mora question

Myal

Myal

Joined
Jun 7, 2003
Messages
1,850
I finally got myself a mora , had to see what the fuss is about .

I am liking this knife , its just a plain clipper , no frills .

I had heard the edge they had was a scandi grind , this one is kinda hollow ground .

I was carving .. well shredding some pine into shavings for kindling just ripping shavings off a lump of pine , and the Mora lost its bite . The edge wasnt blunt , but rolled .

I shredded about the same amount of stuff with my Opinel , no problem . I steeled the Mora straight( ish ) and tried again , and it rolled , again .
I steeled it back and tried it on softer wood , and it tore that up way easier than my Opinel did .

The wood I was only pine , not iorn bark or anything .

Im thinking that it most likely is just that the factory gives the blade a bit of a hollow grind . and I have a heavy hand using it .

What I want to know .. has anyone else had this happen with their Moras ?
 
I have two clippers , they both perform well. They were not that sharp however. I put a microbevel on both of them right away and love them. They are not hollow ground in the least. that has me puzzled.
 
Mine arent deep japanese style hollow ground , but you can feel it , and see it , the stone touches the shoulder of the bevel and the cutting edge when I sharpen it . This one came scary sharp out of the packet .

My regular camera is objecting to trying to take phots of shiny stuff at night with a flash ... but my magnify camera thing works ok
This is the mora edge blown up a bit .
The stone touches the actual cutting edge and the shoulder , the factory milling is not touched . Its only like a 1mm hollow grind tho .
moraedge2.jpg


moraedge.jpg


edited to add pics
 
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Moras are made quick, fast, and cheap...which is NOT to say poorly in this case.

Two or three of them I have I can honestly say were the sharpest knives I have ever purchases out of box. Two or three I have to say came with halfway dull edges. All other came with very good, very sharp edges.

I can assure you they are all among the sharpest knives I own now.

I have done it both ways: held the bevel flat on a diamond stone and re-created the full zero scandi grind, and just applied a micro-bevel. All in all, going forward, I am going to apply a hybrid method.

If new and sharp, I will leave it alone until it needs a touch up and then microbevel on the 30 degree slots of my Sharpmaker. If dull, I will go to full zero on my DMT diamond plates and then put a 30 degree micro on it. So in practice, I do micro-bevel touch ups several times before I re-do the whole bevel.

For most work, I think the Moras really like a 30 degree microbevel. It toughens up that edge, is still very acute and bitey, and is easy to maintain if you have a Sharpmaker or freehand stones.

Now be advised, I really am talking micro bevel here. You should have to manipulate the blade under a light to be able to see it with the naked eye here. If it is plain to see without lighting, it really has become a true secondary bevel and in my opinion, that takes the scandi out of your scandi.

I did the same thing with my full flat grind blades. They usually come with 40 degree inclusive secondary bevels. I like to flatten them out to about 25degrees inclusive...more or less. I have two parallel paths going right now. Half of them I then put on a 30 degree micro bevel and the others I put on a 40 degree...again both truly micro and hard to even see without light manipulation. Both types are crazy sharp but I haven't put the 30s to much of a test yet. I am very happy with the 40s. I would not, however recommend a 40 degree micro on most scandis unless very hard work was in store for them.
 
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I like the knife . If it gives issue again Im going to take it to truely flat grind and try that .
I was just curious if anyone else had had a mora edge roll on them .
Im glad to know that at least the blade wont snap on me :)
 
Once you sharpen it a few times the dulling/rolling will likely stop. I've seen it happen on a couple, but it only lasted for 2-3 sharpening's or 1 good sharpening. Each of the ones I have bought came razor sharp, and were completely scandi out of the box.
 
Most of my Moras came with a slight hollow grind. The inclusive angle on your blade is @ 20 degrees. On many of mine, I put a micro/mini bevel @ 30+ degrees. With the micro bevel the edge will be less prone to chipping or rolling.
 
I have two mora knives the 511 and the classic #1. I havn't had problems with either of them. In my opinion there good knives especially for the price. I think you may have got a badly inspected one from the factory.
 
TheGame

You are right I believe

I used the stone to get rid of the ripple I couldnt steel out , after making this thread , I sat down again to see if it would roll again .. nothing doing , its sitting tight n true .

Im not complaining about the knife . Im really liking it . I sharpen it on a fine stone , strop it on a sheet of photo printing paper , and it just cuts ... ( you got to try stropping on that stuff .. seriously .. I am not kidding .. it makes a scary sharp knife into a stupidly scary sharp knife )

Thank you everyone for your answers :)
 
Yup! Having to sharpen past a thin soft zone at the edge isn't uncommon, but after the first or second touch-up it all resolves itself. :)
 
We have (as far as I know) never made a hallow ground knife. A knife edge should not bend as easily as you describes. Could you please specify what knife type or model you have and maybe a picture. The branding and steel type is also important information. For us to react to distributors it´s also good if we can learn in what part of the world you are at.
 
Wow, right from the man himself (herself?). Morakniv, love your knives, have just bought my second Original Classic #1. My older one is from the 60's or 70's (inherited from my father-in-law).


Morakniv said:
We have (as far as I know) never made a hallow ground knife. A knife edge should not bend as easily as you describes. Could you please specify what knife type or model you have and maybe a picture. The branding and steel type is also important information. For us to react to distributors it´s also good if we can learn in what part of the world you are at.
Click to expand...
 
I'd sharpen the bevels down real good on a rough stone, the steel at the very edge could be bad, then polish it up and apply a small, ultra-fine micro-bevel. If that doesn't work, you might just have a lemon! But I think you'll be okay if you take it down some.
 
Hello and thank you for your interest :)

My knife is a Mora Clipper , hi carbon steel blade . I am in Australia , but I bought this from the USA where they are cheap to buy .

007.jpg
 
wabakimi said:
I'd sharpen the bevels down real good on a rough stone, the steel at the very edge could be bad, then polish it up and apply a small, ultra-fine micro-bevel. If that doesn't work, you might just have a lemon! But I think you'll be okay if you take it down some.
Click to expand...

Im liking the knife . Its the first one of its breed Ive owned and was curious to know if it was like the older style Opinels where you had to go thru a few sharpenings to get to the good steel , or if yeah I got a lemon .

I was thinking of flattening the bevels on my grinder , but its flattening out OK just thru ordinary sharpenings . The flat of the blade has had the most work on the stone so far , but you can hardly see that its been touched .. I think that milling the bevel left a hollow grind of sorts and at that part it was just a bit too thin for what I was doing . Its good now tho . Hasnt folded or rolled since , tho it does get a few tiny nicks but I suspect it has to do with cutting thru inclusions in the wood I was dealing with .
 
Myal said:
I had heard the edge they had was a scandi grind , this one is kinda hollow ground .
Click to expand...
From my experience, moras when there are brand new, tend to be very slightly hollow ground.
You hardly notice it by eye, but you can see it from sharpening marks on a flat benchstone.
To be honest that hollow is so slight IMO it virtually doesn't make any difference, and it is completly gone after a few sharpening sessions.

Now regarding edge rolling, it happens from time to time.
From my experience stainless moras are slightly softer, they get very sharp (think I did my best edges on some 12C27 moras) but tend to roll more than the carbon steel versions.
The carbon steel versions generally hold pretty well, I've done beech wood carving with them, and did some ash carving last week without much problem.

Sometimes I've also felt like the initial edge had some problem, but got better after some sharpening.
 
What type of stone are you using?

Steeling the edge of a mora is not exactly good for it, cold working hard metal makes it soft and soft thin metal likes to bend.

The grind of a mora is something that also takes some learning. The grind is thin by design so going through dirty bark and knots will damage the edge and heavy lateral forces from twisting out at the end of a cut will damage it too. It's not a edge type you can be rough with and get away with it.

I'd recommend starting fresh with the bevel. Start with a 1k waterstone or 400 grit sandpaper on glass and smooth out the factory grind marks and any bevel imperfections. Then pretty much follow HoosierQ's advice... and a spyderco ultra fine ceramic works great for the micro.
 
Actually, cold working metal has the tendency to make it harder due to work hardening. Steeling the edge of a Mora isn't a good idea because the type of grind is incompatible with steeling and would negatively affect the edge configuration.
 
AFAIK butcher steels are mostly for putting back in shape a rolled edge, but that's mostly for cutting soft material like in the kitchen, if you tried to cut hard materials like wood, chances are blade would roll again.

If your edge keeps rolling, assuming it is not a local steel problem, it generally means steel hasn't enough edge stability for the edge you're using. In that event it is generally recommended to resharpen at a wider angle, generally by adding a bevel or convexing the bit. That said this doesn't necessarly apply to present case.
 
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