Scandinavian Trio- hat knife, puukko and leuku

[Siberianfury]

ok so here are my three latest knives, all in curly birch (the smaller one in a darker shade). The necker and the puukko come with carbonsteel Lauri PT blades, with a 63RC edge and a 53RC spine, to allow high sharpness and edge retention without compromising toughness. The leuku uses a 210mm lauri high carbon blade for excellent toughness and edge retention. the hat knife is designed to go round the neck or in the pocket as a whittling and food prep companion, the puukko is the general purpose bushcraft knife, pretty much the same as the kellam wolverine, but i find the handle style more comfortable in the chest leaver grip. the leuku is pretty much the same as my everyday user leuku, just with a more ornate curly birch handle.

i have not yet made sheaths for these knives as i need a top up of leather.

anyway, thankyou for looking, i would be greatful to hear your thoughts on these knives.

ATB
Josh

 

[mikey.elefant]

beautiful trio, i like the high grind

 

[filcon]

Thats a grand combination and looks great workmanship, well done.

phil

 

[delbach]

Very nice work Josh
Andrew

 

[Xunil]

Very nice - your work is really coming on a treat, and I really like the ergonomics of the grips.

One point to keep in mind - it might be worth paying a little attention to the blade-to-bolster area and rework the shoulders of the blades if necessary to get a flush fit.

A lot of buyers won't touch a knife without a good bolster/guard joint. A lot will, and either won't notice or care.

If you haven't the facilities for good low-heat soldering try two-part liquid metal. Used properly (and very sparingly) if gives a fully sealed joint that can be smoothed and even polished. There are tutorials online if you Google for them demonstrating how to use it in relation to knife guards.

I'm a big fan of small knives and that little one keeps winking at me

 

[Siberianfury]

everyone seems to like the small one

 

[Xunil]

Small knives are great. I do the vast majority of my outdoor cutting with small slicing knives. They have the added benefit of being socially acceptable too, which is no small thing these days.

Big blades for big tasks, small blades for real work. The current 4" standard is, to my way of thinking, right slap in the middle of the neither fish nor fowl bracket.

Well done again - very nice work (especially that small one )

 

[Hugo]

A nice trio you have made there Josh.

 

[Soundmixer]

Lovely trio mate.
I too have a soft spot for the smaller blade. I have four with 95mm blades or smaller, all in curly birch with a Danish oil finish.
How do the PT blades stand up to the real world? I fancy trying one but I read about edge chipping. Have you experienced that?

Cheers.

 

[Xunil]

Edge chipping is caused by three things (usually);

1. steel is too hard and/or poorly tempered

2. design is wrong the the task

3. task is wrong for the design (aka, you're doing something stupid with your knife)

All 3 might look interchangeable but the context can easily qualify each on its own.

You can reduce a great slicer to a chipped mess if you put it to tasks it wasn't meant for. The PT blades are a great balance of toughness with high hardness at the edge due to the selective tempering.

My all time favourite fixed blade knife was/is forged from D2. It has a three inch blade, 2.5mm thick at the spine and distal tapered to a super-fine tip. It is flat ground from the spine, so you can imagine how thin it gets at the edge.

Nothing out-slices this knife.

Period.

I doubt you'd get far batoning with it, but feel free to refer to point 3 in the above shortlist for why that might be.

I realise this might come over as sarcastic but it's meant to be a more tongue in cheek look at blade failure - the 3 main causes of chipping are valid though, regardless of my weird sense of humour

 

[Soundmixer]

Xunil,
No sarcasm detected!
I like small blades, Lauri carbon is my preferred steel. I don't baton with a knife, EVER. Knives are for cutting, slicing and carving.
I was taught how to use a knife from a very early age, with a slipjoint, with a carbon blade so I have my own ideas of how a blade should perform. Old fart me...
A mate of mine has a PT and I really like it, but I REALLY like the standard carbon Lauri more. I have a Sami project coming up and I want to try something new but I keep coming back to my old favourite.
You never know, I might crumble!
Anyhoo, I've hijacked this chaps thread long enough. Josh's work is EXACTLY what I would use as a bushcraft knife, and his work is really inspiring.
Oh God, now I want a leuku. Sometimes this forum is too much...

 

[brancho]

Josh they look good but a hat knife aint a hat knife until it has a nat sheath.

One point to keep in mind - it might be worth paying a little attention to the blade-to-bolster area and rework the shoulders of the blades if necessary to get a flush fit.

This is true but its better to file the slot the bolster ro get the blade to fit far enough in and if you are using factory bolsters a bit of force also helps. The Leuku should been centred better and yes it can be difficult I know.


I will post a link when I am at home tomorrow.

 

[Xunil]

...Sometimes this forum is too much...

Wash your mouth out !



We share some very common opinions on working knives - perhaps if enough of us sing the same song everyone else will join in with the chorus...

 

[bandel4]

Oh WOW...super good looking knives!

 

[MartiniDave]

Josh,

You're getting the hang of this! They look wonderful.

Dave

 

[chopperknob]

Hi Josh, those three all look really nice to me ! Love the ergonomics Where did you source the 210 mm leuku ? i've been looking for ages and cant find them

 

[brancho]

Where did you source the 210 mm leuku ? i've been looking for ages and cant find them

Have you tried Brisa

 

[JAG009]

Hi Josh, those three all look really nice to me ! Love the ergonomics Where did you source the 210 mm leuku ? i've been looking for ages and cant find them

This place has them www.tamarackgroup.co.uk/

Jason