When I am talking to other knife enthusiasts, and we are debating about exotic woods, detailed filework or damascus steel, I am sometimes beeing asked, what my own knife looks like? Most people think, I might have made the most complex and beautiful knife for myself but the contrary is the case: my own knife is very simple. A small knife with a birch bark handle like the traditional “puukko” they use in Finland. 
In fact, when I made my first attempts in knife making in my youth, I made big knives… Rambo, Crocodile Dundee… I thought the bigger the better, but the knives I carry around have become shorter and shorter. Six centimeters is all you need… this knife has accompanied me from Greenland to Saudi Arabia, and from carving and whittling to cutting, filleting and even butcherin roe deer, this knife has served me perfectly.
The handle was made the traditional way with birch bark only, no glue ist necessary. The bark is cleaned and stacked onto the handle. By heating it in the kitchen stove, the birch tar in the bark is being activated and glues all the little pieces together. The handle is also riveted and then filed and sanded to shape.
Although birch bark is a ver simple material, it has a very nice look. And the feel is fantastic! Even when wet, or when filleting a fish, it does not get slippery. It is also relatively dense and does not take smells or stains easily.
Here are some pics from the process. The steel is 1.3505 (100Cr6), a very sharp carbon steel which has been identified as one of the best and most versatile steels by Roman Landes, in his famous diploma study on knives. This steel is also easily available as it is being used in bearings.
