Just got my first Mora, how do I sharpen it?

J

JulianHayes

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I've been hearing about Mora knives for years but never got around to buying one until recently. A classic 3 6 inch and heavy duty 4 inch, both carbon steel arrived today. Both seem exceptional value, but the scandi grind left me curious. How do you sharpen and maintain these knives? I have been using a worksharp KO for convex edges lately, but have always used stones. Do I tough up the edge with stones? sandpaper? These seem like great knives begging for use, but I don't want to lose that grind by creating an extra bevel / microbevel. I know the work sharp is not the answer, any advice appreciated. The classic 3 seems like it needs a guard and a leather sheath to be near perfect. Thanks, Julian
 
I just touched mine up this morning. I use bench stones for mine. The Scandinavia grind is pretty cool because it gives you a large bevel to follow. I just mark the entire fat bevel with a sharpie, lay it on my stones and go to town. I use a king 1000, king 6000, and Chinese natural 12k. Then at the very end, I just raise the blade up slightly for maybe 3 strokes on the 12k. Just enough to finish the edge off but not put a drastic microbevel. And a leather sheath is definitely nice
 
I actually cheat and just use my Sharpmaker. Not really maintaining the scandi grind, but still takes a helluva edge and cuts very well. Quick and easy.
 
Ray Mears has a video out on sharpening a scandi, with stones. They are stupid simple to sharpen with stones.
 
A scandi is a scandi, nothing wrong with putting another bevel on it but that is not what a scandi is designed for IMO. If you want a microbevel (later on then macrobevel) on a knife, buy a classic grind with a primary and secondary bevel. The cutting performance is definitely different when you use a microbevel.

So, I would recommend using water or oil stones for a scandi, also excellent would work sandpaper on hard backing, HeavyHanded's washboard for instance. You follow the bevel as much as you can, eventually you will end up with a slight convex bevel which gives a bit more strength and likely even a bit better performance in some areas!

Virtuovice has a nice video of scandi sharpening. I don't agree with all his approaches (the stropping at the end for instance) but he has a lot of informative stuff on his channel. Make sure you check it out. Here is the link to the Mora sharpening: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1hEm1y_BQg
 
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Looks like i'll be taking the stones out, maybe time to tinker with sandpaper.. Thanks for the help, always feel better using a knife when I know I can sharpen it.
 
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