2010-11-26

Sissipuukko M.95 - ranger knife by J-P Peltonen, Finland



 This knife born out of a wish to make a good Finnish knife for the armed forces (but as it happened, a Swedish unit was the first military unit to purchase it).
A main design point was that the first business of a knife is to cut well. For this reason, it's not made of stainless steel, but forged carbon steel. The blade can then be thinner than a stainless steel knife equally strong, which helps performance. It's coated with black teflon.


A second point was that it should be easy to carry, held securely in the sheath, also for upside down carry, and accessible.

The belt loop, which you fasten against itself with velcro (which is always against your body, so it won't come open by mistake), can be removed and put around the sheath.
The sheath is sturdily made of thick leather and has a plastic insert on the edge side. It's also got a good drainage hole. The knife is retained by a roller with rubber flanges which engages the guard. To draw the knife, you put your thumb against a piece of square plastic rivetted to the the sheath and pull. This seems quite practical, as there is no snap fastener (or anything on the knife handle) which easily gets stuck on something and loosens the knife. Sits tight, so I can't just shake the sheath to bring the knife loose, but I guess you could hold the sheath near the tip and swing it hard enough to dislodge the knife.
Weight:         210 g
  sheath: about 140 g
Length:         280 mm
Blade thickness:  5 mm at the widest
I think this is a good blend of the traditional working knife and the modern. The blade has a very good shape and size for jobs like cutting and chopping, then plastic handle feels comfortable both when I hold it close to the blade for cutting or near the other end for chopping, and it gives me a secure grip if my hands are wet and slippery even though it's not soft like a rubber handle. If you want even more chopping power, you can drill through the handle in the marked place and fit a lanyard so you can hold the knife tight even if you have only three or two fingers on the handle.
This knife sort of gives a feeling that it wants to be used, so I predict I'll use it a lot from now on. I haven't had it very long, so I can't give any long term durability report, but so far it's inspired confidence irregardless of what I've used it for and been easy to keep sharp.
The above last updated 1999 Apr 21

Medium term usage update

This knife has held up well during actual use the last six months. It's held the edge well, re-sharpened easily and in spite of not being stainless it doesn't rust very easily. I haven't actually used it in water nor near salt water, but it rains a lot here, so it's wet in the woods. I haven't treated it in any special way except drying it after coming home and storing it dry and warm and it shows no signs of rust.
The only weak point on it is the blade coating, which has worn away a little in some places, showing the ribbed undersurface. Along most of the edge, the wear is negligable. (Perhaps because there I've just used it for "normal" cutting?)


Document created 1999 Apr, text last updated 1999 Nov 23

2 comments:

  1. if you want to buy this knife, there is a Finnish web site which sells them for $117
    www.brisa.fi they ship directly from Finland.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Good review - I to like this knife, infact its the knife I use as well!!

    ReplyDelete