A saw for camp use and snow building.

[Wayland]

On my first Arctic winter trips I carried a Bahco Laplander saw and a wooden snow knife for building. An unfortunate incident resulted in the loss of the Bahco so I decided I wanted to replace it with something more substantial that could also serve as a snow saw for building shelters on my next trip.

Doing a little research on YouTube, which is unusual for me because I find so much of it is just waffle, one thing I noticed was that all the guys building snow shelters, that seemed to really know what they were doing, were using normal panel saws instead of purpose made snow saws. The wide blade seemed to be the common factor which makes good sense.

This led to my choice of a short, multi purpose wood saw with an aggressive tooth set and raking gaps to replace both my Laplander and Camp snow saw. The handle is big enough to use in mittens if needed although I'm usually down to gloves when building. It also works out lighter in weight which is an advantage when flying.

I’ll still take the Inuit style snow knife because that weighs very little and serves a really useful purpose when building.

[Kinguq]

Hi. I spent about 15 yrs in the Canadian Arctic. To make iglu, most people use a standard cross-cut saw for sawing out the blocks. The builder uses a snow knife, which is a large steel knife a bit smaller than a machete, to carve the blocks to shape.

I have done ski trips in Finland/Sweden/Norway, including two from Kilpisjaarvi to Abisko. Beautiful country.

Kinguq

[Wayland]

Hi. I spent about 15 yrs in the Canadian Arctic. To make iglu, most people use a standard cross-cut saw for sawing out the blocks. The builder uses a snow knife, which is a large steel knife a bit smaller than a machete, to carve the blocks to shape.

I have done ski trips in Finland/Sweden/Norway, including two from Kilpisjaarvi to Abisko. Beautiful country.

Kinguq

Thank you for your reply Kinguq.

I often carry my Leuko which doubles as a snow knife as well as general duty, a bit smaller than you describe though.


The wooden Knife/Saw in the top of my first picture is my first choice for shaping blocks in practice.

It will be my first trip to Finland although I've been to Sapmi on the Norwegian and Swedish sides a few times.