All About Pocket Knives

This beautiful Horse Head puukko arrived in the mail today, a gift from Billswfl. Thank you Bill! I like these knives a lot.

I need some help here. Might this happen to be a diamond in the rough Puukko. It's one of 3 knives I purchased yesterday at an estate sale. This ?? Puukko has no name attached anywhere on the knife. The wood handle is very dense, kind of like a curly maple, set in what appears to be pewter. The handle and blade are of equal length, 4 inches each. The blade has a flat grind, with a swage on the front left side of the blade only. The swage measures 1 1/4 inch in length. Then again, the knife may be an amateur's first attempt's at knife making. What ever it is, it's a very solid knife, and takes quite a good edge. It was in an old leather tool bag ( which contained a number of very good old antique tools ) and I got the whole lot for $15.00. I apologize for not being able to provide a better pic, but am hoping someone may have an idea on whether or not this is a Puukko. Also, the knives shown on these pages are very nice looking. Thank you for your time . Dale H.

I received my Tuominen puukko today, so I thought I'd add some pictures. It is much more robust than my Kallioniemi puukko, which I think is optimized for woodworking. I think this one is more of an all-arounder and should make for a great woodswalking knife.







Specs are as follows -- 8 1/8" OAL, with a 3 13/16" silversteel blade. The handle is stacked birch bark, with a brass bolster and buttcap. The sheath (tuppi) is the traditional leather with a wooden insert.

Wow, kam another beautiful puukko. I'd like to have the chance to check out puukkos by the various the master smiths to see how they feel in hand. Pekka's work is amazing.

Thanks Mike. I guess you're going to have to order one to keep your Joonas knife company.

I don't know if I have the patience to wait that long. But on the other hand it would make a great Christmas present. Here's another puukkoseppä with some good looking work:

http://seppainkeroinen.net/

Mike,

You might hate me for this, but I actually have an order with Mikko for one of his Tommis. It'll come with a brown sheath, the red and black is too flashy for my tastes.

You are The Man! I'm going to be pestering you with PMs for awhile now. What's the waiting time? He's got some really nice traditional puukkos.

Check this one just posted by the maker on a Scandinavian knife forum. He's from Murmansk Russia and is working in the Sami style here.

"Handle materials: wedge ELG, the Karelian a birch, a horn of a reindeer, the prorate - a skin of a deer, дубленая (tanned), installation through on a nut, the nut is latent by an insert from the same Karelian. The Sheath-horns, a skin, a carving with rubbing in of painting mastic."

Sounds like a Google translation, but man what talent!

Outstanding workmanship

Last week I had posted about a knife which I suspected was a Puukko and asked for some help in identifying it. A huge thanks to Vikingdog ( aka: Mike ). Last evening was the Oregon Knife Clubs monthly meeting. Bernard Levine is a standing member and after the meeting was over, I picked Bernard's expertise as to what perhaps I was the new owner of. He quickly dismissed the possibility of it being a Puukko. He thought that the knife was perhaps a " Sloyd ". So when I got home last night, I got on the computer and goggled up a Sloyd knife. After a few pages I uncovered that it is in fact a " Norwegian Tollekniv ", a whittling knife. And that is sort of what a Sloyd knife is, a wood working knife. The Sloyd is overall a bit smaller than the Tollekniv, and the use of pewter, which the knife I now own, is incorporated in the handle of the knife. Curly birch is typically the type of wood used for the handle. It's been an interesting search, and I became introduced to the Puukko and other interesting Nordic knives along the way. Dale H.

Here's a group shot of my puukkos.

I am a newcomer to puukodom. This is the only one I own, and ironically, it was made in Boulder, Colorado by Western States Cutlery (who would change their name to Western on letterheads in 1942). I have only seen it in the 1941 catalog pages re-created in the book Knifemakers Who Went West, by Platts.

Here is one of my favorites - German made, nice design - enjoy!

And holy cow some of the previous posts are absolutely gorgeous!

Nice puukkos! I'll bet that Western is a rare one.

Nice!

That is a beauty, Kamagong. Could we see how the belt strap thingie attaches?

kamagong great looking Tommi and the sheath is a perfect match.

Bill

tongueriver wrote:That is a beauty, Kamagong. Could we see how the belt strap thingie attaches?

Sure thing. I also included a couple of other tuppi for comparison. Interesting to see the different ways to make a belt loop.

The leather craftsmanship there surely does match the quality of the knife.

Here's an example of Finnish puukko making at it's best. Take some recyclable material and through pure genius and talent turn it into a beautiful puukko and sheath. This one's by Sami Länisipaltta. In his words:

"Hi,
Here's my latest puukko. It have taken over year and four months from my previous puukko (keeping busy on other business ).
Serial #: 09
Handle: Made in Czech Republic (hockey puck)
Bolsters: Aluminum
Blade: Hand forged bearing ring, 18,5°
Sheath: 2,3 mm leather (colored with black Narvi-colour)
Dimensions: blade: 72 mm, handle: 85 mm and sheath: 150 mm (for very little hand)

More detailed info (sorry again in Finnish) about this knife could be found from my blog
http://lansipaltta.blogspot.com/2012/04 ... tehty.html "

Take a look at his blog, the man is amazing.

I have just a few Nordic knives. I'd like to share these as they are hand made. They are each about 10 years old.

Nice. Do you know the makers or where they were made? Do you have sheathes for them?

From left to right. The first was by Henry Hilden, wih handle of walrus ivory and wood. Type of wood unknown.

The center knife is by Thomas Lofgren whom I met at a southern CA knife show in 2002. The blade is Damascus. The handle is fossilized ivory with malachite and stabilized birch. Lofgren told me he came to a few U.S. shows a year. I believe he said he was from Sweden. Could be wrong about that but that is what I recall.

The right hand knife is by Jim Burrichter. The blade is 440 stainless. The handle is -I think-walnut burl with axis antler. It was made in 1999 but I bought it from AG Russell in 2002. AG described it as "A great knife." ; I agree. However I have a certain partiality to the Lofgren knife because it was the first handmade knife I purchased and don't recall ever coming across a more beautiful handle.

My attempts at taking a picture of the sheaths was less than successful. Perhaps this evening or tomorrow I will try again.