Puukko Knife Making

February 6, 2018 2:07 PM

Traditional Crafts of Finland - Puukko Knife Making
posted by saladin (23 comments total)

Related:

Traditional Crafts of Norway: Basketweaving, Wooden Ski Making, Axe Making, and Barrel Making.
posted by saladin at 2:10 PM on February 6, 2018 [4 favorites]

That was really beautiful. And I really want one now.
posted by rtha at 2:26 PM on February 6, 2018 [2 favorites]

Thanks for posting this, it was fun to watch!

Puukkos are my favorite style of knife. They're versatile and easy to keep sharp. I carry one around all the time and use it for everything from preparing dinner to opening boxes to garden work to cutting yarn to length when crocheting.

(Let me tell you, I get a lot of weird looks for the latter.)
posted by ragtag at 2:49 PM on February 6, 2018

It blacksmith has what looks like the world's most satisfying job -- but then there's that sudden cut to his assistant, with a job that looks hellish.
posted by The corpse in the library at 3:03 PM on February 6, 2018 [1 favorite]

Same with all the Scandi grind knives (like the Mora) I just don't think I'd want a knife without a guard. That just doesn't seem smart.
posted by leotrotsky at 3:05 PM on February 6, 2018

Make sure you pair your Puukko with a Leuku. It's basically a Sami machete. Between the two of them you've got a pretty complete package. Anything you'll need a knife to do you can do. You can split, chop, cut, carve, gut, skin, etc. Bushcrafters love 'em.
posted by leotrotsky at 3:07 PM on February 6, 2018 [1 favorite]

1. Hooray, Finlandfilter continues!

2. NORWEGIAN BASKET WEAVING! How did you know I'd been researching basket weaving (okay to be fair I've been looking into Anishinaabe basketry, but I can learn maternal and paternal ancestor basket weaving why not?)!
posted by elsietheeel at 4:11 PM on February 6, 2018 [2 favorites]

Oh speaking of Norwegian crafts (this is more Viking-era and also not vintage videos), check out nålbinding. It's super fun and confuses the hell out of people on public transit.
posted by elsietheeel at 4:19 PM on February 6, 2018 [4 favorites]

Nålbinding: for those who think knitting is too quick and easy.
posted by leotrotsky at 4:22 PM on February 6, 2018 [4 favorites]

Nålbinding: because Vikings felt it necessary to do everything the hard way.
posted by elsietheeel at 4:49 PM on February 6, 2018

I love hearing old Finnish people speak. I instantly get sent back to my childhood, listening to my grandma and grandpa talk to each other.
posted by NoMich at 5:24 PM on February 6, 2018 [5 favorites]

And blows my mind how they make that birch bark handle. I had no clue how those handles were made.
posted by NoMich at 5:26 PM on February 6, 2018 [4 favorites]

I just want to say that the auto-generated subtitles for this are great.

"cow haha is a parish well-known for arts and crafts and especially for sheath knives ..."

"... of course there have been blacksmiths making good sheath knives in other Finnish parishes too, for instance in hood in Sami, Parma, bokumachi, Peckinpah, throughout the lumpy, and toyama-san"

Etc.
posted by tocts at 7:15 PM on February 6, 2018 [3 favorites]

cozy af
posted by theodolite at 7:55 PM on February 6, 2018

What's the Finnish equivalent of hygge or koselig?

Damn hipsters.
posted by elsietheeel at 8:32 PM on February 6, 2018

What's the Finnish equivalent of hygge or koselig?
Kalsarikännit. It ain't exactly hip.
posted by myopicman at 1:05 AM on February 7, 2018 [2 favorites]

Prkl! This is fantastic, thanks — as with many things Finnish, it is of stately tempo and curiously restful, while never letting you forget its origins in chthonic fire.

Does anyone happen to know when it dates from? Internal evidence (e.g. the bike) suggests no later than the early 1980s, but a quick Google isn't helping me pin down anything more specific than that.
posted by adamgreenfield at 2:50 AM on February 7, 2018

Skilled craft makes a beautiful knife, the birchbark handle is amazing. They should do that one on Forged In Fire.
posted by mermayd at 4:45 AM on February 7, 2018

As I'm going through these, watching the basket weaving, my 13 year old daughter walks by and offers, "You have no life".

How wrong she is.
posted by mikelieman at 5:59 AM on February 7, 2018 [3 favorites]

Yeah, adamgreenfield, dating that is hard. Kustaa Lammi died in 2001. The original uploader probably had all the metadata, but didn't include it.
posted by scruss at 6:19 AM on February 7, 2018

It's from 1981. This is the film's entry on the official Finnish film database, Elonet.
posted by kaarne at 1:43 AM on February 8, 2018 [2 favorites]

Kalsarikännit. It ain't exactly hip.

I always suspected I was a secret Finn instead of a Norwegian.
posted by elsietheeel at 4:30 PM on February 8, 2018

Also I want to go to here and help harvest willows in Norway for baskets.
posted by elsietheeel at 6:21 PM on February 8, 2018