Morakniv HighQ

Everyone who knows me knows that I'm a knife guy. I think that after the discovery of fire and the invention of the wheel the knife was and is mankinds greatest tool. I'm the first person people turn to when they need a knife. 

Typically I'm a big pocket knife guy but lately I've been in the market for a new fixed blade. Why the sudden interest in a belt knife? I'm glad you asked. My wife and I have been watching Naked and Afraid lately. If you aren't familiar with the show it's in essence a survival show where two experts, a man and a woman, are dropped somewhere nasty naked with only one tool apiece. 

Now, I have no desire to try to survive for three weeks naked in the jungle but it did get me thinking. If I could only have one tool what would I take. I debated a hatchet but that seemed limited to me. Great for chopping but not so good at skinning, carving or other fine work. Likewise for a machete just even less useful for chopping down trees. Thinking back to another favorite survival show Dual Survival, luckily this one is fully clothed, I remembered Cody Lundin doing a multitude of tasks with a knife. It's a medium sized, fixed blade that he where's around his neck. 

Ok, we've settled on a knife. But what kind of knife? This is still a mental exercise by this point mind you. I turned to Cold Steel knives for ideas. Cold Steel makes excellent products at a wide variety of prices but I still couldn't pick one. Next I turned to The Truth About Knives. That's an excellent blog if you are into knives. Very informative and entertaining. One of the first posts I read was about a Mora knife. The editors of this particular blog were quickly shown to be huge fans of these knives so I figured I'd research further. A few days of reading and I had to bite and order myself one. It came in today and I'm in love. 

Now THATS a knife! 

I got it from Amazon. Ordered it on Monday and it was waiting for me when I got home today. Hurray for Amazon Prime! I immediately pulled it out and tested the edge. It slid through cardboard with minimal effort and sliced almost as well. Next I found a scrap of maple to carve on. It bit into the wood well taking off thin slices of wood with each pass. I made a few notches to see how well it went and I was very pleased. 

Since this is an all purpose knife I expect to have it on my belt in the woods quite a bit. I threw it on my belt while I took the dogs out just to see how it felt. The weight is negligible. The sheath is kind of a cheap plastic but it's designed fairly well. It clips onto a belt easily but once there it's tough to get off. It also has a clip system to attach other mora knives to the sheath. If and when I get another I'll show how that works. 

All in all I'm well pleased so far. It's a tough carbon steel. It has a nice robust spine that supposedly holds up well to batoning but I didn't get a chance to try that out. It has a scandi edge that all the reviews say takes and holds an edge well. Obviously I haven't had to sharpen it yet so we shall see. The only con I can see is that it had a rat tail instead of a full tang. According to every review I've seen that doesn't seem to affect it's performance. And all for the low price of $10. That's right. It's not much more than a meal at McDonalds. At that price I had to give it a try. Now let's hope if I'm ever stranded naked on a deserted island I have my knife with me. 

The handle fits my grip well and is slip resistant. 

That's a nice thick edge.