The Puukko

afishhunter said:
Cold Steel FINN BEAR

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(not shown: the OEM nylon canvas sheath)
Dating by the sheath, I believe the blade steel is 1.4114 KRUPP.

I R NOT sure if my FINN BEAR belongs in a Puukko thread.
IMHO, it (and the wood handle Mora Number 1) IS a Puukko ... but what do I know? 🤨
At any rate, if I are mistooken my apologies in advance. Let me know I messed up/insulted/offended, and I will delete this post.
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It's based on the Tapio Wirkkala design for a modern puukko, so it belongs. I'll edit this post with what the Puukko Book has to say about it, though.
 
In essence it means 'a knife' here and ergo the only knives in the distant past were puukkot ;) and a universal tool too. But of course it has taken on the aspect of a certain distinct style of knife which originated in Finland that became popular elsewhere, thus artisans and knifemakers began to make their own versions of it in other countries too.

And no, Mora is not a puukko.
 
Will Power said:
In essence it means 'a knife' here and ergo the only knives in the distant past were puukkot ;) and a universal tool too. But of course it has taken on the aspect of a certain distinct style of knife that originated in Finland that became popular elsewhere and artisans and knifemakers began to make their own versions of in other countries.

And no, Mora is not a puukko.
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Does it have to be made in Finland to be considered officially a puukko, or is it based solely on stylistic considerations? Or both?
 
Well, personally, I don't think it has to be made in Finland no- just as knifemakers elsewhere make pocket-knives in the French or English style and they might come from another country. It has to have the obvious visual characteristics of a puukko- blade style, grind, tang concealed in the handle, sheath etc. Puukko is not a copyright thing or protected name or area like Laguiole, as I said it simply means knife.

Anyway, I have heard but don't know if it's true, but Marttiini now have some of their knives made in Estonia. This is of course a rather different matter and due to globalization. Myself I don't like this move as there are skills and traditions here needing to be maintained rather than pursuing corporate goals (cheaper labour maybe or EU grants to outsource?) . But when skilled artisans in other countries take inspiration from the puukko (as we have seen here) that is a homage and thus to be respected.
 
Found this at the local flea market for 15,- euros😁: a miniature leuku made as business gift for the Finnish forest company Kemi Oy, prior to 1993.
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Total lenght is 15 cm, carbon steel blade is 5,5 cm, no maker´s stamp:(, reindeer antler handle.
 
tongueriver said:
So... the word puukko. Does that mean knife, or Finnish knife, or a specific pattern of Finnish knife, or a specific pattern of a knife no matter where that it is made?
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If you read books about Finnish puukko (such as Anssi Ruusuvuori’s gigantic books) you will find autistic multi page descriptions and measurements to micro millimeters what makes a puukko. You can get fundamentalistic about puukko and what it is but if someone says ”hand me that puukko” and points the mora, nobody will gets shocked about it (even when it’s not technically a puukko).

But wait about five minutes and someone will come to correct me.

And btw plural of puukko is puukot, with one k. 😂👌 (I always say puukkos because we are speaking english after all).
 
On another note, Happy Kalevala Day! February 28th was the day Elias Lönnrot signed the preface to his first edition, the "Old Kalevala" of 1835 ("Second Kalevala" 1849). For those not in the know, The Kalevala is the national epic of Finland, was recovered from oral tradition by Lönnrot, was originally sung in rhyming and alliterating paired lines, and contains creation tales, kidnapping and marriage, betrayal, magic, war, and much more. Some scholars claim there are passages 2,000 to 3,000 years old.

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The Zieg said:
Regarding the plural of puukko: Finnish is an inflected language and retains up to sixteen noun cases. So  puukot is not always the right answer! (Though it would be in the English nominative as we no longer decline our nouns.)

https://www.finnishwords.com/nouns/78/puukko.html
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I think that I once read that the Finnish language had antecedents somewhere in eastern Europe but is totally unrelated to Scandanavian or Germanic languages. ?
 
Finns come from tribes that came to the territory of modern Finland from the Ural Mountains. It's a couple thousand kilometers to the east. The deepest Russia. No Germans, no Scandinavia.
 
The Zieg said:
On another note, Happy Kalevala Day! February 28th was the day Elias Lönnrot signed the preface to his first edition, the "Old Kalevala" of 1835 ("Second Kalevala" 1849). For those not in the know, The Kalevala is the national epic of Finland, was recovered from oral tradition by Lönnrot, was originally sung in rhyming and alliterating paired lines, and contains creation tales, kidnapping and marriage, betrayal, magic, war, and much more. Some scholars claim there are passages 2,000 to 3,000 years old.

View attachment 3119469
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Sorry if this goes too much offtopic but I recently saw this video and I thought it was great. Your post on Kalevala reminded me of it.
 
Indeed it is a flag day here today and thanks to The Zieg The Zieg for bringing up Lönnrot. Not only a scholar of oral folk traditions but compiler of a Finsk-Svensk dictionary and a Finnish language work on biology.

Finnish is damnably inflected (but many other languages are handicapped by prepositions 🤣) and A.L. A.L. is of course correct about the plural form of puukko, but being ruotsinkielen and living in the west my grasp of Finnish grammar, amongst other things..not always on point. Think puukkot would be 'on the puukko' strictly speaking?

Finnish is not an Indo-European language it has no similarities with neighbouring languages such as Russian, Swedish, German and borrows surprisingly few words from other languages being very inventive even in these globalized 'Bro' times :D It's close to Estonian, they can understand Finns but Finns not always them. It is linguistically akin to Hungarian, another maverick language on its own surrounded by Slavic & Romance languages, but they are no way mutually intelligible.

Back to the knives then. I've regarded the puukko as a working tool, handy outdoor item and as such never been drawn to having an expensive Custom made, whereas pocket-knives....:) There certainly is a shed load of pedantic bickering amongst certain 'experts' about what is a real puukko and it's often tedious. Like in the Classic Car world where monster egos monster each other 🤣 I've been to the Kauhava puukko festivals in June and some of the dealers sell ordinary stuff, others are custom makers and some are friendly but others dour, and seem to harbour dislikes of each other on a petty scale. Not been since covid so I'm not even sure if it still takes place.

I've been more than pleased with the Marttiini and Kauhavan knives I've had, inexpensive, decent and handle well. Others, particularly abroad, may thirst for more elaborate puukko or rare historical ones, all good, all part of the joy of knife ownership and use, something that often gets forgotten.

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