whats the mora allure

[RescueRiley]

Hey guys sorry for asking as I'm sure its common knowledge but I was wondering what all the hubub about the mora is for?? what about them makes them so great, I don't own one so forgive me and please take no offense I'm truly curiou sI might be mistaken but I thought they were not even full tang, the blade stock seems relatively thin, aside from the unbeatable pricetag they seem alot like paring knives with sheaths...not that there is anything wron with that but I though for a survival blade you might want something a little more diesel...Like I said I know nothing about them other than what I'v read on the net.

 

[troutfisher13111]

Ease of sharpening, carbon blade steel, and design are what attracted me to Mora's.

 

[Boats]

They cut.

I prefer carbon puukkos myself. "Diesel," as you colorfully put it, is way overrated.

 

[Scott Free]

Oh, boy! I've been waiting for another new Mora thread, and here it is!

Just before Christmas, I bought seven Moras in various combinations of steels and handle styles. All seven for half the cost of a nice Benchmade. Moras are cheap and they're fun. They cut and they're easy to sharpen. What's not to love???

For me, specifically, though, I think I'm liking them so much because they ARE so ugly and cheap looking-- the exact OPPOSITE of what I (and most) look for in a knife-- and yet they often out-preform knifes costing much, much more. There's just something attractive about that.

Scott

 

[SkunkWerX]

Ease of sharpening, carbon blade steel, and design are what attracted me to Mora's.

What trout said, plus add in affordability!!!

It's a knife you could afford to lose, but never would, cuz it means so much to you.

 

[abo4ster]

"The more you know the less you need."

Not my quote, but identify with it, as the more I learned the more I wanted to keep it simple. And it doesn't get any more simple or practical than a Mora.

 

[tarmix101]

"The more you know the less you need."

Hit it on the head...... not my quote either. Can't remember where I read it, but that Say's it all.

Inexpensive, easy to sharpen, great all around tool. The "Scandinavians" have been roaming around the woods for thousands of years. They developed a tool that fits the lifestyle. They works for me.......:thumbup:

 

[alco141]

what is to like, this is a slicing knife that will handle general camp chores for you, it is very inexpensive, it takes a shaving edge easily, you need to try one and see how you like it. it is not a 500 dollar sharpened prybar, it will not chop the heads off of parking meters, what it is -- a simple knife taken to its essence, that will carve, slice and let you do a whole bunch of outdoors things with a minimum of muss and fuss. mors kochanski loves them and can do a whole lot with one, he like the red plastic handled one if i remember correctly. and that says a lot for this knife, many of the outdoors schools use it as a basic knife to issue to their students.

alex

 

[sodak]

They are a good knife for the price, but I personally don't care for them in the woods. The lack of a guard, especially when you are hypothermic, can be dangerous. Sharpening is easy, but can take a long time, if you let it get dull. That wide bevel means that there is a lot of metal that has to be removed to sharpen. They cut pretty good, but a good high flat grind will do better.

For a cheap knife, they're fine. They cut well for the price, and no, you don't cry if you lose them. But for me, there are a lot better knives out there. But they all cost more than $10.

 

[hikeeba]

Yes. More or less to reitterate what everyone else has said. After years of buying and trying production made knives, a switch to trying a Mora knife was, in essence, a back-to-basics move I didn't even realize I was making. my initial order from Ragnar was 4 knives: Two stainless and two carbon, two rubber-handled Erikssons and two hard plastic-handled Frosts. It didn't take much using to really feel the knives. They fit great in my hand, they cut well, and they sharpened easily when needed. And the price - The PRICE! Figure the price into the equation, and you can't get more knife bang for the buck than a Mora knife.

I'll tell you... Once you get the Mora bug, it'll change the way you look at knives. Period. Before Moras, I thought spending $75-$100 on a knife was about average for something decent. I didn't think much of spending $50 to $75 on a knife. But after acquiring more than 10 different Moras at an average cost of maybe $12 a pop, I now have a harder time spending money on more expensive knives. Sure, i love all knives, and there are a lot of other knives I'd like to try, but now that I have a variety of Moras, I look at more expensive knives and say, "Do I really need that? What would I be getting with that knife that I don't already have?"

Sure, I still look at popular production knives made by assorted companies both large and small. but since trying Mora knives, I now see things differently. I'll still get a non-Mora knife here and there, but the purchases tend to be spaced out more, and I cansider my purchases a lot more carefully. Pretty much anything else I get is adding more frosting flowers on an already decorated cake.

And yet, I still crave more Moras...

 

[tholiver]

I recently acquired a stainless Mora Clipper and a Frosts Carbon steel clipper blade blank. Both are sturdy and razor sharp. Around 20 dollars total(not including shipping).
The Clipper plus the sheath weights around 3 and a half ounces, the Clipper without sheath is about 2 and 1/2 ounces.For comparison my SAK huntsman weight about an ounce and a half MORE than my mora. My Buck 119 weights 4 and a half ounces more than the Clipper. The carbon steel blank by itself is a little bit over an ounce.
The Clipper overall length is 8 and 9/16ths inches.The blade length is 3 and 14/16 inches.It is about 2/32 nds thick , about the same thickness as my Victorinox kitchen knives.It is 13/16 ths wide, the tang in the handle area tapers down to a width of about 5/16ths,the last inch is a rat tail. The tang extends to about 1/8th of an inch or less from the rear of the handle. The ergonomics on the Clipper is excellent. The kraton(?) grip is 4 and 11/16ths long, firm and has decent molded checkering. Its definitely one of the most comfortable handles i've encountered.
Short fixed blade knives are a bit of new thing to me, 99% of my fixed blades are 6 inch plus blades. Most of my knife blades are in the 9 inch plus range, usually 3/16ths to 1/4 inches thick.
So far I'm impressed with the Moras.I have blades that are well over ten times as expensive but no where near as comfortable or as sharp. As stated above the knife is superlight but also sturdy. Also as an aside the sheathed knife is fairly amenable to horizontal carry (although i may rig up a velcro or leather strap/ snap fastener to further secure the knife for added security).
I think these little knives will do 90% of the things i need done when i go camping. Supplemented with a big knife or small hatchet for the other 10%.
Overall i'm quite pleased, i'm looking forward to playing with these some more and can't wait til spring!
And I will be putting a handle on the blank soon when i finally decide on the wood type!
Its really cool and amazing to me that one can find a decent knife for this price!

 

[Scott Free]

There is a particular birch bark handled Scandi knife that I'd like to have. I think about it and ask myself if I'd really carry it as a plastic mora is so light, utilitarian, capable and expendable. The answer is that the Scandi would just sit around the house looking pretty.

I wonder if ragweedforge gets a spike in business everytime a thread like this gets going?

 

[tarmix101]

If Ragnar has kids.... I have almost paid for their college tuition

 

[Scott Free]

I'm hoping to get a Mora 2000 as soon as I can find one. Ragnar says he won't have them for a while. I wonder if that means weeks or months or lots of months? The Mora 2000 is extremely expensive (relatively speaking.) It goes against the whole dirt-cheap mora thing, but so many really like it.

 

[upnorth]

Go through the entire article, its interesting.

http://www.oldjimbo.com/survival/mora.html

 

[darklight943]

A good sharp inexpensive and lightweight camp knife. Buy from Ragnar and get a sheath from On Scene Tactical:

 

[Coldwood]

RR, you owe it to yourself to get one and find out I don't mean that as a sarcastic remark, I just think every knife user and collector should own at least one.

To me the allure is:

1. Inexpensive: I don't consider that as the same thing as "cheap". Moras are inexpensive because they are mass-produced and intended as user knives. To me, they fall in the same category as Bic and Zippo lighters, lead pencils, ball point pens, LED flashlights, Victor mouse traps, etc...all inexpensive mass-produced items that are extremely useful and defy improvement.

2. They are razor sharp: At least the carbon blades seem to be, I haven't tried the stainless. The feature of taking and holding a sharp edge is one of my main criteria for judging a knife. The Mora blade is thin compared to a modern American combat or survival blade, but it brings us to reconsider what we want a knife for.

3. Authenticity: Modern Mora knives are derived from a northern European culture (the Saami or Laplanders) who carried knives like this (the puukko and leuku) and survived for a thousand years in a harsh climate. Their take on how a knife should be designed is very different than the American culture of the Bowie knife (nothing wrong with those, I like them too). Moras are still made by the people who used them, they are not reproduced in Pakistan or China.

As others have said, the handle design without a guard is controversial and a turn-off for a lot of people. I have an old Frosts Mora with the red oval handle that I've never really liked because I worry about sliding my hand up the blade. But as many times as I've used it, that has never happened...I just learned to be careful. The Mora Clipper, to me, has the best handle design. It has a high curve, a nub of a guard and a rubber coating that sits perfectly in my hand, no concern about losing my grip on it.

And in case nobody's mentioned it, they are inexpensive, you can afford to own a lot of them. But if you want to spend money, you can buy a high quality puuko for a couple of hundred bucks and it will cut as well as a Mora.

 

[SkunkWerX]

The Mora Clipper, to me, has the best handle design. It has a high curve, a nub of a guard and a rubber coating that sits perfectly in my hand, no concern about losing my grip on it.
Well put, CW, totally agree!!

There is also the overall compact nature of the knife. So easy to carry, you'll keep checking that it is still there until you get accustomed to it.

And RR, another thing, most of us like our Carbon Steel models but they also make them in Stainless, as well. I received a Stainless instead of a Carbon when I ordered several, it took a razor sharp edge and got me thinking how it would be a good "meat" knife for cooking on the grill, prepping food, cleaning fish, around salt water, etc.

You won't be sorry, and like a previous post, if you don't like it, I'll buy it from you.

 

[runningboar]

the blade stock seems relatively thin, aside from the unbeatable pricetag they seem alot like paring knives with sheaths....

As a matter of fact a paring knife and a butcher knife would not be a bad choice to carry into the woods. Deisel knives are almost worthless IMO, everyone talks about chopping but just how much chopping do you do, I don't do much.

Although not a mora it shares some similarities, straight forward blade design in carbon steel, it is my opinion of a perfect woods knife, a loveless design in 1095, it was my grandfathers, now it is mine and one day it will be my sons.

 

[RescueRiley]

RB that is a nice looking piece.. I like it very much....The clipper pics look good as well thanks for all the info so far guys