Swedish knives

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Gobbo_the_civet

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Oct 3, 2011
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Hello everybody.

I've been looking at mora and marttiini knives a little and have heard the legends. Specifically the mora classics and clipper and the marttiini "condor" and "lynx" interest me.

You understand I'd love to order all but a little experiment like that would cost me more than €100,- which simply is too much.

Any advice on which of these I should take? Especially comments on steel types I'd appreciate.
 
And what exactly are you looking for?
I would not order Marttiinni myself. If you want to try it out get Rapala - since Marttiinni got sold it is essentially the same knife, but without additional expense for shipping-handling. I liked their carbon steel blades. But since they do not produce them any more - alas!
Mora are decent CHEAP knives. Very good value for money. So if you can get them cheap - go for it. Hultafors is another good brand to try though more difficult to find.
As for the steel - what about it? I guess the steel is not the point for this knives. They sell on price.
 
Thanks for the advice Poez. What I wanted to know about the steels is whether they compare to 420 or to 440 C. You and Pindvin have convinced me so steel is not relevant anyway.
 
m571.jpg

Marttiini M571 for me.
 
Start by getting a Clipper or similar Mora (such as the Companion) and the Marttiini M571 shown above. Get a Mora in stainless and one on carbon steel. The stainless is 12C27 at around HRC57. The carbon is 1095 at around HRC59. The Marttiini is softer but a better knife in my opinion. The rubber handled Condor is a great knife. Probably only around HRC56 but the edge holding is better than you'd expect. You can field dress and take the hide off a deer without touching up. Even then, a minute on a steel restores the edge.

Joe
 
Mora's made of laminated steel blade got the core hardeness of 61-62hRc.
They're not durable knives for batoning, prying etc. They're made for precision work skinning game wood carving.
Thats why i'd take the one with the hardest core (if it's laminated steel).
 
Oh I see. He entitled the thread Swedish Knives. Scandi would have been more accurate.

Joe
 
i live in sweden, and everyone has a mora here , mora-knife is a common abused tool here not really anything looked highly upon.. get one of them red shafted moras 1,2,3 etc or a knife made by Kero, Karesuando, Helle, Brusletto, Kellam etc . what im trying to tell you is that mora knives and other plastic shafted knives here is used like paper plates , get yourself a nice one to hold on to for years
 
celebornen,

you are correct in that most people in Sweden look at Mora knives as disposable knives, but the actual quality of them is better than what people in Scandinavia give them credit for. This is mostly due to the simple fact that they ARE disposable knives in most work-related circumstances. Every construction worker has either a Mora, Hultafors or whatever, but they often end up scraping concrete and doing other serious abuse like that with it. Then they just throw it away and get another one. So, it's not too surprising that people don't care too much about them, but what they usually forget is that it is actually quite a good knife. I mean, if you'd scrape concrete with a custom Scandi it wouldn't hold up any better than a plastic Mora. I believe carbon steel Moras are 1095 and stainless steel Moras are Sandvik 12C27. Both of these steels are highly regarded, cheap steels.
 
I got a Mora 546G for this year's deer hunting knife, because it's "disposable", and easy to clean the blood, hair, guts from it. You can stick it in the dishwasher if you want. I've cleaned 2 deer with it this year, even cutting through the breastbones of both deer, and it's still sharp. I'll re-sharpen when the season is over. For $11, it's a good knife.
DSCF3772.JPG
 
There are some of the scandi knives I have got. There are both Marttiini and Mora there. Some Hultafors. And some more.
Scandiknives.jpg
 
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stoffi said:
I believe carbon steel Moras are 1095 and stainless steel Moras are Sandvik 12C27. Both of these steels are highly regarded, cheap steels.
Click to expand...
The SS line of Frosts sports Sandvik 12C27, HRC ~58. The carbon steel Frosts is Uddeholm UHB 20C (eq. to AISI 1095), cold rolled and heat treated to 59-61 HRC. Other designations used: German C.D. Wälzholz-Brockhaus GmbH CK 101 and CK 95, cold rolled, HRC 60.

The laminated steel core in knives from Frosts are made of Uddeholm 2140/Arne (eq. to AISI O1), HRC 60-62.

The standard SS from KJ Eriksson (no longer existing) was Sandvik 12C27M (Modified), HRC 58. After the merge they changed to plane Sandvik 12C27.

KJ's carbon steel was Uddeholm UHB15LM (eq. to AISI 1080) and DIN CK 75/80 (eq. to AISI 1080), both steels HRC 58. Since the Co changed names, these steels have been replaced by Uddeholm UHB 20C (eq. to AISI 1095) and C.D. Wälzholz-Brockhaus GmbH CK 101 and CK 95.

The Triflex blades are made of differentially tempered Uddeholm UHB 20C (eq. to AISI 1095).

The Hultafors SS series is japanese AUS-8 and the carbon steel variant is SK-5 (eq. to AISI 1080).

The Lindblom knives feature a chinese SS/EN 715 stainless steel. HRC 58-60.

Previously, the blades from Frost were a little bit thinner than those from KJ. Today, they are the same thickness (the thinner variant).

The steel used in Erik Jönsson knives is SS 1778 (eq. AISI 1078) springsteel. No stainless blades are manufactured any longer.

~Paul~
 
I believe the Marttiinni 571 is in M3 from old files, very good high carbon steel. It was one of James Mattis' favorites. I re-handled a couple of these for friends.
 
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