My Mora's -

[old4570]

My first Mora : Late 70s Carbon
Given to me by my aunt visiting from Sweden . ( So over 40 years ago )
This knife has always had a micro bevel , since it was EASY . ( I re sharpened it that way )
A few passes with a carbon "Ceramic" rod and it's sharp again . ( Field maintenance )

When I went bush , there was always a Mora in my Bum Bag ! In fact I was a 3 knife guy ..
Sheith / Belt knife + Mora in the bum bag + a pocket knife ..

Anyways , I was wondering what sort of edge life the micro bevel returns .
Somewhere between 100 and 150 slices the sharp vanished .
That's not so bad considering a few passes with a Ceramic rod restored the edge . ( It worked for me for decades )

Next : My 80s Frost Mora brought to me by my uncle from Sweden , this be Stainless steel and replaced the 70's Mora in the bum bag for the next 30 years .

 

[old4570]

My Frost Mora Stainless from the 80's , this knife was brought over by my uncle .
This knife replaced my 70's Mora in the bum bag for the next 30 years or so .
It has only ever been sharpened by the Ceramic Rod , nothing else has touched the edge in regards to sharpening .
Result was a close 100 slice fail .
After I was very easily able to strop the edge back ( pure leather ) ..
No wonder it only took one or two passes of ceramic rod to get it sharp again .
Easy field maintenance is why this knife was a must have in the bush .

Next ? Do I jump to the Robust ..

 

[old4570]

My Mora Knives ..
Top row / 70's - 80's and 90's
Bottom row is the more recent purchases .
Bahco is made by Mora ( so it's a Mora ) and can be purchased locally for $25 bananas .. ( looked a few days ago )
Mora's are not cheap in Oz , if you live in Europe / USA .. Yeah , burger money !
I have seen the basic go for $9 USD in the US . That's cheap ...
My basic was $25 Oz bananas , or around $18 USD , making it double the lowest US price ( Lowest Oz VS Lowest US ) .
In Europe , it is a budget knife .
The idea off paying nearly $200 Oz for a Mora Garberg , is mentally challenging .
I mean , what do you get for $200 that kicks say a $35 Robust to the curb ? ( Aside from a full tang - a very expensive tang )
Do you get premium steel ?

So I have sort of established that the micro bevel costs performance , which is offset by convenience ( easy edge maintenance )
My 546 Basic did a 250 fail with a rolled edge .. ( Scandi )
So next I might try the Robust .. Out of the 9 Mora's I own , I have only used 4 off them .
The 70's , the 80's and the 546 and Robust ( last two to slice rope ) . I can't remember if I used one of the 90's Mora's ( Might have ) .

Anyways , a picture of all my Mora's !

 

[Kindliing]

View attachment 28592

My Mora Knives ..
Top row / 70's - 80's and 90's
Bottom row is the more recent purchases .
Bahco is made by Mora ( so it's a Mora ) and can be purchased locally for $25 bananas .. ( looked a few days ago )
Mora's are not cheap in Oz , if you live in Europe / USA .. Yeah , burger money !
I have seen the basic go for $9 USD in the US . That's cheap ...
My basic was $25 Oz bananas , or around $18 USD , making it double the lowest US price ( Lowest Oz VS Lowest US ) .
In Europe , it is a budget knife .
The idea off paying nearly $200 Oz for a Mora Garberg , is mentally challenging .
I mean , what do you get for $200 that kicks say a $35 Robust to the curb ? ( Aside from a full tang - a very expensive tang )
Do you get premium steel ?

So I have sort of established that the micro bevel costs performance , which is offset by convenience ( easy edge maintenance )
My 546 Basic did a 250 fail with a rolled edge .. ( Scandi )
So next I might try the Robust .. Out of the 9 Mora's I own , I have only used 4 off them .
The 70's , the 80's and the 546 and Robust ( last two to slice rope ) . I can't remember if I used one of the 90's Mora's ( Might have ) .

Anyways , a picture of all my Mora's !

There is a lot of knives like that here price wise that are renowned as budget priced knives elsewhere , we get them here and are asked to pay a lot more for .

like old hickory’s and glock field knives also for example .

the only mora I have is like the little blue one in the pic , a guy from Sweden brought with him to sell in Aus which was I thought a great idea ,
paid very little for it less than 15$ then .

I see one in your pic is labeled as a bahco , the hardware here has the little orange bahco knives for somewhere around 15 .
Plus prices rising at the moment .
I never understood how the Garbergs could be so expensive when they look the same to me .

 

[old4570]

The price of the Bushcraft Moras ? Wow ......
The Bahco I was looking at is the little Orange one $25 shipped to your door ( Perth seller ) , and the green one is $26 to your door .
If you want to , you can pay over $50 bananas for that knife . ( Same knife )
Some times , it's cheaper to pay the postage from OS .

The situation changes day to day . And it really pays to keep your eye on Feebay .
When you see what you want going for a decent price - just buy it ! ( Don't wait ) Otherwise you may have to wait and never see a good price again .
Especially in this current global situation .

Garberg has a full tang , but if mem serves is the same steel as the regular Mora knives ..
So apparently a much better beater knife , but I just don't see the value .
People are prepared to pay ? And when the market says enough is enough , the price may come down or Mora stops making Garbergs making them a collectors item and increasing the value of the knives in the warehouse . Personally , I see the value of the Garberg more in the region of Sub $100 bananas . @ over $100 by a huge margin , the Garberg just carries too much FAT . ( Fat price ) In that price region I already want to see much better steel .

 

[Kindliing]

With everything going on yes I’d expect a bit of price rise , I bought a Svord trapper knife and sheath which is swedish tool steel (knife was made in new zealand)in April last year for 56.99$ , now on the same site eBay , the cheapest one is probably around 130$ last time I looked .

so yeah buy at today’s prices for tomorrow , even if it’s more expensive already .

 

[old4570]

My bushcrafted Mora Robust Carbon :

Probably my favourite Mora because of the extra heft of the blade .
Most of my Mora have some blade flex under load , not the Robust .
The Robust is what the Mora should have been all along . ( More Robust ) or ( Mora Robust )

Anyways , the edge was very carefully sharpened . Perhaps too fine ?
In the video when I take some hair off my arm , the knife actually cut my skin . Sharp ( Maybe scalpel sharp )
When the edge rolled ( almost right away ) I felt it when cutting the rope .
THe first 20 slices were like a laser scalpel thru the rope , then suddenly I lost some cutting power .
That would have been the edge rolling .
Making the Robust that sharp , means a very fine edge . And fine edges dont do hard work well .
But still , it was crazy sharp .

When I came inside I stropped the edge back with no issue .
Should be a stronger edge now .
By 200 slices the edge had rolled enough not to pass through the edge of the paper , still sliced well , butt !!
I call a 200 fail cos of the edge roll .

Oh , and I forgot .. The ferrite rod is in the holder so tight , I need the tip of the knife to peel it out .
So the ferrite rod should not go anywhere .

 

[old4570]

New 90's Mora Carbon edge under the microscope

 

[old4570]

I hit the factory edge with a EZE-LAP DIamond sharpener ( Fine )
Then with a Stone ( + oil ) and I still haven't raised a bur ..
The edge does look a little beveled / rounded from the factory .
It's sharp , really sharp . So I will hit the rope with this one next .
Re sharpen it , and hit the rope again after raising a bur .
Should be interesting .

 

[Axeman]

I have a old Frost's Mora, red plastic handle, metal guard, stainless steel, marked 4094. Not sure what era but is a great little knife. Looks a bit like the current scout model. I was lucky in picking it up cheaply at a garage sale. Still need to put a proper edge on it but trying to find the time isn't always easy.

 

[old4570]

90's Mora put to the rope :

Like I mentioned , there was a micro Factory bevel on the knife .
Slicing rope , the knife began to feel the paper @ 100 slices and did a comprehensive fail at 150 .
So is there a theme developing for a micro bevel ?

Knife is being re sharpened till a bur develops .

 

[old4570]

Re sharpened with 1500 / 2000 oxide
& then 4000 grit stone till a bur detected .

Looks like one side could use more work ..

 

[old4570]

Right 0 ...
Lets slice some rope after sharpening to a bur .
Result is a 300 Fail .. The edge did roll .
So what can we conclude ( possibly ) from all this rope slicing ?

A) Micro bevel COST's edge holding , but maybe gives you easy maintenance ( Trade off )
B) A true scandi edge looks to roll
C) The steel is not the hardest
D) It is a budget knife , with budget steel .
E) Once does buy a certain level of performance that looks to be consistent .
F) It can be made crazy sharp ( Scandi )

So where do we go from here ?

( Fin )

 

[old4570]

Wow , 100 slice Fail ...
Not the edge I wanted .
Stropped back strong .. Another try ?

 

[old4570]

Minty Frost Mora Laminated steel .

Been chasing one for around half a decade or more !
All the ones I looked at in the past were badly worn / damaged and over priced for what was offered .
It has been a long time , very long time since I seen one in this condition . ( Yeah - I had to have it )

I spend maybe 3 hours putting a genuine Scandi edge on it .. Had to remove the micro bevel .
It is now a seriously sharp knife !
What vintage is this (?) ...

 

[old4570]

Hehehehehehe ! Oh Dear !

I had to check on the stamp ...... FM Mattsson AB ..
Apparently Frost and Mattsson operated out of the same building ..
Mattsson was there first ...

Why did I check ?
Cos the sheath fell apart ... It was like rice paper .. And I was like - WTF !!!!
Why does this sheath act like it's a hundred years old ?
Eeeer ! Well , because it might be ..
This stamp was used between 1917 and 1930 after which it was changed ..

The blade was rusty .. Even the very edge was eaten ..
Otherwise , it's almost like the knife was - un used ! Just eaten by corrosion .
And the sheath is un usable , well it fell apart !
Going to make a new sheath for this knife , leather has been ordered !
There you go !
I spent a few hours cleaning the Scandi edge , to minimize the edge damage .
It's sharp and usable now ..
Should I contact Morakniv and ask about a Sheath ?

25-Jan 2022
A) I did send a Email to Morakniv about a sheath & they have some corrections in regards to my post :

When we bought FM Mattsson´s already closed down knife production . Frosts and FMM never operated from the same building. They were two total different companies and at some times bitter competitors.

Looks like the website I visited was maybe a little off the mark .

 

[Randall]

I think I've made a discovery with scandi that has a micro bevel. I have a scandi knife with a micro bevel. Not my choice - I bought it 2nd hand that way. I've spent some time practicing sharpening it every few months on a small fallkniven dc4 stone. The bevel is still there - I'm not going to waste years of knife steel to get rid of it. It really is a small bevel, so I theorised that my smoothest strop would still probably keep it sharp just by stropping the larger scandi bevel. I've kept is shaving sharp this way. As you know, the strop actually does a slight convex on the edge over time because of the slightly pliable nature of leather kind of rolling over the edge (even thin leather on a board, which is what I use). Because of this, it is keeping the micro bevel sharp. The bevel will eventually disappear after many years of sharpening and stropping . That's my theory of how it is staying sharp - I could be wrong though.

 

[Wentworth]

I think I've made a discovery with scandi that has a micro bevel. I have a scandi knife with a micro bevel. Not my choice - I bought it 2nd hand that way. I've spent some time practicing sharpening it every few months on a small fallkniven dc4 stone. The bevel is still there - I'm not going to waste years of knife steel to get rid of it. It really is a small bevel, so I theorised that my smoothest strop would still probably keep it sharp just by stropping the larger scandi bevel. I've kept is shaving sharp this way. As you know, the strop actually does a slight convex on the edge over time because of the slightly pliable nature of leather kind of rolling over the edge (even thin leather on a board, which is what I use). Because of this, it is keeping the micro bevel sharp. The bevel will eventually disappear after many years of sharpening and stropping . That's my theory of how it is staying sharp - I could be wrong though.

Randall you reminded me of a Kellam Wolverine that I bought years ago. It came with a micro bevel, so I spent a few hours grinding it away to a zero grind. The end result was a crazy-acute angle that rolled the moment I carved some hardwood. I ended up putting the micro back on for that knife. Probably reduced its lifespan a bit in the process.

I've noticed that a lot of the Scandinavian knives, like the Kellam, Jarvenpaa, Ahti, Martinii, Wood Jewel and Mora (classic) all came with either a secondary or micro bevel, but when we talk about scandi grind it means a zero. Not that it matters either way, we all use the grind we prefer.

I've still got a zero on my little mora 106 but micro on the rest.

I'll be keen to hear what happens to the bevel after stropping, but maybe I'll be waiting a few years

 

[old4570]

If you go full scandi to say 5000 grit ..
You end up with a very fragile thin edge .. ( Done that )
It is scary sharp , but wont stand up to hard use at all .
I have done scandi so sharp that accidentally touching the edge cuts you , even just the lightest touch .
I have two band aids on my polishing hand right now .. From accidentally making contact with the edge of the Mattsson .
Sharpening / restoring the blade & removing corrosion .

I made it so sharp / thin that the edge folded slicing paper .. ( I joke not ) .
Best to just strop that burr away at a more acute angle .. Then strop any roughness away .
Scandi edges ( true scandi ) are famous for rolling .. But on the upside , strop back strong .
When you can no longer strop the edge back , then it's time to stone / sharpen the edge again .
If properly looked after , it could take a year or more ( depending on use ) to need anything more than a good strop .
But Mora's come from the factory with a micro bevel , well , mine did .
Whether you want it there or not ? That's a personal choice .

Do you want a scary sharp edge ? Because from my testing , the true scandi edge lasts longer , starts sharper , and strops back stronger .
But , then for 30 or more years I did the micro bevel ( VIA ceramic rod ) cos field maintenance was easy and required near zero skill .
You do what works ...

 

[Randall]

I'll be keen to hear what happens to the bevel after stropping, but maybe I'll be waiting a few years

The model knife I have, enzo birk 75 in D2, was pretty well regarded as an edc / bushcrafting knife from about 2013 on. Back a few years everyone used to test knives by doing basic bushcrafty stuff - remember when everyone had to make a feather stick ? And batoning? There were no mention of edge problems, just that it was sharp. However, knives are individuals (re blade tempering etc). There are newer reviews, but reviewers now don't tend to use the knife, just give an overview of form, function, design, quality etc. Here's an older review. Another older review, although it looks as though he's sharpened it on a belt - the scandi looks convex.