In the past, it was common for so-called homework, a kind of job done at home for one of the industries here in the village. Our company driver drove around with the company cars a few times a week and handed out assignments. If I remember it correctly, it was a dark blue Volvo Duett 445 with a white roof and later a blue Volkswagen Pickup.
This procedure was especially suitable for people living at home, such as mothers of young children and pensioners. It was also common for the whole family to contribute to the job from time to time and for schoolchildren to sit at home and work for a while after school. The whole thing was a condition or a kind of an agreement where the individual was paid per job performed. The only place I know of that still works according to this principle in Dalarna is wooden horse manufacturing, where both artisans and painters usually sit at home and do their work. I remember how my mother in the mid-1960s sat at home and sewed knife sheaths for fishing knife No. 54. The leather blank was folded and fastened with specially adapted slopes of birch wood. By the way, I still have the pliers that my mother had to perform the sewing and stepped through the aluminum strip through the leather after the holes were cleared up with a specially made awl. It was apparently important to press the aluminum wire with the tongs of the pliers so that the wire got sharp 90-degree folds and I especially remember how my mother grimaced when she took in “for King and Motherland.”
My mother also told me how long ago she had to dye the white cotton ribbons at home in the bathtub, the colourful yellow, red and green edging ribbons that would later be sewn onto the so-called “Lappknivarna” No. 49, 50, 51, and 52. This was probably mainly in the 1940s and 1950s. After dyeing, the long tufts of tape were hung up to dry in the garden. They probably also needed ironing before they could be sewn onto the knife sheaths. If you have such a hunting and sports knife from KJ Eriksson, it is not impossible that the cotton ribbons were dyed in the bathtub in my childhood home in Östnor in Sweden.
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