Broken mora's?

mountainmist

mountainmist

Joined
Jun 12, 2013
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2,238
Hey guys! I've seen a lot of people say moras are fragile because of the tang but I have four moras (three clippers and a 511) and have yet to brake one, and believe me, I've tried.

Soooooooo would you post pics an story's of broken moras? I'm very interested in just what will they take before they go down?

Thanks!
The Kid
 
I haven't broken one per se. I did have a couple bend in the middle of the blade when being batoned but one could argue very convincingly the knife abuse case. The problems I have had are more things like rolled edges. I had a tip break off once, but that was my fault. As badly as I abuse knives I'm pretty lucky to have never broken one.
 
None here either -- I have batonned the crap out of my HD Companion, and it's still going strong....
 
There was a feller round these parts named boats, I believe. He was not a fan of moras and claimed he had broken two, once chipping some ice and one he stepped on by accident. I called him on it and he never said another word about it.
This was a long time ago so hopefully I didn't just throw out the wrong name there.
I abused one very badly once, I was trying to get a plastic handle off a machete and was hammering it into the rivets, now I can't remember if I thought the rivets were plastic or I just didn't care because I had so many moras, but I ended up grinding the edge into a convex and it still performs quite well.
Now I just made two statements that tell me my memory is starting to look more and more like my old mans! Now where did I put those reading glasses...
 
The only thing that is really doing any kind of damage to my moras is rust when the get wet or blood on them from hunting and fishing. Other than normal wear and tear. I rolled and or chipped edges, but they can be fixed easily. All of this in my opinion adds character to them.
 
I've heard all the arguments about how bushcraft knives MUST be full tang or else!

In my opinion, a lot of people in the forums (who I think spend more time typing on the internet than they do in the woods) raise too much fuss about full tang construction. From my experience, unless you are intentionally trying to abuse the knife, I seriously doubt you're going to break a rat tail knife.

It's funny at how the Fins and the Swedes have been using non-full tang blades all this time and have managed to survive just fine in the woods. Maybe they didn't get the memo that what they were doing was frowned upon by the forum jockeys. :)

The most extreme task that you'd do with a bushcraft knife is batoning wood. If you are batoning correctly, the baton is striking the spine of the blade of the knife - not the handle. So how exactly you could break a blade by batoning correctly... It's almost inconceivable.



Doc Smith
 
Thanks guys! I already know that they are tough butt I was wondering whether or not anyone had problems with them breaking, obviously not, 270 views and know one can show me a pic of a snapped mora...:D
 
No, and I badly abused a Companion with some brutal batoning. I had a half dozen or more old Ericksons from years ago that I forgot in a box. I used one or two about five years back to cut circles (plugs) in the grass to retrieve objects while metal detecting. These knives went through hell and were tossed on the rear car floor boards or in the trunk, to be forgotten about until whenever. I guess that I lost one and this knives sheath is long gone. I roughly sanded it off and resharpened it, and that took a bit of effort considering what cutting through dirt does to a blade. I have a rediculous pile of them now in variations.
 
I have numerous moras and they have all held up tremendously. I cant break em and believe me, I have not been kind to my stainless clipper. It has taken numerous blows on the spine from a forging hammer when I was making kindling and other than a few very minor flat spots on the spine you wouldn't know it.

By far the best bang for your buck when it comes to a fixed blades :thumbup:
 
The only one I ever broke was a Mora #2/0. The handle twisted loose from the tang when twisting some kindling off a larger piece of wood.
 
I was with an inexperienced friend of mine in the woods one time. I brought the BK9 and a Mora Companion, he saw me batonning the crap out of the 9 so figured he could do the same with the Mora. I actually have 2 Moras and was curious and didnt say anythig as he slammed that knife through thick, dead logs. Not a lick of damage of any kind, those things are tough.
 
I've broken a few other knives over the years, but so far not a Mora. I could see where the older style with wood handles may have been a bit weaker, but the style are pretty solid. I've battened with mine and so far no issues. I do know of one video where a guy and his friends tried to break one. They through it, chopped with it, hammered it in trees and stood on the handle, hammered it in trees and cut them in two, etc.. After a few years of trying pretty much everything they did get it to fail. That said I've seen big 1095 CV blades fail having had much less abuse put on them. Heck, even Beckers BK9 and ESEE blades fail from time to time.

I would no feel unprepared with two Companions. I would be a little worried with one of any blade, be it Becker, ESEE, or BenchMade or Mora.
 
docsmith said:
The most extreme task that you'd do with a bushcraft knife is batoning wood. If you are batoning correctly, the baton is striking the spine of the blade of the knife - not the handle. So how exactly you could break a blade by batoning correctly... It's almost inconceivable.
Doc Smith
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There are some images of the blades snapping in the middle that have been posted in links above. My guess is that there was a problem with the heat treat on those particular blades. Given that they are cranked out in enormous quantities, and cost very little comparatively, it is easy to see how every once in a while you would encounter a heat treat problem. That happens in knife runs put out by most companies right?

As far as breaking a rat tail tang due to batonning, it is conceivable that someone could get the blade well into a piece of wood and be putting a lot of force downward on the handle to counteract the tendency of the tip to point down and the handle to point up during batonning. By putting downward pressure on the handle while at the same time whacking on the spine of the knife, it is conceivable (at least to me) that you might have a problem.

As I stated above I haven't personally broken a Mora per se. I have had LOTS of problems with rolled edges. I'm guessing the reason I haven't actually broken one yet is that I stopped using them relatively soon after I had problems with one in the jungle.

This is a Mora I brought down as a companion to a machete. You can see it posing very nicely with a jungle hooch that I built.

IMG_0279_zpsa8140ff9.jpg


Here is where I had a problem:

IMG_4143_zps6ad44653.jpg


What happened was I was batonning the knife through a small piece of wood (wrist sized) in order to split it up for a fire. The wood was really wet and I needed to get it split down to small pieces in order to get it to burn. Could I have used the machete to do it instead? Yeah. My mistake. Long story short, the Mora got halfway down the log and it flexed at the point shown. When I pulled it out the knife remained bent.

In all fairness to the Mora, I was probably asking it to do something that it wasn't built to accomplish. I wonder if we're asking the knife to do to much by slamming a piece of wood on the spine in order to force it through another piece of wood?

Is the knife in the photo "broken?" I guess it depends on who you ask. Do I trust it any longer? No.

The Scandi grind on a good Mora is an absolute joy to carve wood with and to do things like make feather sticks. Why does it have to be equivalent to knives with sturdier construction? The Mora is fantastic at what it was designed to do. It doesn't have to be the answer to every problem. It doesn't have to be a supertool.
 
I saw a picture of a 511 where the blade had snapped in two. The owner had been batonning through some hardwood, lengthwise, and had apparently caught the handle on the wood and started through a knot at the same time. The lateral twist/bend caused the blade to snap. A little bad technique and bad luck at the same time.
 
Often Mora knives are .098 or .078 of 1095ish or 12c27 steel. Notice the word STEEL. Not unicorn horn. The handles are made of plastic or wood again nothing magical. I have loosened the blade from the plastic handle after beating the living heck out of it batoning oak. Nicked the wire edge cutting off fish heads. Also rolled the edge at times. Edge issues gets better over time as my hand sharpening adds a convex nature to the scandi grind.
 
mountainmist said:
Thanks guys! I already know that they are tough butt I was wondering whether or not anyone had problems with them breaking, obviously not, 270 views and know one can show me a pic of a snapped mora...:D
Click to expand...
Most of us are tired of this and many other same old arguments. And it's not that we can't show pics, it's just that we don't care enough anymore to post pics or get into it again. Use what you like. I would recommend using the search feature first.
 
sodak said:
Most of us are tired of this and many other same old arguments. And it's not that we can't show pics, it's just that we don't care enough anymore to post pics or get into it again. Use what you like. I would recommend using the search feature first.
Click to expand...

So does that mean you have or have not broken a Mora? It is not clear from your reply.

All of my mora knives are still going. Some are beyond dull or coated with paint and other nasty things but that doesn't count as broken in my book. I have broken a few cheap mora knock-offs though.
 
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