ive been wanting to compare the performance of these two knives for a while now, just to prove the effectivness of the £10 clipper against the £100-£400 woodlore type knife which seems to be the design all are measured against.
This was origionaly planned as a video, but unfortunatley that will have to hold until i get a new PC where i can save my videos as my current one is being very awkward.
Now, seeing that i cant afford to spend a huge ammount of money on a woodlore for the sake of testing it, i had to find an easier alternative.
FGYT has very Kindly lent me one of his woodlore clones for the purpose of this reveiw, the knife may differ in apperence but i assure you the only differences are the "thumb ramp" , the pins, scales and the lack of the Woodlore Badge, the knife is "in function" practicaly identical with the same weight, size, steel and grind. I can honestly say that FGYT's work on this knife was spot on, perfect grinds, amazing fit and finish and a wonderful take on such a famous knife.
The woodlore is in o1 tool steel, so its edge retantion is far superiour to the 1095 carbon of the clipper.
Both knives where fully sharpened before this Independant review
the woodlore has a much broader and wider blade than the clipper, this i though likley to cause a little more difficulty when doing push cuts and turning in wood.
Ok, so lets get down to testing these out.
For my first test I wanted to try pushcuts and simple carving, as they are probably the most required tasks for a bushcraft knife, the peice of hazel is around the thickness of my thumb and the cutting technique is the chest lever grip.
The clipper with its 2mm thick blade bit into the wood like it was soft cheese, very little effort required and alot of control due to the narrow blade.
As for the woodlore you can see it took a fair bit more effort to "bite" and that the thick blade actualy split the wood as opposed to cleanly cutting it.
even though the woodlore required a bit more effort both knives did an admirable job at cutting a standard notch.
The Next test was in cutting a circular notch, whilst this is generaly quite difficult in greenwood i was eager to see how the knives performed.
The mora did fine with its narrow controlable blade, but the thick and deep blade of the woodlore did a Pig of a job at this, very hard to turn in wood and had to use the very tip, as the center of the blade was far to broad to do anything of this nature, alot of the wood was ripped rather than cut and looked horrible compared to the clean job left from the clipper.
other Tests,
the woodlore is slightly better for firesticks and battoning, these are jobs that a mora can of course handle yet are more suited to a thicker blade.
Feel in the hand,
The moras grip is an amazing one, very comfortable in many possitions however the rubberised grip can induce blisters after long periods of time.
as for the woodlores grip, its very comfortable, but doesnt lend quite as much crip when your hands are cold and dry.
So, in conculsion i personaly found the clipper to be a more funtional tool for whittling and similar tasks, the clipper would be my choice over the woodlore for perhaps a weekend in the local woods... However due to the woodlores strength, edge retention and versitility it would be my choice in a scenario where my life depended on my knife, E.g a survival situation.
Id like to Say a Big thankyou to FGYT for Lending me the knife
All the best
Josh
This was origionaly planned as a video, but unfortunatley that will have to hold until i get a new PC where i can save my videos as my current one is being very awkward.
Now, seeing that i cant afford to spend a huge ammount of money on a woodlore for the sake of testing it, i had to find an easier alternative.
FGYT has very Kindly lent me one of his woodlore clones for the purpose of this reveiw, the knife may differ in apperence but i assure you the only differences are the "thumb ramp" , the pins, scales and the lack of the Woodlore Badge, the knife is "in function" practicaly identical with the same weight, size, steel and grind. I can honestly say that FGYT's work on this knife was spot on, perfect grinds, amazing fit and finish and a wonderful take on such a famous knife.
The woodlore is in o1 tool steel, so its edge retantion is far superiour to the 1095 carbon of the clipper.
Both knives where fully sharpened before this Independant review
the woodlore has a much broader and wider blade than the clipper, this i though likley to cause a little more difficulty when doing push cuts and turning in wood.
Ok, so lets get down to testing these out.
For my first test I wanted to try pushcuts and simple carving, as they are probably the most required tasks for a bushcraft knife, the peice of hazel is around the thickness of my thumb and the cutting technique is the chest lever grip.
The clipper with its 2mm thick blade bit into the wood like it was soft cheese, very little effort required and alot of control due to the narrow blade.
As for the woodlore you can see it took a fair bit more effort to "bite" and that the thick blade actualy split the wood as opposed to cleanly cutting it.
even though the woodlore required a bit more effort both knives did an admirable job at cutting a standard notch.
The Next test was in cutting a circular notch, whilst this is generaly quite difficult in greenwood i was eager to see how the knives performed.
The mora did fine with its narrow controlable blade, but the thick and deep blade of the woodlore did a Pig of a job at this, very hard to turn in wood and had to use the very tip, as the center of the blade was far to broad to do anything of this nature, alot of the wood was ripped rather than cut and looked horrible compared to the clean job left from the clipper.
other Tests,
the woodlore is slightly better for firesticks and battoning, these are jobs that a mora can of course handle yet are more suited to a thicker blade.
Feel in the hand,
The moras grip is an amazing one, very comfortable in many possitions however the rubberised grip can induce blisters after long periods of time.
as for the woodlores grip, its very comfortable, but doesnt lend quite as much crip when your hands are cold and dry.
So, in conculsion i personaly found the clipper to be a more funtional tool for whittling and similar tasks, the clipper would be my choice over the woodlore for perhaps a weekend in the local woods... However due to the woodlores strength, edge retention and versitility it would be my choice in a scenario where my life depended on my knife, E.g a survival situation.
Id like to Say a Big thankyou to FGYT for Lending me the knife
All the best
Josh
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okenest: )
it goes with my Pink cammo jacket 
