Scandanavian/finnish pair

[kronckew]

Just picked up this pair, top is a Dahlgren,Eskilstuna dress knife, bottom an unmarked horsehead puukko


(Both have 3.75 in. blades).


Any comments appreciated.

[Rick]

Those are very nice Wayne. Their value has risen of late.
I believe Rich Stein has a collection of Puukko (sp?). When I was a kid and had my first sailboat you could buy a laminated blade Mora sheath knife for about $4.00 at the local chandlery.
I'd love to get one of the horse head puuko knives, but I've got enough stuff in my collection(s) for my Son to deal with after I'm gone.
When I visited Norway in '63 I picked up a couple of knives; one was a Leuko of large size and the other an interesting dagger made by hand. The Leuko got stolen in a burglary, but I still have the dagger pictured below. The Oslo dealer told me these were made by sailors in the whaling fleet back when Norway was involved in the trade. The pommel and cross guard are marine ivory or whalebone and the grip is supposedly Baleen. The big processing vessels had extensive machine shops and I believe this one was made in one of them.

[Rafngard]

Hello all,

I really love these Nordic knives, especially the black handled ones from Eskilstuna.

Here's a few of my nicer ones, mostly from Sweden and Norway

Two minor quibbles though.
1) The horsehead puukko is from Finland, and as nearly every Finn is tired of telling people, Finland is a Nordic country, but not a Scandinavian country.

2) Should this post be in the European Armoury?

Have fun (or "ha det bra," på svenska),
Leif

[kronckew]

Originally Posted by Rafngard

Hello all,

...
1) The horsehead puukko is from Finland, and as nearly every Finn is tired of telling people, Finland is a Nordic country, but not a Scandinavian country.

2) Should this post be in the European Armoury?

...
Leif

I DID note the Dahlgren was Swedish (Scandi) and the Horse head was a puukko, thus was the Finnish part of the lot.


These are not military knives, and do seem to be properly 'Ethnic'. The European forum is more geared to bladed weapons of the 19th c. and earlier. The ethnic area is more lenient,

[Ian]

Originally Posted by kronckew

... The ethnic area is more lenient,

Yes we are Wayne, in many different ways.

[gp]

thank you for posting this .

On Scaninavia:
https://www.scandinaviastandard.com/...ian-countries/

Somemore info on the Kuuvo: the horse headed is called "The Kauhava Horse Head Knife" or "Järvenpää Kauhava"

The Iisakki Järvenpää Company was founded in 1879 and is the largest manufacturer of knives in Kauhava, Finland, a well-known town which has a long and rich history of knife making. Handles are made from locally sourced curly birch wood, occasionally with birch bark spacers. Fittings are also produced internally at their factory. The result is a complete Iisakki Järvenpää knife of Finland that is 100% sourced from the same manufacturer, designed and created to work together seamlessly. The blades are all ground individually, making each one a bit unique, and all are stamped with Iisakki Järvenpää's signature. Sheathes are stamped with images of reindeer and forests, highlighting Finland's strong culture of outdoors, hunting, and woodcraft.

The Lappland Puukko is the traditional utility knife of the Sami people. Its design has evolved over the centuries into one of the most versatile and functional knives in existence today. This is a solid all-around camp or utility knife, featuring a long, medium-width stainless steel blade



https://www.iisakkijarvenpaa.fi/us/story

All the birch bark handled, varnished knives are called Kauhava knives. Horse-headed knife has a cast brass horse head shaped pommel, hence the name. These kinds of horse head knives have been around since the beginning of the 1880’s, made under two names: Iisakki Järvenpää, and his cousin, Juho Kustaa Lammi. They were the ones behind the “puukko” concept: they invented, tested, and crafted them in the beginning of their careers. Where did the idea to place a horse head on a knife come from? There are many stories. The most credible of them explains that J. K. Lammi—while serving in the military in the dragoon regiment of Vaasa, Finland—saw a riding whip that had a cast horse head on its pommel, and had the idea to apply the same figure on the pommel of a knife. He then refined the idea together with Iisakki Järvenpää. They made knives, including the horse-headed ones, for their clients, both together and by themselves. According to local history, some bigger deliveries might have contained similar knives under the names of the two different knife-makers. The Iisakki Järvenpää Company has always had the Horse Head Knife in large scale production, and, in the course of time, its handle has been made of various materials including birch bark, birch wood, galalith, ebonite, and bone. Today the shape of the horse head is still the same and it’s made of varnished birch bark. There are two sizes of Horse Head Knife: a traditional model with 10 cm long polished blade made of carbon steel, and a smaller Ladies Knife.

I used to have 3 of them in different sizes from 5 to 25 cm, which unfortunatly got stolen. All dated pre WW2 and were my grandfather's

[fernando]

Originally Posted by Ian

... Yes we are Wayne, in many different ways...

-

[Edster]

Here is a Blog of current Nordic knife makers.

https://nordiskaknivar.wordpress.com/2013/04/

[Rafngard]

Hello All,
After a bit of searching, I found this series of photos from a catalogue from C.W. Dalhgren from 1906.

I thought they might add to this thread.

Photos originally found here
https://eskilskallan.eskilstuna.se/items/show/62032

Have fun,
Leif

[Rafngard]

..and here's the rest of them

[Rafngard]

And also the model number on these can be found on the scabbard, near the ring.

For example, mine here (and above) is model number #38

Have fun,
Leif

[kronckew]

Cool. Thanks for all that info. My Dahlgren has the C.W.Dahlgren (etc) stamp on the blade in front of the cross guard, but the model number on the scabbard is missing. Looks like a No. 40 from the above pictures...The scrimshaw on the black grip is a tad different from any of them.

[Sajen]

Great discussion and very useful information given from Leif!
Nice addition to your collection Wayne and very nice collection of these knives Leif, thank you both for sharing!

[kronckew]

You wait and wait for a bus, the 2 come along.


Just aquired this much larger straight Swede, 5.5 in. + blade.
No number near the ring, but it has eskiltuna in a scroll just below the rin.