Leuku of my father,and his father.

At first, sorry for the weak picture. But its the best i have in my hands right at the moment.

Every year, i have mentioned my fathers old leuku while we´ve had been over the phone, like in every chat over these last 12 years or so. Today, about 30 mins ago, i received an multimedia message to my phone from him and i was what the heck....and when i got it open i was like what the hell. He had  all of the sudden gone  through his boxes and carage and while doinf that, came across this old leuku. Its the frigging same that i always wanted from him when i was  kid. For what i can remember, my grandfather owned this first, and gave it to my dad as a birthday present when he was teenager or under 20 for sure. At some point, the leuku found its way back to my grampas possession to serve as his hiking knife, during tenths of trips around the eastern and northern Finand, just as it did on my dads belt as well. Well in any case, last years this leuku just serves as memorabilia, in my grandpas trailer, as he had a stable summer place where they lived in the trailer for some 20 summers with my grandmom. The leuku just hanged from a hook along with other decorative stuff and they never gave it to me....well i was justa tiny kid back then, 10 years or so, maybe 12.....24 years ago maybe. When my grandpa died couple of years ago, the leuku was given back to my dad and he didnt use it ever. He liked it but hes old man and settle s for small puukkos in his fishing and camping trips, which he still seems to like, and i dont wonder as he had a loooooong life in the scouts,all the way from puppy to instructor / leader and i think i went to scouts myself, automatically, kind of, as he had been there for ages, as well as my grandfather. Oh anyways, i am soooo glad to see that the leuku made it to these days, and in that poor quality pic, it seems to be doing pretty fine , and still its used as all around knife once. Maybe it has survived in decent condition because it was turned in to more decorative item, so long ago, so it has rested for over 20 years in warm dry conditions. If i really remember right, and i am remembering the same exact knife, this leuku might have a small brass compass sunken in its butt plate. Hopefully i remember right, as as a kid, i remember, that some of the knives either my grandpa or my dad had, had a brass butt cap, with tiny compass. Well....even if it has, its pretty sure that its broken after all these years, as welll as the fact that it was a everyday user before it got retired. If it has the compass, i want to contact to the factory that made it, and ask for the manufacturing year and such.

Well...rigth now, i donno, should i keep using this after doing the repairs that have to be made, since id like to restore this, instead of raping it with any creepy mods like tearing off the fishtail of its sheath..one mod that i dont understand with leukus that originally had often the fishtail, that also has and still has a function. The only mod i think ill be seeing reasonable, is to remove all the clear finish off from the handle, as it would only do good to the handle and offer a good grip.

I dont have yet, a slightes clue about the age of the knife but i do know that it was clearly looked as an old knife, at early 80´s, and that it had served for very long time before eighties. Maybe its from early seventies, as it would fit to the age of my dad when he received it.

Well, as this old leuku arrives to me, ill be taking more pics and telling about it. Yes, i do know that its "just a factory made leuku", but back in those days, even the tourist leukus werent so bad as some are nowadays....shiny blade that attaches to magnet is also a good detail ;).

Little shelter update

Heres a few quick snapshots of my shelter progress. The cloth is -due to my lack of money- just made out of two tarpaulin pieces.  BUT, i did NOT settle just to throw the tarpaulin over the frame, no sir, the squa shaped cloth just wont ever fit so well to cone-shaped shelter. So i cut the pieces to proper shape to make it fit a Lot better than it would be in square shape.

The cloth isnt ready yet, ill be reinforcing and cleaning the ends of it and such, so ill take it once more off the frame, to finish it a bit, then ill make a door thingy in to it as well.

There will be dew-cloth, fire place, and all kinds of small details, to make.



Stop by, to see how it goes....loads of stuff to do, to get it all ready and comfy for the upcoming fall rain as well as for winter use.

Simple Kota / Lavvu interpretation, part 1.

As the fall arrives without a doubt, and it comes with grouse hunting season and other activities , i started to make a new shelter. Its sadly not made like , nor to be any "real" saame/saami kota nor lavvu, its just a simple hideout in that vein.I am still thinking of converting this quite a bit to make it more "real", though.. But, i think, that as its made out of birch, and it stands surrounded by relatively small birch ( compared to other birch areas in this part of Finland ), and that i made it all the way with just one tool, my leuku, made by my good buddy TK, from lapland, it reflects a bit of that norhern style already ?. It was hellova stuff to chop off all the birch trunks with that leuku as its the lightest and shortest that i have.

 I do need more of birch still, to make reinforcing pieces, bedding items, some pieces that i can tie in the upper part of the shelter, to make a horizontal, triangular shaped part  that i can use to hang my pots, wet clothing and to cure meat with smoke maybe.

 The ends of birch poles, i sharpened in a crude way, and then threw the end in to campfire, to burn the bare birch ends, so they get a good coal on em, as coal really stands against time. So the ends wont rot so easily at all, when driven in to the ground, as they have burnt well.

You know, in many cases, archeologists find remains of old log houses etc, that were burn, and not so much remains of un-burnt structures...I was going to strip away all the bark from the poles, so the wood would dry pretty quick , but as i did have limited time to make this stuff today, i just used leuku to peel off an inch or so, wide strip of bark, of every pole, for the entire length of em. This way, the wood will dry too, but slower, but its important, as wet, fully covered by bark, birch would start to rot inside the bark...not good, i say. Its just a small detail to make the poles live longer and harder. The shelter is just tad over 4 meters in diameter, so its very ok size for three grown men to nest inside, sleep and hang out, and its bit over 4.5 meters tall to the joint of poles. I used  a 2.1 meter rope, with two nails tied on the ends of rope, to draw the ring, in to the ground, and to make sure that its circular shaped. I just stuffed the other ends nail in to the ground, pulled the rope tight and used the other tied nail as a scraper or a pen. then i whittled some dozen sticks, and pushed em in to the ground so te circular shape was more visible.

 Then i  tied the first three poles that were the thickest ones, together , and lifted the tripod that was formed up, and adjusted them, in to the drawn circle, so that the distance between them was somewhat equal. Then i kept adding three poles at a time, between these first three, so they are pretty well tied together now, and as i have time, ill tie em all together with a thin welded chain, that has long loose, hanging end too, to be used as a pot hanger.

But, this is how it is now, and ill write more, when i get it done more and more. I sure would like to spand overnighters and time in this, especially during winter.....winter, my favourite part of year.

Tar making and few misc. pics

What i am learning, is the making of tar in a pretty old the traditional Finnish way. During next week, ill be having an over nighter watching and ...well...smelling the "tar grave" smouldering and finally giving some of that black gold, made slowly and carefully, watched and taken care of, over a week, around the clock by group of approximately 20 voluntaries who are interested in old methods of the "old world" that still are worth learning and passing on, even today in this modernized busy world in which there is factories to make tar if man wants some. Well, my opinion is that learning the past, is the only way to see clearly to the future.

                                         Man, even the houses were a lot nicer and to my taste ,back then.


Ill be taking more pictures, of my overnighter and the tar grave as it changes as time goes, and at next saturday i think the making will be ending, the final drops of tar are in the wooden old barrels, and the grave with its fine charcoals...that  crave for, to get some in to my blacksmith shed, naturally...are covered to reassure that there will not be anything causing forest fires. I think ill take just some old fashion gear along with my simple tarp shelter, and have a good time.


But, heres a few shots i took.




"Ships were wooden, men were steel", is what i think !

 Can you make your own vessels for containing fish, meat, milk ? With your own hands, from wood without electric machinery ? Are you willing to travel LONG distances to buy salt, though the winter, lets say with kick-sled ? Can you make your own quilts and mats `? I can not, and i am ashamed of it a bit.

 Do you save your own tools, are they here after 50-100 years after you have passed away ? Did you use em every day, to earn your bread and milk, to heat up your selfmade log house ?

 We can ust grab our wheat and bread, from shop and microwave it and such....they could not.

  A small reminder of days when even whetstones, used for scythes and puukkos, were used all the way till they wore out,both the blades and the stones. We buy new diamond rods just like that. Weird , aint it ?

 We dont have to saw, whittle and carve our lanterns to have lights on our carages.

This was an luxury item once. Now its collectible, luckily.

 The place of cleansing, birth, healing, social gathering. Sauna, a smoke sauna, to be exact.

Luckily, i can bath in smokesaunas just as They did back in the days.

 Scythes, with manmade handles. Functional, reliable, economical, ergonomically beautiful. Compare to soul-less injected plastic

 `To keep the tools edgy. These were used till the end, and worth a lot. Some made their own stones too. We and our electric,bought sharpeners ? This is truely an item that i like, as its made to maintenance the tools that were and stilla re to many, precious and useful tools, and in their plain simple style, they represent a variety of skill levels men had. Some TAHKO´s are like jewellery, and some are very crude, but they all work, which was the point of the whole tool after all.

 Wooden tar bucket, and an " tukkinkeksi".  Bucket, was handmade, to carry handmade tar, and mayb its made from the same wood, that the wood handling hook & spike was made from too, who knows. Anyways, these also represent the importance of forest, wood material and also the crafting skills required to live mostly off the land once.

Making nets from cotton/wool material thread..... almost forgotten skill,sadly.

And heres the tar making pics that i got before batteries went down...how surprising. I was originally going to the tar burning crew but my neck issues are making it a bit tough to kneel and move in a certain way for a while, but i am still putting up my camp next to the site and harass the crew and take pictures, who knows if i can do little bit of task too. I noticed a familiar face in the crew so i might still get a chance, no matter what the doc says :), so stay tuned, in next sunday i migth be posting more about this thing and how it went. I am also planning to fish and craft few things at the trip. Surely, i could use some company there too, but its also very nice to spend time alone too, i dont have a thing against some solitude.

The "tervakset"...... wood that contains a lot of resin....old stumps of pine, and such.

These are carefully laid in certain form to make the "tervahauta", the "tar grave" or a "miilu" as we call em often. The wood is laid on a  hard packed clay base , dug in the sandy soil, thats like funnel, that directs the tar as it starts to form, in to the hole in the bottom of the funnel.  On top of this circular shaped wood pile, is  tight cover layer of moss, clay and sometimes stuff that covers swamps. This cover has to be watched all the time, and fixed, so that the grave wont catch a huge fire.

It has to be hot and smouldering, but not in open fire, as the tar is formed by heat that squeeses, kind of, the tar out of the wooden material, between some 160 to  320 degrees.

As the tar runs through the hole, its then guided through a wooden channel, running under the grave, so that in it can be collected, from the end of this tunnel, in to the tar drums, buckets and such.

Wooden fork with leuku

Heres a 34 minute attempt to make a some type of a fork, from wood. I made it from birch, and with a leuku from Ilkka Seikku. Ill be crafting small things, with just few leukus, i think, to show that leukus are VERY capable tools for variety of different tasks.

Venture Tech Sheath Systems P.A.C.K One point One (1.1) incoming.

This summer sure keeps me busy at work, but, i am trying to get some weekends totally free to do some outdoors stuff and crafts.

Also, along few other items, i am going to offer you a review & field use review, of this very interesting new pack, that i REALLY think to fit the bills & needs of many different outdoorsmen, from Bushcrafters to hunters, and from dayhikers to UltraLight packpackers and several others. What i found immediately, when i saw the pack for the first time, as best thing of this pack was that its made to be customised, so that you dont have to pay for functions that you dont need and offers you a simple way to sew accessory pockets, buckles,straps and such in the way that YOU need to have em. Also, i dont know any other pack that comes un-dyed, un-waxed , as does this pack, so you can use your favourite tin-cloth mix, greenland wax or  anything, to treat your pack as waterproof as you want, after you have customised and dyed in the way You want it. Also, its old, vintage like appearance must be a joy for many people out there,  who like to use older looking gear, without having to break your bank to get one. Just switch the buckles to brass ones, or steel....and you have an affordable, new rugged, pack to carry your gear.

Its the clever pack from Venture Tech , named as "P.A.C.K" that comes from Personally Accessorized Canvas Knapsack. 
 


You can already read about the first 1.0 version of this pack, at Woodsmonkey.

Spoon

Just a crude wooden spoon that i made in an hour or so, with relatively large leuku. Some say that leukus cant be used for any small works but i dont agree.

Possibles pouch.

Just a small quickly done possibles pouch i did  yesterday. Nothing fancy, its not finished well but hey, its a user.
.

I started it by sketching something in to paper, making it a pattern that  cut off, and copied to leather piece, which made it easy to make this. I was thinking of putting the seams inside but for reasons unknown, i stitched it so that the seams are on the outside.

After i cut the leather pattern it was fast to stitch this up as it does not have much to sew. I didnt find any metal snaps or buttons so i tinkered this button from some stainless washer, a split rivet and inside, theres also a brass washer to keep it all together, and it seems to be sturdy indeed.

 Simple wide belt loop, and under the flap, there are good sized flaps too, that fold inside if needed but they do a good job preventing any stuff to fall accidentally from my pouch.  I have made pouches without inner flaps but no more, the small items always drop easier if there just one main flap covering the contents.

Its about 4cm x 11cm x 11 cm sized, so i can stuff a multitool in it, and i didnt want to make this too big at all, as i have pouches that are way bigger and also, pouches far smaller than this, so my new pouch fill the gap between.

 After the leather dye dries, as well as the saddle leather oil that i poured all over this, the final colour will be bit more red. I made a few decoratives to this, 2 axes and "my" rune, a few spruce branches...or atleast i see em like that :), a wolverine´s paw and under the flap, theres a clumsy attempt to write..sorry that its not perfect my any means, but my handwriting is what it is,heh. Anyways, its says, in english something like " adapt to nature and it will provide you."

Thats it, i am off to sew a puukko´s sheath.

Small trick, for 22. ammo

As i use .22 cal myself, i am sometimes lurking for blog stories about .22´s and just yesterday, or day before that i found this article by American Grouch and i wanted to throw in one of my ideas.

I am not claiming that this would be "invented"  by me, or anything, but i havent ever seen anyone mentioning, nor carrying one. You see, i have noticed, that .22 are kind of a pain in the butt for one reason. They are so small, that if you drop a few of them in pockets, they are harder to find by hand, than lets say .308 ammo, or shotgun ammo. They get stuck in seams, and such, almost disappear, and if not, they sure tend to rattle, meaning theyre noisy fellows in loose pockets,especially. There are few .22 ammo boxes, made out of platic, but they are usually way too bulky and have room for big load of ammo,and yes, they rattle too. This, is about ammo boxes ive encountered in Finland, and i donno a thaaaaang about overseas stuff, sorry. You migh be lucky to have better,smaller, quiet ammo holders / boxes, i dont.

Anyways, as i have a variety of old bit holders, for screwdriver bits, those 1/4" ones that you see everywhere, it just occurred me, that the diameters of .22 ammo are pretty much like in quarter inch bits, i took one bit holder, and yes sir, the ammo, went in, and stays there, not too tight to be hard to pull out, but its still super easy to pick up. The holder in my picture, is from Leatherman, it held bits in big combo sheath, meant for Super Tool and its bit adapter back in the days, now its my silent ammo holder, and i dont have to play too much with my fingers in my pockets, trying to find those tiny shells.

Well, this isnt much but just a little something.

Backroads & spring

Almost every day i stumble up on pages telling that the snow is melting quickly away. Luckily not here  :).

We´ve been clearing out the road to cabin, and theres still some 20-30 tree trunks, from 4 inch to 12 inch diameter to saw and pull away, loads of work before we can easily haul gear and supplies to the cabin. Offcourse we can use snowshoes and ski´s, pulks and sleds, but 100 liters of diesel, 2 chainsaws, etc goes easier with 4x4 `s.

Theres still some....i donno...50+ centimeters averywhere and in the deeper parts almost meter.

- 31" legal, non off-road studded wheels.
- 2" inch lift.
- sway bars removed.
- intercoolers cover mesh removed.
- +30 hp chip.
- free flow air filter.
- better flowing bigger exhaust with catalysator.
Thats about it, nothing serious done to it.