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- Mar 8, 2008
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- 25,930
I used to carry the Mora #333 insulation knife in my shop with the edge reprofiled so it would hold up to use as an ultralight machete, and it was a wonderful little tool. Mora decided to discontinue the model a couple years back, however, and nothing on the market that I had come across quite had the same performance qualities. It was like a sharpened feather--light and fast in the hand, with a balance that made it feel like you were holding a 4" field knife rather than a 13" bladed light slashing and chopping tool. The Svörd Kiwi Machete was the next closest thing, but has a much more forward balance that makes it a better chopper on woody targets, and it loses a bit of that "small knife" feel because of it. Well, I finally found a replacement for them in the form of another insulation knife, this time by Friedrich Dick of Germany.
The great thing is, I think these are an even better value than the Mora was. The cost is about the same, but the blade has a nice crisp full flat grind to it instead of a "machete-style" single bevel and the grip is more hand-filling with better ergonomics. It is an inch shorter than the Mora, at 12", but that means it'll fit off-the-shelf 12" machete sheaths, so it's kind of a win again in that respect.
My one reservation about them was that I needed to find out if the grind was taken so thin that the grind behind the edge would ripple when chopping woody targets, so I chopped some seasoned pallet oak splints, since hard, thin targets are usually what cause that sort of damage to manifest, and I wasn't able to produce any deformation. It's thicker in the spine than the Mora was, so it's stiffer, but the FFG actually makes it as thin at the edge as the Mora was if not perhaps even a little thinner about 1/8" back.
Here it is next to my personal #333.
They also make a fully serrated version with nice full-size serrations (not tiny little ones like on cheap steak knives) that'd be great on lush vegetation, weeds, brambles, and grasses, much like the serrated American corn knives/hooks that used to be so commonly found in agricultural areas. Obviously that version would be less suitable for woody targets, though.
The great thing is, I think these are an even better value than the Mora was. The cost is about the same, but the blade has a nice crisp full flat grind to it instead of a "machete-style" single bevel and the grip is more hand-filling with better ergonomics. It is an inch shorter than the Mora, at 12", but that means it'll fit off-the-shelf 12" machete sheaths, so it's kind of a win again in that respect.
My one reservation about them was that I needed to find out if the grind was taken so thin that the grind behind the edge would ripple when chopping woody targets, so I chopped some seasoned pallet oak splints, since hard, thin targets are usually what cause that sort of damage to manifest, and I wasn't able to produce any deformation. It's thicker in the spine than the Mora was, so it's stiffer, but the FFG actually makes it as thin at the edge as the Mora was if not perhaps even a little thinner about 1/8" back.
Here it is next to my personal #333.
They also make a fully serrated version with nice full-size serrations (not tiny little ones like on cheap steak knives) that'd be great on lush vegetation, weeds, brambles, and grasses, much like the serrated American corn knives/hooks that used to be so commonly found in agricultural areas. Obviously that version would be less suitable for woody targets, though.
