Monday 5 December 2016

Mora Pro Robust Knife Review



Mora knives have been crafted in Östnor for over a century. Once they were made in every home by local craftsmen who passed down their skills from generation to generation. Today those skills are all under one roof and no matter who you talk to in our factory they can all tell a family story in which knife manufacture plays a central part!

I bought this knife to use as a secondary, smaller knife when I am camping or kicking around the woods. For that purpose, it is extremely handy. The blade is carbon steel and ground to a zero edge scandi. This makes it bite very good into wood as well as almost everything else I have tried it on. Straight from the factory, this knife will shave hair and slice paper without any problem. The blade is under 4" and just seems to be about right for this knife. There is plenty of belly to this blade which is different than some of the Mora blades. It will whittle very good one minute and field dress game the next.

The Mora Pro Robust uses the robust blade thickness of 1/8". For a Mora that is very stout. They have moved the scandi bevel up a bit however so they are able to have a sharp 27-degree edge even with the thicker blade. The normal thickness Mora blades are about 23 or 24 degrees. When I have tested these knives side by side I will admit that the normal 2.2 mm thickness knives do tend to slide a bit easier into wood. Of course, the slightly larger angle will hold up just a bit better to hard use. However, the difference is minimal. This thickness feels very stout and gives you more confidence to use it roughly. I have even pried some bark off of a tree to shave tinder without any ill effects. (Prying is not recommended, though, for ANY knife).

The blade spine is not finished sharp. If you want to have the sharp 90-degree spine that everyone uses for bushcraft you will need to grind it gently. It won't take much to get where it throws sparks from a Ferro rod or scrapes bark from your marshmallow stick.

The handle is extremely comfortable and secure. Someone with very large hands might find it a little too short however. My Medium-large hands fit right in between the guards both in a normal hold and in a reverse grip for chest lever cutting. The rubber over mold is slightly tacky and makes controlling the knife very easy.

The sheath is the basic plastic one you get from Mora. The knife snaps in a little but will come out if inverted and shaken. A little bit of OD green shock cord provides good retention for me. The sheath clips onto a belt easily. It also has a drain hole in case things get really wet for you.

With minimal care, carbon steel would be fine for camp use and is easier to sharpen.  It looks like a good compromise with added strength while keeping with the inexpensive and utilitarian aspects of the Mora knives. This would be excellent for food prep, cleaning fish, general repairs and camp stuff, as well as whittling and bushcraft projects.

I would say that for the price of this knife you absolutely cannot go wrong.

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