Survival and Emergency Preparedness

bdcochran wrote: ↑Wed Nov 04, 2020 9:12 pm aerynsun: You are correct. I have probably about 10 Moras. Why? I was taught a lesson by some Marines during the First Gulf War. You did not need an expensive knife. And, if your supply line was in doubt, just have extras. So, given the risk of theft by Homeland Security people at the airport, every suitcase has an inexpensive folder, low end Leatherman, Swiss Huntsman, and a flashlight. No Mora unless I am going to a US destination.

I just came back from a walk around the block (22 minutes) wearing shorts, no belt - carried a plain edge Spyderco Endura.

Check out these sales.

https://www.govdeals.com/index.cfm?fa=M ... cctid=1328

https://www.govdeals.com/index.cfm?fa=M ... cctid=1328

Thank you for calling out those sales.

I make mistakes from time to time. During the Great Recession, starting in about 2008, quite a few people, including internet stores, dumped knives and swords on the market. I picked up quite a number, restoring the old and abused items. I expected the same thing to happen in 2020 because of the economic shutdown. I was totally wrong. People started bidding up weapon systems, the economic downturn be damned!

I will make some further comments on the Mora knives. The rural people who live in the Scandinavian countries face an environment in the winter that we would consider has survival problems. The rural people are not commuting in a warm car to a mountain top to go skiing for the day and then go to a restaurant. Why are they not carrying $500 survival knives that can chop down trees? The answer is that they have survival skills that do not require chopping green wood. They are not going to be chopping up wood. You gather dry branches. They aren't going to have the time to build a log cabin as well.

Now, you go to youtube at you look at the videos about the Mora knives. You do not have to go to a leather sheath product website to end up with a survival sheath with a sharpening stone, fire starter and ability to attach a sheath to a backpack. You bought a sharp $15 knife with a sheath. Look how you can modify the sheath. Practice modifying sheaths. They are cheap! You may insist on attaching a sharpening item to the sheath and I may think it is unnecessary. However, you learn how to do it. And, if you are in a situation that you have to go to a fishing tackle box or the boot of your car, you have the inexpensive version of the $500 survival knife. I ended up with over a dozen modified Moras. Functional and ugly!

In Scandinavia, they used to sell Mora knives by the bucket full to craftsman and the construction trades. When they got gunked up or went dull, they would pull another one out of the bucket and toss the old one, much like we do in the USA with Stanley knife blades. The main advantage was that they were sharp from the factory and extremely cheap (as in disposable cheap).

Some survival instructors started handing them out to their students because they were cheap and reasonably good wood working knives. Then the “bushcraft” crowd started hyping them as the greatest survival knives ever and all of a sudden the prices went way up. Still they are not bad knives if you get them for around $10-15, but don't be fooled that they are rugged knives – all of them can be easily bent or broken.

I still have about 4 of them, one is an odd one with a serrated blade – I like it because the serrations are not too big and snaggy and it cuts smoothly and sharpens up easily on a Sharpmaker, knida like the serrations on SAKs.


BTW, If you like Moras, Cold Steel makes some Mora like knives at good prices.

Like a gun the best knife is the one you have with you if one is needed. So I fall into the category of those who purchase lot's of Mora's and have them literally everywhere. They are cheap sharp hold an edge and if I damage or loose it no worries. You are a lot more likely to just need a knife for an everyday chore than a survival situation. Let me relate a story that demonstrates my point. I had taken a tuck load of trash to the local landfill, as I drove off the truck started to shake violently. Scared the crap out of me. I pulled over and somehow a bed sheet was wrapped around the drive shaft. Luckily I had a couple knives in the truck. I went to cutting and about 20 minutes later the bedsheet was removed. Saved me a tow bill and reinforced my belief in Rule #9 Always carry a knife.

THis is another good choice for utility work.

https://www.amazon.com/WORKPRO-3-piece- ... B0751B7WXR

Well finally got a Cold Steel Finn Hawk that I have wanted for some time. Glad I did, the Finn Hawk seems nicer than my Mora Clipper and Swedish Army knife, has a nice solid feel to it with a very comfortable handle. Came shaving sharp, but not TP slicing sharp - a quick trip to the Sharpmaker should fix that. A lot of people have complained that the sheath is too tight but I like it a little tight since I will carry this more in a bag than on my belt and I don't want it coming out of the sheath. I always worry about this with the Clipper sheathes which I usually secure with a ranger band or even 100 MPH tape to keep them coming out of the sheath in a pack. If I intended to carry the Finn Hawk or a Mora for extended periods on a belt I would get a better sheath.

You brought up the important issues: 1. friction based sheaths; and, 2. a better sheath.

I address point 2, first.
a. if you have an aftermarket sheath for your Mora, try fitting this knife in. Over the years, I ended up with a pile of sheaths. I had an Ontario fixed blade come in last week without a sheath at a great price - and I just happened to have a sheath that worked with it.
b. Any sheath that is aftermarket is going cost a lot, unless you use your imagination. I wanted sheaths for inexpensive Ontario butcher knives. It turned out the the $13 K-bar leather sheath was perfect.
2. point 1,
a. cheap and ugly solution #1
I don't know the material. However, you probably could drill further up on the sheath and put on a leather restraining strap. I have done that many times on knife sheaths. Then you know the knife is secure. Might look ugly.
cheap and ugly solution #2
You have a hole in the handle of the knife. If you put 550 cord through hole and both ends through a small, PRC made plastic ball (you press on a point to open the jaws inside the ball to slip the 550 cord ends through), you can essentially tie down the knife to the sheath. I am not taking the time to photograph the ball. It resembles the control on a country western string tie. You can also hang the knife in the sheath on a nail on the wall or a tree branch.

I think I am going to carry the Finn Hawk as a neck knife - it's light enough at 4.5 oz with the sheath and I generally prefer neck knives to belt knives if they are not too heavy.

LT shows a way to do it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eP3AExuFZxg

But, I am going to do it without removing the belt clip.

I have made several neck knife set ups like this:



all I need to do is drill a small hole in the top of the belt clip where it bends over and I can hook the little S biner through the drilled hole and the cutout for the overalls button on the back of the clip. The neck lanyard is quick detachable and the sheath can still be used on a belt.

Yes. That is a way of doing it.

Comment on kydex. It does expand. I have a couple of kydex neck sheathes for Spyderco Enduras. They are in there and not put in and out and in and out. similarly, I have Kydex behind the back kydex sheathes, with say an Esse4. Same thing. Dedicated knife set up because kydex will open up. You correct the opening up periodically by putting the kydex sheath in hot water with the knife in the sheath and then pressing the sides with like a locking pair of pliers after you take it out of the hot water and let it cool down. Then, you have to treat the knife to lubrication.

I had not bothered to test a certain sheath with a 4 inch blade. This sheath will work upside down on a vest, right side up on the side, attached to an external pack. The reason I did not is because the sheath costs more than the $20-$25 excellent knife you bought. Look up the short Spec-Ops sheath. Versatile and expensive. I posted on pictures of a 5 inch blade and an 8 inch blade next to the short and long Spec Op sheathes on Glcoktalk this week.

Drilling a hole through the clip to attach a 550 cord neck lanyard worked out pretty well,





Light enough to be pretty much unnoticeable, but it's about as big/bulky as I would go for a neck knife - definitely not something to wear under a T shirt.