samiknife

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NirreBosse

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Jan 7, 2003
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Yesterday I was out bying cristmaspresents for my wife. My wife is part sami and have in her younger days been a very good skier. Even attended world cup. And her having sami ralativness also made her doing some rasing in swedish sami SM. She has been the swedich womens champion in the reindeer carer shampionships bouth summer and winter. Summer is running and winter is skiing and on stations throwing a rope "lasso". We attended the samiSM as spectators last summer and that woked up the joy in this sport for my wife.
Yesterday I went to the samiadministration house, where they also has a small shop for books and traditional sami tools and things. I went to by her a new rope "lasso" and also the new kind of plastic loops instead of the metal one she have. Traditionally they were made from raindeer horn. The kind I bought was a sport style rope of green very soft 7 mm plastic cable.

Anyway, when being there I saw some knifes hanging around. This was not the beutiful kind of traditional handmade knifes with sheat and handle of horn but more modern workingknifes made on licence from Kero. They had sheats of lether with mooseprints and handles of curly birch and reindeerhorn. They also had a shallow groove for the indexfinger. To small to call a fingerguard but big enough to hold the finger. First time I saw this in a samiknife. But at the Sami SM this summer I saw them a lot as some of the samis racing carried them and I then was curious what knifes they had. So now I know.
One modell also had spacers with the sami coulours in the handle and was called the nothern light, and the blade was carbon steel darkened with burned linsseedoil. All in all a tremendously nice knife and not very expensive eather. I will probobly not by one since there are some traditional limitations here based on heritage what knife for witch persons to carry.

Just a report from a snowy and cold Östersund.

Bosse
 
Nice story. In the Ajtte museum in Jokkmokk I've learned that there are limitations on clothing and jewelry, but I didn't know that there are traditional limitations on knife carry too. Does this have to to with a person his status in the community or it is perhaps job dependent?
 
Our Sami centrum here in Östersund is called Gaaltije and is the centrum for south sami culture. They have the small shop I went to for the throwing rope.
North and south samis has different ways how to produce a true traditional knife, its about the gravyr, etsings and also about the hook on the sheat for ex. Not rules but more in the way tradition has turned. Its also two languages.
The knife I talked about wasnt in the strikt way a traditional samiknife but it carried the sami colours of the rainbow and was a modern design with strong roots in the culture.
And Yes of course I can carry the knife but its my own feeling that sets the limitations as so often. I know the roots of the knife and as its not my own roots, it feels a little aukward for me, as trying to copy or reflekt. Its much easyer to carry something very different and distant than to carry something almost true. Mabye alike the scotts and their tartans on kilts. For many its just checkered klouth but for the ones that nows its the tartan of a klan. I could carry ia knife like this in south sweden and most people mabye would think that the sami colours was the rainbow of HBT-people. Would feel OK to just collekt the knife, but I dont collekt knifes, just accumulate users.

Bosse
 
Photos would help a ton as I would then be able to see what your meaning about differences in culture.
 
Im sorry but I still havent learned how to post pictures

Google for examle after the names Tore Sunna or his brother Helge Sunna, Lars Pirak is a very wellknown sami artist that makes knifes among other things and the grand master Nils Nilsson Skum ( our Scagel sort of)
The knife I was talking of can be googled at Kero Norrsken.

Im on my way out working my saturday preparing my workshop but I will return to this tread to try to give you good exampes of first rate sami knifes.

You must know this is knifes beyond 1000 dollars and sometimes doubble that several times. This is wellknown sami artists with much smaller produktion than market. Compare with Bose, Eriksson or Hampton. Or in the case with Nils Nilsson Skum with dead masters as Scagel.

Bosse
 
You can make an account at Photobucket.com for example and upload photos to that account. Once they're uploaded, you can get a "IMG code"-link to them and post that link in your post on the forum. Then the photo appears in your post.

I've googled them, beautiful knives.

Here are some pictures that I made of Sami knives in the Ajtte Museum.

DSCF0165.jpg


DSCF0166.jpg


DSCF0160.jpg
 
I looked up a few of those. Very nice looking knives. The sheath work is outstanding, too.
 
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