The young mans dream.

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NirreBosse

Joined
Jan 7, 2003
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When I grew up there was not many folding knifes to be seen. I,m 42 now so we talking 30-40 years ago. Not a long time but the place was an odd place on mother earth. I grew up in a village ,Digerberget (great montain) with aprox 25 inhabitants. Most were old men. Its in the middle of the swedish part of the northern Taiga and its only small villages in the area and not close to eachother. Those old men all carried sheathknives of the scanditype, mostly mora. I also had a mora or two but longed for a folder. When I was 10 me and my brother Lars got EKA 38 knifes as cristmasgifts from our uncle Edner. We had some sovenirfolders with picture of a castle and corkscrews on them but this was something else. Folders that was sharp and sturdy without wobbling blades. It was a pleasure for a kid to get this gift and it was my only folder up to I moved to a small town for university. I then understod that folders was the deal if I wanted to carry knifes in public areas. For a young man that carried a knife sinse age 5-6 its not a choice to stop carry a knife.
I still got that EKA 38 with a yellow handle and also my now late brothers orange one. I still think that they are wery useful and sturdy knives but seldom use them out of sentimental reasons.

Bosse
 
Nice post, NirreBosse. There's definitely something special about a young man getting his first "real" pocketknife. Mine was a Victorinox Explorer SAK that my grandfather gave me (he let me pick it) when I was 10 or 11. I had had a couple other knives at that point, but even I knew a shell-bolster Imperial jack wasn't in the same league as a real Swiss Army knife!
 
Hey Bosse, have you been back to your small village recently?

When I was growing up, alot of the men had a small sheath knife on the belt. Usually a leather handle little finn style of knife. But time changed even small towns and villages. I think in todays "civilized" climate, a sheath knife in plain view would not go over well.

Those Eka knives are very good knives. If your's has too much sentimental value, maybe buy one just for use? We don't see many Eka's over here, unfortunately.

Time changes things, and all we have left are the memories.

Good post.
 
Hello Jackknife. Yes I return back every once in a while. Its 100 km from Östersund, the town where I live. I love the wilderness. I have built a cottage there and also owns my parents old farm. Bought myself some more forest close to the farm also. I think I go there mabye 30-40 days a year. I hunt moose there for the first week of september and mabye 3-4 weekends september - oktober. Im there in the summer to fish and do some farmersjobb in the small fields. And in winter to hunt birds and drive snowmobile. Most often my wife and two sons 6 and 3 years old follows. Its a great place for kids. I would be there more but my wife comes from another odd small place, Fatmomakke, in the swedish high mountains of lappland. We also go there 4-6 weeks a year. We have built a small house there also. This is the main place for fishing, (with rod or net) and hillwalking, living in tent. Also this is a great place that I become to love.
My homevillage is a place that will die. Nowadays 7 people living there and my mother at 65 is the youngest.
Fatmomacke has 10 inhabitants but its a place where tourists come so its much more people there.
In bouth places a sheetknife is accepted or even expected (and needed for my lifestyle). In Östersund I work with childpsykotherapy and obviosly a folder is the choice but I building a hose for us to live in here so I,ve got my workingtrousers equipped with mora 511.

Bosse
 
About the knifes I use.
Its in my holidays in my small houses in the countryside the real knifeusing takes place. Its hunting, fishing and construktion and more than occational wittling. Funny enough I selldom think over the knives I use there. I have 6 mora 511 that gets used sheated to workingpants with legbutton. I use one until its dull and then shange to another one. When Im through them they go to the grindingwheel for another round. I have some butchers knifes and Mora 2000 for meatwork. I also uses some handmade scandis for allround use. These knifes are always the same and I seldom think of getting another since the ones I got is more than enough.

For the EDC in town I use folders. I dont use them very much but they are the ones that interest me the most as beautiful things to own and of witch I once in a while bye a new one just for the pure fun to trye something new. To be honest most of the new ones goes to the drawer and the old favorites stay in my pocket but with two growing sons and a knifeusing wife they can be needed

And as an answer to your suggestion jackknife i also got a new Swede 38 but its not the same. They look simular but its the old ones and espesially my brothers that has the life and memories in them.

Bosse
 
My first real knife was a Barlow pattern, a gift from my dad, that knife has since been gifted to a nephew. I do have both a EKA 38 as well as a Big Swede, the smaller 38 has been modded for a lanyard and thumb notches for easy opening. Both of them take a very fine edge and are great basic working knives. I am also a fan of the Moras, I have several that live in the house and car, again great working knives.
 
Hi,

Thank you for a bit of your life's story! Fixed blades were uncommon when I was growing up. But every man carried a slip-joint of some pattern. I also grew up on a farm and I still own the "Home" farm though I haven't actively farmed for 20 years.

dalee
 
NirreBosse said:
And as an answer to your suggestion jackknife i also got a new Swede 38 but its not the same. They look simular but its the old ones and espesially my brothers that has the life and memories in them.

Bosse
Click to expand...

I know what you mean, Bosse. I've found that in my last quarter of my life, I find myself carrying the knives from the first quarter of my life. The old ones do have the life and memories.
 
My first knife was a Victorinox Huntsman. Most of my childhood friends had Buck 110's or Trappers.
 
I still have a couple of my Swedish Normark (Little Swede) folding knives from the 70's. One of them was my back-up in the pocket of my BC for scuba diving. Other than some marks on the plastic handles the knives are as good as new.

I've always enjoyed my Scandinavian knives and the tradition from which they were born.

Thanks for sharing your story, NirreBosse.
 
NirreBosse,

First let me express how very much I enjoyed your recollections as a young lad and even since then in what I am certain is a wonderful place where you grew up and fished, hunted and lived! Sharing your fond memories here is such nice treat for me while reading your posts and I am always so pleased to hear how other folks do things on different places around the globe. :)

I don't have much experience with knives like Mora's and Scandi types but I plan to give them a try in the very near future as you have now inspired me to do so with your excellent stories. :thumbup:

Thanks ever so much for a real :cool: thread!!

Best,

Anthony
 
I am the same age as you. My dad bought me a SAK at the age of 11 I recall. I recall it had the plastic toothpick and tweezers. I recall it as a rite of passage. Sort of like, "wow, dad trusts me with a knife," feeling. Great post!
 
I dont realy remember when I got my first knife but it was a small mora with red handle and a brown sheat of pressed paper. It was my grandfather who gave it to me and I was about four years old. I used to sit in my grandparents kitchen and wittle in front of their stove.
I do however remember how it ended its days. A handyman came to us to paint the kitchen and as I came out from the small forest beside our house he asked me if he could borrow my knife as he saw it on my belt. I was proud of the knife because it was sharp and thought he wanted to see it. When he got it he used it to pry open a can of paint and it broke right up to the handle. Man, I was devistated. 5 years old and my most presious posession broke. I don,t know if I ever will get over it ;).
 
Related to the prewious post.

When my first knife got broken att age 5 i was devistated and only half a man because a Man in Digerberget had to have a knife in his belt. Sadly my parents didnt take me seriously about it and that made me forced to use a butchersknife I borrowed/stole from my grandmother. She used it for parting potatoes for the pigs but all of a sudden it was gone. :o I kept it in the shelter for the wood to the stove.

In the middle of the summer 1972 my family went for a daytrip to the border of Norway to by Suggar and cheese as Norway in those days was a country with sheap merchandices. In the small shop at the border there was some gourdious knifes. My unckle Edner bought himself a Martini Lappinleuku and I cried all the way home because I didnt get a simular one. Later in my life I bought that wery modell but at this time my parents thought it was to expensive and also to big for a small lad.

Some Weeks later when the moosehunt was coming up my unckle Edner came by our home when I sat in the sand under a big tree in front of the house where we had our toys . It was not usual for him to take interest in us playing so I payed attention. When he got to me, he reached for his backpocket and gave me a small knife. It was a rather small mora with a leather sheat. It was a beautiful knife of the sort Mora did in the old days. I remember my joy. First it was a beautiful knife perfectly sised for a small kid (and secoundly I was as a camel in the desert just reaching an oas with fresh water.)
This was my hunting, fishing and wittlingknife of my shildhood and I still got it. My own sons love to lock at it and hear me talk about memories.

I can tell you I was very carefull about lending it out to other people bearing in mind my first broken Mora.

Bosse
 
NirreBosse said:
I can tell you I was very carefull about lending it out to other people bearing in mind my first broken Mora.

Bosse
Click to expand...

People who don't have knives of their own won't know how to treat yours when they borrow it: an all-too-common and very sad story.

But the rest of your posts were a beautiful glimpse into a fascinating way of life. Thank you. :)
 
Love your posts, Bosse. :thumbup:

it sounds so much like some places here, were a man was exxpected to have a knife, and even a sheath knife didn't get alot of attention when I was a kid. Very different now!

You mention using a button to fasten the knife to your work pants. Can you explain how your wearing the knife?

I'm always up to hearing about knife culture from another part of the world. Please drop in and talk to us.

What is knife carry like now in Sweden?

Do mora's still hold the top spot in working mans knives?

I have a wood hadle mora with the laminated blade, and I love how the thing cuts. It had a plastic sheath, but I cut off the belt loop thing, and built a puuko style pouch sheath around the plastic one.
 
In older morasheats there is besides the slids for a belt also a smaller slid or more like a hole that you can attatch to a button. In the new plastic ones the holes also are placed in a way that you can attatch them to a button of the size in most Jeans. In working pants there are a button sewn on the leg just above the knee. So its carried on the upper right leg. Dont know the right fysikal therms. A very praktical place to carry a workknife much more out of the way if you are climbing for example. If you take a morasheet and try to press it on a jeansflybutton you will se the funktion. Dont carry it there though:eek:
Bosse
 
For the most used workknifes I belive that mora 511 would be on top and also their produktion of butchers knifes is big. The Wood red handed ones is also rather popular still but not with professional workers as carpentars and construktionworkers. For most people this are knifes that you use and throw away when dull. Its a chame because the steel is quite good. Sandvik 12c27 or high carbon or laminated steel are all good steels and the knifes in them self ar simple but good quality.
Got the news today that EKA stops produktion in Sweden and moves manufacture to China. Time to bye som of the originals now.

For knife carry and use Sweden is like most of the world and its getting less and less accepted. In the northern parts where I live its still OK with traditional folders but not fixed blades in the town. For the outdors most everything is accepted but not expected anymore.

For me its OK to carry EDC but I wisch I was sertain how to learn my sons. I know the best thing most socially accepted for them in the long run would be to not carry EDC. But a knife for me is nesisarry, but also my fight to struggle against the absurdly ruled and layed in place modern society.
The knife is a good tool but also my link among a few others to a simpler and more free lifestyle where I,m allowed to rule my own life. I think my sons knows this about me and therefore a knife becomes important for them too and I for sure want to bring them up to be free and happy individuals with praktikal skills.

Bosse
 
Bosse thanks alot I always wondered what that hole in the Mora sheath belt loop was there for. I also really like your posts about your life, well done.
 
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