Ilkka Seikku´s got a blog!!!!!

I have long become an avid fan of Ilkka Seikku. I just love the knowledge, versatility and no-frills appearance of his woodcraft tools, and I keeplearning from his vast treasury of woodcraft skills, but ranting over and out, now he´s got a blog, so anyone could go and have a look and build an opinion for oneself:

http://rautasarvi.blogspot.de/2013/12/metso-primitiivi-jousella-copyrights-by.html?showComment=1389038070726#c5628810110846854675

I especially love the post about the bush prowler knife, a favourite of mine.

http://rautasarvi.blogspot.de/search?updated-min=2014-01-01T00:00:00%2B02:00&updated-max=2015-01-01T00:00:00%2B02:00&max-results=1

THAT´s a test of a knife - Ilkka Seikku testing a bush prowler blade

Bushprowler test by the maker himself


is quite impressive. I test my knives myself and felt inspired by the footage... and it is a motivation to try harder still.

It´s a knife made from a simple steel, and you can see what happens if you got the trade right!

Portfolio and biography of Ilkka Seikku

On Akiri´s Blog which is a great read in itself, I came across some link he shared. Now I am really fond of Ilkka Seikku´s work. Ilkka is a Finnish bladesmith and amongst many other things makes the famed Bush prowler bushcraft knife.


Now on this other blog (Nordic knives) there´s a biography of Ilkka with loads of pics and insight into his work. By the way, he does a load more work than "just" make knives!

I get not paid to write this, by the way:-). But Ilkka is a very great craftsman, and deserves to get known more widely. His thoughts make it all the more clear.

A dark day in the smithy and the birth of a bush proto;-)

I went to the smithy on Sunday to prepare some work and to help out smithing. Michael was there, and we did a children´s birthday party that day. The I forged pendants, ear hangers and the like for the upcoming Chrismas fairs we will forge on.

And, feeling very inspired by Ilkka Seikku´s knives, I started myself a bushcraft design. Not wanting to simply copy another knife, I contemplated what was proprietary to my style and what I wanted to achieve with it while sharing some characteristics with the intent in Ilkka´s knives. It shall be long enough to be useable, rugged, but an able cutter. To achieve that, I chose spring steel that I tempered selectively. I am also fond of a slight recurve design and I figured I wanted a finger grove for the index finger and a milder version of the handle shape I have come to like as quite ergonomic.

All the while the forging fest with the kids went on, and I helped out whatever I could.

The forge had been repaired by Viktor. I really love the versatility and the simplicity of a forge with no electricity. It could work just about anywhere, and I like that.

Renate, Volker´s girlfriend, provided us with a steady flow of caffeine... man, I drank like a gallon of the java stuff! Was feeling slightly queasy afterwards...*ggg*

That´s the downside of working with a low-key forge and anthracite coke: If you go for a leak or have to do some filing, you have to build a wood fire to keep it going....

The weather was foul the whole day through. It was very dark, and a bit of a drizzle fell from time to time, but no harm done, really.

As you can see, the knife´s forged into shape with little stock removal required once again.

I also made some copper ferrules for a certain Sgian Dhú ;-). It was some strenuous work, but a very satisfying day.