There are several, actually, and a regional thing as for varieties, and the puukko/knife in general a national emblem, with own museum, promoted by the state (as with all traditional hand crafts) at state supported schools......and unlike the 1960s/1970s, where handmade a dying art, and a promotional effort just starting in order to save the the art, there are now thousands of aspiring puukkoseppa vying for market attention.

This all should sound very familiar to USA readers, and likewise no suprise that this also has generated a further familiar subset, the art knife versus the traditional work knife...most makers today are concentrated on the minimalist modern art highly polished and perfectly fitted knife.

Then you have old-school such as the Kainuun Puukko and its famous Tommi style, including its long version of Winter War fame, and the style brought to national and international attention by the President of Finland (from the Kainuu region, I believe), from 1956-1982, having a Kainuun Puukko Tommi on his desk and gifting them to visitors....the style now also a nationally recognized thing, and often copied (as are all the regional styles), by makers nationwide, and now by makers literally worldwide since the explosion of knife interest in general.

The lineage of the knife style, being a regional thing, surely actually predates the recognized beginnings by perhaps even generations of influence in what works as for handle shape and blade style, but, a brief synopsis is worthwhile, in order to show the links.... The shop lineage in Hyrynsalmi, Kainuu region was (mid/late 1800s) Halle and son Setti Keränen (early 1900s-post WWII) who trained Antti (actual famous name-brand shop founder of KP-TOMMI in 1950s) and sons Olavi and Alpo Kemppainen who trained and then sold shop to Veijo Käpylä circa late 1980s/early 1990s, who trained and sold shop to Marko Lindelä circa 2010, who moved shop 130 miles east to own home town of he and wife, Oulainen.....back to the founder, Halle was the guy who left the stix of Kainuu and went to work for Fiskars in the mid-1800s at same time new smithing technology/metallurgy was being brought from England, and who studied under the English....but tired of regimented city and factory life, and went back home where he could be his normal Suomi redneck self and drink hard and swap tall tales and smith...his son was famous for the WWII knives....the successors the most famous and responsible for the style becoming recognized and copied nationwide.

As to the latest maker and owner of the shop/name, Marko is true to the heritage....he is not the art knife guy, but a maker of the famous Tommi, as well as a few other styles. His knives are working knives and even in the more finished versions of the Tommi, have no aspirations to perfection of mirror polish and seamless jointing of the art knife crowd, and PLEASE keep in mind his work is MUCH more highly finished than the work of the earlier folk who made the name famous.....he simply does as any traditional puukkoseppa, and does every scrap of it by himself (with exception of fancy/tourista/Sunday barbeque silver bolsters marked suchlike "Finland" and the animal head pommels purchased from a jewlery findings company), otherwise all brass and silver castings, sheaths and birch liners, blades hammered from round barstock of Silversteel (think O-1 Enhanced), and enough forging to reduce and distribute carbides, and 60-61 Rc type edge hardnesses....he makes the types of knives which inspire the owner to carve 2×4s into toothpicks, all day long and in complete comfort, blades which cut like blue blazes, and handle/blade design the result of uncounted generations of regional residents who needed a knife which worked, as near everything away from any city was made from birch or reindeer or moose, whether furniture, bowls, spoons, etc....they designed knives which worked...

The below photos simply and mainly highlight things for scale and contrast....firstly, to show what a difference 1/2" in blade length makes when buying a puukko.....also a quick contrast between the work of rising young knifemaker Tapio Syrjälä who apparently has gone stock removal nowadays and who does impeccable modern art work,..compared to that of a classic maker and his knife as delivered straight from Finland, and still with polishing dreck on brass and wood......also, the sophistication of lines and curves, and perhaps a visual as to why a real puukko needs no guard, the offset of curve peaks of top and bottom handle arches denying any tendency of hand to slide towards blade, and also simply that grasping too far forward simply does not feel right and hand instinctively adjusts to best hold, which also provides best leverage...... Also, this is not, obviously, a higher finished blade, the more rustic type blade a bit more expensive since it requires forging all the way to final thickness rather than to thickness sufficient for grinding to remove all trace of scale or hammer....and ALL blades forged from round bar...no shortcuts....a real puukko......and for the curious, this would be the T55 Tommi Moose model in shorter 100mm length...weight a feathery 4.3 oz bare and beltline pleasing 6 oz sheathed.....his prices for standard classic Tommipuukko circa $170-$260, depending on size....and Marko a very nice late 30s age guy with beautiful wife and growing herd of beautiful children and sole wage earner with wife in school and also new baby.....good knives and good folks....

his wait times are considerable more than the two weeks as stated in the web site he inherited from Veijo would suggest....think more like 6mths......unsure as to why website not changed except a) he speaks rudamentary english and for all i know, does not realize what pages mention the two week wait on english pages and him able to recognize what it says, b) him no manner of website guru, and c) bumper crop family leaves little funds to pay a website guru, and d) too busy making knives and taking care of family to mess with it all...anyhow, email first and find out wait times.....also, several retailers carry the knives, i noted thenovicewoodsman has better prices than you could get after $30 Finnish privitized post











As you can tell, I am a great fan of the knives. The prices are incredibly good for the amount of handwork which any of the puukkoseppas do, and I strongly urge anyone and everyone to own at least just one. They are flat out some of the best working knives in the world.

Hello,
some really nice Puukkos you have!
I have an old one given to me by an uncle as a kid, once I was ill, he knew the best medicine for a boy
It's made by Johannes Lauri in the 50's


Thanks for sharing!

Regards
Nicolas

Yes,these are fantastic knives. I have a Tommi by Juka Hankkala, it looks a lot like the smaller one on the photo.

The Roselli knives by Heimo Roselli are nice too, and even more basic. Great users.

Jukka is one of the acknowledged masters of the modern art knife crowd in Finland, and is a master, and no doubt an inspiration for young Tapio, who (unbelievably) has only been making knives for about three years and is already doing tapered tang Loveless-style hunters and fighters...I bought a knife of Tapio's thinking him headed for real fame if he keeps it up.

As for large shop/factory, and old, there are the couple of Swedish knives from several old makers in Mora, the knives dating from the late 1930s and early 1950s respectively (Jonsson Bros. and Erik Frost) , as well as a more Saamipuukko style from the Passo father/son team using an older Altti Kankaanpää blade (they now use Laurin Metall Oy blades as does most any smaller maker such as Ahti, Art Jewel, Lapin, etc.), with the traditional high grind strong thick puukko blade which works far better and far safer than the Swede or Norwegian abrupt grind and handle designs.

I formerly thought all northern European knives were as dangerous as old Mora laminated straight-razor sharp knives with protruding corners and slick tapered spool handles, and then I found the knives of Finlandia.

The real Tommi puukko (or even modern art versions such as Tapio's), as opposed to large shop/factory blades even of Finland, also typically has the rhomboid/katana cross-section with spine thinning from top of blade primary grind, and allows the blade to be laid over for fine controlled cuts rather than it submarining as Swede grind blades.

Thought you might enjoy this history link...only in English and Suomi, but your knife was made in a little house after shop destroyed by the War...they still assemble even pricier knives and use outsourced high quality hand forged blades by a somewhat reclusive smith, and him using probably a handheld hammer.

http://www.lauri-tuotteet.fi/eng/

Unrelated to your knife, or even their latest handforged collectibles, but wanted to mention the also unrelated Lauri blades (Laurin Metall Oy)....they use Thysen Krupp clean high carbon steel, which as with the Bohler Uddeholm used by Mora, can be taken to circa 60 Rc without embrittlement, and in between the steel and blade grind, will outperform many more expensive blades even of custom makers worldwide, and these blades used on knives which retail for circa $30-$100.....just good solid knives for real knife use from Finland.

Thanks for getting this going and for all of the information Lofty. I just ordered a couple of knives from the link you provided. Nothing high end but interesting and traditional.

A good source of info about various commercial makers is

https://www.ragweedforge.com/index.html#catalog

where he lists by country and maker with a little info about each...as mentioned prior, many of the less expensive versions will use same source blades, sheath liner might be plastic instead of birch, or even a half-liner against body.

I often carry a puukko as they are very light, work extremely well as a one-do-it-all knife, and the dangler sheath allows the knife to rest inside front slash pockets of trousers....sure, the top of sheath and pommel shows, but very non-tactical or even mountain-man appearing, quite dressy or ethnic looking, and the hard lined sheaths allow safe carry in such a manner....also, the form fitted mouths of most sheaths mean great retention while no keeper strap to accidentally cut....a great KISS rig.

PLEASE make sure you post a picture of your felt boots when they arrive!!!!

if you ordered from Lauri, I cannot speak of handles or sheaths, but the blades are quite good, indeed...here is a profile of the smith, and an American's site with great info and cross-links to all manner of traditional smiths....
https://nordiskaknivar.wordpress.com/2014/11/16/kullervo-review/

Another good source of info and goods is Lamnia out of Finland, their site easily googled, but that is an expensive way to go....stateside, Kellam carries many makers rebranded under own confusing "lines", even Marko's stuff hiding somewhere in there, and them also not exactly the cheapest.

Some of these makers, inexpensive to super expensive, often show up on ebay.

I was thinking the Barbie pink ones.


Another really good smith profile from the Nordiskarkniv site, enjoyable reading and good photos.....
https://nordiskaknivar.wordpress.com/2014/01/10/martti-malinen/

And back to Marko and the Tommi Puukko, here is a little slideshow of previous owner Veijo at work from 8yrs ago....nothing has changed, and I think you can see the knife actually folded and built up in forge welding to shape....NOT just simply banging out an edge....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djAY1UbHQNQ

and also essentially same slideshow but a few extras such as the past President of Finland showing off by shaving with his Kainuun Tommi puukko knife, and bit more emphasis on handle and sheath making at the expense of few blade forging shots....note the hand powered Singer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElBb2uqu0n8

As to the steel being used, "Silversteel", I had mentioned to think O-1 Enhanced or Improved....the actual steel used by puukkoseppa in Finland, when they say silversteel, is the super-pure Bohler Uddeholm K510, very high 1.2% carbon, good doses of chrome, vanadium, silicon, closest I can think of as far as composition perhaps the Hitachi Blue Steel Aogami #2 (though not as clean) and can be taken to very high hardness with very good resilience and toughness.....and this apart from all the forging. If a guy knows what he is about, he ends up with a very impressive blade.