A late find on the Marko Lindela knife which I think is neat.

I knew he charged more for the rustic look knives due to forging "to final thickness" as he said, my assumption spine forged more to final thickness in order to leave rustic appearing material, and rest would be forged/ground as normal.

Not so....he meant entire blade forged to near finished shape, and rough grinding only to level surface, the rough grinding unique to these more rustic blades.

All his knives are forged out, but on others he leaves enough material to eradicate all signs of forging via grinding for "nicer" look, but not on these, not anywhere.

I thought, in typical USA fashion, that what I saw on initial receipt was a blade which had been roughly and minimally forged, roughly ground and thrown in a bin to rust a spell, and then surface rust ground out at final grind/finish. Leaving shadows of the rust in the grind. Hey, I'm American and used to it....

But what I was looking at was a blade forged almost to completed shape, where shadows of scale not completely removed and carrying down to near final edge.

Lotta forging going on with this humble appearing knife. And much could have been skipped with no one the wiser.

The language barrier partly to blame for my misunderstanding, and also misunderstandings of his website, where he lists this finish as "forged", while other finishes do not use the f-word, leading even to typical forum chatter of making up what one does not know, and comments of "sounds like a short cut to me!" regarding his other blades.

The other part to blame is buyers frequently sold things misrepresented by makers in either outright or inferred statements as to how things are made, and Americans especially so misled by many domestic makers and sellers at every turn.

But, it seems with Marko that one gets what one pays for, and then some...such as, check out lines in the spine passing through points both high and low, and only erased on high points, where the more you zoom in, the more you see. I did not notice this until I looked at my own photo. Yep... Lotta forging going on here.

Nice knives!
A typical rustic style - saving time and effort.
However, excellent results, as well as the quality of work
I saw similar, only entirely forging,
just a little bit of sharpening the cutting edge - no sanding,
no dremel. Specifically this on photo Russian knife (1-2 photo)

There is still a Finland master YP Taonta.
Also complete forging, but it's a budget option (3-4 photo)

There is also a Ahti and other, they use blades the company Lauri.
It is stamped blades with minimal processing (4-5 photo)


In fact Marco great master, this style is, rough processing blades.
Hilt, scabbard, gaps, cracks, interfaces handle and blade - everything is fine
Not to be confused with style and quality.
So I do not recommend Ahti and Iisakki Jarvenpaa later than 1960.
Build quality is unstable and low
Good Finn knife - 1890-1950's, the rest is necessarily to touch himself.

the main purpose of forging to final shape would have been to save waste of precious, hard to make, steel. And also save on grinding minus power tools.

Am still blown away by the lines in the spine of Marko's knife, and assume small bar hammered out flat and doubled back on self multiple times to build up a large enough piece of steel in order to have enough to even start forging the knife. Which is quite the opposite of starting out with a large chunk and then extruding a tang. Which would also go back to very old ways of wasting nothing. I also suppose/hope that 5-7 folds would do it, as by 10-11 folds would be circa 1000 and 2000 layers respectively. All done the very old way in order to preserve it, even when invisible to a buyer on higher finished versions.

The Lauri blades are quite good and often these $15 blades hold up as well as many costing magnitudes more, and prices quite reasonable on Ahti, Wood Art, etc complete knives starting at $50-$60 including leather sheath using the Laurin Metalli Oy blades.

In english, a good little essay on the Taonta name basically brought back by a nephew and starting with junk pile of old shop, hoping to expand and improve equipment. He does more what I term the basic forged blade, of banging out a piece of heavy stock, and forging out tang/edge/point and grind....

https://nordiskaknivar.wordpress.com/2013/01/13/yrjo-puronvarsi-blades-yp-taonta/

Interestingly enough, many of these guys now doing great work have only been doing this for 4-10 yrs, including Tapio, Marko, and the Taonta family nephew. If they continue, one wonders what they will be in 25yrs!

This is a pile of future puukkos, a half dozen to be made for Christmas gifts when weather cools.

The wood is wax dipped Amazon Rosewood (which is as close as to long time banned Brazilian Rosewood as one can get, and likely next on the ban list, most "rosewood" sold today not true rosewood at all), blades are Lauri, wood will be cut to lengths, center drilled and while annealing tangs for peening, will burn tang hole for perfect fit with spare blade bought just for that (at sub-$20, you can afford to ruin a blade and use as a tool), will be epoxied (only for waterproofing interior and joints for kitchen tool use) and tang peened over brass washer on butt.

Mainly showing this to show the Lauri blades. Nothing wrong with them. I think they are stamped-out Thyssen Krupp 80CrV2 run to 58-60 Rc so you might sometimes get one too hard, but normally good rep among knife beaters. Since for mainly female family members, blades will be excellent for daily chores.

A real puukko? Not really, except in the 20th century factory made manner of cheap utility knife. But still a great blade design of strong edge and tip but with high grind for wicked slicer/cutter maintaining puukko strengths.

Thank you Lofty!
Interesting report about YP.

Cool, this blade is perfect for rosewood.
Show, when knives ready

Even I will be interested to see knives when ready, meanwhile dreading the work. All will be done with a hand-cranked drill, roughed out by carving with knife, and hand shaped and finished with rasp, files, and sandpaper. Which on real and oily, hard, abrasive-clogging rosewood will be more fun than I can stand.

There are easier ways, but for family, I wanted as much of self put into it as possible, which they will appreciate. Same as I appreciate all the hidden work a puukkoseppa such as Marko does.

This will be my own poor contribution to having a work ethic rather than mass produced crap. It will still look like mass produced crap, but will be crap with a little soul.

I was insane to choose true rosewood, but flashing back to childhood when Brazilian Rosewood was common and Amazon basin only beginning to be raped. Now endangered species, and was looking for nostalgia and durability for generations of kitchen use. But imported arctic fancy birch (and from Marko) would have been much lighter, just as water resistant (birch wood and bark loaded with wax), and a HECK of a lot easier to work. But....it is here.....so......live and learn....learn to just buy from someone who knows what they are doing, like Marko.

Hey, DS, who was offering the lovely Taonta bladed puukkos accented with the northern Saami bone and carving? I just adore the Saami bone carving and piercing, personally prefer that type of carving over our more florid engraving styles.

Also, should maybe accent that crafts and tourism a very large part of Scandinavian and Bothnian/Ostrobothnian/Saami economies, and have been since railroads. So as far as puukkos (which just means "knife") goes, very developed regional style knifemaking centers developed early on. Team efforts of knifemaking as well.

So, outsourced blades from both factories and small smithies common, and many smiths make far more blades for other houses than they do their own, and these other houses employ people adept in various folk crafts, many working out of own homes, full or part time.

These knives a prime example and just gorgeous.

On second look, they look native craft but not Suomi/Saami....a native American flair?! Still same team effort but spread further than usual?

Gotta add the contrast to traditional puukkoseppa who does it all.



PS- these are outsourced, but just Saami style carving and not Saami style knife, but cannot put finger on all the influences, seems a dash of Amerind, but only a dash. But still western, not something done in Asia. Waiting for answer on this one, for sure. Meanwhile can post uncontested team effort of outsource blades handled and sold under another name, and all domestic, start to finish (no pun).





If anyone was curious as to the literal Saami flair, and how you did not cut the snot out of yourself, most cuts were pull cuts, while for pushing during carving or hide piercing, the force was applied to the wider pommel with the other hand.

Years ago, when traveling in Norway, I bought this knife. I know it is not made by a Sami knifemaker, but is it a Puukko or maybe a Morakniv?

Helle

Good knives.
https://www.ragweedforge.com/helle/h-hist.html

But not Puukko - another form of blade and handle, not rhombic.
Just Norvegian knife.

Thank you.