Puukko identification

A

appa609

Joined
Sep 1, 2014
Messages
4
Hello everyone, this is my first post here, but I've been reading this forum for years.
My gf recently bought me a puukko for my birthday, and it's pretty nice, but I can't make out what brand it is.
The ebay page says that its knives are made by "Wood Jewel", but I can't find any information on that manufacturer anywhere.
F2cRdQYl.jpg

The one I got was an 85mm 1095 puukko with a red curly birch handle called the "Red Devil"

Anyways, I was wondering whether they're just a really small and unknown knifemaker, or if there's a more commonly known name for this knife. Does anyone have any experience with this one? Thanks!

oh, btw, the engraving is in Cirth Runes.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I'm not 100% sure but it looks like a kit knife. That drop point is usually from Norway. The sheaths can be purchased in natural leather and dyed to match the handle.

Regards

Robin
 
Made in Finland. That's is a really nice puukko style knife. Is the handle materail a laminate?

Here is info on the company I copied from a non sponsering dealer:

"Wood Jewel knives are made in the small town of Kolari, Finland. Kolari is located in the far north of Finland, north of the artic circle, and well into Finnish Lappland. The knives reflect the Sami styles and tradtions. They are designed by Kauko Raatiniemi, and the handles are assembled from multiple pieces of reindeer antler and curly birch. The selection of wood grain seems unusually nice. The sheaths are also in the Sami tradition, done in the deep pouch style that hangs from a twisted thong. Except as noted, the blades are .8% high carbon steel, hardened to about 59 on the Rockwell scale."
 
Thanks, Mr.Badexample. As far as I can tell, the handle is solid stained curly birch with a brass bolster.
After a bit more looking, it seems that this is indeed a kit knife. Wood jewel is the assembler, and the blades come from Lauri, since the 5104 blade matches the given dimensions of this one exactly. http://www.thompsonsknives.com/lauricarbon.html

The only thing that's weird now is that my blade has a noticeable secondary grind while the Lauri website states its blades are zero-ground. Perhaps I'll invest in a diamond stone to grind it down to zero again. I'm not good enough with a stone yet to sharpen at a consistent secondary bevel angle.

If anyone has any experience with this type of blade, then I'd appreciate your input too. Cheers :)
 
The secondary bevel is far more common than the "zero." Even if Lauri in fact sold a single-bevel blade to the maker, he changed it to the more common form. If you know better than the maker - or just to suit yourself - go ahead and modify the knife. It's yours after all.

Observation on blades by UK maker:
I can live with the fact that most blades are not zero ground, like I would like them to be. The blade of the Karesuando also had a secondary bevel that I removed, but the thick tip of the Lauris requires a lot of grinding to get rid of. Especially when using a benchstone (Suehiro 100 grit) to do it.
I have done it on a Lauri 95 and it turned out nicely. However, I can't see myself buying PT blades for that very reason. Since they've got even more HRC under their belt than the carbon steel blades I bought they should be even harder to grind.
Click to expand...

Reply:
I have a couple of Lauri carbon blades and don't understand why you would want a zero grind on them, they are very efficient for the price and would be too fragile for me at zero angle. The tip is good for me as the extra thickness makes it stronger which is what I think they are all about. Nice handles though.
Click to expand...
 
Last edited:
I have used Lauri and Polar blades, I prefer the Polars but either are good blades, here are a few I made up.

Regards

Robin



 
guns_and_labs said:
Where did you source the birch bark?
Click to expand...

Just out behind my house, I live on 100 acres of forest and have quite a few birch. I live on the shield where there is very little soil so I harvest the bark from trees that get blown over. It's a fairly easy handle to make but it takes time to deal with the bark.

Best regards

Robin
 
Thanks Bro, it keeps me out of trouble and helps feed my slippie addiction ;-)))

Best regards

Robin
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top