In these times of economic uncertainty the overpriced, and the badly made will - if you believe in the sanctity of Adam Smith's worldview - be driven from the marketplace. Here's how. I've wanted to test out the new Mora's for a while now, so when the chance came to trade for one I jumped at it. The Forest model is about three times the price of the much loved Mora Clipper so I was intrigued to see if the Forest was as big a bargain as it's stable mate.
Designed with the bushcrafter in mind the Forest has a blade length of 106 mm (4.17in), and is 2.5 mm (0.1 in) thick Sandvik 12C27 steel, hardened quite softly [if that makes ant sense at all] to HRC 57-58. The knife currently only comes with a khaki green hand grip and a sheath of the same colour. I'd have preferred orange myself. The sheath design is a vast improvement on the old clipper sheath, the belt loop fully encloses the belt, rather than just clipping on, and it allows the knife to pivot with the wearers movement.
The new design of profile-ground stainless steel blade is a fair bit more sophisticated than the Clippers stamped offering. It follows the idea that as different parts of the blade are used for different tasks the blade can have different profiles to accommodate them. I'm guessing the extra grinding is what's led to the the price hike. The blade works very well. I've never had a stainless steel Mora before, but found it easy enough to sharpen on the Sharpmaker. Leaving an amusing series of bald patches up my arm.
Is it worth the extra cash over the already excellent clipper?
Is any knife? Yeah I'm keeping it. It's very nice to cut with, the new sheath is way better. And I've already decided how to pimp the first one. Gary from Bearclaws Bushcraft has the whole range - and lots of other low cost - high usefulness bushcraft kit at his trading post. If all purchasing decisions were made purely on a 'quality of product' to 'cost of product' comparison, would any other knife companies exist? Seriously.
Is it worth the extra cash over the already excellent clipper?
Is any knife? Yeah I'm keeping it. It's very nice to cut with, the new sheath is way better. And I've already decided how to pimp the first one. Gary from Bearclaws Bushcraft has the whole range - and lots of other low cost - high usefulness bushcraft kit at his trading post. If all purchasing decisions were made purely on a 'quality of product' to 'cost of product' comparison, would any other knife companies exist? Seriously.
More soon
Your Pal
SBW
Mora is probably the biggest bang for buck outfit in existence.
ReplyDeleteI made a knife a few years back using a Mora carbon steel blade blank- one of my favorite knives ever.. something on the order of $5 for the blade.
One of these new ones may be in order= I could sell off a couple of Benchmades and buy a couple dozen to stash all over the place!
Hodgeman
ReplyDeleteI've made a couple too, lots of fun and due to the blade you end up with something awesome. Sadly the only one I have left is made with a considerably less stellar blade. I'll do a Mora Vs Mora review in the next few days - in short the finish and new blade grind are way better now, but are also what's caused the price hike - but you work in construction so no surprise there.
Off to do a bit myself
Cheers
SBW
It's a knife and it's green! Who could go wrong?
ReplyDeleteLooks like they were paying attention to people's complaints about the Clipper's sheath. I have one (a Clipper) and dealt with the issue of the sheath by adding a cable tie (looped around the belt clip) and a carabiner (slides onto my belt) to make it a sort of dangler. No matter which way I bend or twist, the knife hangs handle up and the sheath can't pop off.
ReplyDeleteAnon
ReplyDeleteThere's a whole cottage industry around making sheaths for clippers, I did one for a friend in Kydex a while back, I've seen really well crafted leather ones that must cost at least three times what the knife does. All part of the fun. I'm going to do a Kydex 'knife system' for the forest as soon as I get a moment to catch my breath.
SBW
Be mystified
ReplyDeleteRe green knives
My brother BoB (brother of bushwacker) has a saying:
'outdoor gear comes in two colours "Where did I put it green and Ahh that's where it is Orange"'
Still it's getting pimped very soon
SBW