Expedition Blades

[Wayne]

All a bit over dramatic really. 14 days in Canada. Doesn’t really matter what knife you carry as long as you can use it effectively.

The only issue with failure is if it injures you as it breaks. It it did your knife skills were pretty poor to begin with.

A broken knife is going to be irksome but your not going to die. Need to get some perspective really.

I can’t think of a single task I have done in the NWT or Alaska that with a bit thought couldn’t have been a achieved a different way.

We like kit because we are gear snobs. Then tell ourselves they are life saving bits of kit when you’re on a risk assessed to death course with 10 other people dripping sharps and a bic lighter in every pocket. It’s playing at it.

None of the POWs and great survival stories of folk needing to do this for real had the luxury of a £250 knife.
What survivors have in common is a bad attitude and never give up.

 

[Erbswurst]

There are a lot of good knive offers in the price range between a Mora Companion and 250 £.

For 250 £ you can get a complete high end quality equipment if you buy used military surplus. Cheap as chips and tough as nails.

 

[TLM]

For 250 £ you can get a complete high end quality equipment if you buy used military surplus. Cheap as chips and tough as nails.

The people at Leka have evaluated a lot of military knives during the years. I just yesterday had a talk about them. They think that while military knives are not crap they are not really suitable for most general HD trekking use. Main reason: they are too soft, the reason for that appears to be that not breaking but bending is valued above keeping the edge. So a military knife (often serving as a bayonet too) is a general purpose tool for just about anything, starting from digging holes for antitank mines.

I think the cheapest knife for heavy duty use I can get here is Leka's jääkäripuukko, which at the moment is unavailable for shipping to the UK.

 

[Erbswurst]

With sheath you get the Garberg a few cents cheaper. But there are other options too.

 

[TLM]

With sheath you get the Garberg a few cents cheaper. But there are other options too.

True, I can get decent knives cheaper but jääkärip. is built like a tank. The question then becomes how much abuse the knife has to take. The way I use my knives I can get by with a Mora companion easily but I know people who want to use their knives harder. It really is somewhat a matter of taste and what one learns early on.

 

[Herman30]

Nobody asked me but I chime in all the same. My choice for a knife for aforementioned trip would be:

The Skrama 80: https://www.varusteleka.com/en/product/terava-skrama-80-carbon-steel/61160

 

[Nice65]

Just as a side note I remember seeing some one taking x-ray pics of Moras. Apparently there is some variation on tang length and shape during the years even on the same model. If I remember correctly there is no way to see the version from the outside.

This pic? From here.

xrays of Mora tangs

Just found a thread on British Blades about Mora tang lengths. I was shocked. Won't be giving mine so much hammer now http://www.britishblades.com/forums/showthread.php?t=90645&highlight=xray

bushcraftuk.com

Some of you will have a Fiskars billhook, a superb tool that I use pretty hard. I can just about see the tang if I look up the handle, no idea how it is fixed, but it works.

 

[Brizzlebush]

It was...knife spotter

I reckon photo 4 is PK

 

[TLM]

Again from memory, in Fiskars tools the handle is injection molded onto the tang like the Mora handles. I think the differences are mainly that Fiskars uses fiber reinforced material and their tangs are larger maybe better shaped too.

 

[z_bumbi]

I don't like the garberg blade and the only way I have broken mora clipper/companions is using them as trowing knives.

For the money that a garberg cost there is a lot more fun knives to have. If liking a sturdy user with skandinavien lines a hultafors ok4 is a good choice for a lot less money.