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"Skakniv", a knife used in killing another person. A knife like that was said to posess magical powers able to heal wounds. The picture of the knife is shown at left, courtesy of  the Criminal Museum in Oslo.
The ancestors of my mother came from Valdres. Both the murderer and one of the surviving victims of this case were of my folks. The dispute was a mundane one, a quarrel about a farm. On December 6th 1823 four assailants crashed a wedding party of Ole`s brother in a small house of the Upper Dahle farm in North Aurdal in Valdres. The assailants attacked him violently and soon got him down on the floor. Ole Eriksen Dahle had to desperately defend his very life with this short knife. Two brothers bled to death from the stab wounds. The following year Ole was set free of all charges, as the court admitted his right to defend himself in a very chaotic and dangerous situation.

Peder: My great grandfather Peder Evenrud made this knife. According to a millennium old norse tradition this sheath is decorated with hand pressed lines forming a pattern and the blade is "tynslesmidd", a forging process leaving the blade thickest at the back. I guess the blade is made of an old file forged together with ordinary steel. The length of the knife is typical of the Hedmark knife. Note the curious form of the grip, made to give a good fitting in the sheath. My father Thorleif Knatterud restored the knife as closely to the original as possible fitting a new grip and a new sheath.

Traditional knife: A "well used" allround knife, probably made by my grandfather  Julius Knatterud.

Thorleif Knatterud 

                       

Then some of my father`s knives. No fancy stuff, just plain ordinary knives to be used as everyday tools by himself over the years. The picture with four knives: two of the knives were made to fit commercial sheaths. The ones in between are also shown separately.
The two on the right is entirely his, also the leather and the blacksmith work. He has also made a nice set of woodcarving tools.

At present I buy blades from the best blade smiths, but I should like to do the forging myself since I now got the necessary tools. The blades are all hand forged leaving a middle layer of high carbon steel for the edge. I also use damascus forged steel blades.

 I prefer birch tree because of its variations, and I use some moose antler and whale tooth. Whale teeth are hard to come by, but still there are some 50 - 60 years old teeth to be obtained as well as the odd fresh ones. My father, my grandfather and my great grandfather used to make knives at times. They never produced knives for sale.

The leather used is the best vegetable (oak) tanned leather. This special oak tanning process leaves a rawhide layer in the middle of the hide. This allows the leather to harden to a very durable sheath. Some leather is specially tanned to provide an outer layer excellently suited for the decoration molding process. 

Courses

The Bookfinch 4H		Two knives		Anstein, Tor Seming

The Bookfinch 4-H: The knife group of the Bookfinch 4-H at Lundsdalen. I was asked to help out when a group of this 4-H club needed a teacher.  The 1st knife was done strictly by the book learning the proper techniques. The 2nd knife allowed the pupils to enfold their creativity. Of course knifemaking got so popular that I had to help out with a second course the following winter.

Two knives: Two of the pupils made both grips and sheaths in birch wood.

The proud boys displaying their knives. Anstein Rørsveen to the left and Tor Seming Mikkelsen to the right.

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