Would you stake your life on a Mora?

I just don't get the breaking knife thing. I've spent a whole lot of time in the woods and I rarely even need to use my knives. Anything I DO need to do with a knife, I can do with a SAK. I've never needed to baton, and I've built plenty of fires in the rain. I rarely even carry a fixed blade, although this has changed since I discovered these lightweight moras. (They weigh almost nothing, so why not?)

I have never broken ANY knife, fixed blade or folder. For you guys who have broken knives-- do you seem to break other things too?
 
Scott Ridgeway said:
I just don't get the breaking knife thing. I've spent a whole lot of time in the woods and I rarely even need to use my knives. Anything I DO need to do with a knife, I can do with a SAK. I've never needed to baton, and I've built plenty of fires in the rain. I rarely even carry a fixed blade, although this has changed since I discovered these lightweight moras. (They weigh almost nothing, so why not?)

I have never broken ANY knife, fixed blade or folder. For you guys who have broken knives-- do you seem to break other things too?
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I am very careful with knives, tools and other things. I have been using various Moras for more than 25 years though, and when I was a kid I managed to destroy a couple. I have also seen others abuse them to destruction. The blades are surprisingly tough, even if I am not convinced by the Mora 2000 model(we had a discussion about this a few months back). I was once also present at an incident in the army where one stupid soldier told another stupid soldier to stab him in the back real hard with a plain red wood handle Mora to see if the kevlar body armour (a rather thin variety, light shrapnel proof, not bullet proof) would resist it, the blade went right through and lodged nicely in the stupid soldiers back, ouch...

I agree that one of the great things about them is that they are so light, you can put one in a pocket and forget about it. As you can see in one of my previous posts I have never used a baton when making a fire either, I never needed it so far.
 
What I can't figure out, is why someone would use a Mora, like they use their Busse, expecting the same results and then whine about the poor quality of the Mora. Just doesn't make any sense to me.
 
longbow50 said:
What I can't figure out, is why someone would use a Mora, like they use their Busse, expecting the same results and then whine about the poor quality of the Mora. Just doesn't make any sense to me.
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Maybe there is no cure for stupidity?:rolleyes:
 
Nord said:
Maybe there is no cure for stupidity?:rolleyes:
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I have no idea why one would expect a relatively thin knife to endure all of the things that a relatively massive knife can handle. I guess expectations differ.

However, referring to those with whom you disagree as demonstrating "stupidy" is unlikely to convince them -- or the undecided. But it will likely have other consequences.
 
Nord,

I'm sure I could manage to destroy a Mora in minutes doing some of the things I reserve for my machetes. In my climate a survival knife needs to be up to opening a green coconut, a big job for small knives. There are alot of folders I would not want to subject to that kind of force.

Opening coconuts is relatively easy with the Mora. You don't get the idea that it is beyond the capability of the knife, or really even stressing it. I prefer to open them with a sharp Mora than a machete actually.

My point is that I have never had to use anything like the force needed to open a coconut when dressing a deer or cutting meat. If in a defensive situation you apply enough force to snap the blade or fail the handle you will have done traumatic damage to your opponent. Humans aren't made of tough stuff to cut or puncture anyway. I think a Mora would do just fine if pressed into service as a fighting knife. Mac
 
The whole purpose of testing something to failure is to find it's boundaries. I would rather do that in my back yard, and then be confident of the knife out in the woods. Some knives, $$$, I won't buy 2 just to test and destroy one. When moras are only $9, then I will. That way, I'll know what its limits are in the wild. I've had a few break unexpectedly on me with only mild stress (batoning with wood), had edges chip out dramatically with mild cutting tasks (fuzz sticks), and had others perform with no failures. I'm not trying to treat them like a Busse, just test them with tasks that I know I'll be performing in the woods. If you don't baton wood in the wild, fine, but I do, and will carry a knife that can handle that task.

The performance/quality has varied enough for me that I'll leave my moras at home. For light cutting, I have folders (including SAK's) that handle that, and for larger chopping, I have durable fixed blades. My smaller blades cut much better due to better steels and geometry, and the larger chop better for the same reasons. The mora for me just doesn't take care of any of my needs as well as other blades do. It's like an answer in search of a question. Now in the yard or garden, I love them, but that's a different story.

For those who like them and trust them, enjoy! There's room for everyone here.
 
I have seen many, many knife injuries in the field, and have seized a pile of knives used to cut or stab people.
Some are crappy folders, some are box cutters, but the VAST majority are cheap steak knives, or no-name kitchen knives with those really tight serrations (Wiltshire maybe?)
I can't remember ever seeing one that was broken from the knife fight/stabbing, and all are thinner and more brittle that a Frosts of Sweden blade.
I even worked on a murder in my first year as an LEO that was committed with a Frosts Clipper. 11 wounds, no real damage to the knife.
This is not to tout the ability of the knife, or to minimize these crimes in any way.
The point is any knife can easily stop or kill a human without breaking. Moras and steak knives are thinner, lighter and faster, than a thicker, "camp" or "combat" knife and in my opinion more lethal because of it. It is very easy to penetrate clothing, skin, the rib cage, etc with these thin tools.

BUT MORE IMORTANTLY...
The idea of planning to use a knife for self defense is dumb. A wooden staff, baton, club, whatever, is much better. A firearm is better still.
Using your head to avoid these encounter is best, and is only vary rarely unsuccessful.

The purpose of a knife is to cut. This includes making/shaping other tools. Why split big wood with your knife?
Why do pull-ups on your knife handle? (save it for the gym, Arnold)

I will bet cash money that a person using a Mora, who understands it's strengths and weaknesses is far less likely to break or lose his knife, or hurt himself, than the guy chopping up the woods with his big bad Busse.

Yes I would trust my life to a Mora.

No, a Mora is never my only knive in the woods. No knife is ever my only knife in the woods.
 
Jim Craig said:
BUT MORE IMORTANTLY...
The idea of planning to use a knife for self defense is dumb. A wooden staff, baton, club, whatever, is much better. A firearm is better still.
Using your head to avoid these encounter is best, and is only vary rarely unsuccessful.

The purpose of a knife is to cut. This includes making/shaping other tools. Why split big wood with your knife?
Why do pull-ups on your knife handle? (save it for the gym, Arnold)

I will bet cash money that a person using a Mora, who understands it's strengths and weaknesses is far less likely to break or lose his knife, or hurt himself, than the guy chopping up the woods with his big bad Busse.

Yes I would trust my life to a Mora.

No, a Mora is never my only knive in the woods. No knife is ever my only knife in the woods.
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From my point of view.... you hit the nail on the head! Well said:thumbup:
 
Nice post Jim!:thumbup:

I did a seminar on knives for a bunch of martial artists and as part of it I laid out a table full of knives of various types. I then asked them to pick the most dangerous one on the table.

Not one of them picked the dollar store steak knife.

After I told them it was the deadliest knife I asked them if they knew why.
They having chose daggers, bowies, and other "fighting" patterns did not.

I told them it was likely to be the one the junkie stabs them with at an ATM to steal their wallet and they understood.

Any knife will do, it's your intent that defends or attacks.
 
Dear Codger:
I broke an Old Timer knife just like yours trying to chop a hardwood pole for an improvised shelter during Ranger Spartan training (ROTC UGA) back in the seventies. It was a good slicer and skinner, but a poor chopper. I like the Beckers, Ontarios, and Ranger knives better for rugged use.
Victor
 
The question isn't if the Mora is a good, solid knife or not. It is a great knife and as useful a cutting tool as there is. The issue is would you stake your life on it. To me that means making a conscious choice to choose the Mora over other knives to do all the possible tasks a survival knife may be asked to do. If the Mora was the knife I had with me when in a survival situation I would not be dismayed. It would do but I would have to be careful not to stress it to the breaking point which may, in a pinch, compromise my chances. If I had an SRK, Becker 7, Gossman Tusker or the like, I would not have those reservations. This gives me more options. In certain situations abuse is a given. If I had my druthers I would opt for a heavier knife than a Mora.
 
I agree with everyone who said that a person knowing the limitations of his/her tools is more likely to walk away from a bad situation with less injuries than someone who is unaware of the tool's limitations and uses them inappropriately!

On a totally different issue ... I'm really curious, Sodak, about the rate of failure you reported with the Moras you've tried. Can you tell us about the manufacturer of the Moras you have and give us some detail on when some of the failures happened? I mention this because I bought a lot of moras (5) on auction and my experience has been that the QC on my batch has been outstanding. So I'm curious about whether this is a manufacturer issue or whether the QC varies between batches. Have any of you faced similar QC issues? Thanks for info.

Nice work with the coconuts Mac -- been there done that. And you're absolutely right -- they are tough nuts to crack!
 
Thomas Linton said:
I have no idea why one would expect a relatively thin knife to endure all of the things that a relatively massive knife can handle. I guess expectations differ.

However, referring to those with whom you disagree as demonstrating "stupidy" is unlikely to convince them -- or the undecided. But it will likely have other consequences.
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I didn't mean it that way at all. I didn't mean that you were stupid, I meant that people who insist on using a Mora for the job of an axe are stupid. Sorry for any confusion.
 
Is the question "Would your trust your life to a MORA as your sole cutting tool?"

If so, my behavior says, "No." When I carry a MORA camping or backpacking, as I often do, it (usually a 2000) is teamed with a saw. The Gerber Sportsman weighs so little, that it's hard to justify not having it along.

As to why I might try to baton open wood with a fixed-blade knife in the field, that would be when I needed to do such cutting and did not have a better tool available. Not that a knife might not do quite nicely. A "fro," after all, is simply a stout knife blade with a handle at right angles.

I have batoned wood when I needed to -- or to demonstrate the technique --ever since being taught how to do so at a two-week-long survival school many years ago. I have never damaged, much less broken, a single fixed-blade knife I have used to baton wood, including MORA's (I was careful with the MORA's.). I have experimented with slipjoints, and they suffered no damage (I was VERY careful.).
 
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