The Love of a Leuku

I must confess that although mora knives are by far and away my favourite cutting tool I do not go anywhere without my Leuku. I have used this tool for shelter building, stickmaking, splitting wood, chopping trees, preparing game, filleting fish, preparing bow drills, basically anything that a normal knife or axe would be used for..

 

 

Now I have many,many of these Samiknives, in different sizes and grinds, but I have a predilection for the typical Finnish grind of a steeper primary bevel with a small micro bevel

 

 



 

here you can see the typical finnish grind..

 

 

which becomes more pronounced at the belly of the blade as this is the area takes the most use when the knife is used properly.

 

 

and a more typical Swedish Scandi Zero grind, with a much more obtuse bevel, probably more robust but I personally don't feel this grind gets as sharp as the Finnish grind.

 

 

and my favourite tool, I made this one from a Lauri Blade and a block of curly birch, you can see just how much this knife has been sharpened by the slight change in the blade shape, believe you me it takes a lot of use and many many sharpenings to even make this sort of difference on the blade!

 

The one common thing you will find on all my leukus is Brass.. The Sami considered brass a sacred metal and according to old Sami tradition brass has magical properties.
The brass on the knife can keep evil spirits away, and brass also has healing powers and can be used to stop bleeding, remove abscesses and take away pain.

I have even heard of top Leuku makers refusing commissions simply because the client didn't want any brass on his Leuku!

 The least I can do is honour that tradition.