Is it just me or do the mora "spoon" knifes suck?

[Ian S]

Back on topic....

Unfortunately the Frosts spoon knives are poor to rubbish. You can re-grind and re-profile a 164 (the single cutting edge job) and make it fairly good, but you need to put a lot of work into it.

I have Svante Djarv and Hans Karlsson spoon knives, and I love them - a mate has Ben Orford spoon knives and he loves them.

I'm not sure if anyone is making a good, cheap spoon knife at the moment.
Cheers

 

[rancid badger]

Simple answer to original question is; YES they are utter rubbish, particularly now that retailers are charging > £21 for a knife you could buy for £5-£7 in 2006!
http://www.ronniesunshines.com/mora-crook-spoon-knife-p-847.html
http://www.ronniesunshines.com/frosts-crook-spoon-making-knife-p-846.html?cPath=
The above are not unusual prices by the way.

They used to be the economy option but not any more, yet they're still shxxe

I don't give a toss what you can make from them, by re-grinding etc.

For what retailers are asking, the knife should come ready and fit for use, but they don't.

for what it's worth, their little carvers, such as the 106 are superb by the way

It's important to remember; to shop around for anything related to bushcraft and find the best price but in the case of Mora/Frosts "crook" knives-just avoid them and pay the extra tenner or so and get a real quality tool like the Svante Djarve's etc.

FGYT( on here) does some very nice spoon knives too, by the way!

R.B.

 

[pastymuncher]

The double edged one is £13.99 from Clas Ohlson
£24 is far too much

 

[John Fenna]

That is over twice what I paid a couple of years back! - still too much!

 

[beachlover]

I bought myself a Flexcut one and it is, like the rest of their carving / whittling knives, razor sharp.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Flexcut-KN2...UTF8&coliid=I3EF3KT7HO5VN5&colid=F82P8ZRRAAM2

 

[Bardster]

Back on topic....

Unfortunately the Frosts spoon knives are poor to rubbish. You can re-grind and re-profile a 164 (the single cutting edge job) and make it fairly good, but you need to put a lot of work into it.

I have Svante Djarv and Hans Karlsson spoon knives, and I love them - a mate has Ben Orford spoon knives and he loves them.

I'm not sure if anyone is making a good, cheap spoon knife at the moment.
Cheers

They can be turned into quite a usable knife in about 20 mins. but agree with RB, you shouldn't have to. The best cheap knife around at the moment is FGYT's but he's not making many at the moment.

 

[rancid badger]

I bought myself a Flexcut one and it is, like the rest of their carving / whittling knives, razor sharp.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Flexcut-KN2...UTF8&coliid=I3EF3KT7HO5VN5&colid=F82P8ZRRAAM2

Ahh now THATS a bargain!

 

[Biker]

Ahh now THATS a bargain!

Yeah I agree, so much so I just ordered one. Maybe I'll have better luck using it than the Frost one. I bought a Frost whittling knife last year and that's a joy to use.

 

[Scott Of The Llandow]

Ben Oreford gets my vote,great knifes but i would like to try a fgyt if i can grt one!!!

 

[johnnythefox]

Ahh now THATS a bargain!

shall i get that and what other knife for general whittling?

 

[Badger90]

After looking into buying one of these after our escapades over the weekend, i was surprised by what i've read.

We used both Mora and Svante and found the Mora easier to use as starters to the making of spoons ( using Hazel )

The Svante was smaller in size and seemed abit more difficult to manoeuvre, but that could just be down to our in experience regarding using the tool itself.

As we continue to practice, we'll stick with a Mora for now ( just ordered ), but i have been looking at the complete kit from Svante...

 

[MartiniDave]

Johnny,

For general whittling and carving you will not do better than the Frost 106 Sloyd knife. For a spoon knife, well, I use the frost single sided one, it was ok straight from the pack, but 20 minutes with a bit of leather and some metal polish made it very good indeed. I've used a Svante Darv and yes, it was better, but at the time (6 years ago) it was 5 times the price.
There are spoon knife sharpening videos on youtube which you might find helpful. If you do get the frost spoon knife, try and cadge a drill storage box from a tame engineer - the telescoping plastic type - to store the knife in, not very traditional but VERY safe.

Dave

 

[mr dazzler]

I love my pair of mora hook knives. As I havent used any other make, I probably dont know any better LOL
This is what I carved yesterday with them (and a self made whittling knife with a finnish blade)
http://flic.kr/p/9womWE
Some are dry wood (alder and willow) They need their finish cuts and thats them done. I use a small elbow adze to do most of the hollowing work now. I think I found some western red cedar in my cord wood pile this year. Whatever it is its the lovliest wood I have ever carved. Very untemperamental if you know what I mean

 

[HHazeldean]

I have had one for a while and I haven't used it for ages because how ever much I sharpen it, it simply doesn't hold an edge for any length of time.

 

[Stringmaker]

Ahh now THATS a bargain!

I wish I hadn't clicked on that link:

So many goodies!

 

[robin wood]

The reason retailers are charging twice what they were 5 years ago is because the wholesale price has doubled. This is partly due to weak pound but also I suspect due to Erikson buying out frosts 5 years ago. Now no competition in the town of Mora. Most of their knives are still incredible value. Anyone that thinks £20 is expensive for a knife with a handle should have a go at making one and wholesaling it to retail at that price.

The 164 works reasonably and I used to recommend it as a starter knife if you could afford no more though it leaves a lot to be desired. I have used all the hooks on the market (not got the flexcut, it looks way to small a hook but be interested to hear) there is not a really good cheap hook at the moment.
I have a set of 15 or so different hooks and regularly have carvers on courses experimenting with them all, the best way to judge a knife is to use it for quite a while alongside others. Ben Orford's seem popular with the ladies (little handles for little hands) Svante Djarve is a good knife, the big one is better but needs more skill to use. The one that seems most popular at the moment is Hans Karlsson but at about £40 they are not cheap.

 

[rancid badger]

shall i get that and what other knife for general whittling?

Get a 106 John, they really are excellent
http://www.woodsmithstore.co.uk/shop/Products/Tools/Knives/Product/Frosts+Carving+Knife+106/

The buy out news from Robin, explains quite a bit on the pricing issues but you can't get away from the fact that really aren't good value for money anymore.( never were really)

The alternative that's not been mentioned yet, is to make your own. I started with a Python file handle and a blade made from a flattened roll pin.( like a spring steel tube with a thin slot down the side)
I filed and ground it to "a shape" heated it up and curled it, then made a rough attempt at hardening and tempering it and finally sharpened it up.

It looked as rough as tramps chin but worked really well.

I've made them from o1 tool steel and old files too, none of them look very good but they all worked better (for me) than any of the frosts ones I've tried.

atb

 

[Tjurved]

I would love to see or read a debate about spoon/hook knife theory! Like the bevel angle, the length of the bevel, if the inside curved bevel should be flat or slightly rounded, the thickness and deepth of the blade and so on!

As for alternate tools to use, I much prefer using a chisel gouge to form a hollow rather than a spoon knife.

Me too! It just cut amazing compared to my spoon knifes.

Here are pictures of em. The one with the red handle I have modified to workable condition. The left side of it in the photo is the cutting edge.

 

[Bardster]

Here's a mora that I modified in about ten to fifteen minutes. Could still do with a little more work mind. Needs a little more curve.

 

[mrcharly]

What is it people do to their mora spoon knives to improve them?

Looking at the pics above, it seems to mainly be thinning down the blade by grinding off a lot from the outside of the curve. I have the double-edged knife and do find it a bit frustrating - even when the blade is sharp, it doesn't want to cut in the same way as the small straight moras (or a simple opinel). Is it just a matter of the bevels being too steep?