can i get some information on mora

C

chazz

Joined
Mar 15, 2005
Messages
189
after going on a backpacking trip in the rain i decided i need a reliable knife that i can beat the crap out of. the first thing that popped into my head "busse." i would love one but i dont have the cash. so then i thought of moras. so i looked for some online. i found alot of ones with wooden handles, not what i want. and then some with guards, i am not a fan of those big guards at all. i also noticed that they are dirt cheap. i am thinking i am going to spend like 80 bucks on a fixed blade and they are 20 dollars. so are these good knives? and where can i get a hold on one with a hard rubber handle?

thank you. and if anyone has and "i love them!" or "dont get them!" stories i would love to heard them
 
There area gazillion threads about this, I hate it when people say this to me, but the search function would be a great place to start.

FFIW, its money well spent.
 
Sometimes search doesnt work.

Mora's are great value for the cash , they are not what I would call a beater knife though , I seriously doubt one would stand up to hard use/abuse.
They take and hold a nice sharp edge , great for small chores and fileting , cooking at camp etc. There is thread current on hard uses for smaller blades , IMO unless you are forced into doing so why in the world would anyone rely on a tiny , thin bladed knife for all your camping , hiking etc chores ? I'm not saying you have to bring a Claymore along with you but certain knives perform certain chores FAR better than others. For instance try taking out a splinter with a machete (i'm sure it could be done , anything could be done for that matter).
I own two Mora's and they make wonderful "companion" blades to something more sturdy , IMO.
 
Thats true so if you have the Google toolbar installed type the search criteria in that then, using the little drop down arrow on the right select 'Current Site' and it will search through BF perfectly every time.
 
rebeltf said:
Sometimes search doesnt work.

Mora's are great value for the cash , they are not what I would call a beater knife though , I seriously doubt one would stand up to hard use/abuse.
They take and hold a nice sharp edge , great for small chores and fileting , cooking at camp etc. There is thread current on hard uses for smaller blades , IMO unless you are forced into doing so why in the world would anyone rely on a tiny , thin bladed knife for all your camping , hiking etc chores ? I'm not saying you have to bring a Claymore along with you but certain knives perform certain chores FAR better than others. For instance try taking out a splinter with a machete (i'm sure it could be done , anything could be done for that matter).
I own two Mora's and they make wonderful "companion" blades to something more sturdy , IMO.
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thanks. i figured they would not take a hard beating. how will the edge hold up to cutting through wood, bark, thick ropes. and things like that. and also am i going to need to worry about breaking the tip if i pry stuff?
 
Are you picky about knives? I cannot stand the grind/flat transition on Moras. To me, its ugly and screams anti-cutting efficiency. If I get my hands on a Mora, I have to raise the grind and convex it.

Prying? Do you have to pry? I wouldn't mind levering sideways with a Ka-bar, but not as much with a Mora. But you do what you gotta do... Since your stainless Moras are not that brittle, you can judge the strain by the degree and ease of flexing.

Plastic sheath and plastic handle will probably suit your beat the crap of it style.
 
If you want to pry stay away from the laminated steel by frost. The oputer layers do not have a spring temper and the blade can take a bend fairly easily. Either the simple carbon or stainless will be better. For Normal use the Mora's do stand up well to mild abuse. You can break them if you work at it. A Mora with a good hatchet is a great combo.
 
There's no reason to do a search, a few threads down they are discussing this very thing for goodness sake.
 
If you were thinking about a busse, don't get a Mora. Mora's are great little knives, but they are no substitute for a busse. For the money, I like the Becker BK-7, which is their combat & utility knife with 7" blade. There are a ton of knives that you can beat the heck out of and still have a fuctional blade at the end of it all.
 
longbow50 said:
If you were thinking about a busse, don't get a Mora. Mora's are great little knives, but they are no substitute for a busse. For the money, I like the Becker BK-7, which is their combat & utility knife with 7" blade. There are a ton of knives that you can beat the heck out of and still have a fuctional blade at the end of it all.
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Well said.

A Becker Crewman is a good option for a shorter blade.

When he said "beat the crap out of it" a mora never entered my mind.

Owned 2 Moras broke both, never again.

Skam
 
Yea I forgot to mention I broke a small piece of tip off of one of my Mora's , nothing I couldnt fix but they are not meant for EOTWAWKI.



Although, if that was all I had one me.... well. :D
 
chazz said:
after going on a backpacking trip in the rain i decided i need a reliable knife that i can beat the crap out of. the first thing that popped into my head "busse." i would love one but i dont have the cash.
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Check with Justin at Ranger Knives for the RD series for a similar intended line of knives at a lower cost.

and where can i get a hold on one with a hard rubber handle?
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Ragnar's Forge has a really wide selection including hard plastic grips.

chazz said:
i figured they would not take a hard beating.
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The steel in the plain carbon ones is really tough, it doesn't fracture easily, you can beat on it with a hammer if you want, reall heavy impacts will damage the handle readily though so they are not for heavy batoning :

http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showpost.php?p=3422201&postcount=7

how will the edge hold up to cutting through wood, bark, thick ropes. and things like that.
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They do well, the edge angle is about optimal, the edge thickness isn't, but it does better at that that most knives in its price range.

and also am i going to need to worry about breaking the tip if i pry stuff?
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Fairly easily, they are not designed with that kind of use in mind. Generally with knives like that you tend to make things for rougher work instead of using the knife, so carve a digging stick, taper a stick for prying, carve wedges for splitting, etc. .

-Cliff
 
Just got a handful of Moras from Ragweed Forge (which is instantly among my favorite sources for good knives--and it's hard to beat the price), and am generally impressed--but am also interested in doing some modifying. The chief modification that comes to mind is the handles. One knife in yesterday's box was a Frost Clipper, and its handle is encased in soft rubber that makes for a spectacularly-good grip. The others, though, I'm interested in doing something with. Frost's Craftsman Triflex seems great, and I imagine it will stand up to very considerable beating for a small blade, but the handle is a bit slick. As I understand that grip is similar or identical to what some militaries may issue, I've got to think that someone has come up with a good way of diminishing that slickness--kind of the same way that the early Glocks had slick grips, which people would modify by stretching a couple of inches of bike tire inner-tube over the handle as what was called a "Glock sock". As an alternative with the Mora handle, I suppose I could just go at it with sandpaper or something--but if there's a better standard solution to this out there, I'm all ears.

The final 2 Moras I got were of the wooden-handled variety, and came with some somewhat slick paint on the handles. One of these slipped from my hand as I was unsheathing it, and though some fancy dance steps kept my feet unimpaled, I did end up with a tiny bend at the tip of the blade, which was instantly resolved with a diamond hone. The ease with which the handle slipped as I was trying to transition from pulling the knife from the sheath into holding it was enough, though, to convince me that the paint on the handles had to go. I've begun the Outdoors-Magazine-online trick of heating the paint, and I intend eventually to re-finish, probably with linseed oil, after the handles are just a bit rougher than they came. Anyone else out there have ideas about good ways to address these issues with Mora handles?

I must say that, overall, I really like these knives: cheap enough to keep a backup everywhere, light enough that you almost don't notice them, and the blades so far do a great job of sailing through whatever needs to get cut. But, hey, if still further improvement is to be had, I'm all ears.
 
lol sorry !!
One of these slipped from my hand as I was unsheathing it, and though some fancy dance steps kept my feet unimpaled
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Yes , I hated that paint , ugly color and made a good knife look "cheap"
Off came the paint using paint remover , thorough sanding to bare wood and then some finger grooves , used a pocket torch to char the inside of the grooves and the end of handle and then sanded the dusty char off , stained brown and a few coats of tung oil.
Both turned out great and the tung oil isnt nearly as slippery as that ugly paint.
 
By the way, Chazz, for your intended use, I'd give the Frost Clipper a serious look. The handle-coating is of soft, rather than hard, rubber, but it'll stay in your hand nicely, and if you don't intend to baton it through re-bar and steel carriage bolts or use it as a crowbar, I'd imagine it'll hold up fairly well. And if you do think it might not hold up fairly well under your intended use, for the ten bucks it'll cost, buy another one and keep the backup around somewhere. It's a little like a watch: sure, a $300 Rolex may last longer than my $30 Timex, but it's not going to last longer than the ten Timexes I could buy for the money. Knives don't just break; they get lost, sink, get stolen, etc. The thing about these Mora blades is that they're small, light, and inexpensive enough that carrying a backup really is an option, and might serve you better than the all-the-eggs-in-one-basket approach.
 
Return of the J.D. said:
By the way, Chazz, for your intended use, I'd give the Frost Clipper a serious look. The handle-coating is of soft, rather than hard, rubber, but it'll stay in your hand nicely, and if you don't intend to baton it through re-bar and steel carriage bolts or use it as a crowbar, I'd imagine it'll hold up fairly well. And if you do think it might not hold up fairly well under your intended use, for the ten bucks it'll cost, buy another one and keep the backup around somewhere. It's a little like a watch: sure, a $300 Rolex may last longer than my $30 Timex, but it's not going to last longer than the ten Timexes I could buy for the money. Knives don't just break; they get lost, sink, get stolen, etc. The thing about these Mora blades is that they're small, light, and inexpensive enough that carrying a backup really is an option, and might serve you better than the all-the-eggs-in-one-basket approach.
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Let me know where you can find $300.00 Rolex, mine was 10x that.
 
(Update:) Over the weekend, I took some sandpaper to the somewhat-slick but tough plastic handle of a Frost Triflex Craftsman Mora. Worked like a charm: the hard plastic handle is now very grippable, even wet--it's not as sticky as Kraton, but it's definitely going to stay in one's hand. Not as shiny and pretty as when brand new, but really not bad, aesthetically, even.
 
Return of the J.D. said:
(Update:) Over the weekend, I took some sandpaper to the somewhat-slick but tough plastic handle of a Frost Triflex Craftsman Mora. Worked like a charm: the hard plastic handle is now very grippable, even wet--it's not as sticky as Kraton, but it's definitely going to stay in one's hand. Not as shiny and pretty as when brand new, but really not bad, aesthetically, even.
Click to expand...

Good idea. :thumbup: I also have the Tri Flex. I used a bike tire tube (must be a tube for a small thin tire) I streached the rubber over the handle and then trimmed the excess off where needed. Worked great.
 
rebeltf said:
lol sorry !!

Yes , I hated that paint , ugly color and made a good knife look "cheap"
Off came the paint using paint remover , thorough sanding to bare wood and then some finger grooves , used a pocket torch to char the inside of the grooves and the end of handle and then sanded the dusty char off , stained brown and a few coats of tung oil.
Both turned out great and the tung oil isnt nearly as slippery as that ugly paint.
Click to expand...

Couldn't aggree more on the paint. :rolleyes:

 
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