Why Mora is simply ace

Today, a parcel from Sweden arrived. With a good old thing in it, an old Frost's Mora knife, one with the old laminate steel and an early plastic sheath, maybe from the 50s or 60s.  

Now I certainly do not need to lose a lot of words about Moras as such, but it was somewhat of another eye-opener again.  Moras are made to be tools for house, garden and the wilderness.  I mean, real wilderness, not forest economy parks. They have been used by people for expeditions worldwide and came out begging for more.  Which doesn't come as a surprise, because an expedition might take a year or maybe two at most, but they were "designed" for years and years and decades of farm use. I set that "designed" into quotation marks, well, because I am not quite sure if you can talk about a conscious act at all. If you need to find roots of the design, you might be not too far off with Frost-Erik Ericsson, who, after working four years in the US as a lumberjack, returned home to his hometown in Sweden in 1891. There, he founded a fabrication of timber wedges, axes, sledges and knives for the use in the forests. 

 ( https://morakniv.se/en/this-is-morakniv/our-history/ is a really good read about Mora's history ) 

And if we are quite honest to ourselves, even as accomplished "bushcrafters", we cannot even imagine the level of skill these lumberjacks possessed.  I obviously do not mean any offence by that, since I explicitly do not exclude myself from that.  We do not even know most of the things they did even around the homestead. They could built an entire farm only with an axe, a saw, some other tools and a knife, and fact is, they did. Scandinavian museums are full of artifacts they made that way.  If you want to get an idea of what actual "bushcraft" looks like you  might want to watch this vid: https://youtu.be/FtHyqcwWVPs?si=-q7MFUXWCfi-87yf 

It is original footage from the beginning of the 20th century, recorded in Finland to keep these skills alive. This must have been, more or less, the stuff Frost-Erik Ericsson had to do with a knife as a lumberjack on a daily basis.  It was that commonplace that noone would even had mentioned it.  He might have been using some kind of Puukko or other utility knife, and might have developed his own ideas what his knife should or should not do.  If you look at Scandinavian knives from that time period, you see that they are all quite similar.  This is not altogether surprising, of course.  For one, the founders of the knife industries in Mora were all more or less related, and have, in spite of competition, always maintained friendly relations.  Second, if you really use your knives for that kind of work, there is something nearing an ideal form to accomplish function.  For instance, the handle of the Mora is comfortable in all basic Slöjd hand positions.  Look at this series to get my meaning: 

So, maybe it is not quite correct to talk about a design, as in something someone came up with, but more of the product of an evolutionary process.  

As I said, Moras are made to be tools, to be used and, sometimes, abused. In the Mora knife community, there is a thing we all know, the so-called "barn Moras". Typically found in some shed or barn, often with big dents and hammer marks on the spine, a lot of them rusted and dirty and neglected.  

The one I got is one of the better ones, but it was no exception.  Part of the tip was missing, and the tip was deeply rust-pitted and had some dents, albeit no big ones. 

Thing is, I wasn't in a good mood, and to be honest, a bit disappointed. But since I did not spend a huge amount of money on the knife, I thought, well, the milk's spilled anyway, why not try out something if it is that fooqued oop anyway? So I went to our pile of beautiful rocks and picked a sandstone, poured myself a cuppa coffee and used that rock to grind away. 

One cuppa later, the tip was restored. Most of the worst pitting was gone, and the biggest dents removed.  With some random sandstone.  
 

I brought out the water stones then and started to work on the blade in earnest.  But fact is, the blade already cut alright after sharpening with a rock.  Some freaking random rock. 

I gave it some love with a Japanese water stone up to 3000 grit. 

After that, I refined the spine line, putting a 90°angle on it in the process. 

Without any stropping yet, it now makes lovely curls already, but is in no way maxed out in terms of sharpness.  I will also give the handle some love, too, and a new paint job. Maybe a leather sheath, too.  

What I want to say is, well, I fell for those heebie jeebie magical sorcery knives that make you survive just by carrying them, too.  I fell for that batoning scam, too.  Even if you have read about my stance on the difference between bushcraft and survival on this blog countless times, well, I am not a stranger to being a fashion victim myself.  And it is and was always fun to try out a cool new knife.  And feeling yourself like some tough guy.  

But fact is, what we think is bushcraft is but a very shallow pond.  I do not feel too disgraced and humbled by those old conkers in the Finnish video I shared. Instead, it is sort of a fascinating discovery and a great opportunity to learn. 

Moras have always been about sustainability and resource-efficiency, ingenuity and skill, assets that will come in extremely handy in our near future.  Not because of some SHTF scenario necessarily, but because they always were.  To rediscover those skills is not only a grave matter of survival, but something far deeper.  It really brings joy and the feeling that you can make do in a lot of situations.  It is no wonder that neo-colonialism and neo-imperialism isn't too fond of tools and crafts. But apart from political musings, ramblings and rants, a Mora is not the next big thing.  It isn't something fashionable or exciting. It is not made from some spaceship material.  

But it is something that somehow has grown into its shape for hundreds of years, slowly and steadily and humbly.  It is more of a natural thing, if that could possibly be in the first.  

But it is the same tool those old jätkän used. Means, if you copy what they did, you can safely say you messed up if you don't succeed. 😉😜

Anyway, I really enjoy the journey of this knife, its history, and look forward to the Slöjd I will try to learn with it.  

Take care, and enjoy yourself on the journey! 

After work foraging bimble, brief introduction of a Mora, garbage and a mushroom sunset;-)

 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!

Birch sap rises! Tapping sap and spoon carving...

 Now spring´s coming with giant steps, and the sap rises everywhere, so I went into the "grove" and figured I´d get me a healthy and refreshing drink. Birch sap is rich with potassium and vitamin C, and it simply makes me feel good. It also always has something spiritual for me, for the forces of the land awaken in the rising of the sap, and tn my own body the sap also rises, bringing new vitality after winter. It´s also a very special place for me, where I do a lot of "stump-sitting". I tried two methods, one with an open system, and one with a closed one.

 If you use the closed system, remember to punch a secondary hole into the cap, for else the pressure will build up inside the bottle and keep the sap in the tree.

 I sat down on my favourite stump, had  a cuppa tea and did some spooncarving from this cherry branch I brought with me. This is the gear I usually carry. A folding saw I got cheap after I lost my Oyakata from Westfalia, a local crafts supply. Mora Classic carving knife, the one with 79 mm laminate blade for more delicate tasks, Nessie a.k.a as Fimbulmuk;-) for bigger tasks. Also my flask, and my beloved kuksa for tea.

In this photo there also is a Mora spoon carving knife (right handed), which to me is a great allround carving knife I also use for other tasks. I sat until the sap bottle was full, and my tea flask was empty;-) some three hours, and then had a sip or two of sap. A squirrell came by just to check on me, a snipe flew above me, geese above, and the sounds of ducks and cormorants filling the air. The sun was warm and soothing, and I really relished in it all.

The sun was sinking over the lake, finally,  and on my way home I was filled with peace and the song of snipe and wild geese returning. A beautiful and peaceful day found a fitting end with the vibrant colours of dusk.



(Of course, the sap did not last me long. ;-))

Mora less the perfect knives;-)

If you are looking into going out into the woods, doing woodwork and bushcrafting, you might get a bit intimif´dated by all the latest paraphernalia. Those Grylls and Mears and Lundins running around and telling you what you need often might leave you with the impression you have to get a bank credit to even get started. And of course it has to be the latest Gerber Bear Grylls signature toolkit you need. Now I am a geardo myself, and I know that supplies might be short sometimes;-). I won´t tell you what you need. But I strongly suspect that it´s not necessary to spend a fortune on gear to get out into the woods and enjoy nature. Face it: Those guys make a living buying and selling, and NOT running through woods half-naked. That´s just for the show. Even if those tips are working, and it is not to be said that their shows are a fallacy. I have yet to learn a great deal of bush lore, and I keep learning from those shows, too. But they are entertainers, and marketing businessmen rather than "real" people. So you can question the gear money can buy a tiny bit.

These Moras are an example. The blades pictured you can get from 12-15€, the knives from 7-75€, and the most expensive version might not even be necessary. I simply love these knives. They cut well for a thin spine and a thin Scandi flat bevel. They are laminate steel that will rather bend than break. They get the job done. Period.

You can always do better. You can buy or make a different knife. If it will be better, remains to be seen. So when you first-timers look into buying a knife, look no further. Of course, if you have to sneak up on sentries all the time or kill alligators or lions, they might be a bit undergunned;-). But since I go mushroom hunting, collecting herbs, prepping food for cooking and snacks, do some carving and whittling, and build shelters, these are all you need for those tasks.