The traditional Finnish hiking, camping and survival knife, the puukko, is a versatile tool: use it to carving feathered sticks for lighting a fire, gutting a fish, chopping ingredients for your outdoor meal or the demanding task of opening a sausage package. A basic puukko with a plastic handle suffices handles almost every situation, while an outdoor skills/bushcraft enthusiast carefully considers their puukko of choice and ponders, for example, whether they want a full-tang construction, where the handle contains a sturdy tang extending the full width of the handle rather than a narrow, rat-tail tang.
We represent several puukko and Scandinavian knife manufacturers: Roselli, J. Marttiini, Eräpuu, J.P. Peltonen, Arctic Legend, and Mora. Knives manufactured in Finland are marked with a separate flag.
Stainless or Carbon Steel Blade? Modern stainless steel grades are excellent. The main difference between the stainless and carbon steel knives we sell lies in sharpening ease: for example, Marttiini's stainless chrome steel holds its edge for a long time but requires a diamond sharpening stone. Carbon steel knives, on the other hand, are easy to sharpen with traditional whetstones. Carbon steel is the more traditional option and requires a bit of maintenance: if the blade gets wet, it should be dried immediately and protected with oil. Unsalted cooking oils work well for this.
Common handle materials for Nordic hiking and camping puukko knives include birch, bark, bone, horn, rubber, and plastic. A lacquered wooden handle is slippery when wet, so anglers and hikers might prefer a waxed or oiled wooden handle, a bark handle, or a rubber handle. For a scout knife or a first knife, a grippy rubber handle is a reliable choice.
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