 
Dear Cliff, I'm the same guy you were talking with in r.k.
I still think that you have confused Finnish and other type of puukko's. For me, swedish and norwegian puukkos are knives, not puukko's but since I'm not King Juha the first I cant change the fact that people call them puukko.

Finnish puukko has what you called "microbevel" aka secondery bevel.
Some swedish and norwegian knifes have just one bevel eather side. Look for puukkos from Kellam and tolleknivars from Helle and you can see the diffens.
I have hard time to translate this to english but I will try...
The angle is counted from centerline of the crossection of the blade.
Take sq.piece of paper. Fold it ones from the point and you have 45 degree angle, fold it again and it becomes 22.5 degree. Now you are near the angle you want to have for your blade. Use that angle in both side and you have good angle forexample wood carving.

The consept of puukko is little like Bowie in USA. Ask someone to draw you bowie and you get different picture everytime.
The modifications with blade, handle or sheath come from out side.
Finnish Puukko is not really flashy kind of a knife so order to sell as many as possible makers had to invent something. Clip point, drop point, guard, synthetic handle and so on, is for me personally, raping puukko. Still, I'm not the King, so I cant stop it. Some people like these new ideas. Good for them. Knives are selling, people have more jobs. For me, there are still some who make good old puukkos and I hope that it will stay this way.

Juha
 
sajuma :

r.k.
Click to expand...

Yes, the thread for those curious :

http://groups.google.ca/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&safe=off&th=ecbbdb8f04371973&rnum=1

I still think that you have confused Finnish and other type of puukko's.
Click to expand...

Yes, they are usually just all lumped together based on the primary grind, that was the way I was introduced to them. It is a common defination in the US and Canada.

For me, swedish and norwegian puukkos are knives, not puukko's ...
Click to expand...

So are all finnish knives puukkos, or only ones with a particular shape?

The angle is counted from centerline of the crossection of the blade.
Click to expand...

Ok.

-Cliff
 
quote:

So are all finnish knives puukkos, or only ones with a particular shape?
___________________________________________________________________

This is like you explaining Baseball to me hehe. WE both try really hard but I dont get it...
:D :D :D

The line with knife and puukko is drawn in water.
Puukko is a knife with clear features.
No guard.
Strait spine.
No ricasso or the ricasso is minimal.
Normally blade is not longre than handle.( in Finland handle is often called "the head", the puritist use that term.)
Part of the edge has to be strait or the "belly" of the edge has to be minimal. Othervise it's considered huntingknife.

Look for this page. http://users.reppu.net/j.hankala/englanti/damasc_veitset/damascus_knives.htm
Mastersmith Hankala is one of the best Finnish Puukko/knife smiths. In those pages you can see models of Damascus knives. Some of them might look bit like puukko's but they are not. Master Hankala has made those knives just for "fun". It's not fun to make same kind of knife everyday, we all know that.
Then you see the traditional knives and General pourpose knives, these are real puukko's. And of cource the Puukko of Toijala. The pearl of Finnish Puukko culture. Those are real Puukkos!:) :)
 
Welcome Juha!

It is great to have you here. Especially helps in gaining an understanding a knife of a specific style steeped in culture. I had a basic understanding of the puukko and have noticed how the term has been "wattered down" (or more generalized) in the past 6 or 7 years or so.

Before the Blade Show this year I was fortunate to be able to have dinner with a couple of folks who have practiced the intricate carving of some Scandinavian style knives. From a distance the carving looked of scrimshaw, but upon closer inspection the carving was so detaied and intricate that it was hard to understand how it was done. Do you know the name given to that style of carving?
Gus
 
Dear Bastid,
I'm not sure what are you talking about. Is the (intricate) carving Multicolored? Or is it "golden"?
If it is "golden" is's called "sorko", not easy I tell right away.
If it's multicolored, I'm lost. Do you have some pic's??:confused:

Juha
 
The carving was single colored very dark brown or black in intricate basket type weave in relief on reindeer horn. As it was explained to me (and there was a language barrier) it is a very rare art with only less than a handfull practicing.
 
Sorry I don't know the name for that type of carving but I think I know what you mean. The carving is made by scraping the bone with needle and there is no big secret in that. One just have to have steady hands and good eyes. The problems comes later. The color used in the process is not well known. I heard that it's a mix of willow ash, reindeer grease and some third stuff. I don't know the exact compose for the stuff and I have never tried it myself. Otherwise it works like scrimshaw, color stays in "holes", this time the hole is a groove.

Juha
 
sajuma :

[puukko]

Puukko is a knife with clear features.
No guard.
Strait spine.
No ricasso or the ricasso is minimal.
Normally blade is not longre than handle.( in Finland handle is often called "the head", the puritist use that term.)
Part of the edge has to be strait or the "belly" of the edge has to be minimal. Othervise it's considered huntingknife.
Click to expand...

What about the grind? Is there a standard height? Does it have to be flat ground, do they all have a secondary edge bevel?

-Cliff
 
I would say that 99% of Finnish Puukko's have flat grind with secondary edge bevel. Some are slightly hollow grinded, because they are machine grinded.
There is no standard height in bevels for there are many thicknesses in steels and some Puukko's are with different edge angles. In general, the height of bevel is minimum half of the blade or 1/3 of the blade.
When you see single flat grind blade, it's most likely not Finnish.

When you have used puukko for long time and of course sharpen it, you might need to flat grind it again. Otherwise the angle becomes too "round" and it will not bite so effetely like before. Some times one is not happy with the angle the maker has put in the blade, so some change it to more for their likening.
 
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