- Joined
- Jun 24, 2003
- Messages
- 473
Well,I decided to do a Mora project.
The Mora blades produced by Frosts are a testament that you can have a first class blade that is mass produced. However, their handles and sheaths are a testament to just how cheaply you can make a handle or a sheath and still have something usable.
IMHO, probably the best Mora blades for use in a non-saltwater environment are the laminated carbon steel. This blade is all kinds of sharp and it has a tremendous edge holding ability, even after a lot of serious cutting and carving. The laminated steel is three layers of steel, with two softer, more flexible outer layers, and a hard inner layer with a hardness of Rc61-62.
This project was based around a 4-1/4" (108mm) laminated Mora blade. the blade has a rat-tail (stick) tang that is as long as the blade is. The blade was bare from the factory and had never been fitted for a handle.
For the handle material I used a very, very old hickory hatchet handle that was no longer useable as a hatchet handle due to the condition of the wood tang that went into the hatchet head, but the rest of the handle was still a beautiful, seasoned piece of old hardwood.
The bolster/handguard is made of T-6 aircraft aluminum. The lanyard hole is fitted with a 1/4" diameter section of brass tubing. The sheath was made from leather strap for repairing horse tack and sewn together with dacron thread.
The hone is a 1"x3" EZE-Lap diamond hone and the firetool is a 3/8" diameter magnesium firetool with a ferrocerium rod made by Horseshoe Mountain - http://www.hmfire.com/
The handle is 5-1/2" (140mm) long. I prefer a longer handle out in the bush on blades of this size for a number of reasons, such as greater control, greater leverage and power for cutting, extra length for cutting things like cactus, it fits my hand better, etc.
The blade tang is secured in the handle with JB Weld steel epoxy. JB Weld is an extremely good knife handle epoxy, expecially for hidden tang knives. The wood or the steel will give before the JB Weld does. The stuff is strong enough that it is used to patch engine blocks, but when it is first mixed, it runs loose enough that you can completely fill a tang cavity with no bubbles. The only way that handle is ever coming off is if you were to grind it off, and then it would take a while. The method I use for hollowing out the recess for the knife tang leaves a very rough interior, intentionally, and this provides an even better grip for the epoxy.
When the knife was finished and the JB Weld was allowed to fully cure for a few days, the handle was soaked in boiled linseed oil for 2 days.
Due to the wild sharpness of the laminated Mora blade, I made the sheath thick. All stitching is double stitched dacron thread. After construction, the sheath was given several treatments of Kiwi silicon spray waterproofing over a period of 3 days. The knife inserts and withdraws nicely but with enough resistance that I can hold the sheath upside down with the retaining strap un-snapped and the knife will not fall out of the sheath. The thick leather at the mouth of the sheath is beveled to allow the knife to be inserted easier under field conditions. There is a water drain hole in the tip of the sheath, on the back side. I made the belt loop big enough that it will fit on a US military issue web belt.
The loop which holds the firetool is sewn tight to maintain it's shape, and the excess tab was then sewn into the welt of the sheath. The firetool is held in with a length of paracord that has the internal threads removed to make it flatter. The paracord end is inserted upwards through the loop, while the firetool is inserted downwards, allowing the paracord to be drawn snugly and making the firetool very secure.
The Mora blades produced by Frosts are a testament that you can have a first class blade that is mass produced. However, their handles and sheaths are a testament to just how cheaply you can make a handle or a sheath and still have something usable.
IMHO, probably the best Mora blades for use in a non-saltwater environment are the laminated carbon steel. This blade is all kinds of sharp and it has a tremendous edge holding ability, even after a lot of serious cutting and carving. The laminated steel is three layers of steel, with two softer, more flexible outer layers, and a hard inner layer with a hardness of Rc61-62.
This project was based around a 4-1/4" (108mm) laminated Mora blade. the blade has a rat-tail (stick) tang that is as long as the blade is. The blade was bare from the factory and had never been fitted for a handle.
For the handle material I used a very, very old hickory hatchet handle that was no longer useable as a hatchet handle due to the condition of the wood tang that went into the hatchet head, but the rest of the handle was still a beautiful, seasoned piece of old hardwood.
The bolster/handguard is made of T-6 aircraft aluminum. The lanyard hole is fitted with a 1/4" diameter section of brass tubing. The sheath was made from leather strap for repairing horse tack and sewn together with dacron thread.
The hone is a 1"x3" EZE-Lap diamond hone and the firetool is a 3/8" diameter magnesium firetool with a ferrocerium rod made by Horseshoe Mountain - http://www.hmfire.com/
The handle is 5-1/2" (140mm) long. I prefer a longer handle out in the bush on blades of this size for a number of reasons, such as greater control, greater leverage and power for cutting, extra length for cutting things like cactus, it fits my hand better, etc.
The blade tang is secured in the handle with JB Weld steel epoxy. JB Weld is an extremely good knife handle epoxy, expecially for hidden tang knives. The wood or the steel will give before the JB Weld does. The stuff is strong enough that it is used to patch engine blocks, but when it is first mixed, it runs loose enough that you can completely fill a tang cavity with no bubbles. The only way that handle is ever coming off is if you were to grind it off, and then it would take a while. The method I use for hollowing out the recess for the knife tang leaves a very rough interior, intentionally, and this provides an even better grip for the epoxy.
When the knife was finished and the JB Weld was allowed to fully cure for a few days, the handle was soaked in boiled linseed oil for 2 days.
Due to the wild sharpness of the laminated Mora blade, I made the sheath thick. All stitching is double stitched dacron thread. After construction, the sheath was given several treatments of Kiwi silicon spray waterproofing over a period of 3 days. The knife inserts and withdraws nicely but with enough resistance that I can hold the sheath upside down with the retaining strap un-snapped and the knife will not fall out of the sheath. The thick leather at the mouth of the sheath is beveled to allow the knife to be inserted easier under field conditions. There is a water drain hole in the tip of the sheath, on the back side. I made the belt loop big enough that it will fit on a US military issue web belt.
The loop which holds the firetool is sewn tight to maintain it's shape, and the excess tab was then sewn into the welt of the sheath. The firetool is held in with a length of paracord that has the internal threads removed to make it flatter. The paracord end is inserted upwards through the loop, while the firetool is inserted downwards, allowing the paracord to be drawn snugly and making the firetool very secure.
