Original engraving on reindeer wood and bone: Sami techniques for handles and sheaths of puukko

The reindeer wood (poronsarvi) and the northern wood (renne, moose) are used for handles, sheaths, interlayers and decorations of puukkos. The reindeer wood is hard, dense and somewhat brittle. It is denser, whiter once polished, almost without visible grain, and splits even more easily. Both require an ultra-sharpened tool and a light pressure.

The reindeer wood is not horn. It's bone, pushed every year and then fell. The horn is keratin and does not fall. In reindeer, males and females bear wood: the male loses them after the rut, around November-December; The female often keeps them winter, useful for access to food. Under velvet, wood is alive and irrigated; Once the velvet is rubbed, late summer, it is mineralized, especially calcium and phosphorus.

In Finland, the subject comes from two sectors. The cutting wood, recovered from the cutting, and the moulted wood collected, the jättösarvet. We harvest over 100 tons a year. The duojár sort: whole male wood (hirvas), the densest and most useful, especially the base near the skull, for shrouds, lasso rings, large pieces; female or young wood, smaller; Castrated male wood, usually large but porous and brittle. Food reads in the cup: poor food, broad spongy heart, little dense matter to burn. Nothing flows; falls are used for interlayers and trials.

The handle is not a fallen wood. It comes from the animal slaughtered, reindeer or momentum: cannon, metapod, sometimes tooth. Whiter, more homogeneous, more brittle. It must be degreased, dried for a long time, occasionally bleached.

Retention: dry, stable, sheltered from cracking gel and dry heating. An already dry moult wood keeps itself as it is, cleaned of the earth, without early varnish. Fresh bone must lose its fat before being worked, otherwise the stain comes out months later. Once mounted, oil or wax nourishes; hot water and heat shock open the old cracks.

Choose a dry room, without cracks. Degrease and, for bone, bleach if necessary, then dry for a long time. Sand up to a smooth surface: grain 400 to 800 for reindeer wood (matt appearance), 600 to 1000 or more for los (gloss appearance). For the scrimshaw, polish to the mirror: the first shading has the slightest scratch. A slight passage of clear pigment reveals the defects. The unmounted room can be moistened or heated very gently to soften a little. Trace fine pencil (medium hardness) or eraseable pen. On a very clear surface, a watercolor touch helps to see the drawing.

Most common technique on reindeer wood and bone.
V engraving (kolrosing / carving) with a pointed tool, often ink or black/brown paint to bring out grooves, then polishing.

• Tool: very sharp engraving knife, tip of puukko Well sharpened, or jeweler tip. Hold like a pencil. Push the tip along the line for a fine V-row (0.2 to 0.5 mm on reindeer wood, 0.1 to 0.3 mm on bone), then iron reverse to clean. More inclined knife for a wider line, almost vertical for a very fine line.
• Reasons: zigzags, braids, diamond, stars, hearts, rope edges; More frequent stylized flowers in northern Lapland.
• North Sami: flowers and stars. Center and South-Sami: braided and narrower geometry.

For borders and relief. Draw the base of the triangle or diamond, put the tip at the base and push a gesture towards the top to detach a small shaving. Repeat in regular rows. Boneless, shorter gestures: the material breaks quickly.

The chip carving, on reindeer wood or on bone, is not a sculpture in relief. It is a suite of small triangular or diamond shavings, removed at the tip, especially for edges and pattern bottoms.

First we trace the base of the triangle, I've never had a piece of paper. The tip sits on this base, the bevel slightly inclined, and only one push goes towards the top. The shaving must be clear. If it removes or bleachs the edges, the iron is soft or the angle too open. On the bone, the gesture is shorter: the material breaks before cutting.

Three adjustments are enough.

Vertical and light: narrow triangle, almost a notch. More inclined: wider triangle, more present border. Two pushes face to face, same top: diamond. Alignment counts more than depth. A 0,3 mm regular row is better than irregular relief.

It is used for twisted rope, the rows of South Sami crosses, the teeth that frame a braid, and the geometric dotilla that borders the stars and hearts of the North. The linear groove draws the pattern; the chip makes it border. The two are not confused: iron a shaving like a V-shaped trait crushed.

The pigment comes after, not before. It stays in the triangle angle and blackens the border without closing the bottom. Too much sanding after the blow erases the edges: only the bash is removed, with the tip of the finger or with a very fine abrasive.

Point decoration technique, known to sailors on whale's fanon and walrus defence (sail needle), now common in Norway, Wales and American magazines, and practiced in Finland on bones and substitutes. Ideal: moderately hard and homogeneous bone (mammouth; elephant ivory prohibited). Also Micarta, buffalo horn (clear rendering). The beef horn is often too hard.

Sewing needle reshape on fine diamond stone. Draw up, then sting thousands of small points, first contours. Do not sting at random: the needle falls back into the previous hole and makes irregular spots. Shadows: oil paint well pigmented (or ink), from dark to light, spread with cotton swab and wiped with cotton cloth. The pigment stays only in the dots. We can recharge. More points, darker. Once laid, the color does not fade. After a few days, an antique wax colourless for water repellent.

Scrub coal, cinnamon, roasted coffee or black or brown pigment in grooves, wipe immediately. Sometimes slightly dye the piece before engraving. Slightly sanding fine around the lines for burrs. Flax oil, reindeer oil or reindeer wood oil, or bee wax. Final polish to cloth or wool. On bone, a stronger polishing of unengraved areas brings out the furrows.

Patterns are not a unique directory. They report an area, sometimes a family, and the rule of the Duodji is not to mix models from different regions on a single piece. You can vary within your own tradition. Geometry (line, triangle, diamond, « Weaving »), animals (rennes, elks), occasionally life scenes or floral motifs depending on the region (more figurative to the north, more geometric to the south).

North Sami (Finnmark, Troms, northern Finland and Sweden). Stars, flowers, hearts, curved lines, shadows. Strings in twisted rope, or small geometric tips. The apple of the handle is more marked. The handle it is often smooth; the engraving reads above all on the sheath. The sheath usually has a more frank curve.
Sami Centre (Lule, intermediate zone). The braids of the south find themselves there, with shaded curves, but also simpler stars and crosses, which reach the north. Area of passage, not a closed style.
South Sami. The braid dominates, in lines or at peaks, usually over the entire surface of the handle or sheath. Strict borders, single or double rows of small crosses. The apple is less pronounced, the curve of the sheath softer. Wear variants transmitted to families; Some are sufficient to recognize a workshop.

Everywhere, the basic vocabulary remains the same: braid, zigzag, diamond, star, heart, border, sometimes reindeer or reindeer head. What changes is the combination and the place of the decor. The black pigment in the furrow (sweet, bark) is common to all three areas.
Not to be written as a fixed map: families move variants, and the duojár today experiment in their region, not by sticking north and south on the same reindeer wood.

→ Sami, Puukkos & Large Spaces

• Hard duodji: wood, reindeer wood, bone, metal.
• Soft duodji: leather, fur, fabric, wool.
• Cut and engraving: engraving knife (often forged by the craftsman, saw blade or steel recovered, sometimes a single bevel); punch for points, triangle primers and rivet holes; tip of puukko daily.
• Layout: rapes and limes (plates, semi-rounds, needles); fine metal or bone saw; bow drill or modern for silk and rivets.
• Finish: natural stones, green and red compounds, leather sharpening, abrasive until grain 2000, rags and wool.
• Leather: Alenas, needles, leather knife, marking and embossing tools.
• Traditional tools were simple and generally homemade; A good sharp knife served almost everything. Many duojár today combine tradition and modern tools (Dremel, strawberries) with regional motifs.

→ Craft excellence Sami

Always razor tool: A blunt iron rips out. Never force. Fix the room well, especially the sliders. Start with lines and triangles on falls before compositions. It is this mixture of precision and Sami patterns that is found on the handles and pots of masters as Pasi Jaakonaho.

Portfolio: Puukko Collection

Burning technique

The « kolrosing » like the Sami: a magnificent engraving technique.