Back in the early 1990’s I had the honor of meeting a friendly but loquacious Canadian gentleman by the name of Mors Kochanski at the annual “Rabbit stick Rendezvous” in Rexburg, Idaho USA. Mors is the author of “Northern Bushcraft” it is an excellent book on surviving in the Canadian north.
Anyway, prior to Mors Coming to the Rendezvous I can honestly say I do not remember anyone in the USA outdoor education scene carrying or using a Mora Knife of any type. Case, Green river, old hickory, and Swiss Army blades were the most common in the USA.
While teaching his classes mors wore his Mora in a neck sheath, extolled its virtues and expertly demonstrated its functionality. Within a few days it seemed like all of the Rabbitstick participants and most of the Boulder outdoor survival school staff were wearing Moras in the same fashion.
I just figured it was a passing fad common to follower types and guru worshipers.
Lately I have been reading about the how great the Mora knife is on various outdoor forums so before departing the USA for the Philippines back in July I bought 2 Mora knives from sportsman’s guide for 11 bucks each I think.
Tody I decided to dig mine out of my pile of plunder and give them a bit of a test to see what all of the hype is about.
anyhoo, I took it out in the yard and farted around for 3 hours whittling a spoon, splitting wood, and making fuzz sticks etc. while cooking some bacon over the fire.
I also started the fire with a Brunton ferro rod and the back of my Mora.
The Blade itself is ok but certainly no better than a Green River knife, case, Buck, or old style cattaragus knife. And the sheath was/is hard plastic, ill fitting and did not retain the knife at all. If I were to use this knife in the future Id need to make a better sheath or modify the plastic one.
I suppose it is a good enough knife for things like whittling, scaling a fish or even skinning a deer/elk etc if you had too. I might even carry it on my next adventure trip because I would not be worried about loosing it.
Personally I found it a little small and not at all equal to my old green river knife.
I’m not trying to hurt anyone’s feelings about this but I’m wondering what the attraction/devotion is to this type of knife?
Maybe one of you good folks could enlighten me as to the blades attraction.
Thanks,
Tomahawk – Scouts out!
There's a whole line of these knives other than the wooden-handled one Mors Kochanski seems to have made popular. Check out the Swedish section of Ragweedforge.com and click on the Mora knife section and you'll see what I mean. I have a Mora 860MG.
ReplyDeleteThe Scandi grind can get extremely sharp and is practically a no-brainer to sharpen. No need to mess with micro-bevels, though some people do put them on these knives. Search youtube and you'll find people batoning with these knives. There's one guy named iawoodsman (no affiliation; I just found his video interesting) who hammers the point into a small tree, then gives the spine a few whacks until it's cut through half the diameter of it. Takes it out, turns it around and repeats the process and has the thing cut in no time at all. Even the plastic-handled ones can take an incredible amount of abuse.
I just googled "green river knife" to see what you were referring to and the knives make me think of the Old Hickory knives lots of people on the knife forums love so much. In fact, I have one I keep meaning to try out on fallen branches and stuff in my backyard.