Antique Puukkos

[HoosierQ]

Thanks to member JVoutilainen I have found pictures of some very cool, presumably antique traditional Finnish Puukkos. I am getting the impression that the Puukko may be as important to Finnish culture as blades are to Japanese culture. I can't tell you a thing about these as the website was all in the Finnish language. Notice some of the "character" on these knives. Enjoy.

 

[bikerdoc]

Cool! You got the jones for sharp pointy things like the rest of us. It is a life long avocation and a lot of fun.

 

[hso]

The pukko is every bit as important culturally to the Suomi as blades were to Japanese and North Americans during the westward expansion.

 

[M67]

The pukko is every bit as important culturally to the Suomi as blades were to Japanese and North Americans during the westward expansion.

I think you may be underestimating Finnish and Scandinavian knife culture...

Norwegian and Swedish knives are not called puukkos, that's a Finnish word. The closest Norwegian or Swedish translation is probably "slirekniv" or "slidkniv" respectively. So this is kind of off topic, but anyway.

The design of knives varies from region to region all over Scandinavia, perhaps particularly in Norway because of our topography with steep valleys and deep fjords. Towns only a few miles apart can have different styles that are very apparent to collectors, although I couldn't tell the difference to save my life.

I looked for some pictures and found this collector. Instead of me linking to his pictures, those who are interested can go and have a look, just scroll down and click the thumbnails. If you click on the links on the right hand side of the page, there are lots more pictures to look at even if you don't understand the language. Both modern and antique knives.

BTW, the English word knife is as far as I know from Old Norse knifr, brought to you by Norwegian and Danish tourists a thousand years ago.

Edit
Here's an example from the link above:

 

[Deltaboy1984]

Nice Knifes

 

[HoosierQ]

M67

Wow. That is great too. These things just give me goose-bumps. Thanks a lot for the great link.

That is a great collection. Thanks.

QB

 

[ArfinGreebly]

Arrrgh!

You know, it can be frustrating to be semi-literate in a related-but-not-the-same Scandinavian language.

I can almost read Norwegian. I can sort of read Danish (I speak it better than read it). I lack in assorted specific nomenclatures. I handle "normal" conversational language alright, but as the topic becomes more technical to the given subject, I begin to get lost and require dictionaries and stuff.

Given a grounding in Danish, I can kinda-sorta navigate Norwegian. Frustrating that I'm not better at it.

Jeg fikk da tatt bilder av noen kniver, og begynner med en nylaget staskniv i klassisk telemarksstil, fra Jarle Eliassen.

Så veldig mye bedre enn dette blir det ikke.

"I got to take (?) pictures of some knives, and began with a newly made stas (ceremonial?) knife in classic telemarks (a town?) style from Jarle Eliassen."

"So very much (?) better [than] this is there not."
(Probably: "It doesn't get a lot better than this.")


Good hardware.

Wish I had a better grasp of the language and nuance.

 

[Mp7]

...

i have one like the 2nd from the left, but with a horsehead as a pommel.

Picked it up for like 10$ on a flea market.
My guess is that it is around 30-40yrs old.
Awesome blade ... sharp AND thick enuff
to easily cut open tin-cans ....

Mine has a commemorative inscription on
the blade .. leading to the conclusion
that they were commonly sold to visitors
... maybe during some Winter-Sports event like
Olympics .....

they tend to be rather small compared to
my Martiini, that i use in the kitchen for almost anything ....

The simplicity and quality of blade and grips
are just awesome. The Martiini is definitely
my go-to blade if i don´t want to intimidate
folks with something that looks like trench-war

Get one! More steel ... more good!

 

[M67]

Arfin

Wish I had a better grasp of the language and nuance.

Looks like you're doing at least as well as most native Danes. For an American that's pretty darn good, Danish and Norwegian are after all different languages even if they are fairly closely related. You should have no problem navigating related web sites if you use some of the words from this one as search terms.

"Stas" isn't exactly ceremonial, more like ornamental or decorative, such as "Sunday's finest" if you're talking about clothes, or the knife you wear with traditional formal dress ("bunadkniv", for both men and women). But "stas" can also mean fun. In the case of these knives, I guess the word is used in both meanings at the same time, a decorative knife that you enjoy showing off on special occasions. As opposed to "brukskniv", which translates as working knife.

"Så veldig mye bedre enn dette blir det ikke" can also be written "det blir ikke så veldig mye bedre enn dette" and be just as correct. Your translation doesn't get much better either.

 

[bikerdoc]

decorative knife that you enjoy showing off on special occasions.

Equivilant to our barbeque knife?

 

[Cosmoline]

Very nice! The puukko is my favorite style of blade. It's under-appreciated in the US and you rarely see American knife makers doing much with it. The big handle and small blade don't appeal to the folks after some honking great Bowie or tacticool knife. But they're very useful.

 

[M67]

Equivilant to our barbeque knife?

I almost used that term. As long as you don't mean barbeque => eating => utensil...