Morakniv Knives?

[Ten4leader]

Many of you may saw my post about carbon and stainless steel, now I'm curious the difference between the Morakniv Companion, the Morakniv Companion Heavy duty, and the Morakniv Craftline Robust Trade Knife. They all appear to be the same besides the handle colors.. Can anybody clear things up for me? Thanks

 

[Mikael W]

The Companion is 2,5 mm thick and a little bit smaller than the Robust & Companion HD.

The 3,2 mm thick Robust and HD share the same blade + handle.

The thinner Companion works very well for most jobs in wood.
For heavy duty work, the other two are good.

I'm thinking of thinning the tip of my Robust, to give it more of distal taper.
Sometimes I feel the tip is too thick for the best average cutting performance.
I have also thinned the cutting edge a little and this increased the performance, without sacrificing too much of the toughness.

When cutting various tapes at work, I have noticed that stainless steel is easier to keep clean from tapeglue.
The Mora carbon steel has to be cleaned very often and the glue stick to the edge a lot more than the stainless edges.




Regards
Mikael

 

[Mikael W]

An update!

After reprofiling on the 1" x 30" beltsander, the bevel has got a more convex grind.
This solved the issue with the sticky tape.
The edge is more like my stainless convex edges and is now easy to clean.

Obviously it was a geometry thing and in my book, convex shines!

The shoulders has also been knocked off and the tip has started to get more of distaltaper.
This helps in wedging with the tip first and the blade split wood better, without damaging the pieces.

Still, this edge is thick, very thick!
The edge is thicker than the edges of my 10" - 12" chopping knives, so there's plenty of steel in the Mora Robust edge.
This has shown at work, when I accidentaly cut into nails and screwheads.
The thick edge doesn't suffer much damage at all and is easily touched up.

So the Mora Robust is a great knife for tough work, but the performance improves with a convexed edge.


Regards
Mikael

 

[jdk1]

Mikael, it's nice to hear from a Swedish member concerning these, especially one who doesn't say "we just throw them away". What's your opinion on the Hultafors GK vs. Mora Robust? I heard they may be similiar. I got a group buy together locally and picked up some GK's for $10 apiece shipped and it seems to be a great heavy-duty blade. Also, how does the Hulta HVK compare to the Companion types? Thanks for your time.

 

[Mikael W]

Jdk, to start with the HVK/Companion question, both are very useful.
I cut off the fingerguard on the Hultafors and convex the bevel.

Sometimes I find these knives on the ground at the recycling station in a messy shape.
They are chipped, dull, and rusty, with broken tips.
When resharpened and convexed on a slackbelt sander, they get a lot more serviceable than new.
No more chipping and the edgeholding increases.
Yeah, they sure start to perform!

The Mora as a general, is of slightly better quality and it's made here in Sweden.
The HVK/GK is made for Hultafors in China.
The Companion shares the blade with previous Mora models and it's the same as with the HVK, after a meeting with my beltsander they start to perform.

The Hultafors GK is a 1/8" thick sharpened prybar, with a very big handle!
The geometry is for very coarse work in abrasive materials.
It's way too much for my needs, but I like the beefy dimensions.
However, I convexed and thinned the edge, cut off the guard and pommel.
I then contoured the handle and put a pin through the tang.
Yes, there's a hole in the tang and it's located right in the middle of the "O" in the Hultafors logo.

In this way the GK has got the functionality I need in a harduse working knife.
Here shown with the Mora Robust and Fällkniven Kolt Knife with custom staghandle.

View attachment 436729 View attachment 436730

There's no question about it, I'll take Mora over Hultafors - Anytime!


Regards
Mikael