Stromeng Leuku

The bolster/butt cap/ pommel disc is known in the traditional design as "ylahela". Yes, definitely helps in "snap chopping" maximizing the forward weight and length of the knife.
 
I have a 9 inches one (top one on Ragweed's page) I picked from the bay half price about 6 months ago.

It is a well devised knife. Some of those you fell are actually used by people.
Very comfortable well thought "mushroom" handle.
It is a big knife that is pretty thin and light. Great for backpacking and battoning but not much momentum for chopping.

The knife is reasonably though and can take pretty important bend without breaking.

Finish is average, came moderatly sharp (but since it is a scandi wasn't a real problem) and grind was uneven near tip, but overall pretty well made.

Shealth is traditional one piece scandinavian, nice craftman ship but edge tends to bite on top if you're not careful when drawing.

Read somewhere blades are made by Brusletto.
 
The leuku is a Sami knife. Think about the vegetation there, very arctic, not much use for a heavy chopper. The leuku is also a primary butcher knife for the reindeer. (Sorry, Rudolph!)

One great advantage of koyote's knives is the convex grind. The basic leuku size and shape might not make it the best chopper, but the convex grind holds up to chopping nicely.
 
I am often torn between the traditional handle and the one I do on the leukus. I do have that slight curve in the underside of the handle, which aids in maintaining a grip while chopping.

There's also this slight modification:

125-testing-1.jpg


It's impossible to see in the three photos I took before the knife sold, but it's got a bit of an hourglass shape.

I do the belly a bit differently, as everyone has noticed. The first one just "came out" that way (it's koyote girl's) but as I played with it on trees and food I found I like it for general work. I have very little drop on the spine, pretty close to straight.

I usually try to make them 1/8, but I've got a custom in process right now that is going to be 3/16 at the hilt. So we'll see how I feel about the thickness at the end of the project.

I also do a full through tang with 1/8 steel front and back. The tang is left pretty broad, and the rear is peened over the butt.

Only other thing you need to know is that I'm making more of them :D
 
koyote said:
I am often torn between the traditional handle and the one I do on the leukus. I do have that slight curve in the underside of the handle, which aids in maintaining a grip while chopping.

There's also this slight modification:

125-testing-1.jpg


It's impossible to see in the three photos I took before the knife sold, but it's got a bit of an hourglass shape.

I do the belly a bit differently, as everyone has noticed. The first one just "came out" that way (it's koyote girl's) but as I played with it on trees and food I found I like it for general work. I have very little drop on the spine, pretty close to straight.

I usually try to make them 1/8, but I've got a custom in process right now that is going to be 3/16 at the hilt. So we'll see how I feel about the thickness at the end of the project.

I also do a full through tang with 1/8 steel front and back. The tang is left pretty broad, and the rear is peened over the butt.

Only other thing you need to know is that I'm making more of them :D
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Absolutely fantastic. I love it. :thumbup:
 
I should have said I also do them as full through tangs with peened butts, since I haven't done them any other way :)
 
The flare on the handle of a leuku serves several purposes. First, holding the knife with the flare between the pinky and ring finger keeps the hand from sliding forward toward the edge. Second, it facilitates pulling the knife from the sheath with mittens on. Third, when using the knife in a stabbing motion, the thumb is held over the flat on the pommel.
 
Nice knife there Koyote!:thumbup:

I have a strømeng 8" w/fingerguard. I must say that I enjoy using it, but I've strapped a mora no.1 to the sheath for those little tasks ;)

My dad has a 9" which he bought of old Isaak strømeng about 35 yars ago.
It's made from an old leaf-spring and is one of the best blades I've ever come across.


ps: check out this page for usertips: http://www.samekniv.no/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=57&Itemid=72


-jontok
 
I have some strømeng knives, and these I days use the 8" with fingerguard in the woods. Just to feel that extra bit of security when cold, wet and slippery. It appears to have an oiled finnish on the handle, older ones have the slippyer varnish. My greatest dislike of them is that they have started to make the grind less acute toward the tip, my youthood strømeng could easily be used to clean tiny fish with its tip by chocking up on the blade.
I have the 9" too, and it is a very nice, practical outdoor knife.:)

P.S. The blades of these knives are thin, but they should not break, when used as KNIVES.
I feel that the strømeng handles are uncompearably much better than the helle leuku.
I like the koyote knife. Because of a tiny, possible! crack, I removed the handle from my first strømeng more than 10 years ago, wonder when I will make the new one.
timann
 
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Esav Benyamin said:
The leuku is a Sami knife. Think about the vegetation there, very arctic, not much use for a heavy chopper. The leuku is also a primary butcher knife for the reindeer. (Sorry, Rudolph!)
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This is worth repeating. :thumbup: Scandinavian leukus aren't "big choppers" in the American sense. That is to say, they aren't really meant to be used to chop up large trees and stuff. They're meant for food prep, reindeer butchering in particular, and chopping the very small dwarf and fell birch trees that are more bushes than actual trees for firewood. So, it's kind of a mix of a smaller machete and a really large puukko. It is carried with a smaller knife for precision work, especially carving on wood, since the leuku is too large for that. The Strömengs aren't bad at all, especially for the price. :thumbup:
 
Elen said:
This is worth repeating. :thumbup: Scandinavian leukus aren't "big choppers" in the American sense. That is to say, they aren't really meant to be used to chop up large trees and stuff.
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While this is true, it doesn't disallow us, iconoclast users to discuss the benefits of this knife in tasks it isn't originally meant to perform. I for myself doesn't live in Lappland, nor do I butcher deers that often. Does that mean this knife would be useless to me? Fortunately not.

Although that knife isn't meant to it can perform some reasonable chopping.
 
Ravaillac said:
While this is true, it doesn't disallow us, iconoclast users to discuss the benefits of this knife in tasks it isn't originally meant to perform. I for myself doesn't live in Lappland, nor do I butcher deers that often. Does that mean this knife would be useless to me? Fortunately not.

Although that knife isn't meant to it can perform some reasonable chopping.
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All very true! :thumbup: My point was more along the lines of warning folks, so they don't expect these things to be heavy duty chopping machines. That would end in disappointment. But for moderate chopping, a good leuku works pretty well, and isn't very heavy to carry, either.
 
You'd be surprised what you can do with thinner blades! The leukus I have made have been around .11 final and I have cut valley oak sapling right down with them. I suppose I wouldn't want to take down a 6 inch black walnut, but I can't think of an knife I would choose for that job!

If you look at a lot of bushcraft shelter building, you find that you are looking at < 2 inch wood cutting most of the time. A lot of the thicker work that is done is batoning, and I'm pretty sold on using thinnish blades for that at this point.

I personally look at scandinavian knives for inspiration in a lot of my outdoorsy blades, I feel like there is a lot of application to the temperate deciduous and evergreen North American environment.
 
koyote said:
You'd be surprised what you can do with thinner blades! The leukus I have made have been around .11 final and I have cut valley oak sapling right down with them. I suppose I wouldn't want to take down a 6 inch black walnut, but I can't think of an knife I would choose for that job!

If you look at a lot of bushcraft shelter building, you find that you are looking at < 2 inch wood cutting most of the time. A lot of the thicker work that is done is batoning, and I'm pretty sold on using thinnish blades for that at this point.
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I wouldn't be surprised. ;) Thin is in, and leukus (and Scandinavian knives in general) are traditionally made to be relatively thin, although not extremely thin as in many folding knives thin (since Scandinavian designs in general need some strength for wood work). They're more than tough enough when used reasonably, including for batoning. For those of us who value chopping power most in a large-ish knife like the leukus, though, chopping performance could be improved by a full-height flat grind or a convex grind and some more forward weight for starters. But anyway, I like leukus and do chop with them. But for bigger chopping tasks, I will rather use different designs, be they the hukari or the American bowie-like big knife type, or perhaps more realistically an axe. :)
 
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