Mora Destruction tests

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k-spar

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Jun 8, 2007
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Well, so I just got myself a carbon mora #1, , 510, and laminated mora S-1 since I wanted to see which one i preferred overall. I already had a 521, which the handle came off of earlier this year.

Anyway, I read in Mors Kochanski's bushcraft "As a test of strength, a good knife should not break when driven four centimeters into a standing tree at right angles to the grain, and the handle bears your weight as you stand on it."

Well, not very surprisingly, they didn't pass the test with flying colors. Some better than others though.

When I started bashing the 421 into the stump, the handle got pushed up over the blade and broke.

However, i could stand on it still:

I weigh about 130 lbs (probably about 135 with gear on).

I did the same with the S-1, as I supposed the full-ish tang would help the handle not break, which was right, to an extent. It did get pushed up a little, bending the metal part where the blade meets the handle. However, when I pushed down on it with my hand (not even standing on it) it bent and wouldn't snap back.


I didn't try it with my new 510 as I figured it'd have about the same results as the 521, and I didn't try it with the #1 as I kinda wanted to keep it :p, sorry.

Here's my comparison between the two wooden handled ones:

Mora #1 (carbon):
I like the overall shape of the handle, I was worried it would slip out of my hand, but it's got quite a good grip. It has the same blade as the 510, which is great. The spine can strike a firesteel quite well (if touched up a bit). Overall a great knife, but I'd like it if the tang went all the way to the grip like it does in the S-1.

Mora S-1 (laminated):
Has a smaller grip than the #1, and I have small-medium sized hands and even thought it was a little thin. Right away I was kinda dissapointed with this one as the laminated steel of the spine was too soft to strike a firesteel, even when sharpened up to a real sharp 90 degree angle. It would strike it maybe once before needing to be retouched. Also it wouldn't spark on various quartzites i found. I also prefer the carbon steel for strength. Maybe it is more likely to break, but this laminated stuff just bent with much less force, while the carbon took more force and sprung back to the right shape.


I don't know if this test is really that great for determining how good a knife is, but just thought you'd all be interested.
 
I think we need to get Mors on here to comment.


Very cool test by the way and God bless you for posting pics:thumbup:
 
I'm a big fan of Kochanski, but I've always taken that line with a grain of salt. Either he has a thicker Mora than I do or he weighs about 90lbs. :)

I've used a Mora 510 quite a bit and feel it is a worthy tool for cutting and carving, but was never meant to pry with or stand on.
 
I think that Kochanski actually DOES use a thicker blade than you find on most Mora knives. I think I once measured a Frosts and found it significantly thinner than the suggested thickness in Bushcraft.
 
Here is what Mors has to say about knife thickness:

The blade should be of a good quality carbon steel, from two and a half to three millimeters thick and about two to two and a half centimeters wide. This size of blade is light in weight, yet difficult to break. The steel should be soft enough to be maintained at a shaving edge with common sharpening tools, without frequent sharpening. Such steel is found in Mora (Sweden), Solingen (Germany) or Sheffield (England) knives. Carbon, unlike stainless steel, can be used as the striker in the flint and steel method of fire-lighting. Inexpensive stainless steels have had a bad reputation with respect to producing a keen edge let alone holding it. The Mora stainless steels however, are every bit as good as their carbon steels.
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.098 OR just over 3/32" thick to .118 OR just under 1/8" thick.

Not that this is gospel. I personally wouldn't step on a knife jammed in a tree of that thickness myself.
 
I have to admit, I completely disagree with Mors. He's a real cool guy. I love his literature, but this particular test is crap dookie. I have plenty of knives that I would not dare try to run into a tree and stand on. I weigh 210 lb. and would break or bend a lot of steel. The Moras and such are terrific knives for what they are. They're the best wood whittling and carving knives I know of (edit: for the price) and shine in most bushcraft applications, but I wouldn't try to use them as a step. Some of the tougher, thicker built, full tang bushcraft knives could no doubt take my weight, but that still doesn't mean I'm going to use them in this manner. That's why I carry multiple knives. I have my choppers, my favorite of which is my Ranger, for big batonning and chopping jobs, my hawk for cutting down trees, driving tent stakes, and splitting logs (not to be confused with the batonning and chopping. its different stuff. trust me), and my smaller FB's for tight work, most bushcraft stuff, whittling, etc. Like I said, Mors is real cool, but I don't know why this test would make sense. It certainly isn't a good measure of how good a knife is any more than price. I used the hell out of my laminted S1 this past weekend for making containers and various crafts and I would choose it to do so over any of my other Moras or bushcraft knives any day.

Sorry, not trying to rant here and certainly not trying to make anyone feel bad or inspire the need to be defensive. Just voicing my opinion. Please don't take any offense. :)
 
Dylside said:
I used the hell out of my laminted S1 this past weekend for making containers and various crafts and I would choose it to do so over any of my other Moras or bushcraft knives any day.
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Just curious, why do you like the S1 over the other moras? I didn't really get much difference out of it and the #1 other than it couldn't strike a fire steel as well, and the handle was thinner.

I guess I was just hoping for a thicker, stronger #1, which it wasn't.

edit: I meant a tougher #1, not really thicker or stronger.
 
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Great post k-spar. I'm 210 lbs when I'm feeling skinny so I won't be duplicating that test :)
 
The laminated knives are supposed to bend and not spring back. You should be able to bend or hammer the blades more or less straight again without them breaking. I was quite upset when I discovered that with a Norse King knife I bought back about 45 years ago.
 
thanks guys, glad this was interesting.

Jeff Clark said:
The laminated knives are supposed to bend and not spring back. You should be able to bend or hammer the blades more or less straight again without them breaking. I was quite upset when I discovered that with a Norse King knife I bought back about 45 years ago.
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Yeah, I think I'll bend it back and still use it, but its just seems silly. It's not very good for prying, thats for sure.
 
I don't mean to be difficult, but the above test proves absolutely zilch about those knives efficacy as cutting tools, and lest we forget, that is what knives are.
 
x39 said:
I don't mean to be difficult, but the above test proves absolutely zilch about those knives efficacy as cutting tools, and lest we forget, that is what knives are.
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Absolutely correct. However, if your ass is on the line in a survival situation, and your life depended on how well your knife stood up as a multi-purpose survival tool, wouldn't you want to have something with you that you could have confidence in?
 
Troop said:
Absolutely correct. However, if your ass is on the line in a survival situation, and your life depended on how well your knife stood up as a multi-purpose survival tool, wouldn't you want to have something with you that you could have confidence in?
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Yes, but only to the extent that the original purpose of the knife as a cutting implement doesn't suffer. I view the knife as a tool which can be used to create other tools, and not a universal tool in and of itself.
 
k-spar said:
Just curious, why do you like the S1 over the other moras? I didn't really get much difference out of it and the #1 other than it couldn't strike a fire steel as well, and the handle was thinner.

I guess I was just hoping for a thicker, stronger #1, which it wasn't.

edit: I meant a tougher #1, not really thicker or stronger.
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To be honest, I don't even know what it is about that knife that makes me reach for it more than the others for carving and whittling. I know it has a lot to do with the handle shape, blade width, and the laminated steel seems to glide through stuff easier than the carbon and it sharpens up different. I don't know. I know this is kind of cryptic. I guess the main thing would be the handle shape.
 
Dylside said:
To be honest, I don't even know what it is about that knife that makes me reach for it more than the others for carving and whittling. I know it has a lot to do with the handle shape, blade width, and the laminated steel seems to glide through stuff easier than the carbon and it sharpens up different. I don't know. I know this is kind of cryptic. I guess the main thing would be the handle shape.
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Not cryptic at all, I totally understand. Just differences in feel really, that's exactly why i go for the carbon instead. different strokes for different folks :D
 
x39 said:
Yes, but only to the extent that the original purpose of the knife as a cutting implement doesn't suffer. I view the knife as a tool which can be used to create other tools, and not a universal tool in and of itself.
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Thats the way I feel. A mora would be my first choice over lots of blades as my only knife in a survival situation. I have never batoned in my life so I probably wouldn't start then, anyway.
 
Tarmix101, thanks for the quoted language from Kochanski.
Return of the J.D. said:
I think that Kochanski actually DOES use a thicker blade than you find on most Mora knives. I think I once measured a Frosts and found it significantly thinner than the suggested thickness in Bushcraft.
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I just measured a Frosts traditional red-painted-wood-handled Mora, and the blade thickness appears to be right on 2 mm--so, a fair bit thinner than Mors Kochanski's suggested minimum.

The traditional wood-handled Mora knives made by Eriksson (and now, with what I think is the same design, by Mora of Sweden) are a bit thicker, and may be up to Kochanski's suggested minimum, but they don't have the tang that goes all the way through the handle--theirs stop half-way or two-thirds of the way through, and are epoxied in place, I understand. Which all goes to show, I guess, that one really has to take with a grain or more of salt the "ideal knife" recommendations of one's favorite survival gurus.

Actually, if one can do without the enclosed tang, one could probably do quite well with an Ontario Old Hickory knife, or one of the Russell Green River Works knives. They're carbon steel, have tangs that really might be robust enough for the pound-it-into-a-log-and-stand-on-it test (at least sometimes!)--and inexpensive for what you get.
 
Liam Ryan said:
Thats the way I feel. A mora would be my first choice over lots of blades as my only knife in a survival situation. I have never batoned in my life so I probably wouldn't start then, anyway.
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And I really have to question how good a practice batoning is. By definition, we are talking about knives to be used in a survival situation. By definition, a survival situation is one in which you have limited materials available, and most of your stuff is inaccessible. While it's one thing to baton one's knife through a log in the backyard, just think: is that REALLY something you want to be doing with your ONLY knife if you're way out in the woods or desert and that ONE KNIFE is all you've got, and all you're going to be able to get before you get rescued? Sure, it's good to know how to do it--you might have to. But when one crosses the line between knowing how to abuse a knife like that if one absolutely has to, into advocating batoning as a common practice, I think one makes a potentially grave mistake.

I think that I read on the Busse forum (or thereabouts) about one or another of the smaller Busse knives failing--tip snapping off--under light use a while back. Then, when people inquired into the details, it turned out that the user had recently spent about 8 hours batoning the blade through hardwood, using a metal wrench as the baton. Cumulative metal fatigue, I believe, became the consensus cause of the break. Now, that's a Hell of a lot of abuse for any knife to take, and it's hard to blame Busse or anybody else if their knife fails under such abuse eventually. But the take-away lesson is that that is an incredibly destructive thing to do to any knife, and there IS a cumulative-damage element to the practice, such that the mere fact that you got away with pounding the knife through wood for 7 hours is NOT proof that it can continue taking such abuse for another 2 hours.
 
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