Survival Knife Review: the Mora
Currently, the rage among some survival schools is the Mora, a small, inexpensive Scandinavian-style sheath knife with a four-inch blade and a large, easy-to-hold handle.
The Cold Steel SRK (top) and the J. Martinni Mora-style knives are good choices for all around use. Combined with a Swiss Army Classic, they can provide a good survival tool kit.
by Leon Pantenburg
Personally, I think they’re great, and I generally have a Mora close at hand.
It’s all because newspaper guys, like me, research stuff. Sometimes we gather information, statistics and data for no apparent reason, and with a vague idea of what the info might be someday be used for.
That was the case several years ago when I bought my first Mora knife.
While I will never give up my folders, I was looking for a small, inexpensive sheath knife that could be recommended to Boy Scouts.
The knife had to be an all-around, do-everything tool. It would be used for a variety of tasks, which could include whittling, cleaning fish and small game, meat-cutting and peeling potatoes. It needed to be lightweight and small enough to be carried conveniently.
Practicality was paramount: A fighting knife was not in the running. I didn’t anticipate the do-everything knife would ever be thrown, used in a “tactical” application, as a prybar or as a weapon for stabbing bears.
Because you can get excellent Frost brand Moro knives for prices ranging from $10 to $15, I bought several versions and put them through their paces.
I got this background info on Mora knives from Ragnar’s Ragweed Forge:
The town of Mora, Sweden has been a knife-making center for centuries. Smiths in Mora developed a basic, functional style that became known as the “Mora Knife.” Until recently there were two remaining large companies in Mora, K.J. Eriksson and Frosts of Mora. They have merged into “Mora of Sweden.”
Mora knives place function before style. They have the flat Scandinavian grind that goes cleanly to the edge, and come from the factory very sharp.
A Mora specialty is the laminated carbon blade. This is a three-part sandwich, with a core of high carbon steel protected by sides of tough lower carbon steel.
Normally, my knife testing takes a while, and I focus on practical tasks the knife might be used for. Several different
This Mora knife was used to clean these trout, and the blade was still shaving-sharp at the end of the task.
Mora variations were put through these tests:
- Paper cutting: An everyday carry knife is used for whatever task is at hand. For me, that might involve opening mail! I cut a bunch of paper up to make notebooks with a Mora, and after about half an hour of constant cutting, the edge was still reasonably sharp.
- Meat Cutting: The Moras worked well for boning and trimming the meat of several elk and a couple of deer. The blades held an edge well, and were easy to re-sharpen with a whetstone and my grandfather’s butchering steel.
- Cleaning fish: For panfish or other small, eating-sized fish, I usually cut off the heads and gut them. Then the fish are frozen in water. A Frost Mora easily got through a limit of eight medium-sized trout last summer, while maintaining a shaving-sharp edge. The soft, smushy handle never got too slippery to use.
- Cleaning upland and small game: The Mora style is superb for taking care of a limit of chukers, pheasants, rabbits and squirrels. The three-to-four inch blade, and easy-to-hold handle work just right.
- Whittling wiener sticks: The first practical wood carving most of us do is probably a stick to roast wieners, brats or marsh mellows over a campfire. The Mora works fantastically well for this, and is a good knife to loan the kids for that project. You don’t have to worry about a beginner folding the blade over on a finger!
- Spreading peanut butter or cutting up apples: On my 1980 Mississippi River canoe trip, these proved to be the most common tasks my Buck folder was used for. Any practical survival knife must also be able to handle the less-glamorous tasks!
- Kitchen Use: I’ll generally keep the knife being tested on the magnetic knife rack in my kitchen and use it for awhile. This everyday use will quickly point out features you do and don’t like. The Mora is incredibly useful for just about any kitchen task.
- Ease of Carry: While I generally carry my knife in my daypack, it must also be comfortable to carry on a belt. The traditional Scandinavian sheath, which dangles from a belt loop, is incredibly comfortable to carry. The “clipper” plastic sheaths, which clip on a belt, are not so comfortable.
After cleaning an eight-trout limit the handle on this Mora-style carbon clipper utility knife was still easy to grasp and use safely.
While a Mora can do many things well, my first choice for gutting a deer or elk is still my much-used Cold Steel SRK.
And a Mora doesn’t have the tweezers, scissors, and toothpick of my beloved Swiss Army Classic!
While you could split kindling or baton a Mora to cut firewood, it isn’t the best choice. An axe is!
And I wouldn’t want to have to dig a very big hole with a Mora, or any other knife, for that matter!
The Mora’s low price is a major attraction. You can get a superb knife for under $20, making a Moro a great choice for inclusion in survival caches, Bug Out Bags or other survivalist and prepper stashes. And several Moras would make a great investment now, for bartering later.
A Mora can do about 90 percent of what I need an outdoor knife to do. And while I’ve yet to find the ultimate, do-everything wilderness survival knife, a Mora can come really close!
(Check out the SurvivalCommonSense.com “The Best Survival Knife?” blog by clicking here!)
A Mora is better than nothing, a good value for the price, light, and better than most folding knives for wilderness survival. That is as much as can be said for a Mora. With a bigger budget, there are better choices. Even Cody has come off his “Mora is the only one” stance. Education can be —– educating.
“Bear” repeatedly models truly stupid behavior. Watch him for Dumb and Dumber entertainment, He is also a fraud. (Google is your friend.)
Arkansas whetstones are softer than some of the more common modern stainless steels and, therefore, cannot sharpen them. Diamond sharpeners can sharpen any knife except some exotic ceramics.
People have very strong opinions about this brand or that. In the end, knives from reputable makers cut..
I like the Moras for teaching sharpening – they generally have good steel, and the Scandinavian edge is a good one to start beginners out on. Love those Moras!!!
I just got another Mora knife today. It’s a K J Eriksson carbon steel Mora Clipper that I bought used on eBay. It was in pretty good shape, but the edge was a little rough. A fact that I hadn’t paid much attention to is that Mora knives have single bevel edges, unlike most domestic knives. I’m used to sharpening double bevel knives. In fact, I’ve got a couple of older Mora scout knives whose blades were to rough to sharpen single bevel, so I used a 20 degree bevel to sharpen them. They’re still good knives and may have a tougher edge with the steeper bevel. I wanted to bring this new knife back to factory sharpness. I had recently watched a Ray Mears video on knife sharpening with Japanese water stones. I’ve got a set that I rarely use, so I figured that I’d give it a try. I cleaned the edge up on an 800 stone until I was satisfied that the nicks were gone. I held the knife on the bevel, so I didn’t change the angle. After that, I gave the knife a few strokes on a 1200 stone and polished it on a 6000 stone, using a Nagura stone to create a slurry. This is one sharp knife!. I’ve already shaved half of the hair off my forearm.
I like the Diamond hone, too. But there are a lot of gadgets on the market, and I’ve probably bought all of them! But you can’t beat Arkansas whetstones and the skill to use them!
I use my pocket knife daily doing things that will quickly dull the blade, like opening boxes and stripping insulation from wire. I have carried a DMT double sided folding diamond hone for years. The one that I use most is the Coarse/Fine model (Blue/Red). If you are kinder to your knives than I am, you might use the Fine/Extra Fine model. They work fine dry and clean up with a little dish washing detergent in water. If I have time, I have a 2 Oz. dropper bottle with water and a drop of detergent that I use for lubrication. This is usually at home, not in the field.
IMO, and given the situation you described, that would be one of those small diamond rods that twist in half and are stored in the handle. They will do an adequate job, if you know how to use them.
I generally carry a small, medium Arkansas stone. If you start out with a sharp knife (As you should!) then such a stone will be adequate for touching up an edge as needed. In camp, I have the full compliment of sharpening stones and a butcher steel, since I have this obsession with being able to shave with all my knives!
Both of these sharpening methods have worked well to touch up a blade in the middle of an elk carcass!
When bushcrafting or outdoors in the field, what is the best knife sharpener you would carry in terms of effectiveness and lightweight carry that is perhaps easily attached to knife itself with say like ranger bands?
I did look at Pendleton Lite, and unfortunately, I don’t need another knife! If I did, that would definitely be in the running. It looks a lot like a Mora, and I think a Mora style knife will do about 90 percent of what you need a knife to do!
Have you looked at the cold steel pendleton lite hunter? It’s a slightly shorter blade (3″) but I have had it for a while now and I can reliably say it is the best knife I have ever owned, sheath, or folding knife. I have used it for cleaning deer, as a kitchen knife, both in the home and outdoors, for carving wood, cutting paper, it holds an edge wonderfully, is extremely strong, and the handle has excellent grip even when wet or bloody. Also, it’s only twenty dollars, less on amazon.
I have several, scattered throughout various survival kits. For the money, I don’t think you can get a better knife deal!
I have bought Mora knives by the case to give as presents. I favor the Mora 640 knife with the red handle. It is my preferred knife for most everything.
I was looking for a new utility knife – I’ll have to try this one out, thanks!
The Mora is a great all-around knife. And, since they’re so inexpensive, you can have several, and include one in each survival kit.
I have recently heard a lot about the Mora, I am yet to buy one but can definitely see adding this knife to my collection. From all of the reviews that I have read including the above helpful review it seems like a great hunting knife.
Thanks for the info!
Essentially, batoning is pounding your knife blade through something, using a stick (or baton) to hammer the top edge of the knife. It works for splitting wood, and cutting down stuff, but not as good as an axe!
As a wood chopping technique it leaves a lot to be desired! But in a pinch, I have used the batoning technique to spilt a deer pelvis bone while field dressing.
What is batoning?
I got the spelling of Mora right on the town, first reference to the knife and screwed up several other references. Thanks for pointing that out. There is no excuse for such a bonehead mistake, and I stand corrected, along with the story!
This is the statement (I think) you call “absurd”: “While you could split kindling or baton a Mora to cut firewood, it isn’t the best choice. An axe is!”
? Makes sense to me and several other readers. An axe is the best choice to split kindling in the context of this article. I never implied you couldn’t use a Mora to baton kindling.
I agree with your comment about the axe vs. saw.
I’m one of those people who prefer a saw to an axe in a survival kit. Here’s the story I did on that: http://survivalcommonsense.com/2010/04/20/axe-or-sawfeed/
This statement (from the same article) was intentionally absurd:
“Practicality was paramount: A fighting knife was not in the running. I didn’t anticipate the do-everything knife would ever be thrown, used in a “tactical” application, as a prybar or as a weapon for stabbing bears.”
You wouldn’t believe the absurd requirements some people put on their survival knives! Subsequently, the “practicality” remark.
Thanks for the feedback!
Leon
To the author of the article. The knife is Mora. The town is Mora. Not Moro.
@dustin: The Izula is a totally different animal. That coating will most likely interfere with wood carving, which is one of the many uses of Mora knives. The grind is completely different also. The blade shape is different. The Moras people have fallen in love with are more durable than some people are giving them credit for. Look for “iawoodsman” on youtube and his video on cutting down trees with a mora. The second method he uses is cringeworthy, but it worked. Obviously, if given a choice, I wouldn’t want just ONE knife of any kind if I were stuck out in the wilderness, but a Mora would be able to do more than you think. As for the sheaths, how many people don’t replace the stock sheaths that come with much more expensive knives with custom kydex ones? One of the top complaints of most production knives is “Yeah, I don’t like the sheath. blah, blah, blah.)” That argument doesn’t even hold water. Neither do Mora sheaths, btw.
@Leon: do you hear how absurd your first sentence is? One does not buy an axe for the purpose of batoning. One buys an axe to avoid batoning. However, there are times when swinging an axe (or even carrying one) might not be practical, and even a Mora is capable of being batoned through wood if one uses the proper technique. BTW, lots of people even prefer folding saws to axes for the speed, weight and safety.
Thank you for reading!
Victorinox makes a great knife for just about any application, and I am rarely without one on my person! Among my favorites are the Classic, the Tinker, and the Huntsman. I like the very functional saw on the Huntsman and the 3-inch locking blade, plus the tweezers, bottle opener, can opener and toothpick!
Victorinox Swiss Army Ranger Pocket Knife is a greatknife to use while hiking/camping. The ammount and versatility of the attatchments is useful for all applications thus far encountered.It’s light weight and small size enables it to be carried on treks where those factors are important.
I think the Gator it is one of the knives “Bear” uses in some of his shows. I have used it for years and really like it, but am waiting for the SCS review.
I agree. But if I’m buying a tool for the purpose of batoning, I’ll get an axe. My hard use knife is the cold Steel SRK, and I’ve yet to find anythig thing better. But it sure is fun looking. Currently, I’m testing the Gerber Gator with the 3 inch blade. So far, it’s done great on paper cutting and cleaning fish!
Thanks for the feedback!
Mora.
They are popular in survival schools because they are inexpensive, made of high carbon steel (produce a spark when struck against flint/basalt/ferro rod, etc.), some models float, they are often scandi-grind (meaning they can excel at slicing, carving and performing many bushcraft techniques), and are easy to sharpen.
For a survival fixed-blade, a Mora is a fine companion knife, but you really want something that is full tang.
If the knife is not heavy/long enough to serve as a chopper you also want something that can stand up to batoning better than a Mora.
Moras also have sheaths that leave a LOT to be desired.
I like my Mora, but frankly it is not tough enough for me to use solely.
My hard use knife is the ESEE5, with a DPx HEST backup.
If you want something the size of a Mora, but a bit more durable, go with the ESEE Izula.