Saku Honkilahti

Saku Honkilahti is a pukkoseppä with a keen appreciation for history and traditional design. From the beginning, Saku has been a great help with this blog, providing me with information, obscure facts and bits of history. I am pleased to say that I own one of his very fine puukkos. It is a knife to be proud of. Here is a quote that Saku sent me that sums up his aesthetic ideal; "Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away."

Thanks to Saku for writing this piece and for his willingness to answer my many questions over the past several months.

Saku:

“I have been always interested in old habits, lifestyle and tools, especially edged tools: knives, axes, saws etc. I also like to make all kind of handcrafts, mostly from wood. There is some serious do-it-yourself men in my family: tailors and farmers, but not really smiths.

My puukko making really began in autumn 2005. I had a long time desire for a good, hand made puukko. But at the same time I absolutely didn’t have the money to buy that kind of puukko. So I went to a knife making course, where a local mastersmith taught me the main principles of puukko making. First and most important lesson is puukko must be a user.

It’s pointless to polish or decorate before being able to make puukkos with an excellent quality blade, handle and sheath. I must admit that the first time with forge, anvil, hammer and a piece of steel hit me really hard. Obviously the first blade and puukko weren’t so good, but after that moment I never looked back. Puukko making took place in my heart and soul. Immediately I also started to collect the necessary tools and materials to make more knives.

I have to admit that I have learned most of my skills by trial and errors. There have been times during which I practically lived in my workshop. Naturally I read all the material I can find, both in books and on the internet.

Puukko making is a special hobby for me and I do mean “special”: it’s a real passion. Seriously speaking, I’m not sure if I’ll ever want to do this as a full time job as I want my heart and soul to be along with every single puukko I make. The world is full of mass produced knives, with some nice details and even good quality. But at the same time this kind of knives are somehow boring. So I want every single puukko I make to be individual and unique. Of course, there is my own style and hand mark, still every puukko is a little bit different.

I live in Jalasjärvi, a municipality in western Finland, really close to Kauhava and Härmä that, as you know, in old times gave birth to really significant puukko models, smiths and even industry. In Jalasjärvi we have also our own model, with a really long tailed sheath. This particular puukko is still a little bit mysterious, but I’m doing reasearch on it.

My main sources of inspiration are ancient and present puukkos: pekanpää puukko, Tommi-puukko and all those old maasepän puukkos. I want my knives to be first and foremost usable for dealing with wood, meat, fish and all that stuff you need for real living.

I think my mission as puukko maker is to bring part of ancient days technology and knowledge to today’s modern world. I respect all those old masters who made user puukkos and I’d want to show that also modern men can make serious puukkos with simple but modern tools. For example I use a gas forge instead of a charcoal one and an electric powered grinder and belt sander instead of pure elbow grease. I want to do serious and honest tools meant for hard everyday use, not for a glass cabinet. I also want to do something unique, simple and with a long heritage to leave to modern world, where people consume all so quickly, way too quickly. Mobile phones, tablets, all that virtuality… they all come and go. The puukko will live and work today as in the future.”

Some photos of Saku and his work.

Jukka Hankala

I am pleased to  present a post by Jukka Hankala, one of Finland’s  finest puukkoseppäs. Jukka  is a master smith, one of the seven puukkoseppämestari, or master puukko makers of Finland.  His work is very clean and elegant and displays the highest level of skill and design. Jukka has been a smith for many years and offered these thoughts:

“I was born on my family farm and I grew up there, becoming a seventh generation farmer. Our farm always had a workshop, which was used for repairing and crafting new agricultural tools. That old smithy is now dismantled and only the anvil, the hammers and the tongs are left. In this area there is no special blacksmith tradition, there have always been blacksmiths in the villages and farms co-own forges. Farm cooperatives don’t have forges today, though.

As a young boy I have done repair works and learned from them. I also studied one year of metal work and worked for five years in a metal firm, then I returned to live on my farm. Later, I made a new workshop and put the modern machines. I started making knives in 1992 and nearly full-time in 1995.

I have always tried to achieve a simple design in my works, still it is not always so simple, as it displays errors easily. Also, I craft some jewelry for my wife, when I’m not making knives, as I was interested in jewelry when I was younger. I was also interested in drawing. I do not have a specific inspiration for my works, or if you think of it, the nature of this place gives me great ideas. I have named almost all of my knives with regional names.”

Some photos of Jukka, his shop and his work.

Jukka Hankala at The Helsinki Knife Show January 2012

Thank you to Jukka Hankala and Federico Buldrini for this post.  You can see more of Jukka’s work at http://www.hankala.com/

Kay Vikström

From Kay’s website ” I live in Purmo, a village about 500km north of Helsinki. Most of my time I make all kinds of blacksmith work as interior decorations for fashion shops, churches and private homes. But always when I get some time over I make knives.”   Kay Vikström is a master blacksmith with many interests, making puukkos is just one aspect of his talent. He does all kinds of metal work including fine art sculpture and is a musician as well.This is what Kay wrote:

“I lived on a farm all my life and used to do everything with my hands. I have always been interested in different kind of art: I have been playing drums and percussion for over 40 years and I have also been painting a lot, mostly oil on canvas.

When I started to forge, about 20 years ago, it was very close to what I had done before: I felt it was pleasant. The art of painting and forging are close, and I just added some percussion. I have forged a lot of different items such as church gates, candelabras, candle holders in all sizes and shapes and I’ve done restorations on old ironwork. Sculptures and art forging are maybe the most fun.

I attended some short courses about black powder guns, axes, sculptures, mosaic damascus, but mostly I have learned by myself doing all mistakes and learned from them. Some years ago I got my masters in blacksmithing.

Wintertime is slower with blacksmithing, overall, so mostly I make knives then. I live 30 minutes from Kauhava, but I guess most of my knives have more Nordic than typical traditional Finn style, maybe because here where I live, near the sea, most of the people speak Swedish as their first language.

When I started hammering, blacksmithing was almost gone, just some old men were still forging. It has been funny to be a part of bringing it back and see young craftsmen grow up. I am a lazy person. I like motorcycles and fishing better than work, but I get something done sometimes now and then…”

Some of Kay’s other work and interests:

Cheers! And thank you Kay! Visit him at his website http://www.multi.fi/~kaitsu/index2.html

Ilkka Seikku

This post is the first in a series of profiles of puukkoseppä. Federico Buldrini has started this project by contacting several puukkoseppä to ask if they’d be willing to submit a short biography, some thoughts on knife making and Finnish culture and some photos. He has received some very interesting replies and I’d like to present the first one of Ilkka Seikku here on Federico’s behalf. He has several more profiles completed and I’ll be presenting them here over the next several weeks. My thanks to Federico, Ilkka and to all the puukkoseppä who have taken the time to respond! Visit Ilkka’s website to see more of his work: http://www.tuluskivi.suntuubi.com/ and check out his blog also: http://rautasarvi.blogspot.fi/2013/11/blog-post.html

Ilkka Seikku:

“My great interest about old Finnish culture is surely one of the reasons that made me interested in blacksmithying. Also the fact that I´ve always made all kind of handicrafts has guided me at this point where I make my living as a blacksmith.

I don´t know if there is some distant forefather who has been blacksmith… I think every Finnish person has some distant forefather who has been a blacksmith. Both of my grandfathers have forged their everyday tools, but they were not professionals. Simple puukkos and other tools. That has been very common in the Finnish countryside and it´s not rare even today. So, there has not been any certain blacksmith tradition in my family, but I have kids, so…

I think I seriously started to think of blacksmithing as a real job in 1998 and that´s about the time when I started to really understand something about blacksmithing. In 2000 I made some of my living making puukkos, knives and tools and in 2002 I started my own business. Some hobby forging a lot earlier, of course.

My first real blacksmithing teacher was masterblacksmith Hannu Antila, who is surely one of the best blacksmiths in Finland. So, not just puukko blades. Also Martti Malinen, famous axesmith, is a name I want to say in this factual connection. But as a stubborn Finnish hillbilly, I have to make my own mistakes and learn all by myself. So I don´t take any instruction as a one-and-only full truth, no matter if those instructions come from some mastersmith or even Master of The Universe… I also don´t think that this is the world´s most important and dead serious thing. My main sources of inspiration obviously come from traditional Finnish culture. Not by copying, but by living.

In the countryside in Finland, most of the blacksmithing tradition is based on farming (scythes, sicles etc), forestry (axes, log grapples, etc) and hunting (traps, knives etc.).There is no particular puukko named by Sammaljoki or Sastamala. But I think this whole thing with puukkos named after certain areas is some new aged idea. Of course there has been some similarities with puukkos made in Sammaljoki in old times, because same blacksmiths have made those. At the moment there is one fulltime blacksmith in Sammaljoki, guess who! So my puukkos are all “Sammaljoki puukkos”, if I want to call those in that name.

Beside blacksmithying I’ve made my living also from antler and horn works, wood works, leather works, traditional bows, taxidermy and drawing. Finally, I think there is no any mission given to a man like me. But I surely try to inspire people to the traditional crafts and, through that, maybe getting more understanding from the nature and “good old times”. I don´t like the idea about every man should do exactly the same things and there is some master of the masters who says how to make things. Copying is same as lying.”

Some puukkos:

“Prowlers/prowlerantler – Even though I make a lot of traditional puukkos, like simple maasepänpuukkos and other traditional works, at the moment my bestseller is no doubt the BushProwler. I’m very pleased about the feedback it got from users all around the world.”

“Tradleuku – Traditional leuku is of course one of my regular works.”

“Bowyersknife  (archer’s knife)- I have a huge need to make all kind of carvings and other decorations. It´s something I have born with, I think. I normally try to make very simple knives and puukkos without a lot of decorations, but sometimes there just appears some carvings at the kniveshandles too.”

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“Puukko blade forged out of a ball bearing from a bus.”

“I use knives and puukkos everyday. I don´t make some special tests with my knives, but I test them in real use. Butchering, skinning, cutting meat, carving wood, whittling, batoning, etc. Just normal everyday things.”

“Me at work.”

Rautalammi Puukko by Arto Liukko

Recently when I was trying to learn about the Rautalammi puukko I wrote to Arto and Jari Liukko to see what they could tell me. I am an admirer of their masterful work and was hoping they would have some information about the history of this type of puukko. Arto is one of the seven puukkoseppämestari of Finland and Jari is his son. Their work is of the very highest level as you will see by the photos below. You can visit their website at http://www.liukkopuukot.fi/index.html Here is the information I received from Arto and Jari:

The Rautalammi Puukko by Arto Liukko

“There’s no greater puukko tradition in eastern Finland than there is in Ostrobothnia, (Kauhava, Härmä…) which is the cradle of the whole Finnish puukko culture. Of course the puukko was needed here on a daily basis like everywhere else. Surely the local smiths had their own models and puukkos from elsewhere for sale. But there is one model, labelled as a traditional puukko, that stands out and honorably represents knife making skills in eastern Finland. The Rautalammi puukko.

The father of the Rautalammi puukko is Emil Hänninen (1869-1952) from Rautalampi. His workshop shipped puukkos all over Finland and also abroad, at least to Russia. Hänninen’s grand son, Hannu Tick, has told that a notable amount of puukkos sent to Russia were simple and ascetic utility knives. The Rautalammi puukko is a lot different than that ascetic utility puukko. It has a straight blade and a ricasso, but no blood groove. The handle is symmetrical. It also features a long pommel and skillfully filed bolster. The handle material in preserved models are curly birch and ebonite. An inlayed birchbark handle was also part of Hänninen’s production. The inlay pattern, ”lily of the valley”, he used was simplier than the complex inlay patterns used by the smiths in Ostrobothnia, but it still was beautiful and original. Even though Hänninen’s works are original, the influence of Ostrobothnian puukkos are clearly visible. The one factor separating the Rautalammi puukko from every other Finnish puukkos the most, is the sheath. The particular feature is the last (wooden cover inside the leather), that has strongly bevelled and decorated sides. Ornaments on the sheath are quite original and in my opinion the Rautalammi sheath is one of the most beautiful.

Only a handful of Hänninen’s puukkos have been preserved to these days and most of them are in the familys posession. A known puukko hobbyist Eino Kauppinen owns some of Hänninen’s work. In the Paris world exhibition in the year 1900 Hänninen received a bronze medal for his decorative Rautalammi puukko. This puukko still exists and is owned by the family member of his wife. After Emil Hänninen retired, one of his sons Heikki Hänninen continued in his fathers foot steps. Emil’s second son of four, Urho was a blacksmith. Did he made puukkos? I have no knowledge of it. The son of Urho Hänninen made Rautalammi puukkos by the standards of his grandfather Emil.

Iivari Haring (1887-1954) is mentioned as a maker of Rautalammi puukkos. In his days of youth he worked as a smith in Karttula, but moved to Kuopio in 1914 and from there to Pirkkala in 1937 to work in an airplane factory. There is only one preserved puukko by Iivari Haring in the common knowledge. This puukko and the sheath is photographed in Timo Hyytinen’s ”Suuri Puukkokirja 1”. The sheath is genuine Haring, but the puukko I am not sure of.
I have seen similar work among others in the Kauhava’s puukkomuseum. Haring’s house was destroyed in a fire and most likely a lot of valuable puukkos were destroyed. Hopefully some of his work still exists. What kind and in what condition time might reveal.

The Finnish Puukko culture is rich and original. The Rautalammi puukko is one crucial part of this tradition. I recommend people to get to know this model. It is a stylish and honest Finnish puukko. It was made as a utility puukko and it fills every criterion demanded of a puukko. With this model one can study almost every aspect there is to a traditional puukko. These are for example assembling a birch bark handle, doing the inlays and mountings. All tools used in the sheaths decoration you can make yourself . The Finnish puukko has received its shape and form during the ages. The basic form is very simple. It features a straight blade and a straight symmetrical handle. The length of the handle is a width of a mans hand. The length of the blade is the same or a bit shorter. The blade is relatively narrow, usually 16-18 mm. Of course there are exceptions from this definition to different needs of use and personal choice.”

A gallery of work by Arto and Jari:

Arto Liukko Rautalammin

Jari Liukko double

Arto Likuuo Keisarinpuukko

Jari Liukko

Arto Liukko

Jari Liukko

Arto Liukko

Jari Liukko

Arto and Jari at the Helsinki Knife Show

Joonas Kallioniemi Mammoth Tooth Puukko WIP

Not long ago, my friend Joonas and I were discussing various materials for puukko building and I asked him what material he hadn’t worked with yet that he would like to try. Mammoth ivory was at the top of the list. I did some searching and found that mammoth ivory was pretty hard to come by and may not be suitable for what we had in mind. Ivory from other sources was very expensive and there were legal considerations involved, especially if it had to pass through customs.

In my search I found a dealer with mammoth tooth blocks for sale, while not inexpensive, they were within reason. I wasn’t familiar with the characteristics of mammoth tooth but they looked amazing. After discussing it with Joonas we decided to purchase the blocks and he’d give it a try. He said he wanted to make an heirloom quality knife, one I could be proud of and pass on to my son.

When the blocks arrived I was surprised how heavy and dense they were. They looked like gemstone. My friend Federico Buldrini reminded me that they weren’t actually tooth anymore but mineral, stone. Fossilization had occurred over the thousands of years since the mammoth had become extinct. These were blocks cut from a tooth which was probably larger than a shoebox or large loaf of bread. The mammoth had four of these huge teeth which were needed to chew about 500 pounds of vegetation a day.

I couldn’t imagine how Joonas was going to work such hard dense material, but he was up to the challenge as usual. So just before Christmas I sent the mammoth tooth to Joonas, what follows is his report. You will know by the photos of the finished puukko that I was very pleased with the results. It is indeed an heirloom piece to be handed down to my son and hopefully his son and and his son and on.

Thank you Joonas for all your hard work and taking time out of your work schedule to document the creation of this beautiful puukko!

Joonas Kallioniemi:

“Some time ago Mike and I started to play around with an idea of a new puukko knife for him. All along from the start it was clear that it was going to be a very special knife, and we agreed that I’d make a WIP post of the building process. After some thinking we decided to go with a piece of mammoth tooth for the handle, with nickel-silver fittings. I shared some of my ideas with Mike and he gave his approval, so all that was left was to make the knife!

The concept for the knife came with some influence from Tommi puukkos, and some from my own mind. I saw the knife in my head and started the process of bringing it to life. The following pictures are not perfect and they don’t capture every single detail in the making process, but they give some sights inside the craft.

Here you can see what we started out with: a beautiful piece of stabilized mammoth molar, some nickelsilver and silversteel.”

I turned to my good old friend The Fire, and forged the raw form of the blade.

Then I removed the scale and slightly ground the blade to get the profile where I wanted it.

Then I ground the blade closer to what it should be.

After grinding I filed the shoulders of the blade with a nice radius, with the aid of a filing guide.

As I had the blade roughed out I shifted my attention to the bolster and pommel. I got a bit creative with the milling machine and made the rough shapes… still a lot to do before they fit perfectly.

This is what we had at that point.

Behind the window, gray and cold, -28 degrees Centigrade. So heat-treating the blade seemed like something to do.

After heat-treating I always do a rough sharpening for the blade and test the durability of the edge with some deer horn. Then I proceed by finishing the blade and etching my name.

Then the rough-cut bolster has to be fitted to the blade. No shortcuts there, just pressing and taking material off where it needs to be taken off.

Some shady pictures of fitting the blade to the piece of mammoth… that’s some hard stuff. I’ve drilled the piece before using the hand tools for opening the cavity and I must say that piece was the hardest material I’ve ever drilled. The brown layers on the material seemed to respond very well to drilling but once I hit that shiny white layer… it was like drilling glass! The bit just wouldn’t want to penetrate the layers, but with time and cursing we got through the job.

That’s it! A snug fit with some extra room for epoxy. Not perfect but it fits.

I’ve also slightly cut off material from the piece of tooth at this point, so it’s at correct length and angle. I have maybe too much material, but I’ve never dealt with this material before so I’ll rather have some extra on it.

Then the fittings needed some shaping with the belt grinder.

I then assembled the knife, with as much epoxy in between as possible, and peened everything together nice and snug.

A quick touch up with the belt to see how clean the peening is. Two horrible mishits with the hammer! Sometimes they happen, luckily they’re not too deep so I can get them off later when I’m rounding the pommel. Everything looks rough and ugly at this point… bear with me!

Better leave the knife alone for a day to set, enjoy some coffee.

The handle has to be ground out. First the profile, then rounding it. I usually tend to favour a more teardrop shaped cross-section on my knives but with this particular knife I wanted to go with a more rounded profile. This material was quite hard to shape with conventional methods. I also tried to avoid heating the material too much, so that slowed me down a bit too. The smell of this material was horrible too! Even with separate working clothes the smell stuck to my clothes and sweat, and judging from the looks on their face I’m pretty sure that other people noticed it as well!

The pommel is getting some shape. There’s a slight dent right on the edge of the metal, but it’s so minute that it’ll go away when I finish up the knife.

With careful finishing we end up at 2000 grit.

Some sights into the process of making the plywood liner for the sheath.

With the liner ready, we’ve cut some leather and done some cutting and marking for it. So the stitching may begin.

Then it’s just a matter of letting the leather dry, smoothing it out and adding a bit of colour.

After greasing up the leather and making the dangler ring and one-piece leather-rivet

It’s just a matter of assembling it up. And then you realize that the knife is ready! It is quite mind-boggling to think that the handle of that knife is actually a piece of a mammoths tooth… It kind of puts things into perspective. I’m pretty sure that the animal couldn’t have guessed that one day one of those teeth would end up at a dusty workshop in Finland. We tried to make a heirloom object, a special knife, and I think we got there. Thank you for the opportunity to bring this idea to life.

 

 

Ilmajoen Puukko or Hattutuppipuukko

While writing a post about Annsi Ruusuvori I was introduced to a type of puukko known as a hattutuppipuukko, or “hat sheath puukko”. Annsi had reproduced a pair that is in the Finnish Museum and I thought they were very interesting and unique, unlike anything I’d seen. These puukkos originated in Ilmajoki, and in the Southern Ostrobothnian region of Finland in the mid to late 1800’s. I wanted to know more and asked my friend Saku Honkilahti about them. Here is his reply:

“I live in Jalasjärvi and Ilmajoki is neighboring municipality. An Ilmajoen puukko really is a hattutuppi. I presume, that these hattutuppis were made by professional shoemakers or something and the puukko itself is homemade or a so called maasepän puukko.

That kind of sheath was quite expensive and it is usual that sheath would remain but puukkos vary and were replaced when worn out or broken. An interesting detail is, that the hattutuppis usually don’t have a lesta (a form fitting wooden liner) inside. And as you know, the lesta is very typical for Finnish sheaths.

In the old days, hattutuppis were a little bit like any bag, you could throw in any kind of puukko you have. Because of this “hattu”, your puukko is secured in, even if the fit isn’t even close to perfect.

Usually puukkos in hattuppis are large, larger than an average puukko.
Usual blade length may be 10cm and over and very thick also, really clumsy workhorses. Nothing nice or glamorous as you can see from the Finnish Museum website.

So a hattutuppi is really different animal, compared to a Tommi puukko or similar, which are made by professional puukkoseppäs and fit together perfectly. The hattutuppi is kind of a forgotten piece of Finnish puukko history.”

This style of puukko was popular more than 100 years ago. As far as I know Annsi Ruusuvori is the only puukkoseppä who has made the hattutuppipuukko. I think it’s a style worth reviving and I’d like to see them being made again.

These hattutuppipuukkos all originate from southwestern Finland. All photos are from The Finnish Museum website Suomen Museot Online http://suomenmuseotonline.fi/fi

 

Here are the two by Annsi Ruusuvori that are featured in an previous post:

Yrjö Puronvarsi Blades / YP Taonta

The subject of this post is Puronvarsi blades also known as YP Taonta (YP Forging) under the current smith, Antti Mäkinen. Antti is the grandson of Yrjö Puronvarsi who was the smith for many years. Not only have they established a reputation for excellent, beautiful blades but Antti has a  selection of forged items including puukkos, axes, tools and decorative items. Please take a greater look at his skill at his site, http://yp-taonta.fi/

Thankyou once again to my friend Federico Buldrini for his many contributions and to  Antti Mäkinen for the photos and information.

A Puronvarsi blade from Brisa, http://www.brisa.fi/

The Puronvarsi Story

By Federico Buldrini

What I’m about to tell you is the story of a Finnish family who has devoted many of its members to the art of forging.

In 1809 tsar Alexander I conquest took Finland from Sweden, in the hope of expanding the southern borders of Russia unto the Danube, and for the next fifty years the authorities of the Grand Duchy of Finland will work tirelessly to convince the Russian court of the loyalty of Finland.

Our story takes place in Härmä, a small town 24 km south of Kauhava, the historic “puukko capital” in western Finland.
We are in 1850 and it’s in this year that a man from the Puronvarsi family starts his own business as a blacksmith. The son, Matti, following in the footsteps of the parent, learns and passes the craft on to one of his descendants, Esa Puronvarsi.

In 1927, in an independent Finland, Yrjö Puronvarsi is born, who in his youth, along with his eight brothers, learns the art of forging from his father and uncle. He will be the only one to carry on the job, although there will be a period in which twenty family members will work as smiths at the same time.

Yrjö has three children, two boys and a girl. Neither of the sons was ever interested in the family job, while the daughter, Ulla, in the early ’80s, became the mother of Antti Mäkinen. Antti begins his smithing career in 2006.

We’re almost to the present day. Yrjö, the blacksmith who worked longer in the family, passed down to his nephew his knowledge to create his heir. Today, being 85 years old, he doesn’t forge anymore full-time, but still works six days a week, for the love of it and for exercise.

Yrjö and Antti at the Finnish blacksmith competition at Petäjävesi, Finland.

Some photos of YP Taonta:

The smithy is quite small (20 m²) and in the spring will be probably extended or even replaced with a larger one.

Outside are two emery grinders.

A 40 kg Jupiter air hammer…

and a self made grindstone.

The 70 kg Lokomo anvil has been in use for more than a century and has been used by four generations of smiths.

What follows is a photo essay about the forging of normal sized puukko blade by Antti Mäkinen:

Let’s starts from a bar of 1070; it’s cut

so as to obtain a piece of steel of 80x25x8 mm.

that is then heated in the forge.

The tang is flattened and stretched with the power hammer

and then finished with a hand held hammer.

Then the blade is stretched out

so as to obtain a steel bar 10 mm high and 9 mm thick.

The bevels are roughly forged with the power hammer

and then finished with a hand held hammer.

The blade is finally touched up with the Jupiter air hammer

and stamped with the maker’s mark.

Forging is completed, now starts polishing and heat treatment.

The blade shape is now finished on the emery wheel

and on a grindstone.

Next is sanding with #120 grit.

The blade is now ready for heat treatment.

Annealing, normalization, heating and oil quenching.

Now the blade is sanded to #150 grit

and has the tempering cycle in an electric oven.

After the heat treatment is done the final polishing with steel wire

and #180 grit

and bevels are mirror polished with felt wheel.

The blade, here next to a piece of steel such as the one that generated it, is now complete and ready for use.

Matti Luhtanen: Toijala Puukko

I have come to know the work of puukkoseppä Matti Luhtanen recently and I would like to show some of his Toijala puukkos to you. These puukkos require a high level of skill as you can see by looking at them. This style of puukko dates back to at least the mid 1800s and to me is one of the most beautiful and stylish of all puukkos.

I asked Matti to write about his work and he was kind enough to respond. Thank you very much Matti! I’m hoping to feature a work in progress post by Matti sometime in the future.

Matti Luhtanen:

“I come from probably the most well known area of puukko making in Finland: the South Ostrobothnia. This is where Iisakki Järvenpää and Rannanjärvi have lived and taken our rich puukko culture forward. My blood heritage from the early days is called Könni. They were masters in clock machinery production in the 19th century and very well known for that. Of course there have been many other craftsman in my kin, who have made clock machinery, guns, woodwork, jewellery and so on.

Matti Luhtanen. Photo by Jaakko Elenius.

I made my first puukko in vocational school (at the age of 19) that’s basically how my hobby started. I started making the toijala puukko in a course in the adult education center in Jalasjärvi. The course leader was Taisto Kuortti and he got me into taking part to the Fiskars competition for the first time. The Fiskars competition of puukko making is organized by the Finnish puukko club, Suomen Puukkoseura ry. http://www.puukkoseura.fi/   It is held every year. The competition is respected and has great reputation amongst the hobbyist, collectors and buyers.

Matti’s puukkos have earned him several medals at the Fiskars Compeition.

Toijala really is my favourite type of puukko, I also make my own models. I have always been fascinated by the old province puukkos. In the old toijala puukkos, they have used copper, brass and nickel silver in the sheath and ferrule. Inside the sheath they have used leather. A long long time ago, they have used bones from butchered animals in the handle and later “drolon” which is sort of replication of plastic. Preferably, I use drolon and nickel silver.

The making starts from the blade. Many people think that it’s about 2 % of the whole work, but I disagree. The hammering, polishing and heat treatment takes a lot more when it’s properly done. Of course the making of ferrule and sheath is demanding work too, let alone the decoration. In my opinion, the decoration is the most demanding part in making the toijala puukko.

I have many projects in mind, but at the moment I’m mainly focusing in getting the tools and producing them and also on studying and practicing the methods.”

 

 

Christmas Puukko Gallery

I’d  like to post photos of some of the puukkos I’ve seen during this year. These are not, with a few exceptions my puukkos but photos sent to me by puukkoseppä who have helped me with this blog. I thank each one of them for taking the time to help me with information and photos.  Some of these puukkos may have been featured  in an earlier post, but there are new one here too. I think it’s a nice Christmas-time treat to see all of these beautiful puukkos in one place. They are presented in no particular order.

I wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy and Healthy New Year!

Joonas Kallioniemi

Saku Honkilahti

Pekka Tuominen

Jukka Hankala

Matti Luhtanen

Anssi Ruusuvuori

Mikko Inkeroinen

Sami Länsipaltta

Pasi Hurttila

Ilkka Seikku

Joonas Kallioniemi

Anssi Ruusuvuori

Saku Honkilahti

Jukka Hankala

Pekka Tuominen

Mikko Inkeroinen

Matti Luhtanen

Obviously not a puukko but one of my favorite knives:

Pasi Hurttila

Pasi Hurttila