After college and having found a
real job I discovered I had a little extra spending money. I was entranced by a red handled folding
knife that could be best described as a butterfly knife from Finland. Of course I satisfied that itch.
Hackman Folding Puukko |
The blade doesn’t have a tang
stamp and the only identification is “Hackman Finland” molded into the red
plastic handle. The 3.75 inch blade is a
saber grind with a small secondary bevel that forms the actual cutting
edge.
The blade is an unknown stainless
steel. I’ve had it for years and no
evidence of rust has appeared, despite the minima care I’ve given it. And the plastic has also held up quite
nicely. I filed a small choil in the
blade to separate the edge from the ricasso.
It was thought, with some justification, that without the choil you
would damage your sharpening stone by chipping away it’s edge.
In retrospect I realize was all I really
accomplished was to add a stress riser in the blade.
Hackman was a cutlery and
cookware company founded in Finland in 1790.
Later it was bought by the Iittala Group. In 2007, littala was swallowed by the Fiskars
Corporation. Fiskars never, in my
opinion, understood the American knife market and even now needs to make up for
lost ground.
The folding Puukkko closed and latched |
The Hackman butterfly knife was
better known in Finland as Linkkupuukko, or "latch-knife". The
marketing boys positioned it as a retkiveitsi or "camping knife" and
later as Eräpuukko or "wilderness puukko." By now you should associating puukko with
Finnish for knife. I want to thank the unknow commenter who told me veitsi is Finish for knife. They were kind enough to inform me thay puukko is a particular type of veitsi.
The Hackman story begins when
Johan Friedrich Hackman was awarded the right to establish a trading house in
the Hanseatic city of Vyborg. He soon
had a successful timber goods business on his hands, but like most businessmen
he sought out new opportunities. West of
him was the territory now known as Finland.
In the early 1800s Hackman bought
Sorsakoski – a small factory community in eastern Finland. The purchase included a sawmill, flourmill and
a brick factory. Hackman’s cutlery
business began in nearby Vyborg in 1876, headed by his son also Johan Friedrich
Hackman.
Junior moved their entire cutlery
manufacturing business to Sorsakoski in the early 1890s. The factory community
was a mirror of Finnish society at the beginning of the twentieth century. Companies like Hackman took full
responsibility for providing basic services to their employees. Sounds a little like the American coal mining
companies and the company store, doesn’t it?
In 1902 Hackman began
manufacturing new low-cost cutlery items forged from a single workpiece. The
introduction of quality stainless steel in the 1920s revolutionized the entire
cutlery business. By the 1960s design
legends like Kaj Franck and Bertel Gardberg had designed iconic cutlery
collections for Hackman.
The black handle version of the
knife seems to have a sordid past or excellent present day marketing. There are rumors, highly unsubstantiated
rumors, that CIA agents were issued the knife for Vietnam. If anyone has any real knowledge I’d sure
like to hear from you.
This makes some limited
sense. The knife isn’t made in the USA
and being caught with one might not brand you as an imperialistic agent. The mechanism is simple and robust, perhaps
perfect for undercover work. Being
inexpensive, ditching the knife if you were being followed or mouse-trapped
didn’t require a huge sacrifice on your part.
However, it isn’t likely you can
call up the CIA and speak to the quartermaster and expect to get a straight
answer. That’s where the marketing comes
in. It’s easy to say on ebay that the
knife is from the CIA / Vietnam issue era.
Recently, Spyderco added some credibility to this story in their April Newsletter:
" While the Finnish Hackman Camp Knife, a balisong-style folder rumored to have been issued by the CIA in Vietnam..."
Recently, Spyderco added some credibility to this story in their April Newsletter:
" While the Finnish Hackman Camp Knife, a balisong-style folder rumored to have been issued by the CIA in Vietnam..."
There’s a story here and perhaps
one day we’ll know it in its entirety.
Post script: At the Novi, MI April 2023 show, I saw a black handled Hackman butterfly knife. Like the red one, the blade did not have a tang stamp or other markings. But the knife wasn't completely sterile as I had expected. Impressed on one side of the black handle, where the words Hackman Finland in very small letters, about half the size as the embossing on the red handled knife.
The knife was in very bad shape and I now have buyer remorse that I didn't buy it.
Does this resolve the CIA story. No, with out some province from someone who was issued or worked with a agent and saw the knife, the question remains unanswered.
Damn it, I should have bought the knife!