The classic wood handle Mora is a true living legend here in Finland (and in most parts of Scandinavia, I suppose). I doubt there are many men over 30 years old here, that hasn't at some point owned one of these. Being a knife enthusiast, I always found them to be a little too bulky for my liking, and had almost forgot that these things even exist. However, a while ago I noticed that two of my favourite outdoors / wilderness book authors, Cody Lundin and Mors Kochanski both chose the classic wood handled carbon steel Mora as their bushcraft knife. There had to be something to it... so, here we go:
While in the local hardware store I found out that the classic mora comes in different sizes nowadays. There was a smallish knife with a 85mm blade ("3.35), and a few bigger ones. I chose the middle sized, featuring ~10cm ("4) blade and a handle of same lenght. I've seen these sold for just a couple of euros, but this store was a bit more expensive. I ended up paying a hefty 5.95 EUR from this knife.
First impressions; the sheat has a pretty cheap feeling to it. It's plastic, doesn't really hold the knife that securily, and the belt loop would be pretty useless if your belt is any wider than an average one. Also, the knife goes to the sheat either way, and since the handle is also symmetrical, you can't be really sure if the cutting edge is pointing back or front. A careless person might end up cutting himself due to this.
About the knife. The factory edge didn't seem that sharp. I tried shaving some hair off my arm with no success, and the knife hardly cut through paper. I tried cutting through some hemp cord, and the performance was less than satisfactory. I've heard so much about how excellent the steel of these Mora knives is, that I couldn't just leave it there. A few passes with a Dianova diamond sharpener improved the performance dramatically. I still wasn't able to get the knife shaving sharp (though I suppose with more effort I could have), but it went through paper like nothing, and sliced the hemp rope to pieces with minimal effort.
Performance before and after sharpening
The mora knife is really light weight, and is dextrous to handle. The downside of this is, that it also feels a bit frail. Because of the low price of this knife, I wasn't afraid to try some heavy battoning with it. The first task the knife was used for was making the baton. I got a dried up branch, and whittled away. It took about a minute or two to cut the branch and to trim it in size. The knife performed really exceptionaly.
I then took a piece of dry birch, and placed the knife in the worst kind of way (straight trough the cut off branch, as you can see from the picture), and battoned it through the log.
The birch was tougher than I anticipated, but since the knife cost nearly nothing, I gave it no mercy. Surprisingly, the mora performed nicely. It wasn't bent at all, and the blade was in tip top shape. At the image below, look what shape the batton is in after this test... I wasn't exactly gentle.
I also tried whittling fuzz sticks. Like I anticipated, at this job the mora was right at home. To the other side of the same piece of wood (the upper side in the picture below) I carved with a little more power. With a couple more hard pushes I propably could have cut this piece of wood in two.
I tried a few different kinds of grips. The handle's design is really simple, which gives the knife versatility. The picture below shows the "thumb on the side of the blade" or whatever it's called grip;
The tip of the blade is aligned with the centre of the handle. This makes drilling with the knife easy.
After playing around with the knife for an hour or so, I checked the blade; flawless, no signs of wear, and the blade sliced through paper easily. It's true what they say about the quality of Mora steel. Excellent!
Conclusion:
The classic mora is a cheap, but a no-nonsense knife. For the most parts, it performs exceptionally, and the seemingly simple design is actually ingenious; the knife fits the hand, is extremely versatile, and a great utility knife. If you are used to sturdier custom knives, it might have a frail and bulky feel to it, but the performance of the knife proves that it can handle what it's supposed to. The used materials are obviously high quality, but on the other hand the fittings and overall finish of the knife are tolerable at best. The sheath is crappy, and honestly I wouldn't trust it to keep the knife in place.
In this sheath, I would not carry this knife as the only cutting tool in the woods. For the folks in this forum, I suppose this is not a problem (which one of us actually goes anywhere with just one blade?). The knife itself is a great general purpose knife for the woods. Building a fire, making wooden tools, or making a shelter, all could be done with this 6 EUR miracle easily. For hunting or fishing I would not recommend this knife however; there's a nasty gap between the blade and the ferrule, and that would be hard to keep clean.
In it's price range, I think the classic Mora has very little competition. If you need a lightweight backup knife, or a cheap knife to use for the tasks that might scratch up you 300$ custom blade, or simply want a decent knife that you aren't afraid to lend to your friends, buy one! With this price, you can't go wrong!
While in the local hardware store I found out that the classic mora comes in different sizes nowadays. There was a smallish knife with a 85mm blade ("3.35), and a few bigger ones. I chose the middle sized, featuring ~10cm ("4) blade and a handle of same lenght. I've seen these sold for just a couple of euros, but this store was a bit more expensive. I ended up paying a hefty 5.95 EUR from this knife.
First impressions; the sheat has a pretty cheap feeling to it. It's plastic, doesn't really hold the knife that securily, and the belt loop would be pretty useless if your belt is any wider than an average one. Also, the knife goes to the sheat either way, and since the handle is also symmetrical, you can't be really sure if the cutting edge is pointing back or front. A careless person might end up cutting himself due to this.
About the knife. The factory edge didn't seem that sharp. I tried shaving some hair off my arm with no success, and the knife hardly cut through paper. I tried cutting through some hemp cord, and the performance was less than satisfactory. I've heard so much about how excellent the steel of these Mora knives is, that I couldn't just leave it there. A few passes with a Dianova diamond sharpener improved the performance dramatically. I still wasn't able to get the knife shaving sharp (though I suppose with more effort I could have), but it went through paper like nothing, and sliced the hemp rope to pieces with minimal effort.
Performance before and after sharpening
The mora knife is really light weight, and is dextrous to handle. The downside of this is, that it also feels a bit frail. Because of the low price of this knife, I wasn't afraid to try some heavy battoning with it. The first task the knife was used for was making the baton. I got a dried up branch, and whittled away. It took about a minute or two to cut the branch and to trim it in size. The knife performed really exceptionaly.
I then took a piece of dry birch, and placed the knife in the worst kind of way (straight trough the cut off branch, as you can see from the picture), and battoned it through the log.
The birch was tougher than I anticipated, but since the knife cost nearly nothing, I gave it no mercy. Surprisingly, the mora performed nicely. It wasn't bent at all, and the blade was in tip top shape. At the image below, look what shape the batton is in after this test... I wasn't exactly gentle.
I also tried whittling fuzz sticks. Like I anticipated, at this job the mora was right at home. To the other side of the same piece of wood (the upper side in the picture below) I carved with a little more power. With a couple more hard pushes I propably could have cut this piece of wood in two.
I tried a few different kinds of grips. The handle's design is really simple, which gives the knife versatility. The picture below shows the "thumb on the side of the blade" or whatever it's called grip;
The tip of the blade is aligned with the centre of the handle. This makes drilling with the knife easy.
After playing around with the knife for an hour or so, I checked the blade; flawless, no signs of wear, and the blade sliced through paper easily. It's true what they say about the quality of Mora steel. Excellent!
Conclusion:
The classic mora is a cheap, but a no-nonsense knife. For the most parts, it performs exceptionally, and the seemingly simple design is actually ingenious; the knife fits the hand, is extremely versatile, and a great utility knife. If you are used to sturdier custom knives, it might have a frail and bulky feel to it, but the performance of the knife proves that it can handle what it's supposed to. The used materials are obviously high quality, but on the other hand the fittings and overall finish of the knife are tolerable at best. The sheath is crappy, and honestly I wouldn't trust it to keep the knife in place.
In this sheath, I would not carry this knife as the only cutting tool in the woods. For the folks in this forum, I suppose this is not a problem (which one of us actually goes anywhere with just one blade?). The knife itself is a great general purpose knife for the woods. Building a fire, making wooden tools, or making a shelter, all could be done with this 6 EUR miracle easily. For hunting or fishing I would not recommend this knife however; there's a nasty gap between the blade and the ferrule, and that would be hard to keep clean.
In it's price range, I think the classic Mora has very little competition. If you need a lightweight backup knife, or a cheap knife to use for the tasks that might scratch up you 300$ custom blade, or simply want a decent knife that you aren't afraid to lend to your friends, buy one! With this price, you can't go wrong!
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If I don't get around doing that, this mora will be seeing a lot of use anyway, because I'll be keeping it as a backup knife in my backpack. In addition of being really cheap, the lightness and versatility of the knife makes it a perfect backup knife for me.
Nice work by the way! :thumbup: