Echoing the traditions and culture of northern Scandinavia, Wood Jewel knives are handcrafted in the small town of Kolari, Finland which is located above the artic circle, and well into Finnish Lappland. Founded in the early 1980s, Kauko Raatiniemi started parttime and made wooden items like clocks from goat willow gnarl. In the early 1990s he went fulltime. As he grew, he added his first worker in 1995 and today the company employs about 20 workers year round. Kauko started making knives intermittently in the late 80s, however, it was not until 2000 that his son, Tuomas, began to make knives in earnest. Today, they make about 50,000 knives per year. The knives reflect the influence of ancient Sami styles and. Kauko Raatiniemi designs the knives to be beautiful as well as highly functional, using the traditional materials of high carbon tool steel, curly birch wood, reindeer antler, and leather.…