Oskar's knife

[Nightrider]

We all know this image....Oskar's weapon of vengeance....the declaration of his courage and foreshadowing of something dangerous.
The knife appears a great deal throughout the film. Who could forget tree stabbing...hand slicing...Lacke menacing sequences. The blade always referred to as a "hunting knife".
Norwegian, Scottish and British stage productions have chosen to use a small kitchen knife, perhaps due it's easy access.
To me knife used in the film always meant to be something other than a regular prop.
So I decided to do a little research.
It appears that the knife Oskar wields in the movie is manufactured by one of the oldest Swedish cutlery companies Mora of Sweden. They make some of the best knives in the world.
Model of Oskar's knife is still available. It comes in several variations. The closest to the one's used in the film are
Classic Scout 39 and Classic Scout 40. It made all the sense in the world that Alfredson and Lindquist would use a Swedish made knife and not just some cheap kitchen utensil. Is it too far fetched to presume that one of the reasons Mora knife was chosen had something to do with national pride, since that particular product is so well respected around the world?
Perhaps seeing that blade in the film meant something to the Swedish audience. I was completely ignorant of Mora knives and
yet there was something noteworthy about the stuff i saw in the film. Things I found out made LTROI even more special than it already was. Maybe I'm wrong...maybe I'm right. One thing is clear, it was sure fun finding out.





One more little detail...
During my research I was able to get a hold of genuine vintage Scout 39. After a few e-mails sent to Moraknives I was told
that the model I own was more than likely produced in late 50's-early 60's. So that's kind of cool. That's it .

[metoo]

The Mora knife (morakniv) is well known in Sweden, used by workmen of all trades. They are inexpensive tools, you find them in heaps in the hardware stores, but they are nevertheless not cheap in quality.

The traditional Mora knife had a spool-shaped red handle and a sheath made of hard pressed paper, like the middle one in this picture:


Today the handle and the sheath are made of plastic, but the blade still is the same. It is laminated, i.e. a harder quality of steel is sandwiched between two softer ones. When the edge is ground, the hard steel is exposed at the edge, making for a very sharp knife. The softer steel of the outer layers are much less brittle than the hard center, providing strength to the knife and making it much less prone to snap. If you watch closely, you can notice the different steel qualities at the edge by the slightly different colours. (Caveat: most Mora knives are laminated, but not all. And there are stainless varieties that are not laminated.)

The scout knife is based on the standard utility knife, but with a leather sheath instead of a paper (or plastic) one, and with a cross-guard to make it safer. Alas, the cross-guard also makes it less usable, it comes in the way when using the knife for carving, so craftsmen prefer the spool-shaped handle.

The makers of the Mora knife made (and makes) other knives, too, of course. There are hunting knives that are much more expensive than the standard utility knife (on which the scout knife is based). Below is a picture of the model I've got and use for outdoor activities. The blade is laminated so it can be made very sharp. (The variety sold today is stainless, but I've had mine for a while, and it has a laminated carbon steel blade.)


The knife Oskar stole in the novel would have been similar to this one, rather than the inexpensive scout knife used in the movie.

There used to be several makers of knives in or around Mora, but today they all have been bought up by the company that today is called Mora of Sweden.

[intrige]

Now this is interesting!
I have seen knives of simelar designs in Norway, but they are that sort of knives you give to kids at a field trip to make their own branches to have thir hot dog on, over the fire. I do not think that kind of sharp knife you are talking about would have been let into the hands of kids bu adults. But Oskar who probably stole it, and if it is, and was bacn then a very common knife in sweden, it seems very likely.
The design anyhow is smielar, but I guess any good knives are.

[a_contemplative_life]

From the novel:

In the hardware store he had swiped an incredibly alluring hunting knife that cost three hundred.
...
He lay down on the bed and dug out the knife. The handle was shaped to fit the hand and the whole thing weighed about three times as much as the kitchen knife he had used yesterday.
He got up and stood in the middle of the room with the knife in his hand. It was beautiful, transmitted power to the hand holding it.

Interesting that Hakan, who is doing the real killing, just uses a plain old kitchen knife.

[drakkar]

I think it's good Oskar has a nice knife, bearing in mind how he used it, ultimately.

[metoo]

Interesting that Hakan, who is doing the real killing, just uses a plain old kitchen knife.

Don't underestimate kitchen knives - a kitchen knife is the most common murder weapon in Sweden.

[gattoparde59]

Good thread. I had never given much thought to laminated blades except for Japanese katana, which are constructed much like the Mora knifes.

[Nightrider]

New addition to my JAL shelf.

[Elias Eriksson]

New addition to my JAL shelf.

Wow! Cool collection!

On topic, the knife looks amazingly good for being so common as Metoo commented.

[metoo]

Well, the scout model isn't that common, at least not compared to the standard knife. And I guess it's quite uncommon in San Antonio, Texas.

Looking through the various models of knives made by Mora of Sweden today, only a few have laminated blades. In his book about wood carving, Wille Sundqvist mentions that laminated blades have become less common nowadays, since they are complicated to make. So even though I was wrong when I implied that (all) Mora knives have laminated blades, I might have been less wrong some decades back...

Nightrider, what kind of blade has your specimen got? I guess it's carbon steel and not stainless, but is it laminated?