Mora as main survival knife

Firestrike said:
This is a Mora breaking from abuse,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EOBot1-lTtw

This should not happen to a knife classified as a "survival knife"

The following is what I feel a true "survival knife" should be capable of,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fam7_apuOqQ

Cheers
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ok, we finally have the best description of what survival actually entails... and it means you probably hit your head, lost 90% of your brain function, and start doing really stupid things to your knife for no reason.

good to know.
 
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Yeah I could use my Mora HD Companion as a survival knife. It would work just fine for knife tasks.....so, my answer is yes. Mora can be used as a main survival knife.
 
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Scandi knives in general tend to run smaller than what we are used to here yet they are used traditionally in some of the harshest cold climates by native peoples. I'm sure Scandinavians get a good laugh when they see big American knives. This tells me the way they use their knives is a lot different from the way people use them here.
 
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I'm not and expert on survival scenarios or training, but I do posses a somewhat unique perspective on this issue because I've volunteered in a mounted SAR unit for almost 14 years. So I've seen people who've been stuck in "survival situations", from forest fires to lost climbers.

In that time I've seen people do very well and others do quite poorly when dealing with whatever sort of trouble they ran into. I won't say good gear doesn't make a difference, it does, but I can't remember single one of these people being saved by a super bomb proof knife.

An old guide that had an accident on the mountain (broken leg) while gathering mushrooms and herbs managed to stay alive with just the thin kitchen knife he used to collect the plants. He was close to a village when we found him, he was in good spirits and offered to brew us a cup of tea. In a few more hours he would have reached the village by himself.

On the other hand, we had plenty of people with super high end gear end up endangering themselves. I remember to rock climbers we found who were very well equipped but panicked and didn't even think to take advantage of their gear. They weren't idiots, I talked to them at the hospital while they were being checked and rehydrated. In fact, we found them because they left a game plan at the tourism office.

Anyway, what I mean is that any decent knife is good enough if it's backed by knowledge and a cool head. Different designs need different techniques, and some people will always prefer one style over others. I like knives with 4" or 5" blades that aren't too thick and have learned their strengths and weaknesses. A mate of mine, being the rain forest savage that he is, does everything with a machete (and I mean everything, the guy can mow his lawn with a machete and do it perfectly). We give each other a hard time, but we both get things done.
 
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Just wanted to point out the new Mora #1s are no longer full rat tail tang, but 3/4 tang like the others, epoxied into the handle. If you want a full rat tail tang scandi, buy a bladed and mount it into a handle. It's a fun project, and the knife comes out strong.

That said, if I really had to depend on a knife, any knife, I'd go out of my way to protect it, so I could use it for as long as possible. I wouldn't dig, pry or use it as a step. Generations upon generations of humans survived and proliferated without a sharpened prybar in their hands. A modern knife, even a "weak" Mora, is a huge advantage compared to what our ancestors used. Also, there is always an alternative to brute force.
 
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I have seen survival , I have watched TV , I KNOW what it takes ..
When youre surviving , you never stay put in one spot .. you GOT to keep moving , seen it on TV ..
You have to drink your own urine , find something that is disgusting and eat it or you wont survive
and well yeah I seen how the bear dude showed to sharpen a knife so knife abuse and idiocy is warranted ... but only when surviving

Odds are tho that TV survival is gunna kill you when you try it before you even get to pry a boulder or baton thru some steel box section ... that is only for really hardcore survival .. like cable channel series survival not regular free public broadcasting type survival ...
 
The Original 'survival' knives were sharpened bone, tempered wood, and chipped stone...People made those work; and that's what you do in a survival situation you make what you have work. If you don't have a knife and you need one, you make one somehow.

And that's what I'd recommend you'd do if you had a knife and needed something to 'use as a step' make something that would fill that blank. I can't use my knife as a rain poncho or a cook pot, but that doesn't mean it sucks. That means its a knife.

Speaking strictly in the sense that I could only have one knife, the larger 'baton through anything' knives that are super thick get so big and thick they start to really suck at being an actual knife...there is a point of diminishing returns when over-engineering something.
 
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MartialArtist said:
I want to mnow if anyone uses a Mora for their main survival knife. If so, then please include the model name. :D
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Can't say I've ever been in a main survival situation, and now that I'm into in the 2d half of my life the likelihood of ever being in one diminishes. Can't say I've ever had to use a knife as a step, to spear fish, or to cut down a widow maker, and now that I'm into in the 2d half of my life the likelihood of ever doing so diminishes.
 
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Typical argument of what can the knife do vs. what can I do with the knife. I've never needed to lift logs with my Mora, nor baton through a piece of steel with my stouter knives. Most times I've just used them like a knife to cut stuff open, and carve helpful tools out of wood and such.
 
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I love threads like this! Always cool to see different views.
Here is another. Once upon a time there was a little thing called the "stone age" it lasted around 3.4 million years...I may be mistaken but I think there may have been a few survival situations where folks didn't have 1/4 thick super steels, just various sharpened stones. Enough made it that we are here today. So yeah, I think a Mora could handle it. But thats just my opinion.
 
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RDog said:
I love threads like this! Always cool to see different views.
Here is another. Once upon a time there was a little thing called the "stone age" it lasted around 3.4 million years...I may be mistaken but I think there may have been a few survival situations where folks didn't have 1/4 thick super steels, just various sharpened stones. Enough made it that we are here today. So yeah, I think a Mora could handle it. But thats just my opinion.
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Nonsense! There were plenty of high end steel knives in the Paleolithic. It’s the old Gaps in the Fossil Record problem.

S30V blades were such junk that their users went extinct, leaving no trace. :D
 
Spoiler said:
Not positive, but I think Cody Lundin from the show "dual survival" always has a Mora hanging around his neck. Not sure what model it is though.
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Better as Firestrike says to rely on actual experience.

Cody states in 98.6 that SS knives are always harder to sharpen than non-SS knives. That statement shows limited exposure to what's out there. If you don't know what's out there, you can comment on what you have used and be skilful with it, but you should not generalize in the way he does. Many of us have encountered junk-soft SS knives and spent lots of time working to sharpen D2.
 
The only problem I see with it is if you break it while batoning. If it is your only knife, batoning would not be worth the risk of breakage. Then you have no knife. But...that could be said of any knife.
 
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ITT; people complaining about Mora knives being weak because they aren't made out of 1/4" thick steel that's been forged in the fires of the last dragon and quenched in the fountain of youth, and people who know better than that.

You don't have to use your knife directly for each task, you create your tools as you go along. You don't use your knife as a spear, you create a spear with your knife. Using it as a step is asking for disaster regardless of the knife.
 
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LeonJ said:
ITT; people complaining about Mora knives being weak because they aren't made out of 1/4" thick steel that's been forged in the fires of the last dragon and quenched in the fountain of youth, and people who know better than that.

You don't have to use your knife directly for each task, you create your tools as you go along. You don't use your knife as a spear, you create a spear with your knife. Using it as a step is asking for disaster regardless of the knife.
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This is survival supposition and playing at survival. Neither common sense nor critical thinking belong!
 
leghog said:
This is survival supposition and playing at survival. Neither common sense nor critical thinking belong!
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Let's just insert it back in..... just for the heck of it :p

Pry dinner out of log? split the wood enough to use other branches to gain leverage. A 4 ft branch has much more leverage even a 15" big ole knife.
Mora as a step? .....on a tree? or rock wall? I have no idea where or when someone will every have to do this. Even so, you can use your knife to make cordage right? How about using the knife to drill a hole in the wood and hammering a stake into it? You only need a step so even 1" sticking out will do.
Digging with the Mora? A knife isn't that much better at breaking up earth than a good rock.
Spear fishing with a Mora? Sharp stick? You can carve some barbs in the stick also.
Cut down a widowmaker with a Mora? On my property? I got the proper tools at home. Camping/backpacking? Don't camp near widowmakers.

I know I only spent 2 minutes thinking about these solutions and there's probably many things I haven't considered like how badass I won't look, etc. Sorry, I was just trying to satisfy my curiosity of how logic and a calm mind would play in a survival situation. Forgive me for my temporary insanity. :foot:
 
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