Hallooo, Knife-people....
Virtuovice's YouTube channel is one of my all-time favorites. He's super passionate and I love the side by each testing that he does. Also fun to watch his opinions shift over time.
Virtuovice is a huge fan of Bark River knives and their convex and scandi-convex grinds. Awhile back, I found this video in which he compares a Bark River Buscrafter made out of 3V and a Mora HD made out of carbon.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLlxWbce4iE&list=UUZLaWayFxnhCAoCWqASKeDQ
Inspired and curious, I got myself a Mora HD and I tried feathersticking with it in it's stock, pure scandi grind. I hated it.
The abrupt shoulder is so large and severe, it caused the knife to "dive" deeply into the grain and I found it hard to control the cutting depth.
Following the lead of Viruovice, I put the Mora HD on my course DMT diamond stone and rounded off the shoulder to give it a more convex geometry. I didn't take it all the way down to the apex but I did thin it and round it out quite a bit. The crude, unpolished version is shown here (I buffed it up later after the pictures were taken).
image by Pinnah, on Flickr
I had a week off and spent time on the front porch making a wind spinner out of some maple which had some very nice splaiting in it but was very, very hard.
image by Pinnah, on Flickr
Making this wind spinners is a great way to get a feel for a knife. Lots of shaving cuts in both the forward and backward direction. When the wood is hard, cutting ability and handle comfort problems show up fast. I had a flat ground Schrade 5OT and a thin convex Opinel N8 with me. Neither could keep pace with the convexed Mora in the hard maple. The combination of the more aggressive convex and stiff blade just blasted through the maple where the flat ground 5OT would bind and the Opinel would just skitter off the wood. This sort of cutting puts a good amount of side pressure on the blade and edge and I think the Opinel N8 was just too flexible. (I've had better luck with N9s and N10s for this kind of work, but the handles on the N9 and N10 fill my hands better).
The shape of the handle of the Mora worked really well for me. It gave excellent lateral control and worked well for draw cuts. It gave a good hand filling hold in a power grip but still allowed me to choke up easily for more detailed work. The only issue I had was that the sticky rubber caused an abrasion hot spot on my thumb at one point.
One thing I've been reading and listening about is how the edge line of a knife can help with wood shaving. The theory I've heard is that a slight curve to the blade allows for better wood shaving. This seems similar to other things I've read that say that shavings work best when made with a bit of a slicing movement. The Mora HD definitely has this slight curve and (once convexed) makes shavings wonderfully.
I can't compare the convexed Mora HD to the Bark River. You can watch Viruovice's video for that. But wow... it's a wood shaving machine and super comfortable to use. In it's stock full scandi grind, the knife was, for me, just meh. Ground to a convex. WOW.
Alright. Thanks for reading. Bye bye!
Virtuovice's YouTube channel is one of my all-time favorites. He's super passionate and I love the side by each testing that he does. Also fun to watch his opinions shift over time.
Virtuovice is a huge fan of Bark River knives and their convex and scandi-convex grinds. Awhile back, I found this video in which he compares a Bark River Buscrafter made out of 3V and a Mora HD made out of carbon.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLlxWbce4iE&list=UUZLaWayFxnhCAoCWqASKeDQ
Inspired and curious, I got myself a Mora HD and I tried feathersticking with it in it's stock, pure scandi grind. I hated it.
The abrupt shoulder is so large and severe, it caused the knife to "dive" deeply into the grain and I found it hard to control the cutting depth.
Following the lead of Viruovice, I put the Mora HD on my course DMT diamond stone and rounded off the shoulder to give it a more convex geometry. I didn't take it all the way down to the apex but I did thin it and round it out quite a bit. The crude, unpolished version is shown here (I buffed it up later after the pictures were taken).
image by Pinnah, on FlickrI had a week off and spent time on the front porch making a wind spinner out of some maple which had some very nice splaiting in it but was very, very hard.
image by Pinnah, on FlickrMaking this wind spinners is a great way to get a feel for a knife. Lots of shaving cuts in both the forward and backward direction. When the wood is hard, cutting ability and handle comfort problems show up fast. I had a flat ground Schrade 5OT and a thin convex Opinel N8 with me. Neither could keep pace with the convexed Mora in the hard maple. The combination of the more aggressive convex and stiff blade just blasted through the maple where the flat ground 5OT would bind and the Opinel would just skitter off the wood. This sort of cutting puts a good amount of side pressure on the blade and edge and I think the Opinel N8 was just too flexible. (I've had better luck with N9s and N10s for this kind of work, but the handles on the N9 and N10 fill my hands better).
The shape of the handle of the Mora worked really well for me. It gave excellent lateral control and worked well for draw cuts. It gave a good hand filling hold in a power grip but still allowed me to choke up easily for more detailed work. The only issue I had was that the sticky rubber caused an abrasion hot spot on my thumb at one point.
One thing I've been reading and listening about is how the edge line of a knife can help with wood shaving. The theory I've heard is that a slight curve to the blade allows for better wood shaving. This seems similar to other things I've read that say that shavings work best when made with a bit of a slicing movement. The Mora HD definitely has this slight curve and (once convexed) makes shavings wonderfully.
I can't compare the convexed Mora HD to the Bark River. You can watch Viruovice's video for that. But wow... it's a wood shaving machine and super comfortable to use. In it's stock full scandi grind, the knife was, for me, just meh. Ground to a convex. WOW.
Alright. Thanks for reading. Bye bye!
And it is interesting to hear the other side of my own opinion.
