Wonderful New toys!

S

stitchawl

Joined
Jul 26, 2008
Messages
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My new Mora arrived from Norway last night, compliments of Jontok's give-away contest, and I am absolutely delighted!! :D

I'd never held one of these, having only seen them in pictures, and I confess to being somewhat of a snob when it comes to knives. :eek: I never handled one thinking them to be cheap junk for people who just didn't know any better. How could a knife be any good if it cost so little? More the fool, me! :o

Then some years ago I picked up an Opinel in a farmer's market while on a motorcycle tour in Europe, thinking 'throw-away' knife to cut up our bread, sausage, and cheese for lunch, and discovering how fantastic an inexpensive knife could be, and realized that I'd been pretty foolish :grumpy: in my thoughts about the Mora. I decided that the next time I ran across one I'd buy it to play with. I seemed to remember seeing them in just about every sporting goods store, hardware store, Wal-Mart, etc., all over the US. But.... during the past 20-odd years I've been living in Asia, and so never once saw one in a shop!!!

Well, I played with them last night in my back room, just cutting on some scrap lumber and already I'm a convert! :thumbup: Very comfortable in my hand. Much more solid than I ever would have suspected. (Also made a 'Figure-4' deadfall out of chopsticks!) If the rain stops today (O.K... I'm a wuss.) I'll take to the woods and really give a work out.

My one (and only) dislike is the plastic sheaths. But I've already cut the leather for new ones, and my stitchawl is ready to poke holes for the laces.

Thanks again, Jontok, for giving me a great birthday present!

Stitchawl
 
Sad, isn't it? I just got a few myself and now I'm a convert as well. :o

I've actually stopped looking for knives and have turned my attention back to firearms :eek:. No point in buying a $200 knife when I can get another Remington 870. :p
 
You're welcome, Stitchawl:)

BTW: how are you at making leather-beltpoutches? I'm looking for one, and I really suck at leatherworking:o

Oh, and I wanna see pics of those moras in action ;):D


-jontok
 
jontok said:
You're welcome, Stitchawl:)

BTW: how are you at making leather-beltpoutches? I'm looking for one, and I really suck at leatherworking:o
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Just tell me the size and shape, hard leather or soft, old style or modern, belt attachment and closure type, and I'll put one together for you. E-mail me with info about how you want to use it, and I'll get one out to you pdq.

Oh, and I wanna see pics of those moras in action ;):D
-jontok
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Will do. As the rain never let up today, I decided to try my hand at sharpening a Scandi grind. Never did one before. WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

These blade were pretty sharp to begin with, but I really like 'stupid sharp.' The sort of edge where you just show the wood the blade edge and the wood falls in half in fear. :jerkit:

I almost reached for my EdgePro but I figured maybe I wouldn't need it for these. So I sat down with an old "RazorEdge" fine stone, and free-handed it for a few minutes. Didn't even have to look at what I was doing as that Scandi grind kept everything at the correct angle (it didn't keep me from poking myself though when I sneezed...) Then I switched to the dark rod from a Spyderco Sharpmaker for a few minutes, then the white rods. At this point it was pretty damn sharp! But not 'Stupid Sharp' yet. :p

I took out a board mounted strop from HandAmerican with 9,000 grit Silicon Carbide paste and stropped the edges until just about mirror bright, then moved to another strop loaded with 60,000 grit Chromium Oxide, and stropped for another 20-30 minutes. :thumbup:

Absolutely mirror polish, and sharp enough to cut a tissue without tearing it. Now THAT is 'Stupid Sharp!' And with the Mora's Scandi grind, it took less than an hour to do both blades... while watching a movie on TV.

Now... let's see about a torture test... :D

Send me an e-mail about your belt pouch. Include and address to send it.

Stitchawl
 
stitchawl said:
Send me an e-mail about your belt pouch. Include and address to send it.
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Thank's!!!!!!:)
I'll see if it gets through this time:D


mail sendt!
Remember that I show up as Janne Braten on your mailing list (don't know why).

-jontok
 
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Happy Birthday and congrats on the knife!

I keep my mora#1 hidden, in the hopes I will forget how well it performs.
 
Hey stitchawl congrats, how would that 60,000 grit be expressed in microns? I have the green .5 micron paste i use on my straight razors is it the same stuff? my moras came yesterday and cut ok but feel like they can be so much better!
 
tjiscooler said:
Hey stitchawl congrats, how would that 60,000 grit be expressed in microns? I have the green .5 micron paste i use on my straight razors is it the same stuff?
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I'm just guessing here (again...) but I'd say that if it's green, it's the same stuff. Every reference to Chromium Oxide I find on the Internet calls it either 60,000 grit or .5micron but I always think these guys must be just guessing. Who the heck has a ruler that small?!? :p

What I do state is that after sharpening with the finest stones (other than Japanese Naugra stone) the steel is not mirror bright. Using chromium oxide on a leather strop leaves my steel with a finish exactly like a glass mirror. I found this to be especially true with the large flat surface of the Scandi grind.

I have the chromium oxide in a liquid form that I got from 'HandAmerican' back when they had lots of products to sell on line. I also bought a large bar of the stuff at a jewelery supply shop but wound up cutting off and giving away about 2/3 of it. There is no way I'll even use up the last 1/3 in my life time. One thing I learned from trial and error (mostly error :o ) was that it's easy to apply waaaaay too much of the various compounds onto a wheel or strop. They work much better with a light application. As long as you see some green on your strop it's properly coated. You don't need to completely fill in all the blanks or make a thick coating.

my moras came yesterday and cut ok but feel like they can be so much better!
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I agree completely! They were sharp enough to cut copy paper cleanly and even shave some hair. Now, after working on them, they are sharp enough to cut a tissue without ripping, and there is absolutely no pull what so ever when shaving hair. The amazing part is that it was done completely freehand, with no concentration on my part at all. I was watching a moving while I was sharpening and stropping! Brilliant design and construction on the part of Mora! :thumbup: I'm sold on the concept!

Stitchawl
 
thanks for the help! Nice to see such potential in a product at a great price. I have Norton stones up to 8000, I think ill start with 1000 and give it all i got. I never bother using the stones on knives because it so hard to freehand with tiny bevels, but the magic of scandi grind makes it seem so worth it!!
 
tjiscooler said:
thanks for the help! Nice to see such potential in a product at a great price. I have Norton stones up to 8000, I think ill start with 1000 and give it all i got. I never bother using the stones on knives because it so hard to freehand with tiny bevels, but the magic of scandi grind makes it seem so worth it!!
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I'm with you on the feeling about the stones. Over the years I have bought just about every sharpening gadget made, (EdgePro, RazorEdge, SharpeMaker, Gatco, Buck HoneMaster, etc.,) and still rely on some of them for getting my edges very, very sharp in a minimum amount of time. Stones from very coarse corundum through ultra ultra fine 12,000 grit Japanese water stones ( I saw one in a shop last week selling for $1,450.00 USD! :jerkit: 10,000 grit mined in northern Kyoto. I didn't buy it... I did pick up some Nagura stone for $4. :) ) paste compounds in 4,000 - 9,000 - 11,000 - diamond pastes from .5 to .25 micron, and liquid chromium oxide rated at 60,000, as well as papers and polishing tapes. They all work with the gagets and all do a fine job. But....

The SharpMaker stays in the kitchen as it's the perfect tool for quickly doing a kitchen knife to a good working 'kitchen'
edge. For reprofiling and putting on a ridiculously sharp edge there is nothing like the EdgePro. I can get a good working edge freehand, but I have to set it up, get out the water and towels, soak the stones, and really concentrate and it takes longer. Then I discovered the Scandi edge... :thumbup:

What a delight! No setting up the EdgePro to get a perfect 12 degree edge, no sloppy water mess, no settling for Spydie's 15 degree bevel. And most importantly, no need to even pay attention and still get better than great results! No question about it... I'm a convert!

Stitchawl
 
Its amazing how sharp they get.

I had a Mora that felt like it wasn't incredibly sharp. However I accidentally pulled it out of the sheath wrong, though I didn't know it till i saw blood on my shoe lol.
 
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