Finnish M/22 NCO puukkopistin

Discussions on the Winter War and Continuation War, the wars between Finland and the USSR.
Hosted by Juha Tompuri
Post Reply
User avatar
alpinoinMT
Member
Posts: 80
Joined: 06 Dec 2011, 07:09
Location: Montana - by God - USA

Finnish M/22 NCO puukkopistin

#1

Post by alpinoinMT » 14 Mar 2020, 02:54

I know this is neither a puukko or a pistin, but after searching over 30 years I finally have found one!
I know this is the place to ask & find out, but were these issued to NCOs on graduating NCO school? issued? or purchased?
Were officers issued them? The best I found out was the M/19 7 M/22 were designed by one of Mannerheim's staff officers.
Is there any other history or information you all can tell me?
Thanks - Kiitos
Attachments
puukkopistin.jpg
a reporter once asked me, after an awards ceremony
"are purple hearts for soldiers & bronze stars for officers?'

User avatar
JTV
Member
Posts: 2011
Joined: 11 Mar 2002, 11:03
Location: Finland
Contact:

Re: Finnish M/22 NCO puukkopistin

#2

Post by JTV » 14 Mar 2020, 10:53

Hi AlpinoMT. That is a nice find - is it Fiskars or Hackman?

It sounds you have visited my website (https://jaegerplatoon.net). As far as I know items such as these daggers were always privately purchased items. It is possible that someone could have received this sort of dagger as award for completing NCO School as best of his class, but it was not a norm.

The first time this sort of dagger is being mentioned in Finnish uniform regulations is regulations issued in 15th of July 1918, at which point the regulations mention "knife-bayonet with scabbard" (veitsipistin tuppineen) for use of non-commissioned officers and enlisted men. While the regulations specified that the "knife-bayonet with scabbard" was one designed by "Lieutenant Gallen" (Akseli Gallen-Kallela), it did not yet include more details, which might explain why early Finnish military photos also sometimes show individual soldiers with German dress bayonets. While officially intended for both NCOs and enlisted men, early on they seem to have been more common with NCO ranks, which might be the reason why they got commonly known as NCO puukko-bayonet (aliupseerin puukkopistin) and also was sometimes (unofficially) referred as vääpelin puukko (sergeant major's / company sergeant's puukko).

Finnish dress regulations issued 30th of June 1919 that replaced all earlier uniform regulations included much detailed orders about variety of things - these daggers included. At that point "knife-bayonet" as it was still referred in the regulations was ordered also for all officers other than those who served in such function, that they would have had a riding horse (*). It might be worth noting that officers were ordered to carry their "knife-bayonet" with sword hanger, while NCOs and enlisted men would carry it normally - hence the two metal rings in scabbard of (longer & rare) officer's version. These regulations were also the first ones to include drawings of the dagger (although only of its basic version). Earlier July 1918 regulations had ordered "Laplander-type puukko" for those officers, but apparently the particular puukko-knife design was never really adopted.

(*) Officers with riding horse were to have cavalry officer's (dress) sword (sabre).

The official name for the dagger changed into "puukko-pistin" (puukko-bayonet) in uniform regulations of year 1922, which also introduced (dress) swords for officers and year 1930 regulations introduced NCO's (dress) sword most senior (non-conscript) NCO ranks - hence officially ending the career of officer's version of this dagger and later on substantially reducing the number of its potential users. Admitted the most senior NCO ranks were allowed to continue using it "until they were able to acquire proper NCO's sword" - which in some cases could take a lot of years.

In addition of Finnish military (Army, Navy and Air Force), also Finnish Civil Guard (Suojeluskunta) used these daggers and had instructions about their use first included to uniform regulations of year 1925.

As mentioned this dagger was one of the numerous items designed for Finnish military by Akseli Gallen-Kallela, one of the most famous Finnish artists of his time, who served as Lieutenant in Mannerheim's HQ in 1918 - 1919. His design drawings for the dagger (and whole lot of other items) are now in collections of Finnish National Board of Antiquities and Historical Monuments (Museovirasto). Attached is scan showing one of the design drawings, which can be found in finna.fi online museum items database with file-name M012_HK19350405_51b
Puukkopistin_GallenKallelan_suunnitelma_Museovirasto_Musketti.jpg
Puukkopistin_GallenKallelan_suunnitelma_Museovirasto_Musketti.jpg (43.03 KiB) Viewed 3488 times


Seppo Koivisto
Member
Posts: 760
Joined: 20 Nov 2006, 23:49
Location: Finland

Re: Finnish M/22 NCO puukkopistin

#3

Post by Seppo Koivisto » 15 Mar 2020, 21:33


User avatar
alpinoinMT
Member
Posts: 80
Joined: 06 Dec 2011, 07:09
Location: Montana - by God - USA

Re: Finnish M/22 NCO puukkopistin

#4

Post by alpinoinMT » 18 Mar 2020, 00:09

JTV wrote:
14 Mar 2020, 10:53
Hi AlpinoMT. That is a nice find - is it Fiskars or Hackman?

Attached is scan showing one of the design drawings, which can be found in finna.fi online museum items database with file-name M012_HK19350405_51b
Puukkopistin_GallenKallelan_suunnitelma_Museovirasto_Musketti.jpg
Jarkko & Seppo
thank you sirs - kiitos herrat
Jarkko - it is a Hackman & thank you so much for your outstanding Jaeger Platoon site
It really is the "go to" Finnish military history/technology site! [understatement]
sincerely
Richard

ps. since my students, sons,country & world is locked down, I will be visiting this & the JP site a great deal more!
We haven't panicked or stampeded yet, but my youngest son's hockey team won the state/regional championship
in what must have been the last sporting even in the USA... perhaps the planet. And speaking of sons... there is
going to be a flood of children across the planet in 9+ months!
a reporter once asked me, after an awards ceremony
"are purple hearts for soldiers & bronze stars for officers?'

Post Reply

Return to “Winter War & Continuation War”