I am not a hunter. I never skin anything with the only exception of cooked potatoes. And instead of you Brits I don't live in a rain forest.
And I am nearly 50 years old. That means I don't want a knife for playing around with it. I don't have to train carving because I have been a boy scout leader for many years. I know it very well and I am very fast with it, but it isn't my beloved hobby.
In the last two weeks exeptionally I carved a lot, because I fitted out a construction trailer as my Corona Virus holyday domicile with bought and natural wood.
I was impressed by the performance of my brothers cheap Mora 840.
But usually I don't carve, and if I do it, than I just make a tent pole, a few pegs or absolutly simple camp utensils wich are done very fast to use them for one or two nights.
Usually I use 95% of all occasions my Victorinox Compact. The big knife usually I carry around in the rucksack and don't touch it very often.
My bigger knife I mainly use for cutting water melons at French camping grounds during my journeys, for cutting bread in Germany and I carry it mainly as a potential weapon, because on my journeys I often do wild camping not very far away from towns and even at a camping ground or a railway station or whatever you never know...
My current bigger full tang knife for traveling is pretty bad (I don't mean the Mora 840) and I want to buy that new knife more as a survival knive than a bushcraft knife.
I usually don't craft things just for fun, so the better grip of a rubberised handle isn't so important for me. And if I go with a colleague by car, I always have a razor sharp Opinel No8 Carbone with me in the kitchen bag, which is an outstanding good camping kitchen and carving knife.
I am more interested in a bomb proof survival knife, because I often run around with a 3 seasons equipment in winter times. When traveling professionaly in winter times In Germany or France I usually count with a youth hostel or hotel bed, but I always take a basic light and compact 3 seasons bushcraft equipment with me, which reaches down to round about 0*C.
A real survival knife would open to me the option to use that equipment in unplanned "cases of emergency" even in real sub zero conditions, just for one unpleasant unplanned short night.
That's why I want a survival knife even if I usually stay in central Europe. But sometimes we get in eastern Germany -15*C or even deeper temperatures and so I could find myself at midnight in a survival situation if I don't want to go to an expensive hotel or whatever...
I avoid that, but I want to keep the option open. And of course, if I throw a 300 g knife in the 6 kg rucksack I carry nearly every day on my shoulders, it should be a good allround tool.
I use a lot of Decathlon Solognac clothing which works fine for me and which is very cheap, but for important and relatively expensive other equipment I prefere high quality products which are made in Europe.
I'm not so horribly patriotic, but I prefer to spend my money mainly here around: German boots and Rucksack, insulation mat and dry bags, a larger Swedish rucksack too and a Swedish tent, Snugpack SF1 Sleeping bag, made in Britain, Swiss Army knife, and so on. I prefere sending my money to the direct neybourhood if possible. And so a swedish knife would be an interesting option for me.
I think about a British custom made knife as well, but because cheap Mora knifes convinced me, I think about trying out the Mora Garberg. I guess I would get a good value for the money if I choose an industrial product. And there aren't so many industrial made survival / bushcraft knifes from European production on the market.
The Mora Garberg doesn't seem to me to be the most beautiful knife in the world, but I guess, it is a high quality tool. And because I often let my rucksack in the tent on a camping ground or in a hostel room without surveillance, a cheaper industrial productuct seems to be a sensible Idea for me.
@Dan1982
Which glove size do you use?
I use 10 or 11 in German size, that means it is the largest usual size for working gloves. Do you think that the handle of the Garberg fits well to my hands?
In the YouTube reviews people often criticise a secondary bevel at the stainless Garberg. Did your knive have one as well or has/ had it a real scandy grind?
Paul Kirtley tells in his review that the spine of his stainless Garberg was so sharp, that it hurded his thumb a bit when he pressed with it on the spine when carving. Did you have similar problems with the carbon version?
I guess, that those problems mainly came with the first stainless Garberg knifes they produced and that they stopped those problems later, when the carbon version came out. Usually the guys in the Mora factory know very well how to make knifes...
morakniv.se
