ok....I kinda dropped the ball on the first one. But the second makes up for it.

Pasi Hurttila is a 30ish young smith and mainly wilderness guide. His shop is a dirt floor shed with exactly two power tools, a belt sander and a hand drill. All cuts are done with a handsaw, all holes are drilled and filed, every blow of the hammer is by hand.

These leuku are forged from 0.197" thick 80crV2, rhomboid cross section blade ends up circa 0.176" at thickest point.

Before handling, each blade is tested by chopping, scraping, batoning, and drilling, both moose antler and wood, and must still slice paper when done.

Again, all cuts of wood and brass, done by hand, as well as holes filed to perfect fit. Pommels are peened/filed/peened/filed/peened/etc to compressive fit.

Wood liners cut and carved by hand, likewise sheaths cut and stitched.

This blade just over 8". A no-fear companion.














The last knife is mine.

This process detailed far clearer in Pasi's article on the nordiskaknivar site available at

https://nordiskaknivar.wordpress.com/2013/12/07/making-a-leuku-by-pasi-hurttila/

Excellent post, and beautiful blades.

Thanks!

Glad to spread the word on various sharp things. How I adore them.

I have a 4.5" blade stacked birchbark handled puukko by Pasi, with blade forged of K510 round bar, due in Mon or Tues, and will post it, as well.

Sad news is that Pasi has moved back to primary work as wilderness guide rather than full time smith, so only 3-6 knives per season come up for sale, now.

A wonderful master and his work!
Thanks for posting, this is very interesting

Again, I love to do the fyi posts for less well known folk both here and overseas. Glad some folks enjoy them.

I neglected to mention that on the leuku, after tang drawn down on pommel, Pasi adds two coarse thread matching material screws to either side of peened tang, and then cuts off the heads and polishes with pommel.

As for some idea of how compressed his handles, the thin black lines on my above knife, between brass and wood, are compressed leather spacers. Everything also glued. Rock solid.

As he likes to opine, he makes knives that work, and does not make microscope-proof knives.



Antler pommels and ferrules persisted for 2000yrs after metal available, for a reason. When 65 below zero and one must briefly use the knife with bare hand, or knife used immediately upon entering shelter with same bare hand, metal is a very bad idea.

As for the arctic birch wood or stacked bark, both are very waxy weather resistant materials, the cabin birch logs laid atop stripped bark sheets as a natural ground sheet moisture barrier, and lasting generations.

Liking the way they leave the hammered look in the blade. Way to go and cool handles to finish off those blades.

I am easy to please. If a knife can hack, baton, and drill moose/elk antler, still slice paper, and be held by the human hand, I want it.

The smaller puukko arrived today, 4.5" blade, 0.199" thick at grind line of rhomboid cross section at stamp, distal taper and still 0.150" one inch from tip. By way of comparison, my #19-4.5 is .210" at thickest point. Tang left heavy per my request.

Forged of round bar Böhler Üddeholm K510 (very clean, very high carbon chro-moly/vanadium/silicon steel).

No glue on this one, 4 pieces of bark packed down, repeat, packed some more, oven heated to compress further, then peen/file/peen/file/etc to get to desired length.

The Finn traditionalist says if every scrap not done by one man, may as well take up knitting. His sheath is perfection. Knife snaps into position just as it hits the wood liner.









As with the leuku, blades tested prior to handles built, so I already know it can carve antler and then still shave hair.

Lofty
great looking knives, I would like to see a photo of how the seam in the leather of the sheath is done if you have a chance.
I appreciate seeing some less common knives especially the work in progress

Peter

Seam widens up top for a circle stitched hole punched through leather for brass ring or triangle for the actual belt hangar, which is either a loop, or slotted, depends on maker. Stitching done by hand.

Loop was included, but not installed, per my wishes to carry IWB.

Thanks Lofty
The photos cleared it up for me. great fit over the wood inside
Peter

Pasi is an outdoorsman of the highest order, he left on a week long hike just as the puukko was posted, and he lives at the edge of the wilderness.

He also forges his own axes, and personally trusts a puukko plus axe as his edged gear in the middle of nowhere.

First three pictures are as summer sets in, perpetual daylight....winter perpetual dark....last shot is the bracing invigorating fall as everything changes color.









Which is to say, he stakes his life on his puukko, leuku, and axes, and so can I.

Will throw out a few more for detailing, fitting, etc. The grind is higher finish than most shots let on.

I really should have included this entire handle making sequence earlier, on the Tuohipää Puukko, or stacked birch bark knife.

He compresses every few leaves, compresses even more, comes back and adds more, compresses more, heats in oven to soften the waxy bark, several more compressions, then lightly peens the pommel into place, then compresses and peens/compress/peens/compress until desired length finally reached.

This series is of the same knife handle, and I think everyone would agree the first shot shows mightly compressed bark compared to the 4 or so loose ones on top, and then the second shot with pommel lightly peened.

Then look at amount of compression (with more still to go) achieved during this in-progress shot.

A pretty solid handle, not always achieved with various makers of such handles, even with glue. I have seen some which were as riffling a deck of cards.

that's awesome.

That particular example seems to have a lightly built tang per customer request. Pasi normally leaves stacked birch bark tangs heavier for hardest use, and you can see from peening of mine own that he does even heavier.

But below is what normally lurks under that stacked bark, and distal taper as blade, so, circa 0.150"-0.200" thick. Quite strong where it matters.

I am sitting here thinking just how much time he spends with scissors cutting strips and squares of bark.

Never did mention weights, or comparative size for the leuku. Firstly, the puukko is 4.5oz bare, heavy for a puukko via stount tang, heavy guage brass, and über-packed birch bark.

I would need step up to one of my Nepali 1/2" thick hand forged kukhuri to get more tougher raw chopping power than the leuku, but would lose knife utility.

The 1-8 is 10oz, the leuku 12oz (about same as 16SP#1), but the leuku only held by a few fingers in back with much longer reach and every bit of mass out front with a swing, allowing the nearly 8.5" blade to do the work.

Rhomboid so no wedging above top of grind line, deeper out front, distal taper, and 80crV2 which is tougher than 5160. A knife a fellah can club like a baby seal, if so inclined.

The distal taper of 0.195"-0.175" an inch back from tip does not show due to spine being thinner than the taper above the grind line by 0.010"-0.015".





Sheathing is impeccable.





Handles on both knives are true ovals which any hen would be proud to produce, narrow dimension at bottom. Needed for orientation in the dark on the guardless knives, if for no other reason.

And the tight fitting welt around that handle at sheath mouth past widest part of handle is for not only snap fit retention, but to seal against rain and snow entering sheath. The birch liners fairly proof against water, but the blade is not.

Beautiful knives!, maybe one day. The method of retention on the pommel reminds me of the way cattarugas attached the pommel on their quartermaster knife,peen the tang, then 2 barbed nails put thru two holes, one on each side of the tang.

The sheath contour fit for those two is amazing.

Brent, it would seem a quite similar idea, Pasi uses coarse thread wood screws to make it fail-safe. I have no idea historically when secondary attachment started, but would guess quite far back in time on a 1000yr old hard hard use knife design, and them coming apart as a nomadic arctic herder a very bad thing. But whether wedges, nails, crosspins, or whatnot, absolutely no idea at all.

As for one of these days, the exchange rate not bad at all, Finland is loaded with educated unemployed folk attending formal schools of native art preservation, much competition for business, and if one can afford any handmade knife at all, one can afford one of these.

HOWEVER, they ain't for everybody, and handling them goes against a lifetime of knife handling habits by folk in the USA, such as if you elevate the tip and not locked into the one secure rear grip on these knives, you WILL need a bandaid or stitches, and maybe orthopaedic surgeon if you stab out of habit. A good friend who knows his way around knives enough to have been an "agricultural inspector" in Vietnam has a pinky which has never worked again after a careless moment with some unknown puukko, and you could not pay the man to touch another one.

Windsor, the fit is via wet molding which is why the plastic wrap of blade and handle. Often, the sheath body was split and carved out antler pinned back together, and the leather neck of sheath shrunk around grooved antler up top and sealing the mouth. The intricate carvings of the Suomi, Sami/Lapp herders marvels of art.

This is a modern artist take on such work, with a step by step available at the nordisknivär site of
https://nordiskaknivar.wordpress.com/2016/03/28/roman-kislitsyn-sami-style-carving-wip/

Even better, hard sheath. That's a bit of a rarity, sadly.

What first entered my brain when I saw them was "wow, nice steam work."

Well, since most antler sheaths oversized, decoratively branched, and I have no use for art knives since I use them, and likely the birch lined leather wrapped sheath lighter, and just as safe against splitting through, and perhaps safer since antler only pinned at bottom, plus, I plain like leather, it'll do for now.

The fancy stuff I only admire in photos or museums, then I go home and use my stuff to compensate. Seems to work, most times.

Fortunately, artistry is not inconsistent with craftsmanship and utility as demonsrated by those knives. Thanks for the posts Lofty, they are educational and enjoyable. Would love to be able to get my hands on one of those Pasi knives.

I love craftsmanship. Even useless craftsmanship. Great metal joining is rare. This is the sloppy side.

Lovely work, thank you!

After all I read, I myself wanted to try Leuku in work,
so I ordered one. The truth is not from the master,
but the semi-factory made, firm Roselli.

I have only seen Strömeng of Norway as for factory, they vary in thickness of 0.110"-0.117 depending on length/style. If the factory Roselli does not please, such as too much vibration from too thin, you might look at the other. But, for all I know, the Roselli is heavier. Heavy has its cost, but vibration at impact is not one of them, and why I went the handmade.

PS-just checked Roselli thickness, and it is comparable to Pasi's, so should have no buzz from that knife, and Ragnar quoted a similar sheathed weight of nearly 1lb. And, if steel is same as other knives from his shop, it would be tough Krupp W75 at good hardness of upper 50s Rc.

If I have a complaint as to many modern versions of leuku, it would be loss of rhomboid to blade, and loss of point of tip. They make fine modern camp tools, but have lost some of the multipurpose aspects such as large hunting/butchering knife, or ability to do finer carving. However, if butchering elk/moose/reindeer not on the camp menu, and not building traps and shelters, does anyone really care?

Leuku, if I'm not mistaken, was never made with a sharp tip and a rhomboid section.

Unfortunately, I do not understand a bit about the thickness of the knife and the vibrations. My English is still bad.
Too thin a knife is as bad as too thick, although it depends on the destination.

It would almost require a rhomboid, as when edge forged, the tip is forced up, thinning the spine pushes it back down, or visa versa. And many old ones had sharp tips, for piercing hide, making snares/traps. Sharp point or tip is a relative term, Pasi states leuku do not have a sharp point, but his idea of a sharp point is relative to standard puukko or even dagger.

Whether you hammer edge or spine first, one compensates for the other. Note blade drooped where edge not yet hammered in. This also why many older and some newer have a slight drop to tip or even hump in back, as the edge is not hammered out near so much, nor parallel to spine out front.


This is a knife used across a vast area by nomads, and there would be marked regional differences, such as thinner knives where trees sparse and spindly, while further south in forests with larger trees and denser woods, more strength would be required.

A leuku could be counted upon to be only knife at times, and for butchering or hunting, it would need features for those tasks. A true multipurpose butchering/shelter-building/hunting/trapping/rough-carver/etc knife, and I had read of one Suomi carving a right nice spoon with his, simply to show it could be done.

But also keep in mind that for over 100yrs, factories and shops in that part of the world have been busy corrupting and selling the romance of the leuku for buyers, the same as happened to the bowie knife in the west. And nomads in near arctic wastes did not set up forges, they traveled south to buy/trade, and specify what was wanted. But as smithies faded and factory/shop knives bloomed, one took what one could get, while tourists and city folk bought anything called a leuku.

These are comments by smiths who talked to folk who used the leuku traditionally. You might find this man's comments and photographed leuku he made to his traditional specifications of interest, him living the traditional Sami lifestyle for half of life. Very much same profile as Pasi uses. Have read of others calling the blade cross section "cat's cheeks" when talking old style, and lamenting many new ones lack them, and even worse, cheap stainless tourista leuku.
https://nordiskaknivar.wordpress.com/2012/10/14/leuku-part-one/

As for vibration, you would not enjoy the leuku buzzing like an angry bee when you hit something really solid, and stinging the hand.

A heftier blade with decent grind will bite deeper and gradually halt, relatively speaking.....likewise, a thick blade with poor blunt edge would also not be a pleasure. But heavier bites deeper in general, everything else being equal.

Back to the rhomboid, I have read puukko theories that it developed from using old files, and that shape simply copied. I do not buy it because it would be extra work to no real purpose.

Personally, think it came about to save work. The centerline of blade not hammered out as much, and mainly kept blade fairly straight with minimum of forging. And advantages discovered such as centerline strength, mass maintained above edge, but less drag or wedging in cuts and chops, more manueverable in deeper cuts and more complex slicing/carving. The rhomboid on a leuku is slight, but it is there. However, most folk would not spot it unless measured, and most writers until of late have concentrated only on general shape, so do not expect histories to mention such subtleties.

No doubt, parallel side knives also made, likewise grinds varied between convex and flat, likewise secondary edging, depending on smith, depending on customer, depending on custom. Through near 1500yrs of making, though, many would have had definite ideas about what worked in that environment, and why. Leuku stayed fairly constant for hundreds of years until the industrial age and consumerism struck.

Thank you!
It seems that it came to me

I was at the old topic, there are mostly photos of different times, there are pre-WW2and the 19th century and new.
On the leuku and see the different tips. There are sharper, there are more blunt. I hope it will be interesting.
http://rusknife.com/topic/10021-%D1%81%D0%B0%D0%B0%D0%BC%D1%8B-%D1%81-%D1%81%D0%B0%D0%B0%D0%BC%D0%B0%D0%BC%D0%B8/page-1


I understood about vibration. I think it's not just the thickness, but the overall design of the knife, its shank, the mass and shape of the handle. And more importantly, what part knife you strike.

I see somewhere a detailed analysis of vibrations depending on the form, but only on swords. But now I can not find him

I think we would have been helped by guys engaged in historical fencing from AEMMA

http://www.tameshigiri.ca/2014/05/16/why-a-sword-feels-right/

I found!!
http://armor.typepad.com/bastardsword/sword_dynamics.pdf

Absolutely, as for vibration, but on an 8"-9" blade, vibration mainly a thing of thickness, personally want something stouter than an 8" machete...

Thanks for the link. The differences between leuku can be at least as different than other names such as huggare, but am mainly talking AND speaking Suomi style and and the Lap/Sami of that area, and what THEY decided through time was the most perfect, versatile, and functional knife for them. Pasi does a very good version of such.

Even the leather covered wood, or bare solid wood with leather throat, is something authentic, but for their area. In tribes/clans where trees rarer, it would be antler, louder and heavier.

Personally very much like this particular style as done by Pasi, most knife handles far too fat, the flat prevents twisting even with heavy mittens, and the heft just about perfect for my tastes. Would not care for lighter machete feel, and much heavier would simply be too heavy and sluggish out front.

Good knife and tied for top with a couple of others for favorite larger knife. Much of that being simply trust, as the blade/tang virtually unbreakable in 80crV2, and a very sealed/glued/drive-fit water resistant handle, and edging/tip suprisingly versatile.

Would say, "oh how I wish I had bought one in younger military days", but, as with the USA rediscovering finest forged blades and trying to save history starting circa 1970, same thing and nearly same time happened in Finland in saving dying native art forms. So, it really has not matured until the last few decades as myths discarded and surviving original craftsmen and old wares interviewed and studied.

I am still chuckling over Pasi's idea that this leuku does not have much of a real point.

For anyone interested in the Sami culture, the vast majority live in Finland, Norway, and Sweden, perhaps 10% in Russia.

They are THE northmost indigenous people and among the oldest in all of Europe, and protected under international law, including the only folk still allowed to herd reindeer in specified areas.

This link has a series of photographs going back as long as there have been cameras, and a good look at the people, families, and early outreach schools to teach the nomad children.

http://www.vintag.es/2016/02/40-rare-and-interesting-photos-of.html?m=1

Great pictures, I love those old historic pictures. Thanks for the link.

Pap

Pappy, many of them could be in our own western history museums and nobody would even blink.

Just throwing one more leuku shot out for scale, since more viewers here likely have a #14 than they have an 1-8.

Leuku blade, in comparison, slightly thinner in back, thicker at tip, 4oz lighter, but feels as heavy or heavier out front as very little weight in rear-hold handle, while much of the #14 weight in rear and acting as counterbalance, plus this particular leuku blade nearly an inch longer, even though it shows only in the previous 1-8 shot.

Edge geometry is a six-of-one, half-dozen-of-the-other, thing. The #14 edge is deeper thinner, and will slice and bite deeper until thick upper side flat area. The leuku side-flats not quite as thick except at tip, and although edging more reminding of an axe, is flat grind going to convex, and (more a tribute to Pasi than any knife feature), slices and bites nearly as well, which is suprising.

The #14 a more refined modern fighter, the leuku more a Dark Ages nordic seax as for construction details, if not design particulars and ethnicity.

All-up sheathed weights, leuku 16oz on nose, #14 is 22.8oz.

Heavy tropical rains blowing in under porch, for any wondering what is the crap all over the #14 blade. Be a lot more of that soon enough with trifling 10"-15" forecast for next three days, but that is below what we have had this month already, so yawwwnn.

Much is changing, but you have to look at the baby on the 9th minute



link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4oawzU5l7qk

and form leuku 10 minute



link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eLs_qaUyNKI

Linky no worky. Not on my device.