Full Tang Bushcraft Knife VS Traditional Puukko

[Johnnyboy1971]

Much of the time I only carry a Mora 106 around my neck. It does most of the tasks needed of a knife. If I know I'm going to do some wood prep for a fire I will then carry an axe, the size of axe will depend on the place I'm going and length of stay.

I also on occasion take a Leukku instead of the axe. I find this great for light chopping and slashing.
Both of these are stick tang, if broken a handle can still be replaced easily enough.

[FishyFolk]

Well, after some thinking I remember one story where a knife was crucial.

Jan Sigurd Baalsrud, MBE (December 13, 1917 in Kristiania, Norway – December 30, 1988 in Kongsvinger, Norway) was a commando in the Norwegian resistance trained by the British during World War II.

Jan Baalsrud was born in Kristiania (now Oslo), and moved to Kolbotn in the early 1930s, where he lived until the 1950s. He graduated as an instrument-maker in 1939.

World War II[edit]
During the German invasion of Norway in 1940, he fought in Vestfold. He later escaped to Sweden, but he was convicted of espionage and expelled from the country. He eventually arrived in Britain in 1941, after having travelled through the Soviet Union, Africa and the US, where he joined the Norwegian Company Linge. In early 1943, he, three other commandos and the boat crew of eight, all Norwegians, embarked on a dangerous mission to destroy a German air control tower at Bardufoss, and recruit for the Norwegian resistance movement. This mission was compromised when he and his fellow soldiers, seeking a trusted resistance contact, accidentally made contact with an unaligned civilian shopkeeper of the same name as their contact who betrayed them to the Germans.

The morning after their blunder, on March 29, their fishing boat Brattholm – containing 8 tons of explosives intended to destroy the air control tower – was attacked by a German vessel. The Norwegians scuttled their boat by detonating the 8 tons of explosive using a time delay fuse, and fled in a small boat; however the small boat was promptly sunk by the Germans.

Jan and others swam ashore in ice cold Arctic waters. Jan was the only soldier to evade capture and, soaking wet and missing one sea boot, he escaped up into a snow gully, where he shot and killed the leading German Gestapo officer with his pistol. He evaded capture for roughly two months, suffering from frostbite and snow blindness. His deteriorating physical condition forced him to rely on the assistance of Norwegian patriots. It was during this time in a wooden hut at Revdal, which he called Hotel Savoy, that Jan was forced to operate his legs with a pocket knife. He believed that he had blood poisoning and that drawing the blood out would help. Not long after that Jan was left on a high plateau on a stretcher in the snow for 27 days due to weather and German patrols in the town of Mandal, his life hanging by a thread. It was during this time while he lay behind a snow wall built round a rock to shelter him that Jan amputated nine of his toes to stop the spread of gangrene, an action which saved his feet. After that it was thanks to the efforts of his fellow Norwegians that Jan was transported by stretcher towards the border with Finland. Then he was put in the care of some Sami (the native people of northern Scandinavian) who with reindeer pulled him on a sled across Finland and into neutral Sweden, where he was safe at last. From Saarikoski in northern Sweden he was collected by a seaplane of the Red Cross and flown to Boden.

He spent seven months in a Swedish hospital in Boden before he was flown back to Britain in a de Havilland Mosquito aircraft of the RAF. He soon went to Scotland to help train other Norwegian patriots who were going back to Norway to continue the fight against the Germans. After a long struggle to learn to walk properly again without his toes, he eventually got his own way, and was sent to Norway as an agent, where he was still on active service at the time of the war's end in 1945. The end of the war signalled the end of German occoupation - and he was able to immediately travel to Oslo and re-unite with his family, whom he had left 5 years a before. (Source:- 'We Die Alone' by David Howarth, written in 1955 ISBN 978-1-84767-845-4).

He was appointed honorary Member of the Order of the British Empire by the British.[1] From Norway, he received the St. Olav's medal with Oak Branch. He was a Second Lieutenant (Fenrik).

Later years and death[edit]
After the war Baalsrud made a substantial contribution to the local scout and football associations in addition to the Norwegian Disabled Veterans Union of which he was chairman from 1957 to 1964. In 1962 he moved to Tenerife, Spain where he lived for the most of the remainder of his life. He returned to Norway during his final years, and lived there until his death on 30 December 1988. He was 71 years old. His ashes are buried in Manndalen in a grave shared with Aslak Aslaksen Fossvoll (1900–1943), one of the local men who helped him escape to Sweden.

An annual remembrance march in his honour takes place in Troms on July 25 where the participants follow his escape route for nine days. A meadow in Oppegård is named Baalsrud plass in his honour.

(Wikipedia)


In 1957 a film was made about the events...

[Wolfman Zack]

Interesting story, he certainly showed a nearly unbelievable degree of dedication, and proved himself a true patriot.
Not the typical uses that we think of for a survival knife, but it certainly was critical to him.

Here in the US "survival knife" generally is used to describe the better quality outdoor knives, almost as a selling point or marketing term.

Living in the northeast US near Canada, I an a strong believer in the smaller knife paired with an axe, especially in the winter.
In fact I would give up the knife before my Gransfors Bruks SFA, I can do small work well enough with it to get by.

In the summer months you can get by fine with a beefy knife that can be battoned, but to cut wood or make a shelter an axe is invaluable.

The so called "Rambo knives" are quite foolish to my mind as well, I don't see a need for them.
The closest I have to them are a couple of Becker knives, a BK-2 and a BK-7.

[FishyFolk]

One thing...you will not find survival knives in shops where knives are sold around here. Most have to be ordered online from overseas...

Typically you'll find a few leukus and a Helle display case in shops where they sell outdoors equipment. Perhaps a few Brusletto leukus are also available.
Else there is the Mora knives wich you can pick up at supermarkets and gas stations :-)

Onlt specially interested people will have anything else here. Brusletto has a few full tang knives, else it is all stick tang. And most find them good enouh for their purposes.
Remember that most people will use a knife for maybe gutting a fish know and then, or to open a pack of hot dogs to barbecue. That is my use of a knife 90% of the time as well :-)

[FishyFolk]

I normally carry my Enzo trapper on my belt. And the Leuku I keep under the lid of my go out bag. I got a carabinier on it to attach it to my belt if needed. Then in the belt pouch with my fire kit in it, I have a
stainless Opinel #8. It used to be a carbon opinel in there, but I never used it and it rusted on me.

Some times I also bring a folding saw, or an axe. Some times my Mora 711 come allong, or my Mora 2K if I go fishing. Thats the sharps I use.

Drooling at a Wenger Wood 55 at the moment, but they are a bit pricey. They say the saw on that is very good.

[Wolfman Zack]

One thing...you will not find survival knives in shops where knives are sold around here. Most have to be ordered online from overseas...

Typically you'll find a few leukus and a Helle display case in shops where they sell outdoors equipment. Perhaps a few Brusletto leukus are also available.
Else there is the Mora knives wich you can pick up at supermarkets and gas stations :-)

Onlt specially interested people will have anything else here. Brusletto has a few full tang knives, else it is all stick tang. And most find them good enouh for their purposes.
Remember that most people will use a knife for maybe gutting a fish know and then, or to open a pack of hot dogs to barbecue. That is my use of a knife 90% of the time as well :-)

I honestly use my knife about the same, whitling, cutting cord or rope, gutting fish, opening packages, and prepping/eating food.
The only knife I really baton with is my Becker BK-2, and that is as sort of an axe substitute.
I will sometimes make stop cuts when carving by lightly batoning with my smaller knife, but that is only very lightly.

Another interesting phenomenon here in the US are so called "hard use folders", that claim to be as strong as fixed blade "survival knives".
I have owned some and although I like the higher quality components and construction of some of them, many are just overly thick and heavy.

I think that too much emphasis is placed on the hard use aspect of knives here in the US and somewhat in the UK as well, it would seem that practicality is still the primary focus in Scandinavia.

[OakAshandThorn]

I'm also with Rune on this. Full tang blades frankly are overkill for what I would need in a knife. I'm not one of those who believes that a knife has to be able to "stand up to abuse" because I don't abuse my blades, I take care of them . A lot of what I see in the States are sharpened crowbars (or at least that's how some people use their own knives), so-called "one tool options"... definitely not my taste. In my eyes, chopping and battoning is what an axe or demahigan is for, not a knife.

My main blade is a Martiini Arctic Circle...

The blade length is only 9 cm (3.5 inches), but it is one heck of a slicer because of its thin profile and high Scandinavian grind. Thicker knives just aren't as efficient as puukkos, even if the blade length is longer.

[-Tim-]

I hold my head in shame....I had one of these when I was a kid.... can't believe they still sell them!

Sorry guys, I'll get my coat!

Cheers
Tim

[Rasputin]

I hold my head in shame....I had one of these when I was a kid.... can't believe they still sell them!

Sorry guys, I'll get my coat!

Cheers
Tim

Oh the shame! lol

[FishyFolk]

I hold my head in shame....I had one of these when I was a kid.... can't believe they still sell them!

Sorry guys, I'll get my coat!

Cheers
Tim

No worries...I still have "The genuine Rambo knife, as known from the movies. Only £3.99. Must not be mistaken as a cheap copy"....
I keep it around as memory of what I was like at age 14...lol