Helle Gaupe Knife

The word Gaupe is Norwegian for Lynx and this knife is designed as an all-purpose hunting/outdoor cutting tool. It is very comfortable in the hand and is designed to be used on a daily basis and thus durable and light at 122g.

The handle is very well-designed, made from Curly Birch, a traditional material in this region and plentiful, so an obvious choice that is both strong and long lasting. It is 115mm long and is profiled with palm swells to both sides to fill the hand to stop it twisting whilst in use. It has a slight humped top, but good front finger guard to stop your hand riding forward onto the blade and rear guard to keep the hand central. It has a lightly oiled finish that gets better with use and can be fed with linseed oil as required. There is no lanyard loop hole and the blades hilt is held in place by a brass ferrule with the hilt’s end bevelled over. A bit basic but actually makes for a more authentic traditional knife.

The blade is 107mm long with a 3.1mm thickness, so good for skinning, gralloching and rib cage cutting. The blade tip has a shallow angle, so cuts rather than stabs, doubling both as a grallocher and a skinner if you are careful. Bruce Potts puts the Helle Gaupe through its all-purpose paces…

Get The Edge

The inner section is constructed from a high-alloy hard edge steel which is designed to keep its edge for longer and also be incredibly strong. Either side of this inner steel is a softer protective steel which allows flexibility yet maintains integral strength. You can see this very clearly if you look at the Gaupe’s edge and hollow ground profile, expensive yes but it allows a really nice sharp cutting edge.

The sheath is black leather, not traditional brown, but looks fine and there is a plastic inner guard stretching half way down the sheath to protect the blade. There is also a very nice detail of a cut-out Lynx paw print to the front side of the sheath that contrasts the curly birch handle behind.

Each Helle knife is handcrafted, so no two knives are the same and unbelievably it takes 45 individual steps to produce the Gaupe, hence its premium price. However having used this knife, it’s a bit of a wolf (or Lynx) in sheep’s clothing, as what seems like a relatively plain looking knife has had a lot of thought and design put into it to provide a great handling, very sharp blade that holds an edge well, all encased in that very traditional Scandinavian design that I personally love. Contact: Uttings 01603 619 811