One more winter coming to an end soon.

As we're already over a week in April, the winter has really turned into spring. Meaning warm days, actually really warm at the moment. But it should still get colder, so looks promising for the last skiing trips of the season. Warm wet days mean a hard as steel snow when temperatures drop below zero again.

This pic was taken during the late March. Crispy snow, sunshine, and fresh wind. A perfect day to do something else than staying inside!

In northern Lapland willow grouse hunting is on to the end of March. A spitz type dog like Kumu is better to be leashed if you don't want him to chase the birds away. If you want a dog for willow grouse hunting, then a setter or pointer is your choice. Anyway having any dog with hunting instincts with you can help, if you keep it leashed. That way it can lead you to the birds you might otherwise have passed just 50 meters away...

Spring is nice time for the dogs too, as they can walk around pretty easily. Having over 80cm of snow here, and Kumu goes only through the fresh snow that had fallen recently.

Lakes are pretty much the opposite of the forests. Not much snow on the ice at all, and it's rock hard.

End of the dog sledding season means continuing the knife work as well. I've been working on some basic puukkos as well as with this leuku that was finished just yesterday. Later this month there will be some maasepänpuukkos for sale too!

A sleddingful season it is.

It's almost mid-March, meaning warmer days, birds singing in springy tunes, lot's of daylight. In February and March I'm pretty busy with dog sledding. So knife making has been in a part-time mode. It's good for a change to earn your living without a dust mask on your face.

This pair of leukus was finished just the other day.

Mornings at the husky farm start with packing the stuff needed on the trip. Safaris vary from 1 hour up to 5 days. All the stuff is transported in the sledges.

Dogs being harnessed. Leaders are the first ones in, as they should keep the line stretched out, avoiding mess-ups and tangles.

Teams are made ready before the clients arrive. On 2 days or longer trips clients always harness and unharness their own teams later on.

A short briefing about driving a sledge is an important part.  Using the brakes, keeping enought distance to the next team, balancing, paying attention to your team, and so on....

    Sledges packed, guides taking the snow anchors up, almost ready to go!

And out of the farm!

For the first few kilometers dogs are running a bit faster, especially if the track is well packed and without fresh snow.

Last team out of the gate. Balancing is important when curving from the farm to forest road!

 Relaxed driving on the great lake Inari.

Blue light of early winter in the northern Lapland's wilderness.

Guesthouse Husky's wilderness cottage on an island on lake Inari. This is where we stay on 3 and 3 day trip. Nearest road is appr. 15km away, and to Russian border it's around 20km.

Short break on a 2 day trip, we cover about 53km a day on these tours.

Preparing the fire for a lunch break. Feather sticks of course!

        Nice view of a glimpse of the sun suddenly between falling of wet snow for the whole day.

 Masa and Tuupo leading the second team. On longer trips the order of teams will almost never stay the same for the whole trip. Dogs are not machines who work exactly the same day after day. It's pretty much impossible to make several teams go exactly the same speed, so Sometimes we need to swap dogs from team to team or put more or less load in the sledge to balance them.

A beautiful day to be out on a husky safari. I'm driving as a second guide in between the teams, so the front ones have cut the trail through fresh snow.

Common behaviour of Conan and Ricky. At the farm these fellows live in the same pen, and they hardly seem to have any serious disagreements. Ricky, the one Conan is sitting on, is usually a bit restless and noisy during the breaks on safaris. If Conan get's enough of it, he just lays or sits on Ricky to make him quiet. Dogs are all individuals indeed.

We came from here just the day before this pic. Snowfall and wind during the night has made the track pretty much invisible.

A pic from nice snowy and sunny day ends this random set of random pics from random husky safaris.

They're Finnish puukkos, and for sale! (Sold)

So here are these maasepänpuukkos for sale. All handles in oiled curly birch. Blades 80CrV2 carbon steel. Scandi grind with tiny secondary bevel.

First one has a sheath ready, stained dark brown. For others I'll make their sheaths when the new owner has decided if it'll be red-brown, dark brown, or black. Slight variation in prices comes from the grade of timber.

Shipping costs plus possible PayPal fee will be added on total.

All sold, thank you!

No1  90 x 22mm blade. Handle 110mm long. 30,5mm wide and 23mm thick at max.

Sold!

No2   86 x 21,5mm blade. Handle lenght 110mm. 30mm wide and 22mm thick at max.
Sold!

   No3    81 x 21mm blade. 110mm handle, max 30,5mm wide and 22,5mm thick.
Sold!

No4    88 x 21,5mm blade. 110mm handle, width 29,5mm and thickness 22,5mm at max.
Sold!

No5   Blade 98 x 22mm. Handle 110mm long, 30,5mm wide and 23mm thick at max.

Sold!

No6    Blade 90 x 22mm. Handle 110mm long, 30mm wide and 22mm thick at max.

Sold!

No7   Blade 86 x 21mm. Handle 109mm long, 29,5mm wide and 22,5mm thick at max.

Sold!

No8   Blade 87 x 21mm. Handle 110mm long, 30mm wide and 22,5mm thick at max.

Sold!

No9    93 x 22mm blade. 110mm long handle, 31mm wide and 22mm thick at max.

Sold!

Pinky and Benji are curious to see how this puukko sale goes on..... 

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.