I’ve been looking for a proper Bushcrafty type of knife and doing a lot of reading about them
recently. The Leatherman and Swiss Army
knives I have are nice and light for backpacking, good for making lunch and
maybe cutting rope, doing some light whittling for a marshmallow stick but
that’s about all. Doing any heavy duty
woodwork isn’t just frustrating, it’s also a bit dangerous with those thin
blades.
After all of the research I have done, I’ve found
that a real bushcraft knife isn’t one that looks like a Rambo knife, or one
that looks like a crooked machete, or any other weird looking knife. The best all purpose one is one that has a blade
around 4” long. The blade needs to be
thick to be robust, reducing the likelihood of breaking. The back spine is flat and preferably has
sharp edges in order to use it with a firesteel. Ideally it has a full tang as well – that
means the blade goes all the way through the handle. This reduces the possibility of the blade
separating from the handle. It also
provides a spot to hammer the knife if you ever need to do so. The general consensus for a blade material is
that a very high carbon steel is preferable to stainless. The high carbon blade is better for
sharpening and edge retention, although some new specialty stainless steels can
do so as well. The handle has to be very
ergonomic and protect you from sliding your fingers into the blade as well.
With all of these properties in mind, I was looking
for a knife. There seems to be many high
priced bushcraft knives out there with a lot of exotic handles or blade
materials, but I just want function, plain and simple. As usual, I think form should follow the
function. I was contemplating the Swedish
Fallkniven F1 knife, although it is quite expensive – around $150 for the
standard blade (carbon steel laminated to outer stainless), or even more
expensive G3 material at a whopping $250 for a knife. But then I came across Mora Knives or Morakniv,
also a Swedish knife maker. The knives
they make are no nonsense straight up knives.
Made for their functionality, and not to pretend they are some kind of
work of art or something. The range I
was looking at are the Bushcraft range of knives that Mora makes. In fact they come in many different colors,
blade types and sheaths. Even though
they generally look the same, they aren’t created equal. Bushcrafters online love their knives, but
older comments lament the fact that the blades are thin. The older Mora Bushcraft knives are 2.5mm
thick stainless steel.
The new Mora Bushcraft black is a high
carbon steel bade, that is a burly 3.2mm thick instead of the thinner 2.5mm. It is made out of high carbon steel instead
of stainless, and the blade is coated with a black finish, hence the Bushcraft
Black. The coating is tungsten DLC coating, a very
hard material that also aids in friction, and the blade has some gold colored
laser etching near the handle on the right side. Along with the lower friction and corrosion
resistance the coating offers, the black color is also to keep with the
tactical look trend, for those who like to pretend they are navy seals stalking
someone to knife them. I do admit the
knife does look pretty cool, but as far as functionality goes, I would prefer a
shiny blade to use as a signaling device in a survival situation, although I do
prefer the carbon steel over the stainless for the edge qualities. The spine of the knife is nicely ground with
sharp edges like a newly sharpened skate, and it throws off much better sparks
from my firesteel than the little stamped steel scraper that comes with my
Light My Fire firesteel. It did leave a
couple small burrs on the edge of the spine after I used my fire steel with it
a dozen times or so. I figure this is
just normal, as any steel on steel would do that kind of thing. I’ll see what it looks like after a year or
two of use. The blade, as I hear is
typical with all Mora blades, came razor sharp.
I shaved my arm a little with the blade to test it out..yeah I think
it’ll do.
As with everything else on this knife, the
handle is very simple, but functional.
It is nicely ergonomic, the girth is very comfortable for my medium to
large size hand and the outer material on the handle is made of a nicely sticky
rubber like material (TPU?) on the outside.
The inside of the handle is made of a harder plastic of an olive drab
color which can be seen at the hilt and also where the handle transitions to
the blade. The handle has some ridge
band features near the hilt on the top and also near the blade to provide extra
traction and a tactile feel to let you know you are at the end of the
handle. It’s all about function and
ergonomics and not about some fancy looking handles like the Bark River
knives. The handle has a downturn in the
front bottom at the blade to prevent (or reduce the likelihood) your hand from
slipping onto the blade, but it does not have a solid guard, in order to make full
use of the knife and not get in the way.
The sheath is very no-nonsense as well, and
also black colored to keep with the theme.
It is a decent molded sheath, made of a plastic material but some won’t
appreciate it simply because it’s not leather.
I prefer the synthetic sheaths myself due to zero maintenance
requirements. The retention is excellent
and exposes about half of the handle, so the likelihood of the knife being drawn unintentionally or falling out is
very low. My biggest gripe is the belt
loop. It’s great if you actually wear a
proper belt, but not very useful if you don’t.
Most of my outdoor convertible pants I wear have a built in belt which
wouldn’t work with this and I would prefer a clip so it could clip onto the top
of my pants.
The Survival Bushcraft
Black sheath version has a firesteel holder, complete with firesteel and
sharpening stone, but mine was the straight up version. On a whim I ordered a custom Grizzly
Outdoors sheath. This sheath has a
firesteel holder as well and milled slots for attachments and/or some paracord
storage..the downside is that the sheath actually costs much more than the
knife itself. I’ll do a writeip on that
as well for comparison with the stock sheath when it gets in.
In any case, the Mora Bushcraft Black looks like one
helluva capable bushcraft knife, and low cost to boot. I’m certainly looking forward to getting some
use out of it this season.
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