MORA Knife ?

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Forest fella

Full Member
Jul 2, 2008
2,890
211
Gloucestershire
Which of these knives has a Full or Full Stick Tang?.
Morakniv Companion Spark 13567 Black, bushcraft knife with firesteel
Mora Bushcraft Survival Knife Black Carbon Steel Blade, Fire Starter and Sheath, Black Rubberized Handle
cheer's
 

Janne

Sent off - Not allowed to play
Feb 10, 2016
12,330
2,293
Grand Cayman, Norway, Sweden
3/4 is correct for all plastic handled Morakniv brand knifes, except Garberg where the tang goes all the way through and is exposed in the back.


Do not worry, you will not break any of them in the tang area. The tang is wide and as thick as the blade. Rounded metal between tang and blade.
Also, the blade goes into the handle some millimetres

From the looks, I think the tang on the Spark has been somewhat reduced in height. Maybe made longer?
 
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Janne

Sent off - Not allowed to play
Feb 10, 2016
12,330
2,293
Grand Cayman, Norway, Sweden
I like to have a bit of fun, using the Morakniv blades and make new handles on.
I need to remove about 1.5 to 2 mm off the ‘spine’ of the tang, so I get enough wood thickness.

I have tried to break the tang but not succeeded yet, using my hands. The wooden handle does break though , I did this testing to check if the material reduction was not too great.
I do not sell my attempts, I give them away. I do not want my friends I give the knives to think I am useless.
 

Robson Valley

Full Member
Nov 24, 2014
9,959
2,664
McBride, BC
I have several left and right pairs of Mora #171 and #172 Equus farrier's hoof knives. Two Mora #188 double edged ones, too.
Drilled out the brass cutlery rivets, knocked off the wood and surface-hafted them for wood carving.
The steel is soft enough that revising the bevels from 25 degrees to 12 degrees is not difficult.

Drilling out the rivet holes in the tang, I've learned pretty quickly that the tangs are soft, not heat treated for hardness.
A few are hard as rock, almost like Mora made a mistake with a few that I've bought.

What I'd like to do next is modify a couple of Mora straight blades for PacNW straight carving detail knives.
I don't think that I need any more than 1.5" , maybe 2" edge length.
I have a couple of fabulous custom straight detail carving knives but I'd like to build a few of my own.
 

Woody girl

Full Member
Mar 31, 2018
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Exmoor
The black has a rat tail tang and not a full tang. . It's a great knife but I'd use it for most jobs except batoning. It's my favourite knife at the moment. I reckon it would cope with batoning if you weren't too vigorous with it and didn't attempt big stuff. The ability to use it with the ferro rod is a plus for me and I think the black blade is astheticly pleasing, but it could be any colour realy....as long as it does the job, which it does. It's also a good price so what's not to like.
 

Janne

Sent off - Not allowed to play
Feb 10, 2016
12,330
2,293
Grand Cayman, Norway, Sweden
Just a tiny correction, Woody Girl.
If I may?

The classic Scandinavian and Finnish knives have a rat tail, either going all the way though the handle, and expanded to compress ( leather) or hold ( wood, horn, antler). On some designs it stops just short of the end of the handle.
It is slim, usually square and tapering.


The company called Morakniv uses this design only on their wooden handled knives ( Either clear lacquered birch, or red lacquered birch, models #1 and up.)

The rest have a non tapering, wide and flat tang, same thickness as the spine of the blade.
Some have one some two, half circular cut outs, to hold the various handle polymers.
Unsuitable for wood handles.

I do not know what you would call a such tang.
3/4 lollypop stick tang?
:)

This thread reminds me that I need to get a bunch of the red painted wooden handled carbon Moras. And maybr some laminated ones, if I can find them! I have a slight feeling they might get discontinued soon.

Now when Mora of Sweden is leaning towards higher priced knifes aimed at the bushcrafting fraternity!

The Classics are good stuff to safe for the future generations of my blood!
 
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Tenderfoot
Apr 22, 2016
94
46
Linköping, Sweden
I guess that Mora still make most of the money on the cheaper knives. For 4€ to 10€ they are hard to beat and the differences in price down to cheaper knives isn't hurting most peoples wallets. For the price of a garberg one can find other knives cheaper and/or nicer looking and/or stronger and the step up to handmade knives isn't that large, used ones is sometimes even in the same range.
 

TinkyPete

Full Member
Sep 4, 2009
1,966
191
uk mainly in the Midlands though
The only full tang Mora is the Garberg, the classics are full stick tangs, all the rest are some form of partial tangs, with the survival, kansbol, black and force models having 3/4 tangs the companions are partial stick tangs. There are a few images on x-rays of mora knives to show their tangs on the web HERE, is a link to a woodtrekker blog where he shows x-rays of 4 Moras.
 
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TinkyPete

Full Member
Sep 4, 2009
1,966
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uk mainly in the Midlands though
That being said they are still good knives, it all depends on what you are after and what you want your knife to do, I have had a mora classic which I have lightly batoned with and it has handled all the jobs I have put it to, but I have not used it to baton through wood with lots of knots or very well aged wood, but that is what it is designed to do. The garberg is too much money for me to spend on a Mora, the kansbol is great slicer and awesome at food prep as well as wood carving, the clipper, HD or robust are worth it as well, the classics are classic and great knives. if you are after a full tang scandi knife that is not too much money I would go for a Terava knife like THIS one, very well priced, great sheath and handles everything I throw at it and asks for more :)

the whole of the range are great I have the Skrama and mini skrama as well as both sizes of the Jaakaripuukko...hope it helps.

There are other knives out there like the TBS knives and cold steel and the such, it all depends on what you want to spend and want the knife to do. The Terava knives I have taken to many a rough place both here and abroad and normally have a back up knife of a Mora or a very good pocket knife if weight was a problem.
 
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Tenderfoot
Apr 22, 2016
94
46
Linköping, Sweden
A Terave or a jäägäripuuko is a matter of taste or whats planed to do.
If I plan to batton crazy amounts of wood or very knotty logs the terave is a given but for most other tasks I prefere my jäägäripuuko (I have the old bladestyle, sabergrind?)
For the terave a tip is to round of most of the spine and only leave some centimeters at the tip for the firesteel.
 

TLM

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Nov 16, 2019
3,092
1,624
Vantaa, Finland
Nowadays sissipuukko and Varusteleka's jääkäripuukko are made of the same material. My hand likes the jääkäripuukko better but that depends. In many cases Finnish puukkos are very slightly hollowground but I have to check how these both are, depends whether the sharpening is done on a large diameter wheel or flat platen. I live just a few klicks from their store and visit it quite often.

As TinkyPete said Moras are the perfect backup knives.
 
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