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
