I figured I was quite stressed out after work, so what to do? - RIGHT! Off with me into the woods, along paths seldom trodden... with a canvas bag and some knives to collect what was lying around...*ggg*
Those woods are in the periphery of Breckerfeld, a small village near my hometown, and ther is even less traffic than usual.
I found this knife handle lying around there. You know, there is a common knifehandle bone roe deer breed over here. They are rare and normally shun the paths of man in an extreme degree;-). This one seems to have an anomality, for normally the knife blade is sprouting out of the bone, tempered and all*ggg*. To catch them you have to find a clearing in the woods with large stones on it. The stones have to be shoulder height for the deer, and there you put some spruce sprouts and a dose of pepper. Hunting is done in new moon nights. The deer come across the clearing, want to eat the grass and have to sneeze due to the pepper. Then they bash their head against the rock and drop unconscious or even dead.*ggg* But it only works with the common knifehandle bone roe deer*ggg*...
I set aside the funny ´shrooms and went on my merry way;-).
It was some time ago that I found the remnants of a deer in the thicket and I collected some bones and spoke a thankyou ritual and left something to lever the balance. This time I did it again and found this giant red cap. In the pic you can see one of my new Moras. It is the Bushcraft Triflex carbon steel knife. The blade is 100x2,5 mm with a combination plastic and Kraton handle. It comes with a thermoplastic sheath that´s pretty good. The blade is claimed to have a selective temper. My first impression is:
-it cuts like a Mora always does. OOTB it´s shaving sharp, in fact, hair is popping away if you shave. I could easily shave my beard with it, and that´s a feat!
-the temper seems to be not as homogenous as could be, for the outmost section of the tip (1 mm) bent with little effort, a mistake made presumeably in grinding. But no harm done, no breaking here, and a good flexibility.
-the handle is very comfy to hold onto and offers plenty of grip, even when wet.
-the sheath holds the knife in very well, even upside down. The belt loop provided with the knife is clipped in. Body temperature, however, heated the thermoplastic material enough for the fit of the clip-in- mechanism to become looser than OOTB, but as is, it´s safe enough.
Carving wood, e.g. making a feather stick or a wood spirit and the like was a right treat. The blade holds an edge very well. I carved mild steel rods with it with no problems and without even having to strop it. That hints of an approx. hardness of 58-62 degrees Rockwell in the edge area. The balance is very good, too, with the centre of balance right on the index finger. Orthogonal balance (axis-to-edge) is great also, this coming as no surprise with the edge being in line with the belly of the handle. The knife itself is very light and comfortable to work with. It´s ugly, but I won´t complain. It is sold for 22.99€.
Look here for more Mora products.
Do I recommend it? I will shoot it out against some higher-end brand knives and some low-budget ones. Now I can just tell that it has minor flaws, but overall ther is no reason at all not to buy it, except when you´re in for heavy batoning all of the time.
I then went deeper into the woods... more bones, but I left it be.
It´s somewhat strange. The farther you get into the woods, the more likely you will find something like this. I have found a lot of material on places like this, but then I would be glad if I did not have to. Just a reminder to take along what you´ve brought and think twice if you cannot reuse it!
Then I was off to more ´shrooms, quite a loot for shoop *ggg* and for drying as snacks and spice!
The somewhat grey weather cleared up and I was able to savour a beautiful sunset on my way home.
A perfect day in the woods!
