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The BladeForums.com 2024 Traditional Knife is ready to order! See this thread for details: https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/bladeforums-2024-traditional-knife.2003187/
Price is $300 ea (shipped within CONUS). If you live outside the US, I will contact you after your order for extra shipping charges.
Order here: https://www.bladeforums.com/help/2024-traditional/ - Order as many as you like, we have plenty.
Custom Puukko suggestions...
- Thread starter ERRN
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Riverside Forge interpretation. Mark Andrews - 'Marko3' here on the forum.
That is exceptional work.
How does the angled handle add to control?
Just by looking at it I think it would really help increase grip control...
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Yes, its a beauty.
The angular handle may look uncomfortable to some but it really isnt.
As you hint at, it can help with control.
Here the smaller of my Wirkkala puukkos - a great working knife IMO (though some Pukko purists turn up their noses at Tapio Wirkkalas knife - some because of the angular handle and some as TW was a designer).
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Danjiel (Haramina) IS 'malanika.'
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Now we all know. :thumbup:
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/s...d-Two-Puukkos-Price-Reduced!?highlight=puukko
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/1432000-Forged-Puukko?highlight=puukko
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/1405167-Puukko-in-D2?highlight=puukko
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/s...-Puukko-w-Traditional-Sheath?highlight=puukko
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/s...d-Two-Puukkos-Price-Reduced!?highlight=puukko
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/1432000-Forged-Puukko?highlight=puukko
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/1405167-Puukko-in-D2?highlight=puukko
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/s...-Puukko-w-Traditional-Sheath?highlight=puukko
Last edited:
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Jukka Hankala, one of the seven -- only seven -- puukkoseppämestari, or master puukko makers of Finland.
My picture is not worthy of his work.
Can you please name these 7 puukko makers?
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Jukka Hankala
Pekka Tuominen
J.T. Pälikkö
Markku Vilppola
Pasi Jaakonaho
Arto Liukko
Mikko Haverinen
@BladeScout: no offence, but I wouldn't call the knife in your picture a puukko. It's an interpretation of Wirkkala's one, but that doesn't make a puukko to me. I have developed very strict criteria to consider what to call a puukko and what not and absolutely don't like the overkill use of the word I've seen lately.
tiogatires
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I have one from Danjiel and one from River Bottom Blades. The Puukko from River Bottom Blades is worth a look for a more modern take on the style. Very robust and well made. Danjiels knives are very light weight and top notch in terms of quality. River Bottom Blades are more active on the bushcraft forums.
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No offence taken what so ever.
As I mentioned, its an interpretation and Mark Andrews also makes non-full tang Puukkos.
Some like the strictly traditional Puukko and some also like interpretations of the design.
As I posted above, some dont like the Wirkkala Puukkos whilst I like them a whole lot - I use the smaller Wirkkala often. Its feels very comfortable even when used for a long time.
I bet Tapio would get a kick out of seeing his knife design used.
I also like the traditional Puukko but like the idea of some leeway in the design.
That being said, I agree with you, that some knives posted and being dubbed 'Puukkos' often have little or nothing to do with Puukkos.
You mentioned, that you have developed strict criteria in regards to what constitutes a Puukko.
I dont know you from Adam, so that cuts little ice with me - no offence.
Out of interest, since you yourself mentioned it, could you tell us a little about what your Puukko background/experience is and why your words in regards to the design carries weight?
Its not that I dont trust you. You might be the Grand Poobah of Puukkos in Italy, for all I know.
Im just curious in regards to the criteria, which you developed (you might simply mean, that you like traditional Puukkos and thats fine).
Again, I agree with you to some extent. A Puukko has certain simple lines, which makes it a Puukko and for a simple whittling knife, a bomb proof full tang could run counter to that.
I find the knife well executed and some of the lines reminds me of my Wirkkala knives, is all.
But as for me, I just like knives, using them and have owned Puukkos for decades and been around them all my life. I havent developed any certain criteria - I just know what I like - so what the heck do I know😊
+1 for JK Knives. If you know exactly what you want he will make it to your specs. John makes a good knife at a good price. http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/forumdisplay.php/830-JK-Handmade-Knives
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I've been collecting and using puukkos and nordic knives since 2003. As many I've started with Marttiinis since they were the only available in Italy at the time. These were a Lynx, a short leuku, a collector version of the Lynx and a rubber handle one.
I wasn't really impressed, though, by the very touristic feeling they had and by the not so great 420 use. At the time, I only felt somehow dissatisfied and couldn't quite get the particular that didn't click with me. I understood the "tourist feeling" some time later, after having bought and used other knives.
So, I moved on from Marttiinis and stepped into Iisakki Järvenpää Oy. I bought and used seven of their knives and got myself busy for a couple of years. I hadn't found yet a preferred style, so I got a couple of their knives with handlocking handles, a horsehead combo and three from the Lappland series. Of these the last three were my favourite since the handles felt better in use and also due to the kind of Sami background.
In the same period I started to get interested in nordic culture and began to self teach me about it with a lot of reading and starting to frequent BritishBlades.
Given my then lower financial possibilities, I kept searching among the various mass produced puukkos, so I bought two Eräpuu and four Kauhavan Puukkopaja. I also got four Paaso puukot, a Wood Jewel and a Ahti Metsä. All nicely made but didn't lit the spark. All these had either a "bird's head" pommel or a slightly flared one.
The first turning point was the encounter with Gransslöjd knives, made by Kimmo Sorvoja in Haparanda. Though still quite mass produced, it was my first experience actually talking to a maker about what I was searching: his ideas, materials, how he worked etc. Thanks to this I also had my first experience with a forged blade, made by Toivo Jaaranen from Pello. Gransslöjd made my benchmark for mass produced nordic knives, since they had the best fit, finish, feel and character of all those I've tried. I got six knives from him, none with a barrel handle.
Though real custom made knives were still out of my budget, I became very aware of them and started to look deeper into them.
In 2008 I got my second turning point, when I started to talk a lot with a BritishBlades member, Swedish hobbystic knifemaker Karl-Erik Lindblad. At the time I hadn't tried yet a proper barrel handled puukko and I thought my preferred style to be a "fishtail" handle, common on Swedish knives.
So, the lot of talk about his works, how he did them, all the pictures he posted on the forum and the additional talking about the two commissions I ended up asking him finally put me into the custom knives world. At the same time on BB happened the huge breakdown of Joonas Kallioniemi. While his puukkos spoke to me by a practical point of view, I couldn't stand his obsession with glossy polishing and quite slim proportions that, to me, took away for the user roots of the knives.
In late 2010 I got my third and biggest turning point, purely by chance. On BritishBlades started to post another Finnish hobbystic maker, Sami Lansipaltta, and one of his knives sported a blade made by Pasi Hurttila. I studied Hurttila's website, saw his knives at the time had fishtail handles, so I decided to drop him a line.
The talks that followed opened me the doors to blacksmiths world. I realised I found not only a maker crafting what I though was my favourite style of knives, but also somebody willing to share and talk freely about his job to a level I hadn't experienced yet, but was searching for. Lindblad at the time didn't make his own blades and Kallioniemi was a bit erratic on replies. When I tried to contact other makers for pure blademaking talk, I never got replies or very generic ones.
Hurttila, on the other hand, was very easy going and down on earth about blacksmithing. This also gave me the possibility to talk about Finnish culture and hiking as well.
So I got two fishtail puukkos from him, one of which with a rhombic blade. That was another huge discovering, that redefined the concept of bite. The last turning point to finally settle my preferences was in summer 2011 when he made me my first birch bark puukko, paired with rhombic section. The simple and humble barrel handle was the reply to my searching, but was so obvious I didn't considered it. How fool of me.
Since then I basically sticked to the barrel handle+rhombic blade configuration, which has become my benchmark. Thanks to Pasi Hurttila I had the possibility to know other smiths that shared their open mind about explaining and talking, in particular Ilkka Seikku and Jani Ryynänen.
In 2013 I started my collaboration with Nordiskaknivar blog and this gave me the idea for the human portrait we've done for many knifemakers and blacksmiths. This allowed me to talk to many other makers, saying Saku Honkilahti, Jukka Hankala, Martti Malinen, Kay Vikström, Pasi Jaakonaho, Mikko Inkeroinen, Antti Mäkinen...
So, as said, my personal preferences go to birch bark, rhombic section puukkos, but my main issue with calling puukko anything remotely similar is that to really understand what a puukko is you have to understand the culture behind it. My feeling is that the word is used more due to the current popularity of the style and his usefulness to identify a certain type of field blade, but without knowing what it really is, somehow lacking respect for it and the Finnish people.
I wasn't really impressed, though, by the very touristic feeling they had and by the not so great 420 use. At the time, I only felt somehow dissatisfied and couldn't quite get the particular that didn't click with me. I understood the "tourist feeling" some time later, after having bought and used other knives.
So, I moved on from Marttiinis and stepped into Iisakki Järvenpää Oy. I bought and used seven of their knives and got myself busy for a couple of years. I hadn't found yet a preferred style, so I got a couple of their knives with handlocking handles, a horsehead combo and three from the Lappland series. Of these the last three were my favourite since the handles felt better in use and also due to the kind of Sami background.
In the same period I started to get interested in nordic culture and began to self teach me about it with a lot of reading and starting to frequent BritishBlades.
Given my then lower financial possibilities, I kept searching among the various mass produced puukkos, so I bought two Eräpuu and four Kauhavan Puukkopaja. I also got four Paaso puukot, a Wood Jewel and a Ahti Metsä. All nicely made but didn't lit the spark. All these had either a "bird's head" pommel or a slightly flared one.
The first turning point was the encounter with Gransslöjd knives, made by Kimmo Sorvoja in Haparanda. Though still quite mass produced, it was my first experience actually talking to a maker about what I was searching: his ideas, materials, how he worked etc. Thanks to this I also had my first experience with a forged blade, made by Toivo Jaaranen from Pello. Gransslöjd made my benchmark for mass produced nordic knives, since they had the best fit, finish, feel and character of all those I've tried. I got six knives from him, none with a barrel handle.
Though real custom made knives were still out of my budget, I became very aware of them and started to look deeper into them.
In 2008 I got my second turning point, when I started to talk a lot with a BritishBlades member, Swedish hobbystic knifemaker Karl-Erik Lindblad. At the time I hadn't tried yet a proper barrel handled puukko and I thought my preferred style to be a "fishtail" handle, common on Swedish knives.
So, the lot of talk about his works, how he did them, all the pictures he posted on the forum and the additional talking about the two commissions I ended up asking him finally put me into the custom knives world. At the same time on BB happened the huge breakdown of Joonas Kallioniemi. While his puukkos spoke to me by a practical point of view, I couldn't stand his obsession with glossy polishing and quite slim proportions that, to me, took away for the user roots of the knives.
In late 2010 I got my third and biggest turning point, purely by chance. On BritishBlades started to post another Finnish hobbystic maker, Sami Lansipaltta, and one of his knives sported a blade made by Pasi Hurttila. I studied Hurttila's website, saw his knives at the time had fishtail handles, so I decided to drop him a line.
The talks that followed opened me the doors to blacksmiths world. I realised I found not only a maker crafting what I though was my favourite style of knives, but also somebody willing to share and talk freely about his job to a level I hadn't experienced yet, but was searching for. Lindblad at the time didn't make his own blades and Kallioniemi was a bit erratic on replies. When I tried to contact other makers for pure blademaking talk, I never got replies or very generic ones.
Hurttila, on the other hand, was very easy going and down on earth about blacksmithing. This also gave me the possibility to talk about Finnish culture and hiking as well.
So I got two fishtail puukkos from him, one of which with a rhombic blade. That was another huge discovering, that redefined the concept of bite. The last turning point to finally settle my preferences was in summer 2011 when he made me my first birch bark puukko, paired with rhombic section. The simple and humble barrel handle was the reply to my searching, but was so obvious I didn't considered it. How fool of me.
Since then I basically sticked to the barrel handle+rhombic blade configuration, which has become my benchmark. Thanks to Pasi Hurttila I had the possibility to know other smiths that shared their open mind about explaining and talking, in particular Ilkka Seikku and Jani Ryynänen.
In 2013 I started my collaboration with Nordiskaknivar blog and this gave me the idea for the human portrait we've done for many knifemakers and blacksmiths. This allowed me to talk to many other makers, saying Saku Honkilahti, Jukka Hankala, Martti Malinen, Kay Vikström, Pasi Jaakonaho, Mikko Inkeroinen, Antti Mäkinen...
So, as said, my personal preferences go to birch bark, rhombic section puukkos, but my main issue with calling puukko anything remotely similar is that to really understand what a puukko is you have to understand the culture behind it. My feeling is that the word is used more due to the current popularity of the style and his usefulness to identify a certain type of field blade, but without knowing what it really is, somehow lacking respect for it and the Finnish people.
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Thx for comprehensive answer.
I agree with some of your statements - others not so much.
Yes, at some point just throwing the word around, certainly doesnt make all knives branded as such for being Puukkos.
I do applaud certain interpretations though and I certainly dont perceive interpretations as lacking in respect or as insults towards the Finnish people. Those are strong words.
They are only knives after all and if one doesnt like them, just dont collect/buy them.
Id prefer to let it be up to the people from Finland themselves to be insulted or find certain knives lacking in respect for the Puukko heritage.
But correct, some knives posted as being Puukkos, simply are not.
I just acknowledge that and go about my business. I dont perceive it as being a sign of lacking respect against anybody.
You need to either post pics of your Puukkos or link to them, as they sound interesting. Look forward to pics.
I agree with some of your statements - others not so much.
Yes, at some point just throwing the word around, certainly doesnt make all knives branded as such for being Puukkos.
I do applaud certain interpretations though and I certainly dont perceive interpretations as lacking in respect or as insults towards the Finnish people. Those are strong words.
They are only knives after all and if one doesnt like them, just dont collect/buy them.
Id prefer to let it be up to the people from Finland themselves to be insulted or find certain knives lacking in respect for the Puukko heritage.
But correct, some knives posted as being Puukkos, simply are not.
I just acknowledge that and go about my business. I dont perceive it as being a sign of lacking respect against anybody.
You need to either post pics of your Puukkos or link to them, as they sound interesting. Look forward to pics.
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Do you want pics of all?
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If possible😃😃
...or as many as possible. Its a blade forun, what can I say.
Sounds like they deserve a thread of their own though.
...or as many as possible. Its a blade forun, what can I say.
Sounds like they deserve a thread of their own though.
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Fine. I'll have to wait for tomorrow for taking pictures, though, too dark here at the moment.
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I ended up taking pics now with artificial light and flash. These are the ones I have at hand, few others were given to relatives, others are on their way.
Marttiini
left Iisakki Järvenpää Oy, right Iisakki Järvenpää Oy and YP-Taonta
left Kauhavan Puukkopaja, right Kauhavan Puukkopaja and Ahti
left Eräpuu, right Wood Jewel and Paaso
left Gransslöjd with Lauri blades, right Gransslöjd with Jaaranen blades
Karl-Erik Lindblad, with Nylund blade and self made fulltang
Pasi Hurttila
Ilkka Seikku
top Pasi Jaakonaho, left Martti Malinen, right Jani Ryynänen
Is that enough?
Marttiini
left Iisakki Järvenpää Oy, right Iisakki Järvenpää Oy and YP-Taonta
left Kauhavan Puukkopaja, right Kauhavan Puukkopaja and Ahti
left Eräpuu, right Wood Jewel and Paaso
left Gransslöjd with Lauri blades, right Gransslöjd with Jaaranen blades
Karl-Erik Lindblad, with Nylund blade and self made fulltang
Pasi Hurttila
Ilkka Seikku
top Pasi Jaakonaho, left Martti Malinen, right Jani Ryynänen
Is that enough?
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Great pics.
Many nice knives - I especially like the Hurttila knives.
And no, its never enough😆 keep 'em comming.
Many nice knives - I especially like the Hurttila knives.
And no, its never enough😆 keep 'em comming.
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The bottom Seikku has a 88x21x4 mm blade and was featured in this review, among three other maasepan puukkos.
https://nordiskaknivar.wordpress.com/2015/11/21/maasepan-puukko-review-by-federico-buldrini/
https://nordiskaknivar.wordpress.com/2015/11/21/maasepan-puukko-review-by-federico-buldrini/
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Puukkoseppamestari
As best I can determine:
In addition to Jukka https://nordiskaknivar.wordpress.com/tag/puukkoseppamestari/
Pekka Tuominen
J.T. Palikko
Markku Vilppola https://nordiskaknivar.wordpress.com/tag/veitsi-kilpailu/
Pasi Jaakonaho https://nordiskaknivar.wordpress.com/2014/03/08/pasi-jaakonaho/
Arto Liukko https://nordiskaknivar.wordpress.com/2013/02/16/rautalammi-puukko/
Mikko Haverinen
As best I can determine:
In addition to Jukka https://nordiskaknivar.wordpress.com/tag/puukkoseppamestari/
Pekka Tuominen
J.T. Palikko
Markku Vilppola https://nordiskaknivar.wordpress.com/tag/veitsi-kilpailu/
Pasi Jaakonaho https://nordiskaknivar.wordpress.com/2014/03/08/pasi-jaakonaho/
Arto Liukko https://nordiskaknivar.wordpress.com/2013/02/16/rautalammi-puukko/
Mikko Haverinen