Knife snobbery

[Corso]

Thanks for that Corsa - now very clear - so my knife was from Frosts before they were taken over/merged!
Maybe I'll stop using it for battoning

Cheers,
Broch

I wouldn't worry about it there are so many out there they will hold their value rather than make money

you can still get KJE moras for under a tenner over here

 

[Janne]

The nicest to use are the models with the wooden handles, imo.
The shape of the handle is nicer in the hand than the ergonomic plastic ones. Also you know by instinct what not to do with it, if you use it wrong you will cut your hand badly.

Some people might say they are too thin and weak to baton. For sure they are. Rat tails. thin blades. But, no woodsman would baton with a knife. Axes were invented to split chunks of wood. Knifes are for cutting.

Batoning with a knife is what, 40 years old? But today it seems everybody does it. According to the thousands of Youtube 'experts' a knife is useless if it can not be batoned with.

 

[Laurentius]

The nicest to use are the models with the wooden handles, imo.
The shape of the handle is nicer in the hand than the ergonomic plastic ones. Also you know by instinct what not to do with it, if you use it wrong you will cut your hand badly.

Some people might say they are too thin and weak to baton. For sure they are. Rat tails. thin blades. But, no woodsman would baton with a knife. Axes were invented to split chunks of wood. Knifes are for cutting.

Batoning with a knife is what, 40 years old? But today it seems everybody does it. According to the thousands of Youtube 'experts' a knife is useless if it can not be batoned with.

Well to be honest I have not tried batoning with the Kitchen knife in question that started this thread, but I have batoned with my SAK rucksack and it is none the worse for it, but then SAKs are made of valyrian steel innit.

 

[Broch]

I don't carry an axe when I'm doing 20 miles with a full load in the hills; a knife that can batton is a must for me but I've been doing it for over 50 years and never broken a knife yet (touch wood ).
Seriously though, Corso, I'm not bothered about 'making money' just looking after something that has served me well for a long time. It's skinned more rabbit and gutted more trout than any other knife I've ever had - and that's after battoning the firewood . If you can point me to where I can get one of these for under a tenner I wouldn't mind getting a second.
Cheers,
Broch

 

[Corso]

That is a rather splendid mora, designed to work hard I'd bet

I would be interested in seeing a close up of the stamp

 

[Janne]

To be frank I do not like to carry an ax either. I use dry twigs I can comfortably break with my hands or with my foot.
Small fire. I am too lazy to soend time to gather lots if wood for a larger fire.

 

[Robson Valley]

I live in the Boreal Forest Biome (Interior Cedar Hemlock biogeoclimatic zone, to be precise.)
Thousands of km^2, crown land and fuel abundant with little effort.

Most good looking campsites already have rock fire rings. A bow saw is more useful to us for firewood.
Inner core spruce twigs are the driest with resins. They can be bashed into tinder fiber with a rock.
Nobody batons sticks with a knife. Maybe split some big wood with an axe but that's far to big to be a useful cooking fire.

 

[Janne]

Inner core, is that the twigs and branches closest to the bole?

I like when some of the wood is smeared in resin. I like the smell and the way it burns. Hot.

Most of my fires in Scandinavia were and are Norway spruce and Birch..

 

[Robson Valley]

Yes, close to the main stem. That's what we got taught as children.

The differences become really obvious when I watch a real heavy rain hit the big (50-60') spruce in my front yard.
It takes 3 days of solid rain to wet the main trunks.
A big tarp pulled down over the lowest branches would make a cozy camp.

Scandinavia is Boreal Forest Biome. Same as my place with slight species differences.
Although I live in the ICH, there's plenty of spruce, pine, birch and alder/aspen/cottonwood.

The pruned stumps of branches bleed resin very nicely.
I pick it off in -20C weather as it isn't the least bit sticky.
Nice to barefoot in my snow boots and wiggle my toes!

 

[Broch]

That proved more difficult than I expected; the etched name is only visible when the light is shining on the blade from a specific angle. Anyway, I hope you can see the word Frosts and the Mora underneath. Unfortunately all very faded now

Cheers,
Broch

 

[vestlenning]

Snobbery is everywhere. A lot of people are unable to just enjoy their knife or whatever, they have to rate it above other knifes or whatever and spend a lot of time looking down on those owning something "inferior". Sorry state of affairs it is, only good for showing how primitive many human beings really are.

 

[mark.177]

snobbery is a bad thing but what is snobbery? in this case anyways.... in my opinion anyone that buys the most expensive knife they can without either truly appreciating it and/or belittles others with a "lesser" knife is a snob.
on the flip side though one shouldnt belittle someone because they appreciate the value/quality/joy of use of a knife. we are born into this world with nothing and go out the same way, in the mean time it is nice to enjoy the world at its finest if only for a brief moment for it is only a brief moment...

 

[Rickyd]

Good thread this. I was round my friends uncles house just the other day, another guy who's in to his outdoors. We got on to knives and he went on to talk about his "unbeatable" knife. It had silly edge retention perfect handling, the heat treatment was awesome, it doesn't stain, shouldn't have to be sharpened etc..... in the end he went and fetched the knife. Sure enough, just as he said there wasn't a mark on it! "Christ!" I said, "are you sure you have used this" the reply was "no, it's too good to use" ..... that to me is a complete waste of time and money. It wouldn't really matter if the edge was destroyed on a bit of paper if you had no intention of using it!

 

[Janne]

I don't carry an axe when I'm doing 20 miles with a full load in the hills; a knife that can batton is a must for me but I've been doing it for over 50 years

View attachment 45943

I forgot to mention that ypu have a knife made by the company Frosts in the town Mora. A model called Hunter introduced in early or mid 1970'.
Rat tail, which shows that you can baton a rat tail knife if you know how to.

 

[Robbi]

Isn,t google your friend

 

[Janne]

A wealth of info! It helps that I speak Swedish so I can search easily on Swedish stuff. I myself do not recall that model, guys my age bought the classic knives made in Mora, brand whichever was sold by the store. I think there were 3 or 4 manufacturers then. Frosts, KJ, some others maybe.
All incredibly similar.

 

[Broch]

I forgot to mention that ypu have a knife made by the company Frosts in the town Mora. A model called Hunter introduced in early or mid 1970'.
Rat tail, which shows that you can baton a rat tail knife if you know how to.

I wasn't going to mention that