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the modern changes to carrying puukkos |
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In [[Finland]] and northern Scandinavia many men put great pride in carving their puukko's handle. Traditionally, the handle is made of birch, sometimes with horn spacers for decoration. Over generations, this knife has become intimately tied to Nordic culture, and in one or another version is part of many [[national costume]]s. A good puukko is equal parts artistic expression and tool. Making it requires a lot of different skills: those of a carver, a jeweller, a designer, and a leatherworker to make the sheat — and if you master the difficult art of weaving birchbark, this is an opportunity to use it.
In the Nordic countries, the puukko is however an ''everyday'' knife that is used for everything from hunting, fishing and garden work to opening boxes in the warehouse, and many puukkos are industrially produced by factories of which [[Fiskars]] is the most notable. Bearing of all sharp objects which could be used as weapons was banned in Finland during the 1960's. Since then, the puukko has lost ist visibility in public places and been restricted to household work, hunting and fishing. In many industries, e.g. construction, the puukko has been replaced by the Swedish Mora-knife, which resembles puukko but has a much cheaper and less durable construction. The mora knife's handle is typically plastic and its blade a sharp razor blade between two soft steel plates, making almost impossible to sharpen.
As the carrying of puukkos is prohibited in public places, the only built areas where they can be nowadays be seen carried are garrisons. It is a custom of Finnish [[conscript]] [[NCO]]s and [[officer cadet]]s to carry a puukko of their year course as as part of combat uniform. This is rationalized as carrying of a handy tool but here, the puukko doubles as a symbolic sidearm.
[[Category:Knives]]
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