“A knife there was with gnarled birch handle from Väinämöinens belt a-hang”  -- Kalevala (Finnish epic poem)

Owing to its effectiveness and versatility Finnish puuko is still in common use for a great variety of everyday tasks, in the workshop, on the building site, when fishing and hunting.

The ancient Finns treated iron, and all sharp-edged tools made from it, with a magical respect; not least a knife which possessed strong magical powers. Thus the farmer would start his spring sowing by stcking his knife into a standing position at the end of his fild to ensure a good harvest that year. If your child was troubled with nightmares they could be driven away by sticking your puukko in the wall above the door, and similarly for adults a good night’s sleep could be guaranteed by a knife stuck in the wall above the bed. Even in establishing a family the puukko could be a part of the ceremony. Thus in some parts of the country the girls would have an empty sheath or their belts waiting for the knife of the suitor. Similarly, a groom had to show his handiness by carving some household articles of wood with his knife.

With the arrival of more oppressive times, the knife became the Finnish soldier’s last but most effective weapon when it came to a close fight – the last hope for his life. Even if arms were otherwise in short supply, every man would be carrying a knife on his own initiative.

From time to time the increasing use of knifes for acts of thuggery in peace time has been a cause for concern among those who make and enforce the law. The times of the “”or, “thugs”, who terrorized Ostrobothnia in the 1860s is a period worthy of mention in this respect. It left its traces on the knife’s appearance, just as it did on the Finnish folk song tradition:

“Neither shakes the Vaasa blood, nor the Kauhava Knife gets rusty”

According to the latest legislation which came into force in 1977, it is forbidden to carry a knife in public ( valid only in Finland). Acknowledging the knife’s value as a tool, however, the law allows a man to carry a knife where it is needed for his work. As shown by the need for legislation, puukko even in modern society is still widely used. It is only a few decades ago that the president of the Republic of Finland, Ukko Pikka Svinhufvud, in spite of all legislation, considered puukko as inseparable part of a free man’s costume. From his belt a-hanging was a silver-fitted Kauhava Knife. No wonder, then, that the neighboring peoples are well acquainted with puukko – “puukkokniv” or “finnkniv” in Swedish, “finnenmesser” in German and “finka” in Russian. Michael Bulgakov, the Russian writer, describes the essence of love:

“ It is fast and sudden as the lightning as the Finnish Puukko” – Master i Margarita

KAUHAVA.

A parish in Ostrobothnia whose knives and knife craftsmen have been well known ever since the 19^th century. A clear sign of this can be found in the parish coat-of-arms, whose central feature is knife – the Kauhavalainen.

KAUHAVALAINEN

According to the Dictionary of Modern Finnish, is a knife made in Kauhava according to the local pattern, the main feature of which is a relatively long, narrow blade. Different local designs are some of the most interesting aspects of puukkos.

IISAKKI JÄRVENPÄÄ

The oldest and most famous of the Kauhava knife producers. Founded in 1879 by Iisakki Järvenpää, knife-maker by appointment to the Russian emperor, it became a co.Ltd. in 1921. production still relies heavily on handwork and traditional methods, with e.g. own smithy and tempering furnace guarantee that a high quality of production is maintained from the very first stages of manufacture.

MATERIALS AND CARE

With the puukko, an all-purpose tool for work, outdoor and hobby activities, a great variety of materials are crafted. Most important of these, however, is wood, and a knife generally is valued by the quality of its edge for wood carving. This becomes the prime consideration when choosing the raw material for a puukko knife. Knives are made from carbon steel alloy, specially made for knife-making, or, where specially mentioned, from stainless steel. Carbon steel is generally acknowledged as the best suited material for making a good knife blade even if we know its main defect – it rusts easily. To preserve the blade’s sheen and prevent rusting, the blade should be cleaned and thoroughly dried after use. A couple of drops of oil spread thinly to cover the surface will not do any harm the blade should be sharpened with a whetstone, or hone, to be sharp as “a serpent’s tongue”.

The handle of the knife may be made of bark, leather, birch or, as it was in the case of Väinämöinen’s knife, curly birch. The handle will stand a quick wash, but not soaking. It should be dried properly after washing. The material for sheath is tanned cowhide, or elk leather. Inside the one-seamed sheaths a plastic strip is used for reinforcement. The broad two-seamed sheaths are prepared from rather thicker leather and have no reinforcement. Trimmings are made of brass, nickel-silver or aluminum pressings or casting.

A puukko is the Finnish word for the traditional Finnish or Scandinavian style woodcraft belt-knife that is a tool rather than a weapon. The word is in the process of assimilation into English.

The basic components of a puukko are a hilt and a blade along with a sheath, which can be attached to a belt. The puukko's blade has a single curving edge and a flat back. The flat back allows the user to place a thumb or his other hand on it to concentrate the force. Puukkos are used both as a tool for all kinds of carving, especially to work wood, and to clean the catches of anglers and hunters. Some puukko designs have a slightly upwards or downwards curved point, depending on what purpose the knife has. A hunting puukko's tip is often curved downwards to make skinning and opening the animal easier and less messy. The blade is relatively short, usually about the same length as the handle. Fisherman's puukkos sometimes have a small dovetail on point to ease scraping off the innards of a fish.

Traditional puukko with birch handle and full-length fuller

Most puukkos have a slight shoulder but no choil, since the point where the edge ends and the handle begins is also the point where most power can be applied. A puukko often has no guard to stop the hand from slipping onto the edge, but this is of no greater importance, since it is primarily considered a cutting tool, not a stabbing weapon. In cases where the knife and the hand are expected to get wet, like if the puukko is meant for gutting fish or game, some form of guards are carved into the handle. The traditional lenght of the puukko blade is the same as one's palm width, usually 90-120 mm. Carvers, huntsmen and leatherworkers favour shorter blades; woodworkers, carpenters and constructors longer. The Sami leuku, which is an outdoorsman's tool, may have blade up to 400 mm, and historical väkipuukko up to 500 mm; it is more a machete or short sword rather than true puukko.

Both factory forged and hand forged blades are often laminated. A thin layer of very hard steel (traditionally crucible steel made from limonite iron) is sandwiched between two layers of softer metal, which make the blade less brittle and facilitates repeated sharpening. Before the 19th century, almost all iron in Finland was made from limonite on charcoal blast furnaces, which yield very pure and high quality iron suitable for crucible steel. Today both carbon steel and tool steel are used. The blade can be lightened and strenghtened with a fuller.

The traditional material for the handle is birch. Also oak, ash, pine bark, horn (especially elk and reindeer), scrimshaw and bone are used. Often the handle is made from various materials between spacers. Industrially made puukkos often have today plastic handles.

In Finland and northern Scandinavia many men put great pride in carving their puukko's handle. Over generations, this knife has become intimately tied to Nordic culture, and in one or another version is part of many national costumes. A good puukko is equal parts artistic expression and tool. Making it requires a lot of different skills: not only those of a bladesmith, but also those of a carver, a jeweller, a designer, and a leatherworker to make the sheath — and if you master the difficult art of weaving birchbark, this is an opportunity to use it. Finest puukkos have blades of Damascus steel, and forging a blade using blister steel was considered the hallmark of a master smith. As the process of making wootz was rediscovered in Finland in the 1980s, some master smiths have made wootz puukkos.

Getting one's first puukko is considered in Finland the symbol of coming to an age, to both boys and girls. Men's and women's puukkos do not significantly differ from each other; the only difference is that women's puukkos are often shorter and may have decorated sheaths and are better suited on working with foodstuffs. Both boy and girl scouts consider puukko as their scouting symbol besides a handy tool. Getting a good puukko as a gift or present is considered a great honour in Finland.

In the Nordic countries, the puukko is however an everyday knife that is used for everything from hunting, fishing and garden work to opening boxes in the warehouse, and many puukkos are industrially produced by factories of which Fiskars is the most notable. Bearing of all sharp objects which could be used as weapons was banned in Finland in 1977. Since then, the puukko has lost its visibility in public places and been restricted to household work, hunting and fishing. In many industries, e.g. construction, the puukko has been replaced by the Swedish Mora-knife, which resembles puukko but has a much cheaper and less durable construction. The mora knife's handle is typically plastic, and the blade is either stainless steel or of laminated construction; harder steel which forms the edge is clad by softer steel.

In Finland the carrying of knives without a good reason is prohibited in public spaces. Thus the only urban areas where they can nowadays be seen carried openly are garrisons. Puukko is the only civilian item which can be openly worn with combat gear without breaking the regulations, and most conscripts bring their own puukkos with them to military service. It is a custom of Finnish conscript NCOs and officer cadets to carry a decorated and engraved commemorative puukko of their year course as a part of uniform not unlike a commemorative dagger. This is rationalized as carrying of a handy tool but here, the puukko doubles as a symbolic sidearm. Puukkos have proved to be excellent close combat weapons in Winter war and Continuation war. The bayonet of assault rifle RK-62 has been designed to be also be used as a puukko. However openly carrying puukko, while technically illegal is not frowned upon when the good reason mentioned is present. Construction workers can go to diners with puukko hanging from their coveralls and in the Rural and Northern parts of the land it is not rare to go shopping to the village stores wearing hunting clothes that include puukko.

Sadly, the puukko has also given the root for Finnish language verb puukottaa, to stab someone to death. The verb has also the side meaning "to tinker" or "to hack", and is often used in sense "to make a kludge".