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- Jun 23, 1999
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The story below illustrates what can happen when you take a knife knut who just returned from a week long business trip, and coop him up in the rain with all his knives...
Most of us agree that our survival knives must help us build shelter and make fire. The knife's traditional role in fire making is, of course, cutting wood in one form or another, but because it is steel (usually), it can also be of service striking sparks. Finally, as I recently discovered, it can be very useful in providing a particular form of tinder that lights well with spark.
I was trying to rapidly wear down the edge on a Mora 2000, an inexpensive offering in the survival arena from Sweden (you can see them at www.ragweedforge.com click on "Swedish knives"). I had already dulled the last half inch or so of edge by striking sparks from a ferrocium rod a few times.
Those magnesium blocks so many of us have for helping to start emergency fires have to be scraped or shaved with something. Some come with (or we provide) a small steel bar, maybe 1/32 in width with a flat roughened edge with which to scrape the magnesium.
Personally I find that this process results in a very fine powder that burns so rapidly (like a flashbulb), that it is gone before it has time to be used igniting anything (that isn't already ignitable by spark on its own) unless you use a considerable quantity, an amound that takes a lot of time and energy to prepare. Sometimes when you need that fire most, you haven't the luxury of time or energy to spare.
I like to have some magnesium dust in my fire starting mixture because that's what most easily catches the spark Just as important are thin magnesium shavings that are fluffier than dust. They have some thickness and length, often they curl like the shavings cut from metal plate by a drill press. These burn a little slower giving something else a chance to be ignited. So Inspiration struck and I did something with the Mora I hadn't done before with any of my more expensive survival knives! After all, Mg is a "soft metal" right?
Using a combination of carving (low angle) and scraping (perpendicular) motions on a small rectangular block of magnesium (the common US/UK mil. issued blocks), I began to shave/scrape enough Mg for a fire under many conditions in about 10 minutes. The Mora edge was dulled and rolled in its last couple of inches where I applied it very forcefully trying to peel Mg. off the block.
So the process dulled the edge, rolled it pretty good too, but the little knife was impressive for what it had cut up and I suddenly wondered my more expensive survival knives would fare in this same test, a simulation after all of something I might really have to do in a survival situation... Like the Mora, I constrained the cut/scrape as best I could to the last 2" of edge at the base of the blade.
So out came the Livesay model 131 Air Assault. To my suprise, it was much harder to shave the block with Newt's knife. The knife slid more off the block in a shaving stroke. I couldn't get it to bite into the metal. It worked about as well as the Mora on the perpendicular stroke. I worked the AA for about 10 minutes, and I did shave metal of course, but not quite as much as the Mora had in the same time, and the result had a higher proportion of dust. To it's credit, the Livesay knife's edge did not roll, though it was noticably dulled by the process.
Next up, a Finnish Mk95 commando knife. This cut metal in either stroke about as well as the Mora. It did roll a little in 10 mins., but curiously in the opposite direction of the Mora. That is, the Mora rolled UNDER (toward the rear) the direction of the stroke, while the Mk95 rolled forward during the slicing strokes. I can't explain this...
Last up, my pre-INFI Busse SH II. I have to admit I was suprised. I don't know if it was just the sheer weight, the edge grind, the choil, or all three, but the SH produced shavings at twice the rate of the Mora or Mk95! It both out sliced and out scraped all of the others. It's edge was also dulled, but not rolled. At least from what I can see, Busse wins this little trial hands down.
After the test was over, I went about the process of resharpening those last couple of inches of edge. The Busse took the most work, but it always does. The Mk95 is a slightly softer metal I think, but the grind is fairly wide and flat so it took a while too. The Livesay was a little easier, but of the four, its the only one hollow ground and that may have something to do with why it slid along the block. By far the easiest of the four knives to sharpen again was the Mora, probably a function of a slightly softer metal, but also the thinness of the whole blade profile...
Most of us agree that our survival knives must help us build shelter and make fire. The knife's traditional role in fire making is, of course, cutting wood in one form or another, but because it is steel (usually), it can also be of service striking sparks. Finally, as I recently discovered, it can be very useful in providing a particular form of tinder that lights well with spark.
I was trying to rapidly wear down the edge on a Mora 2000, an inexpensive offering in the survival arena from Sweden (you can see them at www.ragweedforge.com click on "Swedish knives"). I had already dulled the last half inch or so of edge by striking sparks from a ferrocium rod a few times.
Those magnesium blocks so many of us have for helping to start emergency fires have to be scraped or shaved with something. Some come with (or we provide) a small steel bar, maybe 1/32 in width with a flat roughened edge with which to scrape the magnesium.
Personally I find that this process results in a very fine powder that burns so rapidly (like a flashbulb), that it is gone before it has time to be used igniting anything (that isn't already ignitable by spark on its own) unless you use a considerable quantity, an amound that takes a lot of time and energy to prepare. Sometimes when you need that fire most, you haven't the luxury of time or energy to spare.
I like to have some magnesium dust in my fire starting mixture because that's what most easily catches the spark Just as important are thin magnesium shavings that are fluffier than dust. They have some thickness and length, often they curl like the shavings cut from metal plate by a drill press. These burn a little slower giving something else a chance to be ignited. So Inspiration struck and I did something with the Mora I hadn't done before with any of my more expensive survival knives! After all, Mg is a "soft metal" right?
Using a combination of carving (low angle) and scraping (perpendicular) motions on a small rectangular block of magnesium (the common US/UK mil. issued blocks), I began to shave/scrape enough Mg for a fire under many conditions in about 10 minutes. The Mora edge was dulled and rolled in its last couple of inches where I applied it very forcefully trying to peel Mg. off the block.
So the process dulled the edge, rolled it pretty good too, but the little knife was impressive for what it had cut up and I suddenly wondered my more expensive survival knives would fare in this same test, a simulation after all of something I might really have to do in a survival situation... Like the Mora, I constrained the cut/scrape as best I could to the last 2" of edge at the base of the blade.
So out came the Livesay model 131 Air Assault. To my suprise, it was much harder to shave the block with Newt's knife. The knife slid more off the block in a shaving stroke. I couldn't get it to bite into the metal. It worked about as well as the Mora on the perpendicular stroke. I worked the AA for about 10 minutes, and I did shave metal of course, but not quite as much as the Mora had in the same time, and the result had a higher proportion of dust. To it's credit, the Livesay knife's edge did not roll, though it was noticably dulled by the process.
Next up, a Finnish Mk95 commando knife. This cut metal in either stroke about as well as the Mora. It did roll a little in 10 mins., but curiously in the opposite direction of the Mora. That is, the Mora rolled UNDER (toward the rear) the direction of the stroke, while the Mk95 rolled forward during the slicing strokes. I can't explain this...
Last up, my pre-INFI Busse SH II. I have to admit I was suprised. I don't know if it was just the sheer weight, the edge grind, the choil, or all three, but the SH produced shavings at twice the rate of the Mora or Mk95! It both out sliced and out scraped all of the others. It's edge was also dulled, but not rolled. At least from what I can see, Busse wins this little trial hands down.
After the test was over, I went about the process of resharpening those last couple of inches of edge. The Busse took the most work, but it always does. The Mk95 is a slightly softer metal I think, but the grind is fairly wide and flat so it took a while too. The Livesay was a little easier, but of the four, its the only one hollow ground and that may have something to do with why it slid along the block. By far the easiest of the four knives to sharpen again was the Mora, probably a function of a slightly softer metal, but also the thinness of the whole blade profile...
