Best Mora for wilderness survival?

It does my heart good to hear how tough these knives are. I have two more SWAK on order and a green handled Clipper as well.

For my needs they really are the perfect knife. I squared off the spine of th eblade and now the SWAK sparks a firesteel like the 4th of July. I have it set up with a wrist lanyard that also carries a BSA Hotspark. When the knife is in the sheath the lanyard and hotspark get looped under the belt for added security.

A Tramontina machete and a SWAK make a good, low cost combination for my area. Mac
 
SWAK triplex blade.
I have a bunch of knives and at the end the one that is always with me is my SWAK triples blade.
Why? IMHO off course :)
Perfect handle size and shape long enough.
Blade length 11cm perfect ono too long no to short, blade is thicker (near 2.5 milimetres) than normal carbon or staninless version.
Ligth
Strong,I have made hard task as batoming through seasoned hard wood with no problem.
Easy to resharp and good efge retention.
It´s so cheap that you don´t bother to use hard or scratch.
The only thing that you must avoid is prying anyway you must avoid that with any blade.
Under field conditions I can´t justifice to buy a more expensive knife but you know we are weak and......
 
Mac,
have you tried the brand Coqueiro?
It´s a very cheap carbon steel (1075) flat ground with cheap looking and feeling wood handles. The stock is 1/16" and easily take a good edge. Properly sharpened it will make a very serviceable tool.
Think (after sharpened and sometimes reprofiled) Opinel with poor finish. Coqueiro knives are used for real fishermen and cowboys from Rio Grande do Sul (south of Brazil) to Mato Grosso (Pantanal region). The stainless ones (inox) are 420 and not worth, IMHO.

http://www.onshop.com.br/lojas/coqueiro/default.asp

Good luck
 
Pentlatch,
strange, i can see the images.
Try the 'menu' words at the left of the page. With bold letters, the link "facas personalizadas" will lead you to a *bad ;-) * text in English with an e-mail for contact. I think you could ask for a printed catalog.
Bellow, wrote with light letters the link "facas" (knives, in Portuguese) will lead you to another page. In the box "seleção de produtos" (products selection) you´ll choose the size of the blades in inches.

As an example, the price on an 7" wood handled 1070, without seath is R$8,00 (about U$ 3). If it not works let me know and i´ll try find an old printed catalog and send to you.
 
Geraldo - I tried out your advice and got into the faca page but no photos or prices... must be some computer glitch.

Those prices sound good , how is the postal service from Brazil ?

How hot is it there ? :cool:
 
Hi pentlatch,
The postal services in Brazil are pretty good. In fact they work very well.
Try order a catalog via e-mail at facascoq@zaz.com.br , if it not work, send me a message and I'll send you the catalog I have.
Brazil is a enormous country and currently we have very dry weather at south and inundations at norteast. :eek:
Cheers
 
Pentlatch said:
...got into the faca page but no photos or prices... must be some computer glitch.
Click to expand...
If you use Microsoft Internet Explorer as your browser, check the following setting:
- click Tools in the main IE menu
- then click Internet Options in the tools menu
- go to the Advanced tab in the internet options window
- scroll down to the Multimedia section of the list
- see if there is (or is not) a check mark next to the "show pictures" listing in the multimedia options. If it's not there, check the box and hit "OK,OK,OK..." until you're out of the dialog box. You may need to restart IE to get the option to take effect.

If you don't use IE as your browser, "Never mind...." :rolleyes: :footinmou

Not seeing the photos or prices might also be affected by your internet security settings.
 
Appreciate the advice RokJok but I'm using Netscape, I don't want to disable my security settings as so far my computer is very stable and virus free ....touch wood.

Geraldo - Like many Canadians Brazil is not part of my mental map , forgive my ignorance.

Your city sounds like it has done many things right , this link provides some insight http://www.globalideasbank.org/site/bank/idea.php?ideaId=2236

It is a very large city ( to me ) at 1.6 million. It says the elevation is around 3000 ft. does that mean it cools off at night?

Oh, I did email them for a knife catalog .

Best Wishes,

Tom
 
Geraldo,

I just arrived in BH today after one year in the States. Its good to be home again. I will look up that brand, I haven't seen them yet here in BH. Mac
 
Pentlatch,
Don't apologize for not to know to much about Brazil. I'm sure I couldn't make a lecture about Canada or the USA either. :D
Yes, its a very interesting city. You have the good (and bad) things from a big city in a yet manageable pakage. The urbanistic plans have theier pros but were not discussed out of the mayor's (at the time) staff. In retrospect I think some planning is better than no one. ;)
Other qualities are the proximity(SP?), like most of Brazilians cities (Belo Horizonte, where Pict lives, is another example) from very beatiful forests and mountains to camp and hike. (Though I must confess I'm not much of a camper... :o )
My state is the third from south up, therefore the climate can drop freezing in the winter and right now we have 17 C at night. Very confortable.

Mac,
give it a try, remember it´s a very poor finished tool, but I think it can do most of the jobs we need.
Cherrs
 
Geraldo,

I was mistaken. I didn't recognize the brand when you posted it. I already have a small blade from them. I use it all the time when "fazendo churrasco". It is the blade I use to test the meat and steal small pieces.

The knife I was looking for was a bushcrafter type that would go well with a machete. Mac
 
another cheaper knife line is the Okapi brand . You can see them here http://ragweedforge.com/HistoricalKnifeCatalog.html Though I haven't bought one myself yet. They are supposed to be good using knives with an old style look. The metal inlay decoration is attractive.

Geraldo - If I win the lottery Brazil sounds like a beautiful place for a visit. Especially at this time of year where I am at -3 C right next to the sea and with a wind blowing. The sun is shining and life is good. ;)
 
I remember a post somewhere that a guy said he had a hard time sparking a firesteel with a Mora. I don't remember if he had stainless or carbon but someone suggested using the one he didn't have and that solved the problem. So which is better for use with a firesteel?
 
Raider502,

As I dimly recall that Mora test was to spark off of flint not a ferrocium rod. At least that's all the low blood sugar is able to recall. Just about any sharp object will get sparks from a ferrocium rod.

I just picked up three of Frosts SWAK and they were very bad sparkers using the back of the blade. A few minutes with a mill file squaring off the backs of the blades and now they spark very well. Showers of sparks. I even put a BSA hotspark on the wrist lanyard of each of them. Mac
 
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