The puukko quest

©Paaso Puukot

If you know me, you probably know that I like knives. This passion goes all the way back to my childhood: ever since I was a little kid I was fascinated by weapons, and knives in particular. I don’t remember when I got my first knife… I was 7, maybe younger... I’m not sure exactly what knife it was either. I think it was a Victorinox swiss army knife. Probably my father got it for me because I begged him to death for it, and it was useful for our camping trips into the wild.

Since then I’ve got many other knives. Often, we would buy one when on a trip, as a souvenir. This means most of my knives have a story and memories attached to it.

It was only natural then that I decided to get a knife during my stay in Finland.

I did thorough research before I even got here. I discovered that the traditional Finnish knife is called a puukko and has a very recognisable form. I also checked out some stores in the cities we were likely to stay in.

As soon as I got to Seinäjoki I went to a couple of shops to get an idea of what prices I could expect and what kinds of knives there were. I also looked online but given the reasons of my purchase, I preferred to buy it in person. I did not find anything of particular interest, and to be honest I found the appearance of this type of knives kind of dull.

© @seijaka on pinterest

But then we made our trip to Helsinki. Knife shopping was one of my main activity while we were visiting tourist shops. I also prepared a list of places to visit to be sure not to miss anything.

In the end we did some spotting of the first day and decided to buy it the day after.

It took us literally one hour to choose the knife I was going to buy. In the end Romain bought one too! I Chose a beautiful piece with a handle made of curly birch with 3 stripes of reindeer horn. The reason it was so difficult to choose was the price, since there were beautiful knives for much less. In the end I decided to get something I will really like even if it cost more, and I don’t regret it one bit. And the design really grew on me! I really like it and find it sublime!

Daniel

Spoiler alert: during a second trip to Helsinki Daniel couldn’t resist and bought another Finnish hunting knife (not a puukko though)!