- Joined
- Aug 23, 2007
- Messages
- 50
I finally received the Kephart knife in the mail today. It's been tough to track one down and I ordered and received a Mora light my fire during the search and wait. So I have a ready made comparison for you guys and gals. I'll start with the Mora. It's my first Mora and I was surprised by the lightweight and sharpness of the blade. Making feather sticks are a breeze with the scandi grind and sharpening is very easy. The top of the blade has a nice flat surface to utilize the light my fire rod once I scraped through the coating. I made a few fires with it. The sheath is positive and the belt hook works good. It's no beauty queen, but I really like the knife. I was excited to see a package in the mail box today! Inside was the Condor Kephart knife. I did a lot of reading before I made the order and just about everything I read was true. Great sheath! Thick leather, nice stitching and the knife stays put in it. Just like I read the blade didnt feel very sharp out of the box because of the epoxy coating. Many suggested removing the coating, not sure if its epoxy, but they said it was tough to get off. I used some brake cleaner and the job took about five minutes. Once the blade was clean I was able to see that there was an edge on the blade. Not the sharpest edge, it didnt pass the typing paper test, still I've seen worse. I noticed right off the bat it has small little bump running the length of the blade just inside edge. I guess this is a hollow grind blade kind of like a buck knife. I attempted to whittle a feather stick and didnt have much success. It made curly chips something like a blockplane would make. I thought I might sharpen it just a little to see if I could get it to whittle like the Mora. Nope! The 1075 steel is some tough stuff! I tried to sharpen it on my wet stone, trying to match the factory grind. It was very slow going. I had to run to town so I stopped by the town sharpening guy. I brought the Mora with me and I asked him if it would be wise to have him put a scandi grind on the kephart. He said to give it a try as is. His reasoning was the the hollow grind added strength to the edge. I asked him to touch up the blade for me. He has one of those wet stone tools that has three different stones that ride on a spindle with a hand crank. He rotated the stones in the slurry trough and started with the fine stone. Then he used the medium stone then the coarse. WOW! He said this steel is hard! He spun around to his belt grinder and made a pass on each side, still amazed at the hardness. One more pass on each side with the belt grinder and he turned back to the rotating wet stones. He started coarse, medium then to fine. He said here you go and handed me the knife. Man he got that thing sharp! I asked him how much for the job and he said no charge! Sweet! So I get back home and start making a feather stick. Still blockplane chips, nothing like the long thin feathers that the Mora produced. Ok, so I went out back to see how the light my fire stick would work. Small sparks, again nothing like the Mora. I guess I'll have to flatten the back of the blade. So in comparison the Mora was ready to go and the Condor still needs some work. What do you guys and gals think of having scandi grind put on the Kephart? 
Last edited:
