Lets see ... How many new SKU's are we coming up with here?
There are at least three or four in my posts alone.
The puukko and the paring knife are two different projects, though either could be "daily carry" as a non-folding pocket knife, and maybe appeal to currently "non-knife" people who have physical (i.e. arthritis) or psychological (i.e. fear of getting their knuckles bitten) difficulty with folder mechanisms. I meet people - especially women who are my age and older - who have no problem handling a nine-inch chef's knife or even a nine-inch dagger, who are afraid of a three inch folder.
I've never seen a Bob Lum puukko, but I'm betting I'd like to. Does anybody here know anybody who has one? Or does Bob Lum have a picture he could post? A puukko (or a similar knife from
Norway or
Sweden) is a "woodcrafty" sort of knife. Literally. It can make a sandwich or field dress a deer, but it's optimized for woodworking. You can sharpen one the usual way, for a stronger edge, but the traditional edge has no secondary bevel. That low saber grind drops straight down to the edge, and you put the whole bevel down on the stone to sharpen it, and the heck with the surface finish! The full thickness of most of the blade, sometimes combined with laminated or zone-tempered steel, makes for a very stout blade that you can lean into a bit.
The paring knife is what David Rock is describing, or that Wharncliffe described by RonS back on screen one. Thin stock, narrow, precision point, probably shorter than the puukko, something you can use to core an apple without splitting it. Peel fruit, open a package, or say "No means NO!" (God forbid).
If there's a choice to be made, A first-class paring knife with a sheath suitable for belt, pocket or purse fills an emptier niche than a puukko, since there are a lot of those available from companies in Finland, Sweden, and Norway, with one coming out in
VG10 and kraton in the next few weeks.
If Spyderco goes with the paring knife, David Rock has noticed, as I have, that Moki does a very credible job making slick little fixed blades with micarta handles. I'd go with a satin finish and a flat grind or full-height hollow grind, maybe in VG10, rather than paying them to do a mirror polish.
This series (again, hollow-ground in thicker stock than we'd want in the paring knife) is one they make for Beretta a middle-class price. Paring knives are typically guardless. Maybe talk to the guys at William Henry about borrowing the shape of their
Lancet, stretching the handle a bit, and eliminating the pivot.
Either the puukko or the paring knife should have a handle option in something other than "basic black." Ivory micarta or something similar (or even real undyed bone) might have a "non-sinister" appearance to a lot of customers and passers-by, and there's even a specialized "new age" market that demands a white-handled utility knife. Stabilized wood (i.e. undyed maple burl)could be an extra-cost option, maybe.
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- JKM
www.chaicutlery.com
AKTI Member # SA00001
