orvet wrote:Frankki,
I am a bit intrigued that someone from a country with such a strong knife culture as Finland would be so fond of an American-style knife made in Japan. But then when I really think about it I guess it's no different than Americans who like and collect Scandinavian knives!
It's probably exactly that, a case of the grass being greener on the other side! If doing some outdoorsy stuff, I like to pair a good carbon steel puukko with a small/medium stainless folder, gives me lots of options. Culturally, Finland is not much of a pocketknife country, instead everybody has a puukko or several. Things like the Swiss Army Knives are well known, and indeed around the turn of the 20th century companies like Fiskars did produce many folding pocketknife types, but mainly it's just fixed blades. Some new companies like EnZo have started making modern folders in the recent times, though. Some custom makers as well.
I can't think of many knives made in Finland off the top of my head, that are currently in the US market with the exception of Rapala knives, which I believe are made by J. Marttiini of Finland. This is one of mine below.
Are these knives available in Finland or they made mainly for export? They generally sell for $20 or less here in the US and are one of the better quality filet knives at any price, in my opinion. The only ones I personally like better are some of the Japanese Kershaw filet knives.
Sure, Marttiini knives and puukkos are everywhere. Every department or sporting goods store sells them and you can find them in the camping sections of regular hypermarkets as well. Usually decent quality, but wouldn't hurt if the user-grade models were a little better finished and with more attention to detail. The other really big maker is of course Iisakki Järvenpää, they produce somewhat more old-fashioned and traditional models. Roselli is well-known and well-liked too, and all mentioned brands have been exported for many, many decades. In the US, at least Kellam and Ragweed Forge sell them.
I do have a few Helle knives from Norway that I really like and one old Puukko that I don't see a brand name on it. All the knives that I have seen from Norway, Sweden and Finland have been above average two outstanding and quality. I was wondering if you have knives made in Finland that are not exported? And if you do have them, could you be so kind as to post some pictures of them?
Thank you
Helle and Brusletto make a good, solid product, as does of course Morakniv. In Finland, there are also dozens of custom makers (always your best choice if you want a really good puukko - prices starting at around €150-€200) and a good number of smaller, often one-man shops that use ready-made blades from Laurin Metalli and do their own assembly, styling and decorations. And of course there are hundreds, if not thousands of hobbyists as well, who make knives just for the fun of it.
In Finland, Lamnia sells many brands, custom and production, and ship worldwide. Take a peek:
https://www.lamnia.com/en/sc/5/knives/f ... d=5&mcid=1
