I have been bit hard by the Scandi-bug and have been putting my 10.00 Moras through their paces. I have also been buying blades with the intention of making handles.
I love these blades because:
1) They are so damn cheap... 10-12 bucks for a Mora or slightly fancier naked blades like the Karesuando.
2) The heat-treat looks universally good.
3) Lots of variety.
4) Thousand + years of design and heritage means that these designs are very evolved. This is unlike North America where the desire for newness and innovation has resulted in lots of designs that look cool but it's hard to figure out what they are for. To my way of thinking they are almost universally too thick and too expensive. Seeing Mors Kochanski drive his thin stock Mora through a 4 inch spruce is a bit of an eye opener as is his bag full of very expensive knives used to talk about knife design but unused, and neglected.
Since using Moras I now have a similar bag. I can do much more with my $12.00 Mora than I could or would with my $130.00 Camp Tramp.
With the Mora I can quickly bend and cut the 1-2" saplings for shelter building, cut a set of wooden wedges off a 10" Spruce firelog and then start a crack. 5 minutes of baton work and I have 6 chunks of usable and dry fire wood. The Camp Tramp will do the above about 10% faster. It will also rough and shape wood a bit faster.
However it would be very poor at the fine work which the Mora excells...like filliting a fish, making hanging sicks for the fire or trap parts or carving a spoon.
I have heard it said that a small knife can't do the task of a big knife where a big knife can do the job of a little one. When trained in the use of a baton I think this is almost exactly wrong. The tough small knife can do big knife chores only a little more slowly but the big knife lacks the cutting and maneuvering ability to do small knife chores at all well.
When the going gets really tough you need an axe.
I still look forward to trying a 8" leuku though.
I could be wrong but my big thick knives are spending most of their time in the knife bag lately.
I love these blades because:
1) They are so damn cheap... 10-12 bucks for a Mora or slightly fancier naked blades like the Karesuando.
2) The heat-treat looks universally good.
3) Lots of variety.
4) Thousand + years of design and heritage means that these designs are very evolved. This is unlike North America where the desire for newness and innovation has resulted in lots of designs that look cool but it's hard to figure out what they are for. To my way of thinking they are almost universally too thick and too expensive. Seeing Mors Kochanski drive his thin stock Mora through a 4 inch spruce is a bit of an eye opener as is his bag full of very expensive knives used to talk about knife design but unused, and neglected.
Since using Moras I now have a similar bag. I can do much more with my $12.00 Mora than I could or would with my $130.00 Camp Tramp.
With the Mora I can quickly bend and cut the 1-2" saplings for shelter building, cut a set of wooden wedges off a 10" Spruce firelog and then start a crack. 5 minutes of baton work and I have 6 chunks of usable and dry fire wood. The Camp Tramp will do the above about 10% faster. It will also rough and shape wood a bit faster.
However it would be very poor at the fine work which the Mora excells...like filliting a fish, making hanging sicks for the fire or trap parts or carving a spoon.
I have heard it said that a small knife can't do the task of a big knife where a big knife can do the job of a little one. When trained in the use of a baton I think this is almost exactly wrong. The tough small knife can do big knife chores only a little more slowly but the big knife lacks the cutting and maneuvering ability to do small knife chores at all well.
When the going gets really tough you need an axe.
I still look forward to trying a 8" leuku though.
I could be wrong but my big thick knives are spending most of their time in the knife bag lately.
Loan them one of your Moras to help make the job quick and painless. We dont want you to suffer to bad.
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