Puukos

Most Finnish puukkos I've met have neither guards nor secondary edge bevels, though many have a "speed bump" built into the handle. I have, however, met puukkos with either or both.


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- JKM
www.chaicutlery.com
AKTI Member # SA00001
 
The puukos I have seen with guards have been described as "Americanized". I think Marttini makes those.

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Travis Autry
My knives are just like rabbits---they keep multiplying!!
 
Cliff, I have seen puukkos with secondary bevel.
I don't own any because I think that they are ugly, generally too small handled, less functional than e.g. puukkos from Kainuu and Lapland. So everything I write now is from memory and I can't verify.
The first bevel is higher = farther from edge than in american knives with sec bevel. They normally come from western finland and are called 'Kauhavalainen' The blade is narrower than in most puukkos. The secondary bevel is quite near the spine (less than 1/2 of width of blade from spine).

First puukko that I bought my self (at age of 10) had a guard. It was the only model that had guard from about 30 models that were available in that store. Some years later guards appeared in childrens puukkos. If somebody stabs something stabber is supposed to have enough strenght that his hand won't slip to edge.

Guard prevents using the traditional sheat. In some puukkos there is notch in the handle to work as guard.
 
Hi there!

The swedish and finnish (and I guess norwegian ones as well)traditional knives are quite similar looking and are in many cases known as puukkos in USA. In Sweden these knives are often called "lapp-kniv", (or lapp-knives).
Here in Gellivare in Lappland, northern Sweden almost every kid in school has a chance to make his/her own knife at the woodworking lessons in junior high. So did I, and my grandfather further educated me in the art of making such knives.
The typical Puukkoo, or lapp-knife, for me has a slender carbon steel, straight point blade without secondary bevel. The handle consists of natural materials, such as birch wood and reindeer horn, and has no guard. The sheath is made of leather, or a combination of wood and leather.

I warmly recommend Bo Bergman's book "Knifemaking" for those who are interested in making their own traditional scandinavian knife.



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Tea drinker and hellraiser from Northern Sweden, above the arctic circle.

 
OK am I stupid or what?? It's probly not "or what". I love these knives- The simple lines and shape scream utility. I'm going to start making some. But before I make a total dork of my self-- help me out.
First- could someone show me how to pronounce Puukko, or is it puuko- that is my second question- how is it spelled. I don't think you can show me like the dictionary but can you explain it with a post???
Thanks

John Yeackley


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http://www.toptexknives.com/yeackley.htm My contribution to the world of knife fanatics.


 
I'm having trouble picturing a "secondary bevel". Can anyone suggest a location, provide a pic, or suggest a fairly common knife with a secondary bevel?
Thanks
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John,in my experience,the "PUUK" part rhymes with "book",while the "o" is pronounced in the manner of most European languages as in German or French,kind of a cross between our English hard "O" and the "o" in the word "tomb" .Hope this is of some help to you.
 
The usual flat-ground, saber-ground, or hollow-ground blade has a very narrow sharpened strip along the edge, known as the secondary edge bevel. A knife with no secondary edge bevel is a sort of flat grind or saber grind, where the bevel is sharpened all the way down to the edge. Japanese edged weapons and Scandinavian/Finnish working knvies typically have no secondary edge bevel. You sharpen them by placing the whole side of the blade, leading to the edge, on the stone.

No secondary edge bevel (but a bit of stropping at the edge, making it shinier than the rest of the bevel).
Another example - polished right down to the edge

The shiny area along the edge of this current-model Spyderco-Moran is the secondary edge bevel. Likewise on this J.P. Peltonen Ranger Puukko.




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- JKM
www.chaicutlery.com
AKTI Member # SA00001
 
Cousin Cinnamon,

Too bad our schools are not as practical as yours are! If kids here were making knives and learning to respect tools and their use, they wouldn't have time for drugs and other criminal activities!!!

I have recently become fascinated with Scandinavian knives and was wondering: Why is the "puukko grind" not more popular outside of the Scandinavian region? To echo John Yeakley "it just sceams utility"!!


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Travis Autry
My knives are just like rabbits---they keep multiplying!!
 
James: Thanks for that very informative response. Another question if I might—I have a Moran (you sold it to me)
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. The Moran has a concave edge. The one in your pic appears to have had that edge removed when it wasn sharpened. Am I correct?
Thanks again.
 
TAutry, utility isn't the best selling argumet. Hunter, tactical.... these are keys to bigger sales IMO.
 
John, the Finnish word is puukko. That's one knife... plural of that word in Finnish is 'puukot', but as the plurals are formed differently in Finnish than in English the appropriate plural for English would be directly from the word puukko: many puukkos. Pronunciation... well I'm not very good in this, but x39 started very well... except that instead of the soft 'b' as in the word 'book' you should have hard 'p' (as in 'path' or something). Also the 'uu' is long, it's not the same as 'u'. The double 'k' is the part that I would expect to be the hardest: both the k's are said - 'puuko' and 'puukko' are different (and the first one is incorrect). I think x39 might be correct about what comes to most European languages, but isn't the 'o' in 'tomb' more like 'u'? I think the 'o' in 'not' might be closer.

Hugo.
 
I need some help identifying a knife I bought in Stockholm.It is a custom knife with the marking PAB.I seem to recall the makers last name was Berg.It is top quality and the seller said the maker was older,had made knives for a long time.Maybe one of you guys from Sweden will know.Thanks
 
I also have been looking at this style of knife for the longest. Combined with the sheath it is just one of those simple, neat designs that just turns me on. The NY knife show had a table with them and they were GOrgous. Now for a question. Is it a stick tang and butt cap like say a randle or does the tang get pressed in and is half way in the handle material.


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ALex

http://home.att.net./~a.boriqua
 
Hi Knnut !
The knife with the mark PAB is made by Per-Arne Berg from Hönefoss , Norway .Hönefoss is situated c:a 100 km north of Oslo . He is a very good knifemaker with several prizes from different Nordic knife shows . He is a close friend to us and is a very generous person , I myself have a knife from him ( althought I am a knifemaker myself ) and it fits in very well in my girlfriend , Viveca´s , collection . One of the knifes in the puukko page at http://www.scrimart.u.se/puukko/puukkos.html is made by Per-Arne . You can maybe reach him through his knifemaking friend Morten Håkonsen , http://home.sol.no/~chaakons/index.html .
Hope that this will help you some .
Best wishes / Anders Johansson , Sweden http://www.scrimart.u.se
 
I recently bought a bunch of what are probably contenders for the ugliest Scandanavian knives around, but they're also my current favorite fixed blade working knife. They're the 4in carbon steel 'Swedish Hunting Knife' noted at http://www.normark.com/products/rap/SwdshKnf.asp and appear to have the same handle as on their budget fillet knives. They're made by Ericksson of Mora, Sweden, and although I found a couple at a local store for $5 each the rest that I purchased were hard to get a hold of. Evidently Normark has discontinued the model and didn't know that they had a few left in warehouse until they went back to get a knife so that they could read back the tang markings, as they were describing a different knife. I picked up around 10 for $6 each for family and for sale to friends, which was probably the bulk of what they had left. The handle with the single guard fits my hand well, the guard doesn't seem to get in the way, the plastic sheath works well enough, and the knife like other Mora knives works very well. I'll keep a few around for use as utility knives, to keep in the car, and to give each of my kids as their first fixed blade when they get a little older. Now I'm looking closer at some Finnish pukkos in a store on the Oregon coast as it'd be nice to have a traditional model too. Those will be for papa :^)
 
J.Siukola,some very interesting links.Would any of the Finnish members have any links with historical information about puukkos being used as fighting knives or the "hajyt"? Thanks.
 
What is the traditional way to sharpen a Puuko with no edge bevel. Do you work on the primary grind or create a secondary bevel?

-Cliff
 
Depends on person: one with patience do sharpening to the the whole belel but in some puukkos there is a secondery bevel caused by not so patient owners. Normally Finnish stones are quite rough to remove steel fast enough.
My grandfather alterated with sec. bevel and no sec bevel. He sharpened (I was a little boy and can't remember wery well) 4-5 times with handstone using larger angle and then used water cooled handgrinder to get rid of sec bevel. Actually his knives were closr to convex edge than to edge with sec bevel.
 
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