More my style

Of souvenir, that is.

One of the most popular souvenirs of Alaska is an Ulu knife.

An ulu (Inuktitut syllabics: ᐅᓗ, plural: uluit, English: "woman's knife"^[1]) is an all-purpose knife traditionally used by Eskimo women, both Yupik and Inuit. It is utilized in applications as diverse as skinning and cleaning animals, cutting a child's hair, cutting food and, if necessary, trimming blocks of snow and ice used to build an igloo.

(Wikipedia, at link above)

Here's a typical souvenir, not sure where Mrs. Drang got it; she had it when we met. It's actually made of okay steel, but may well have come from A Las Ka, PRC. This is in the Savoonga style.

(An Ulu maker's leaflet that lists styles of Uluit is here.)

This one is Mrs. Drang's souvenir Ulu, a Nunavak style, I believe:

This one is actually Made in Alaska, USA. The handle hole is too small for me, which was the case with every Ulu of this style I tried. She found it in The Knife Shop in Juneau, AK.

In the same building was a small souvenir store that took a lot of our money, including for the bar of soap I posted about last week, and a nifty necktie with Northwest Native-style wolves on it. 

Bristol Bay pattern Ulu, blade of old carbon steel saw blade. 

That cutting board/bowl it's on actually came with Mrs. Drang's Ulu, and the bone stand hers is on in the photograph came with this one. This picture shows part of the reason I liked this one -- it fits!

I don't have a walrus or polar bear to butcher, but Mrs. Drang did ask me to shred some cabbage for slaw...

More info: Outdoors magazine: The Ulu Knife (.Pdf.)