"I'd never trust my life to a Mora"

[dogstar]

I'll never trust my life to a Mora. I have heard this more than once. I don't really understand it.

Let's say you're going on a survival outing. Would you only bring a 4" knife? I wouldn't. I'd have a chopper, specifically, an axe. Then, by all means, I'd entrust the Mora to do cutting chores, and leave wood processing to the chopper.

Let's say you were unprepared, and all you had was a 4" knife. No matter what knife it was, would you abuse the knife, or would you treat it like the last tool you had? Even the fanciest blades can break; why push your luck? Okay, we absolutely have to split wood. I'd make a wedge, start a split with the knife, then use the wedge to finish the split. A Mora can handle that.

Let's say you break the handle on your knife. Most Moras these days have 3/4 tangs, long enough to fashion a makeshift handle with.

Cody Lundin and Mors Kochanski use (or used) Moras. I think they are good knives and I'd be happy to have one in a pinch.

 

[Steel130]

It's been said before. For the largest part, its not the knife. Its whose hands the knife is in. Knowledge and proper use is the biggest key.

 

[Goosey]

I don't understand the big chopper batonning thing, either. It seems to be a recent development... look at what people used to survive in the wilderness 100, 150 years ago. They didn't bring a big chopper knife to pound through logs and after all the expensive knives snapping in half batonning, neither would I.


Although they usually would have a horse to carry all their stuff.

 

[a2d2]

I wouldn't trust my life to any knife. Sure they are handy, but in my opinion, it's not the tools you carry that are the real asset in a survival situation. I wouldn't feel under knifed with a Mora though.

 

[FortyTwoBlades]

It's been said before. For the largest part, its not the knife. Its whose hands the knife is in. Knowledge and proper use is the biggest key.

Bingo. If I feel under-gunned with a Mora it's because I doubt my own abilities with the tool rather than doubting the abilities of the tool itself. Personally I feel lost in the woods without a machete in my hand.

 

[Txknifefan]

I like the mora's I own. Some people it doesn't matter what you give them they will find a way to tear it up.

 

[elkins45]

Ever watch Deadliest Catch? Those guys are required to have a knife on them in case they have to cut themselves free from the line on a 1000 pound crab pot on it's way to the bottom of the Bearing Sea. Almost of the knives I've seen them carrying have been Moras, with the occasional Spyderco Salt series. Clearly those guys trust their lives to them.

 

[Vertebrae]

I would trust a Mora to do knife related cutting tasks just fine. It's the emergency urban "oh crap, I need to pry this door open to get out/in and all I have is this knife" situation I wouldn't trust it to. No knife is perfect, but I would prefer a .25" thick piece of sharpened prybar for that.

99% of wilderness knife use isn't very hard on a knife, anyway. If you think you need to baton through logs, you're probably better off spending the calories looking around.