Knife 64 – Leuku

Leuku knife

…

In keeping with the History quest, According to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sami_knife the Leuku also known as a Sami knife (Sami: stuorraniibi = “big knife”, Finnish: lapinleuku or leuku), is a large knife traditionally used by the Sami people.

As best as I can tell by my research, these knives are about 1/8″ – 3/16″ steel and when 9″ long about 1 1/2″ wide. Most examples taper slightly back to the handle. Mos have a slight bulge at the butt of the handle.

• Blade – 9 1/2″
• Overall — 14 3/4
• Handle – stabilized maple
• 1/8″ – 1095 steel

.

To make the brass pieces I clamped a straight edge across the back of the drill press table. I set the bit as short as I could to help avoid wobble. I used a bit 1/16″ smaller than the tang to allow some room to bring it back to straight if it was off a bit.

.

It’s a little off center but the brass is big enough that it will not matter.

.

I used small files to finish cleanup.

I used a hack saw blade I had narrowed the end to cut out some of the brass.

I discovered on the very last piece I had a small dremel cutter that worked to help open it up

.

I’m tapering the opening a little so the back is more open than the front. I can press it on that way for a tight fit, but a small gap in the back will allow for some epoxy, JB weld or solder. I will probably use epoxy. The blue marking on the back is to make sure I don’t confuse what is front and what is the back.

Filing the brass flat. Here i am using sand paper on the dmt. The dmt just provides a nice flat surface and the grit helps hold the sand paper in place.

Using a ball peen hammer to give some texture to the guard.

At this point i decided to make another. I need to stabilize some handle material anyhow, along with being out of propane. I made the second one out of a piece of 3/16″ 1084 and made it about an inch shorter.

The Leuku knife

Stabilized maple handle with brass guard and pummel

The Leuku knife