Jari Liukko maasepän puukko

Jari Liukko

rock drummer and master bladesmith since 2018, is the son of organist and master bladesmith Arto Liukko. He lives and works in Savonlinna, on the shores of lake Saimaa, in Eastern Finland.

blade

length - 88 mm

wideness - 24 mm

thickness - 3,5 mm at the spine; 4,2 mm at bevels junction
tang - 5x2 mm at the pommel

steel - ThyssenKrupp 80CrV2

grind - flat

edge angle - 19°

edge hardness - ~ 60,5 HRC

handle

length - 114 mm

wideness - 31 mm max.

thickness - 19 mm max.

weight

knife - 85 g

with sheath - 125 g

The blade was forged, by hand held hammer, from a bar of ThyssenKrupp 80CrV2. It has a subtle rhombic section, is slightly tapered in height and just a hair in thickness. After annealing and normalization it was heated with blow torch, quenched in oil and tempered in oven. During the quench it was tilted so to leave the spine softer. The bevels are grinded to 19°, practically to zero.

The handle is crafted from carelian birch. The tang goes all the way through: the handle is hammered in place, so to jam the blade’ shoulders into the wood, then the end of the tang is bent and hammered into the pommel to ensure further strength. No glue was used. It’s sanded to a fine grit, slightly tapered in height and thickness towards both ends. It has a marked teardrop section and , even though not particularly thick, fills well the hand.

The 2 mm thick leather sheath is handstitched. It has a alder liner, carved then sanded. The belt loop is double slotted and is attached exploiting the sheath’s leather grip over the two striped ends of the loop, after everything has dried. The retention is excellent.

In use

Wide, but rather slim puukko, it feels slightly heavier than its actual weight and its balanced just a bit towards the handle.

Out of the box the edge was extremely thin and, during the first session of carving, to get accustomed to the puukko, I had 3-4 microchips near the handle, in the portion that removed a knot. The chips were perceivable trailing the nail along the edge, too small to be seen with naked eye, but big enough to need stone work, not just stropping. I then added a hint of microbevel using Work Sharp #220 and #600 stones, followed by coarse and fine ceramic rods, finishing with Bark River black (#3000) green (#6000) white (#12000) and Work Sharp green (#32000) compound. 

During the following carving session I only got an edge asperity, fixed with Work Sharp compound. Since during some hand movements the tang sharp corners felt a little annoying to my palm, I smoothened them with the Victorinox Swiss Tool file.

As always let’s start with the seven months seasoned plane wood spikkentrolls.

There is really nothing to say about the carving of both. After the first one I felt an asperity in the edge and fixed it with tre passes of WS compound. After the second the bite was just a hair less aggressive but still shaving sharp. Again three passes on WS compound.

The handle, now that the tang corners were smooth, has always been very comfortable while the blade always left smooth and shiny cuts surfaces.

Let’s continue with the six months poplar wizard.

The puukko was a good planer while roughing out the two facets and had a good bite while carving the visage features. The tip, not being tapered, was just a bit fiddly when engraving the nose’ sides and lower lip, but holding the puukko like a pencil solved most of the problem. No problem at all working on flattening the base and removing two knots. I felt the only, bland, resistance when carving against the fibers, while removing the second knot. The cuts has always left a smooth and shiny surface.

At the end I felt an extremely light asperity where the curved belly starts, while the bite was just a bit less aggressive, but still shaving sharp without pressure. Twelve passes on WS compound.

Let’s finish with the eighteen months seasoned silver fir.

 
The lower part of the wood block had a long crack that made me particularly cautious to avoid further splitting that might have taken away material from the area that would have become the spatula’s blade. There was some resistance, enhanced by caution, during the roughing process, only when I had to cut the tangentially both endgrains. The combination of thickness and geometry worked perfectly as wedge to easily remove material from the lower half of the block working down grain and, when needed, making effortlessly extremely good feathers.

No problem or resistance during all the finishing cuts, I was able to get a very smooth transition from spatula o shaft, the cuts always left shiny and smooth surfaces. Excellent handle and aggressive blade, wide but nimble enough.

At the end the edge was pristine and was still hair popping sharp, without pressure. 
 

 

Conclusions

The blade is wide, might be a bit too much for the finest works, but is nevertheless plenty agile, nimble and aggressive. I also must say the the slight drop point, combined with the relative slimness of the handle, made the use in “pencil grip” particularly intuitive and fun.

The geometry and heat treatment combination reached a very good compromise of resilience and edge holding. The hint of microbevel added some strength without taking away bite: I’ve since cut and trimmed various other knots without an issue. On these geometries, for pure carving, I still prefer 80CrV2 to be taken to 62 HRC, but for a more general use, including but not limited to wood working, 60,5 HRC is probably the best compromise.

Very good handle, but due to its slimness and section, it made me change slightly the way I do a couple of grips. In particular I felt the “chest lever grip” way more comfortable and effective holding the puukko with the edge towards me and rotating the wrist, rather than having the edge towards the knuckles, like I usually do with less marked teardrop sections; moreover, when using the thumb as fulcrum and pulling the knife towards me, I gripped the blade spine with my index, something I don’t do so often, as with less marked sections a good grasp on the handle is enough. On the other hand, such a marked section avoids the handle whatever possibility to accidentally rotate in the palm.

Together with Hurttila’s maasepän, this is probably the one that gave me more satisfaction.