Blacksmith Leander Nisula

Kirkkotie 143 Toholampi

Leander Nisula (1888–1975) was a member of the Nisula master blacksmith family. The Nisula blacksmiths had worked at ironworks in different parts of Finland, also as steel fixers for canal ships and gates at the Saimaa Canal. They were known as skilled manufacturers of scythes, hatchets and axes, and their products were sold throughout Finland. Leander, who had learned his trade from his father, grandfather and uncle, practised the profession of blacksmith for six decades. He made and repaired tools, and as his skills developed, he forged scythes and other utensils. Leander also designed and made the gates of Toholampi church and graveyard. He was buried in the same graveyard.

Leander was known as a clairvoyant, storyteller and a versatile man in many ways. He forecast the weather and was able to tell about local history because of his good memory. Leander’s familiarity with local affairs is also demonstrated by the fact that in 1952 he served as a guide on the journey of exploration led by the folklorist Erkki Ala-Könni. Leander also assisted in autopsies. In his smithy, he had to defreeze the corpses of soldiers killed in the Winter War before they were put into coffins and buried in the soil of Toholampi.