Like a work of art, all firearms have unique markings that can be traced. The chronology of ownership is called the provenance. There are records for over 100,000 individual Finnish-made firearms in various Finnish archives. Apart from ownership records, these records also provide information about repairs and modifications made to the firearms, battles they fought in and shooting competitions they won.
If two almost identical firearms are valued, the one with known provenance will almost always have higher market value than the other without provenance. Very rare or one of a kind rifles are also hard or even impossible to authenticate without archival research.
PHOTO: Receipt from SAKO, dated 25 October 1935, for repairs of four m/28 and one m/28 from three different Civil Guard Districts.
Certification of Authenticity with essential information translated to English and printed on cotton archival paper and high-resolution digital copies are included for all orders. Click link below to view a sample of Certification of Authenticity. The sample is for demonstration purposes only. The format may vary depending on the model and the specifics of what is contained in the archival records:
SEE SAMPLE OF CERTIFICATION OF AUTHENTICITY BEHIND THIS LINKWhat type of fireams can be researched? What type of information can be found from certain type of firearm?
This information is updated as new records are found. It should be noted that the level of record keeping varied between various military units, Civil Guards and other governmental agencies and all records do not contain all the information listed below. Many of the archives are incomplete due to damage caused by the Winter War and Continuation War or post-war destruction of records. The information available as of August 6th, 2022 is as follows:
How long does it take for the records to arrive?
The average time of completing the research at the archives is two weeks. Furthermore, it will take from 10 to 15 business days for the Certification of Authenticity to arrive depending of the country of destination. Digital copies are delivered within few days after the research is completed.
Orders may be placed by contact form available below. Other kind of research not listed is priced on case-by-case basis. The forms of payment accepted are SEPA bank transfer and PayPal.
Finnish Defence Forces and Civil Guard firearms | 55 € per firearm |
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Finnish Defence Forces artillery pieces | 55 € per piece |
Civilian Tikkakoski rifles and shotguns | 35 € per firearm |
Service and competition records of conscripts or guardsmen | 35 € per person |