Finnish Delight

 Iisakki Järvenpää Puukko

I recently picked up a lovely dual Finnish puukko set made by Iisakki Järvenpää Osakeyhtiö.  The puukko set is a traditional dress knife pair with a painted red handle and brass fittings.  The two blades are engraved with the founder's signature, Iisakki Järvenpää.

I have recently discovered an interest in puukkos.  I admire the refinement and practicality of a knife designed to survive in the brutal arctic environment.

A Puukko by Iisakki Järvenpää Osakeyhtiö

A puukko is a general-purpose belt knife with a single curved cutting edge, solid hidden tang, and usually a flat spine.  Military models of puukkos have been popular in the Russian criminal underworld under the name "Finnish knife" or finka since the 20th century. 

Puukkos don’t have a ricasso (a section of the unsharpened blade nearest the handle) because this is where the most power can be applied.  While finger guards are uncommon (it is a cutting tool, not a stabbing weapon), puukkos intended to be used in wet or slippery environments will have some form of guard or grip enhancement carved into the handle.

The short knife is 5.75 inches long, while the larger one is about 8.5 inches.  They occupy a leather and brass sheath.  The front is partially painted/coated in red to match the knife's grip.

This set appears to be part of traditional ethnic dress, needing only a Helavyö belt.  The Helavyö is a leather belt decorated with several metal plates (or "hela"s).  The belt is an accessory worn by men and women in traditional garb but only by men in non-Karelian attire.

Traditional dress with Helavyö belt and knife set

The Karelian people are from an area in Northern Europe with historical significance for Russia, Finland, and Sweden.  Often, a trinket of some shape hangs from each metal plate.  The pendants are a pretty decoration; they show off the wearer's wealth.  As a bonus, they are reported to keep the devil away.

Non-Traditional dress

The company’s founder was Iisakki Järvenpää.  He was born on January 7, 1859.  From an early age, Iisakki was curious and thirsty to learn everything new.  He practiced his reading and writing skills on his own initiative.  While writing, he practiced not only the writing skill itself but also his penmanship.  His attraction to uncompromising and meticulous visuals is reflected in his knives and writing.  Iisak's signature is the company logo.

The Iisakki Järvenpää Company was founded in 1879 and is the largest manufacturer of knives in Kauhava, Finland, a well-known town with a long and rich history of knife making.  He had to learn everything from forging to metal polishing.

Self-taught, Järvenpää made simple work knives, but in 1888 he made a gift knife for the hereditary prince of Russia and the future emperor Nicholas II.

Because of the gift knives' impact, Iisakki received the title Keisari's knifesmith, which was entered in the church's books in 1889.  Keisari's blades had the lion coat of Finland carved into the handle and the emperor's crown on top of a lion.  The imperial thanks from future emperor Nicholas II received a lot of attention in newspapers nationwide, which led to a widespread increase in the demand for Iisakki’s knives.

Despite this success, his knife business grew slowly.  Wanting more for his family, Iisakki gave up 20 years as an independent craftsman and became a foreman at the newly founded knife factory in Kauhava.  Discovering the company had lied to him about benefits, he resigned from his position and re-established his own knife shop on February 15, 1904.  From this point, Iisakki's company became known as Iisakki Järvenpää Osakeyhtiö (Limited Company).

The larger Puukko with signature in the blade

Iisakki died on March 6, 1929, but his company continues, and the knives are made by hand in Kauhava, Finland, from locally sourced materials.  You can find out more at: https://www.iisakkijarvenpaa.fi/us/story

 

Any errors are from my misunderstanding of the translated Finnish.

 

Condor Indigenous Puukko

I like an underdog and recently I have been admiring Puukkos.  So when I got a chance to get a Condor Indigenous Puukko, I said yes.

The Indigenous Puukko

Who is the Condor Tool and Knife?

They are an El Salvador knife company that was started in Santa Ana under the name IMACASA® in 1964, by the German Company GEBR WEYESBERG COMPANY.  Santa Ana is the second largest city in population and importance in El Salvador and a major contributor to El Salvador prosperity.

In the 1980’s IMACASA’s Central American operations were sold to local investors who creating a reputation as machete and shovel makers. They grew to become one of the world’s largest producers and successfully compete on the world market .

In 2004, IMACASA® developed a first quality line of tools and knives for the North American and European outdoor markets. CONDOR TOOL & KNIFE® was born.

When the Indigenous Puukko arrived, I was amazed with its good looks.  Even my knife-jaded wife thought it looked good.  The designer Joe Flowers is deeply in to all things outdoors and brings his taste, experience and style to a working knife.

The 3.3-inch blade is 1095 carbon steel and hardened to Rockwell C scale 50-55.  That seems soft to many people, but in a survival and backwoods knife, the ease of resharpening and flexibility is priceless.  Noted knife maker Ernest Emerson has been quoted to say that a bent knife blade is still a knife, but a broken blade is junk.  I don’t expect to raft down the Amazon or have to make camp in the Utah mountains, but I do enough cutting to recognize the truth in that statement.

Don't judge a book by its cover.....

The Puukko’s edge is a scandi grind at a 25-degree edge-to-edge angle.  In my way of thinking, that’s a 12.5 degrees on a stone.  It’s a good all-purpose angle for cutting, cooking and resharpening.

The full tang knife has a 4-inch handle of walnut with a little carving at the butt end, a large lanyard hole and a band of woven brass cord at the other end.

Felt good in the hand...

I really like the knife, even if it’s not very sharp out the box.  I have often needed to touch up an edge on a fixed blade knife.  They are all hand ground; nobody has a machine that does as good of a job as a good sharpener.  Everybody has an off day.

The cross-section of the handle is a little asymmetric.  I thought the slightly “D” shape grip on the palm side of the handle filled my palm better.  The larger, heavier handle shift the balance point back into my palm, and I like that a lot in a working knife.  I think it makes the blade lively and easy to move.

The right side seems a little different in profile.  However, my adventures in knife handle shaping see these results too.  So I'm not too unhappy 

It was the sheath that made the difference.  The brown leather sheath is sewn around a wood block to provide both form and protection from the blade slicing through the leather and injuring you.  I couldn’t get the knife in.  The spacing was too tight.  I’ve learned my lesson about forcing sharp edged tools into sheaths.  It’s a good way to end up getting stiches.

Everything looks good until it's time to put the knife away

Would the leather stretch?  Perhaps.  But right now, I needed to grab the sheath in one hand and pull like a crazy on the handle.  Returning the knife is the opposite, grab the sheath and jam the knife in. I’m not doing that.  There are plenty of quality knives that don’t offer the promise of finger amputation.

Monday the knife goes back.  Too bad.  It is an attractive knife and I would have enjoyed using it.  I’ll enjoy having all my fingers more.

But if you’re willing to purchase one (https://www.condortk.com/products/product/62713)

and take a chance on stretching the leather sheath or moving to a kydex custom, one last observation:

Most manufactures list their suggested retail price, and for Condor that’s $79.98.  They also list the minimum advertised price a vendor can advertise their knife for.  This number is usually kept secret between the wholesaler and vendor.  Condor advertises it as $67.98.

That’s a little wacky.

Finnish Chili

You never associate chili with the Nordic countries, do you?

I give you that with the influx of tourists, especially Americans, you can find chili but it’s not a common menu item.

Harri Merimaa Puukko Set

I love chili and after begging for a while I was informed, if I cut up the chuck roast, my wife would make chili.  As a bonus I could cut the meat in any size I wanted.  I have almost religious view about chili meat size and shape.

I grabbed my puukko and went to town.  That’s the Nordic connection.

Knife meet meat

I have a set of Harri Merimaa puukko knives.  The set has the curious name of Double Big Hunting (Knives).  Harri is from Bothnia, a providence of western Finland and is a third generation knife maker.  I think they are very nice knives and I'm very happy to have them.  

Of the two available I selected the larger 154 mm (6 inches) long blade.  Both knives are handled with dyed curly birch capped with elm wood.  The blades are high carbon steel.  I first washed the protective oil off the steel with hot water and soap followed by plenty of hot water rinses.  Someday I tell you about a camping trip that had a little detergent left on a fork.  I really need to get food grade protective oil.

"A knifeless man is a lifeless man.”  Nordic proverb.

First steps to chili

The Nordic countries have a rich knife history.  In that extreme climate environment, the inability to use a knife to make a bowl, a cup, build fire and prepare food once meant you would die.  Today’s social institutions have changed some of that, but move to the edges, to the small villages and hunting camps and you’ll find that rule still enforced.

You can still find that in America, in hunting camps, back in the woods and mountains where your survival depends on you and the tools you have on you.  A good fixed blade is one of the best and simplest tools the prepared mind could ask for.

Just as an aside, the puukko is the only civilian item which can be openly worn as a part of a soldier's combat gear without breaching the regulations of the Finnish Defense Forces.  This is because puukkos are traditionally considered to be very personal items and the military does not supply conscripts with them.  Most bring their own with them. 

Trim

The thin saber grind blade quickly reduced the semi-frozen meat to various sizes and shapes according to my internal chili recipe.  Since I prefer very lean meat in chili, I carved out as much of the fat as possible.  Despite the blade size and being an inch wide the puukko efficiently dissected and removed the fat from the meat.

It didn’t take too long. The handle fit my hand well.  The gloves were just to protect the meat from a number of cuts and scrapes I have recently acquired.  I didn’t develop any hot spots and I just loved the way the blade parted the meat.  If Moses would have been standing there with me, he would have wondered by God hadn’t give him a puukko at the Red Sea.

Chuck roast cured, shaved, sliced ready for the pot

I’d give a puukko a chance if I were you.  It’s not the glitz or the super steel everyone seems to be nuts about.  It’s a design shaped by hundreds of years living in harsh environments.  Perhaps there is a lesson in that.

Lunch is served.

The Finnish Butterfly

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..."

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!

Puukko

"A knifeless man is a lifeless man.”  Nordic proverb.

I recently bought a set of puukko knives.  The set has the curious name of Double Big Hunting (Knives) and was designed by Harri Merimaa.  Harri is from Bothnia, a providence of western Finland and is a third generation knife maker.  I think they are very nice knives and I'm very happy to have them.  Nice job, Harri!

Double Big Hunting Puukko set

The blades are high carbon steel, the smaller knife is 84 mm (3.3 inches) while the larger is 154 mm (6 inches).  Both rest in a single brown sheath.  It’s the handles I found especially interesting.  Each handle is chiefly dyed curly birch capped with elm wood.  The rakish cut of the handle butt provides a stop to prevent your hand from sliding off.

Puukko knives are so characteristic of Nordic countries, it’s hard to mistake them for any other knife.  Surely you recognize them?  Most puukkos have a slight shoulder but no ricasso because where the edge ends and the handle begins is where most power can be applied.  The blades have a long flat edge with no secondary bevel.  To sharpen, the bevel is place flat on the stone and then polished.

Nor do puukkos typically have a guard to protect your fingers.  A puukko knife is primarily a cutting and building tool and not a tactical weapon. 

A classic blade would be the width of your palm, but you’ll find them 90-120 mm (3.5 to 4.7 inches) long.  This creates a market for both men’s and women’s puukko knives.  Women’s, (hey, it’s a sexist world) are typically shorter bladed for ease of food preparation.

In the Nordic countries, the puukko is an everyday knife that is used for everything from hunting, fishing, and garden work to opening boxes in the warehouse.  Despite being an everyday item, receiving a good puukko as a gift is considered a great honor in Finland.  Both Boy and Girl Scouts consider the puukko their scouting symbol as well as a handy tool.

In 1977 Finland banned carrying knives in public because, (wait for it…) they could be used as a weapon!  This law appears to be seldom enforced.  In my opinion, any law that depends on the personal outlook of a police officer is discrimination.

As an aside, the puukko is the only civilian item which can be openly worn as a part of a soldier's combat gear without breaching the regulations of the Finnish Defense Forces.  Because puukkos are traditionally considered to be very personal items, the military does not supply conscripts with them, and most bring their own with them.  It’s hard to imagine basic training with knives, but what do I know?