Mora,frosts Any Opinions From First Hand Users?

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Nov 5, 2007
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Have been hearing a lot of good things about Mora (Frosts) knives, for the most part they seem to be very reasonable in price.....so was wondering from folks that have actually used them in the field, is all the noise hype or are they the real deal? Thank you!

Thundermoon
 
Not necessarily in the field much. I have brought a mora hiking a few times and it was great. Cut into wood like a hot knife through butter. Ive batoned with it as well and it was fine. Since it was a cheap knife I didn't mind beating on it. But because of the scandi grind, if you damage the edge its a pain to remove so much metal to repair it. That was the case with my Koster Bushcraft but for what I use it for, a few dings in the blade wouldn't hurt too much.

My mora is now left for yard work, trimming branches and other misc. stuff.

I don't necessarily think its not hyped up, but its not bad hype. Its a good cheap knife. And while I hate this phrase, it really is a good knife for the money IMO. Buy a few to save on shipping and just throw them into a tool box for the times when you don't want to destroy some of your nicer knives. I think they make great beginner knives too since the wide bevel makes keeping the bevel angle while sharpening easier.
 
Thundermoon,
Moras get quite a bit of attention here.
Although the BF Search is not available for most of us, try this:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&sitesearch=bladeforums.com&q=mora+field&btnG=Search

It uses Google to search the BF site for "mora field", and finds 63 BladeForums threads that contain both of the words 'mora' and 'field'.

BTW, you can bookmark this link and simply replace 'mora field' with the search terms of your choice.

My take on Moras, they're well worth many times what you pay for them.
Get several; my favs are the 860-MG stainless clipper, and the 780 triflex craftsman...you can't beat'em !!

JMH
 
I have several of these, the wooden handled models. Most of them are meant for woodworking. The knives I have are laminated, with a harder edge.

These knives see a lot of kitchen duty. They take a nice sharp edge, very quickly. A few passes on a butcher's steel, and they are shaving sharp once again.

These knives are meant to be light duty slicers and cutters. They aren't meant for heavy use. Their tangs are quite thin. But as an inexpensive, light duty knife, they do exactly what they are designed for.

Andy
 
I'm actually going to do a video review on it tonight.... Model 760 though, not the S-1.
 
Have been hearing a lot of good things about Mora (Frosts) knives, for the most part they seem to be very reasonable in price.....so was wondering from folks that have actually used them in the field, is all the noise hype or are they the real deal? Thank you!

Thundermoon

Nothing to fear with the inexpensive Mora knives. You will get more than what you pay for in performance and quality. In my experience, Scandinavians frown on any tools that offer smoke and mirrors. Spend some time learning to sharpen the Scandinavian grind properly (super easy) and the Mora will serve you well. Many of my students use the Mora's in my primitive survival skills classes and nothing is lacking in terms of getting decent results out of the blade steel and grind.
 
Everyone, and that means Everyone in Sweden knows about them and have probably at least two at home.
They are very good knives, very sharp from the store and are almost treated like razor blades here. You use them until they get dull. Then you throw them in the junk pile and take a new one, or if you have any power tool lying around, you might sharpen it again. No fancy stuff, just any grinder will do.
They are the standard outdoor, farmer, carpenter, scout knife there is. They cost from 2 bucks and up to maybe 10 bucks so why bother grinding one, just buy a new one instead.

I on the other hand dont understand the hype, its not a bad hype, but just WHY?. It would be like if someone discovered a screwdriver. Hey, we have had those basic cutting tools since I dont know. They are just like a tool. If you want a KNIFE you buy something else. A Mora knife never gets handed down to your children, they wither away in a junk pile somewhere.

Since they are so low price you can abuse them excessively. You dont open paint cans, cut cable, stir paint, poke in the fire, bend stuff etc. with a 100 dollar knife, but with a mora you do.

Buy a bunch, you never know when you need one... or two.
Hultafors makes fancy Mora clones, some in stainless. However SS is overkill on a Mora, they get dull and scrapped before they rust. :)
 
Exactly what Nodh said. Everyone in Scandinavia knows Moras, and most likely has used more than one in their life. Probably did so already in school.

Moras are good knives in that they do knife tasks well: they cut, they slice, and they are efficient in these tasks. They're certainly much, much better as knives (cutting tools) than most tactical knives many times more expensive.

But people have very different attitudes to Moras depending on where they're from. Many non-Scandinavian folks seem to find Moras something special, and even hype them up as somehow extraordinary knives. On the other hand, in Scandinavia, there's nothing more basic than a Mora - if you want to cut up some cable or pry open a canister, you grab a Mora and if you break it or chip the edge, you couldn't possible care any less. Because Moras are extremely cheap tools, by design 'disposable' in that they're neither pricy nor pretty, so there's no reason to care about them whatsoever.

When it comes to use on the field, there are few knives still in production that have been used as widely in the field as Mora knives. Moras are an old, proven design. The name comes from a Swedish knife-making town of the same name, so the maker's tradition is a long one, as well, and the maker is proven and 'old' - older than, say, the United States of America. Moras work excellently in the field, as long as you use them within their limits - they aren't enormously thick tactical prybars. People carrying Moras typically carry a hatchet or a real axe along with it to handle larger tasks. Mora knife + Fiskars hatchet = cheap and reliable outdoors combo for practically anything you might want to do out in the Northern woods.

Moras are no non-sense knives. They're tougher than most other scandis designed more for precision work and looks than being beaten around a construction yard, but not enormously tough - it's not hard to break one, if you abuse it.

But would I recommend a Mora? I'd recommend ten. Get them, use them, mod them, do whatever you want. They're practically free anyway, and certainly far superior as cutting tools to many knives much more expensive.

But, if you do get a Mora, and find it to be an amazing knife, you should know that this isn't because the Mora is amazing - it's because the knives you were using before were amazingly crap. :D
 
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But, if you do get a Mora, and find it to be an amazing knife, you should know that this isn't because the Mora is amazing - it's because the knives you were using before were amazingly crap.

I guess that says it all. Just ordered me one of these super-fantastic amazing knives the other day (bringing my Moras up to three) and can't wait to use it.
 
I guess that says it all. Just ordered me one of these super-fantastic amazing knives the other day (bringing my Moras up to three) and can't wait to use it.

I don't know, not quite all, I think, but "enough." It's hard to see Moras as anything special unless a) one is used to something that is much worse than a Mora or b) very easily excited (which, I guess, is a good thing in life). :D
 
I just ordered one a few days ago from bensbackwoods.com, only cost me 11.95$ including shipping. It hasnt arrived yet but I'll let you know my first impressions when it gets here in the next few days.
 
It's not like my knives are just two Moras and two FBMs. I have others as well and many aren't as good as Moras due to their steel, grind, or both. But soon, I'll have three Moras.

The thing I think is weird is when people pay for super-expensive knives made with all kinds of exotic steels (few of them anywhere near as tough as 12C27M or 1095 tempered down to RC57-58) and paying well over $100 for 'em.
 
The thing I think is weird is when people pay for super-expensive knives made with all kinds of exotic steels (few of them anywhere near as tough as 12C27M or 1095 tempered down to RC57-58) and paying well over $100 for 'em.

Right? To be fair, most of the knives won't see any use where extreme toughness would come into question. But I wouldn't buy one, just based on principle. Why construct a 1/4" thick stock, full-tang fixed blade with a steel (stainless flavor-of-the-month) that doesn't match up to those other overbuilt specs?

I only own one fixed blade (in 52100) because I don't really have any use for them at this point in my life (not a hiker, don't have a yard to landscape, etc.), but my next purchase with be 2 of the carbon steel Mora's with olive drab handles from Ragweed. I'll find something to use them on. :)
 
The thing I think is weird is when people pay for super-expensive knives made with all kinds of exotic steels (few of them anywhere near as tough as 12C27M or 1095 tempered down to RC57-58) and paying well over $100 for 'em.

Agreed. Especially when said super-expensive knives are ground so they don't even cut very well. A whole lot of 150 $ + tactical knives are guilty of this. Me - I'd rather use that 150 $ to buy a bucket of 40 or so Moras and spend the rest on whiskey. :D

I only own one fixed blade (in 52100) because I don't really have any use for them at this point in my life (not a hiker, don't have a yard to landscape, etc.), but my next purchase with be 2 of the carbon steel Mora's with olive drab handles from Ragweed. I'll find something to use them on. :)

I'm sure you will. Moras are good for all the things you normally "shouldn't" use a knife for - twisting, prying, hacking, cutting overly hard materials, what not. That's what construction workers use them for here: they cut with them sure, but they also baton through nails, pry open cans, cut cables and wires and whatever. I have Moras all over the place - the car, the house, the boat, everywhere. Instead of having to use a more expensive fixed blade (or a folder if you're so inclined), one can just grab the nearest Mora and beat it like hell without any worries. That's what they're built for - and when one breaks, you just get another one. :thumbup: On the other hand, if one doesn't abuse them, then Moras will last a life time easily.
 
Things you use mora knives for, but no other knives:
Cut cable and wire.
Pry open cans and such.
Cut nails.
Screwdriver.
Stir paint.
Poke in fires.
Scrape paint off steel.
Clear weeds between cobble stones.
Scrape away mortar from bricks.
Leave in tool box on tractor for years.
Forget it, stuck in a tree stump in the woods, to be found next moose hunt.
Regrind it on a piece of concrete or with a angle grinder.
Hammer on it, if it is not sharp enough to cut through something.
Hammer on it, if the thing you are cutting can not be cut with a knife.
Break it off without blinking.
Throw it away without blinking.
etc.

Things you do with other knives, but not Mora:
Care for it.
Sharpen it, period.
Sharpen it with care.
Keep it in the sheath when stored.
Keep it out of moist when stored.
Clean it after use.
Hand it to the next generation.

Yes, you can hand an old Mora on to your kids, but that is mostly because they find an old one that you forgot somewhere years ago.
We found lots of old Moras when we cleaned out my grandpas place. They were lying everywhere. Bought new thirty years ago, bought new five years ago, came with old tool boxes on auction etc. They are almost as common as pencils on a farm.

Nowadays you can even buy combo sheaths, like those from Hultafors.
http://www.hultafors.se/Pages/Produkter/Shop/Articles.asp?Product=True&TreeID=543
Almost at the bottom.
 
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I have a SS MORA and a Carbon MORA. They are great beaters and I highly recommend them :) Use them for whatever without any regrets.

Personally, i use the SS for food a lot and the carbon for anything dirty.
 
moras are great quality knives, they aren't made with the most exclusive of materials but they are perfect knives to use for actually cutting things. I prefer the ones with rubber handles to the plastic which i find too uncomfortable and the wood which i find too slippery. They are also VERY strong, i've seen a few break but only though improper use and in most any situation a mora will be more than good enough
 
Good, effective, low-cost woodsman's tools for anyone who needs them. They're a high quality product.

You can use them, abuse them, lose them, without remorse or regret. ;)
 
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