Nylund Knives is a privately owned Finnish manufactory with two brothers: Simon and Jakob Nylund. They were born in a farmer's family, Jacob was born in 1989, Simon was born three years later. The boys grew up like most children in Finnish villages: they ran to swim, hunted, helped their father.
From an early age, the brothers got used to working with their hands and early on got carried away with forging. Simon was not even 20 years old when he and Jacob forged his first package of Damascus. The family contract quickly gained popularity in knifemaking circles: the designer Damascus produced by the Nylund brothers was bought by colleagues.
A few years later, Jacob and Simon started making knives from models with a fixed blade. Of course, the craftsmen who create designer Damascus steel could not be satisfied with simple shapes. The brothers complicated the design of the Nylund knives step by step.
From artisan puukko, they moved on to hunting models.
Knives had a simple profile (Normal-Point or Drop-Point) and a traditional Finnish handle (with a "belly" and "beak"). The originality of Nylund hunting knives was in the materials: their Damascus of and not standard inlays of a handle. In addition to the Karelian birch, they experimented with other wood, bone, and various alloys.
Often, Jacob and Simon made models with bronze or Damascus bolsters. One of such hunting knives won the "Best Fixed Blade Knife award" at the Solingen Knife Show in 2015. Its handle was assembled from African ironwood, mammoth ivory, and Damascus steel. The blade, of course, was forged from their Damascus.
The brothers always travel to knife exhibitions in Helsinki, Paris, Las Vegas, and New York. Knifemaker shows are not only a way to promote products, they are a place for professional communication and search for new ideas. Knife exhibitions inspired Nylunds to a new stage in their careers — to make folding knives. The first models were equipped with a Liner Lock, and the handle was decorated with wood or bone inlays.
Then they came up with the idea to add a pattern that would be in harmony with Damascus. The brothers started working with the engraver Johan Sandström, a hereditary Sami from Sweden. The collaboration resulted in the Best Folding Knife award at the 2013 Solingen Knife Show.
The Nylund gradually increased the complexity of finishing and mechanics. There were models with handles made of copper, anodized titanium, carbon. If earlier Jacob and Simon made folders only with Liner Lock locks, now products with Back Lock mechanism appeared in the assortment. Such as the Nylund Knives Backlock Folder presented in our store.
In 2016, the brothers started to create flippers. The first three knives were made specifically for The East Coast Custom Knife Show in New York. The blades were traditionally made from their own Damascus, handles were made of bronze, steel, carbon fiber, colored Damascus, and mother-of-pearl. One of the knives was named Draupner #7 after a magic ring belonging to the Scandinavian god Odin.
Jacob and Simon are still actively working on custom knives. Each Nylund Knives masterpiece is forged, locksmith, and hand-assembled, packed in a polished Karelian birch case lined with reindeer leather. They almost eliminated fixed blade knives from their assortment, focusing on folders and flippers. In 2018, the brothers introduced the first folding knives with a pocket clip.
They continue to experiment with decoration. A new stage in their creative work was the collaboration with the Austrian engraver Chantal Shashl, whose filigree work is in demand not only among the knifemakers but also among gunsmiths throughout Europe. Now the handmade folding knife of the Nylunds is adorned with intricate floral patterns that perfectly match the Damascus steel pattern of Jacob and Simon.
