Maasepänpuukko work in progress.

Life goes on, and so does the knife work. As you might have seen on my last post, blades for this set of maasepänpuukkos got ready, so it was time to work with the handles.

Maasepänpuukko is a basic, traditional type Finnish knife. It has only what a user knife needs; a blade, simple handle, and the sheath to carry it safely. This kind of puukkos were used for pretty much everything where man needed a cutting tool.

 

Fitting the blade in a block of curly birch. This time the work is done with a drill and needle rasps. End of the tang is pointed like a nail, and last centimer is hammered in.

Blades fixed in handle blocks. Shaping is done on a belt sander, followed by hand sanding.

Working in my knife laboratory, enjoying the luxury of air conditioning.

Handles shaped.

 Into an oil bath they go....

 And hung out to dry after several hours.

One has a sheath ready, to give an idea what they'll look like. Rest will have their sheaths when the new owner has decided on the colour. I'll post these up for sale on next Saturday, February 13th.