@@Jordan.Buckley sure, but I was trying to save you the second hydraulics compressor... hahaha btw, chicken or egg scenario if you have to cut away trees for your solar panels to work to provide the power to cut away the trees...
The 511 is made for people who do actual work and not for playing bushcraft on RU-vid. However, I abused a 511 once to process huge amounts of fatwood, with lots of twisted roots and knots and it held up incredibly well
In Sweden these knives are considered disposables pretty much. You buy them for less than five bucks, use them until they get dull and buy a new one. Kinda funny how they seem to be held to a much higher standard abroad.
The basic is designed for....well... basic work. Thats why you get the mora robust. Its a little more... dare i say... robust then the basic. And great video. Im excited to see your final piece.
Here in Sweden every carpenter use that knife. We don't use them very much for cutting in wood. Mostly to push wood into place like fasad boards or wooden deck boards. We bang on them with hammers all the time and break maybe 1-3 blades/year. What happened in this video was very surprising.
Ok I made a question in other video about this knife breaking while battoning. I belive that the solution is not grabbing the hand grip tight and strongly once it gets into the log, but to hold it loosely so we let the steel resolves the vibrations or the tress that it stands while hitting the blade batoning... What do you think ?
My Mora Companion still has a place in my pack. I can’t afford a lighter fixed blade knife that’s just as/more capable... That being said, great video!!!
The Companion has a significantly longer tang that won't just pop out of the handle so easily:. Google "Mora Companion tang" and check out the images. I own significantly more expensive full-tang fixed blades and I regularly use the Companion for things like firemaking - it splits small logs (up to its blade length in diameter, basically) just fine.
Try the same tests with a Hultafors Craftsman's knife HVK. I have beaten the crap out of one for over two years. It has split many oak logs with knots in them, it is surprisingly durable.
I have a mora robust, I'm very new to mora knives, but I saw a video, of a guy trying to break the robust, and it wouldn't break, he was trying to break the tip and all sorts of things,
You have the skills and knowledge to make the tool to fit your needs. Everyone saying "stick to the Mora Basic" are just that...basic. I've never seen what's under a Mora handle. It looks like the tang broke, but how much of it? Or did only the handle break?
Just got my mora basic so i've been bingeing these videos. The basic tang goes to about where it broke with just one set screw from what i've seen in other videos. All the other mora knives above basic have a rat tail tang that goes almost all the way down the handle and dont have the same problem of this knife where it breaks right at the end. This basic is meant for more utility purposes, I think you can probally take it camping with a hatchet and be fine though.
Anyone who bashes the mora for breaking while batoning is just upset that you can buy a quality knife for 10 dollars. I own several expensive bucks and benchmades and spydercos and i hate to use them hard. Not that they couldnt take it but theyre over 100 dollars each. I wouldnt take a baton to a benjamin and i dont really wanna take one to my expensive knives either. For what the mora is made for (light bushcraft, camp work, slicing things) it is an excellent knife. Specifically because its cheap and you dont need to worry about rolling a blade or damaging it. People dont love moras because theyre better than your 200 dollar s30v knife, they love them because they excel at what theyre meant to do, theyre easy as hell to sharpen, theyre cheap and eliminate the worry of damaging an expensive blade, and theyre wonderful to use. In fact i use my mora in the woods alot more than i do my expensive knives for that exact reason
People that scream about “using the proper tool” probably don’t actually get outside very often. In my experience, using any tool that satisfactorily gets the job done is using “the proper tool” Using common sense is the key, and having a good time is the goal. If we were really “using the right tool” we’d all be carrying around froes, adzes, axes, hewing hatchets, sloyd knives, hand drills, etc. It would get ridiculous.
Its only a saying that works when you have the proper tool at hands reach, in my school workshop a lot of people broke rasps because they arent hammers.
I use a Mora to process my rabbits and cut open feed bags. It's a good cheap knife for light duty tasks. I was very impressed with the abuse the knife you made withstood.
I've thought about using my Mora Companion for that, lol. I don't like serrated steak knives, I usually use my Victorionox 4" utility knife, couple swipes on the ceramic rod and it slices through a NY strip like butter.
@@jadedsamuria Scandi sharpens perfectly on a sandpaper attached to a sanding block with the rubber underneath the sandpaper. Works nicer than the waterstones. And way more convenient/easy/fast than any other method ( you do it on front of your tele if you want). It's the sanding block type where you fixate the sandpaper with the metal clips at the ends. Don't know the right words, English is not my native language.
Absolutely the most common use for mora I've had and seen is opening the plastic bag of sausages for bonfire at summer cabin or bonfire place and maybe some cooking cutting in the same places. The second could be making fire sticks. Maybe in the boat toolbox or something.
Have you tried the Frosts knives, nowadays a brand owned by Mora, marketed to the professional food industry. I haven't worked as a butcher in a long while, and I havent used any of them since they were an independent company (and also made carry knifes), but they used to be better than Mora (of Sweden, as the Mora company used to be called back then). At least before Frosts was bought by Mora, the Frost knifes had a much better construction than Mora knifes. Much more durable tang and blade (impossible to break, but could be bent, but I don't think batoning into wood provide enough force to do so, as bone, tooths and marrow is much harder than most woods). They were also lighter, much easier to sharpen/regrind or sharpen/polish (to make a dull knife sharper, usually you dont need to remove steel from the edge, if the knife is of the right softness/hardness, just polish it to straighten the bent edge (not chipped edge, as with the too hard steels that are currently popular)), and with an edge that doesn't chip and is soft enough to be easy to sharpen against most rocks, or your cast iron skillet, but hard enough to not get dull unless you cut into metal or quarts (sand and gravel), no special tools needed for sharpening. Try Frosts deboning or butcher knifes. They have the same shape as a classic Scandinavian carry knife (kike the popular Mora brand knifes), but are a bit longer than what those usual are. They don't come with the classic Scandinavian carry knife grinding (as the Mora brand has), but that's easy to do yourself (since a two planes edge is more durable than a one plane edge, when I worked as a butcher, I usually grinded the part, of the blade, nearest the handle into this shape, to be able to cut through bone and marrow, without having to regrind the blade more than about once a month (but polished several times a day), after tens if thousands of cuts through bones).
They had this new thing called a hatchet, much lighter than an axe. I've seen two high dollar knives break when battoning. Using my knife in a way that might break it seems silly, I'll carry a small hatchet.
I do not want to use an expensive knife in batoning. That is the idea of using a cheap one. Morakniv is a nice alternative. Good quality in a reasonable price.
On the one hand I agree with your results. On the other hand there is also yet another way, whittling a wooden wedge and beginning it after starting the split with just gentle batonning of the knife. Felix Immler made a vid of this using a 91mm Swiss Army knife. But in all fairness we'll never know if it took one knife or 3 broken ones.
If you intentionally break it yes. But for light batoning 511 can do just fine. I prefer machete batoning. I wouldnt do crazy things on my mora. I will still still subscribe to you though.
to the whiners complaining about expensive knives vrs mora basic stuff. Just get a Mora bushcraft knife if you want to baton. personally I think batoning is stupid, but not for the same reasons. trees actually grow thinner stuff...And fire does burn thick stuff too. So just get the right resources...might actually make a video on that myself.
Mora knives are made for bushcraft jobs and maybe some people have gotten away with batoning with them but its a plastic handle and a super tiny tang. Please use the proper tools for the job people!
Maybe I'll have to get an Alex Knife someday! 👍 My cheap Mora worked very good for three years and it did take a good beating. The only fail was when I lost it last summer backpacking. 😢 Thanks for the video! Now I'm not sure how much that I could really trust it except for the lighter work jobs.
Whilst I am a huge fan of MORAKNIV of which I have a few... They are mass produced to accommodate the low budget end of the scale. They are good knives, but I think the point of your video is to demonstrate that you should not expect too much from a budget knife if you intend to give it real abuse in the field and I agree with you very much on this point. Mora are comfortable, practical and capable knives to the limits that they were designed for. If you really want to beat on a MORAKNIV though, you should look to purchase the top end of the scale such as a GARBERG which is full tang, very capable and have a lifetime guarantee... which usually doesn't come with a knife unless the manufacturer has some real faith in it. Keep the video's coming they are always interesting, sometimes informative such as this one and always entertaining :-)
That was sad😢. Great video though😁. Some really beautiful panning shots. I love all the comments about trying the stronger Moras. I foresee another video. Good content for a small price. Keep-um coming Alex👍🏼.
A lot of companies make lightweight axes and hatchets. Doesn’t matter though, battoning is almost never even necessary when camping. Kinda just a trend right now.
OUTDOORS55 lol good answer. I’m just saying that I went from cub scouts to Eagle camping many, many times in different parts of the US and never needed to baton once. I’m really not trying to tell you what to do with your tools, and I think your video was really well made friend, all I’m saying is the idea of battoning as a camp chore(and not an emergency) is a fairly new idea. It’s just a preference thing, you can make a fire by battoning or you can just walk around and pick up sticks like we used to do lol. Anyways, again well made video and hope you have a good day friend.
Thanks for the kind words. I hear you but picking up sticks does work when theres 2 feet of snow. Or everything is covered in 1" or ice. Or its been raining for a week. One can go outside for 50 years and never need a rain jacket. One just doesn't go outside in the rain. Just because you've never had the need, doesn't mean it the need doesn't exist. Thanks again for the kind words 👊
OUTDOORS55 I get where you are coming from, but I have a small lightweight hatchet that I carry with my camp gear just in case I ever did have the need to do some chopping or light splitting tasks. I carry my fixed blade for protection mostly, but like I said a lot of it is personal preference and if you pay good money for tools, you use them however you want. Thanks for the reply and thanks for being civil even though we don’t necessarily agree on everything. We need more of that on RU-vid nowadays 👍
Good information, nice to see. To be fair my little hatchet weights a whole 2lb and is great at driving pegs, pulling them back out, and of course you can always split wood with it. I have never tried to cross cut with a knife. Do you ever find you need to or was that just to test the knife.
A hatchet is good for splitting wood while bushcrafting. Its lighter than an axe too. Kind of what its ment for...also wouldnt baton with a rat tail knife. Full tangs are more designated for that along with a hatchet.
My basic did see a bit of wood (hard and soft), leather, cardboard, chocolate, nuts, plastic bags, sowing yarn and dried meat. Though I only went as far as helping it with my thumb on hard wood, not beating it with a cudgel. With the work that I put into little modifications like a hand ground spine, leather strop on the sheath and a tiny oily leather cloth that I throw in the sheath, I became too attached to it, to abuse it.
I carry a knife everyday. Different knives. I’ve watched probably 100+ knife videos. This is the first time someone has mentioned farming as a job needing a knife. Thank you. No more “ I use this knife for cutting cardboard boxes and opening mailings from Amazon”. Farming needs serious knives everyday.
According to my understanding, a knife is to be used for cutting, not for chopping logs. For this a normal man uses an ax if not any machine like a chainsaw. If I'd go into wilderness, I surly take an ax with me...yet some blockheads seem to fell trees with a knife...
Mors Kochanski used the 511 a lot. Also for batoning. He said at a uk bushcraft meet to kitheads, if you pay more than 10 bucks on a knife you're wasting your money.
I think the Mora basic is good but the "best" tool to carry if you need to do some light chopping or batoning, is probably a jakaripuukko or something like that, maybe even an Eafengrow they are making solid things.
Well, to be fair the Mora Basic is called basic for a reason. That said, a good solid bushcraft knife will withstand light batoning without any problem, even an inexpensive one. I have an EF fixed blade in 14c28n and it seems to be as tough as they come.
I carry and use 4 different knives at 4 different times. General use = Heretic Manticore X. Opens with a solid pop, cuts everything you need it to within reason. Ive shaved a few branches with it as well. I wouldnt baton with it since its a OTF, but its one of the strongest OTFs on the market. Its a solid defensive knife if needed. Work knife box opener= Microtech UTX-70. It fits very comfortably into my shirt breast pocket. Very light, dont even know its there. Pops open every time, cuts open any box I need it to and have shaved many items with it. Multi-tool = Leatherman Wave. nuf said. Outdoor Knife = Camillus Pilot Survival.
Honestly, if you don't mind the weight and don't want to send 25 bucks on an uncle henry or 75 bucks on a condor, a good rebar knife can do this and more.
Impressive comparison. I think it's important to know the limits of the tools you rely upon. I beat the living hell out of every knife I forge before it leaves the shop. If it's going to fail, I want it to fail on me, not its owner. But, I also think it's also important to be reasonable with tools, given what they're meant to accomplish. Moras are great little knives that can stand up to most bushcraft tasks if used properly. You proved that a Mora can handle batoning if the user does so correctly, along the grain of the wood. It was when you deliberately abused it by cutting cross-grain that it understandably failed. Nothing wrong with doing so to prove a point, regardless of what the butthurt fanboys say. It's just worth recognizing the difference between realistic use and deliberate abuse,when it comes to quantifying tool durability, and I think you did a great job with that here.
In fairness, the 511 isn't really an outdoors knife. Other moras are suited for that and still cheap. A small splitting wedge would probably be fine over a knife.
Cross cut batoning is VERY HARD on any knife. Do I want a lightweight knife that will do it? Yep....would I use it for that?? Nope. SILKY saws are lightweight, and hunters axes and hatchets are light....ER.... PERSONALLY....a CS GHURKHA KHUKURI will do both, the knife you are researching would be hard for me to baton, like the Mora...due to physical limitations....to each his own path.
I think people discount the amount of additional effort there is in actually wailing on a small knife like this to split or poorly chop and only go for weight... In my back packing kits (which of course won't work for all) I carry a small hatchet, folding saw, and spydie. I think I'd rather carry the additional 2 lbs in my kit for a few days but fire prep is a big deal in my location.
Wow! That didn't take too long lol...point made. Keep the videos coming. Looking forward to seeing the end result of your light weight “ Grail Knife” . Cheers Mike.
Yo Alex, my brother.. my friend.. my GOOD friend... I thunk this was a knife makin, NOT a knife breakin channel????? 🤓 btw, congrats on 100,000+ subs!!!! 👏👍👍 ☆Jay☆
"Just use the Mora basic, stop wasting your time." - How is THIS a waste of time? Dude's got a passion right there! I don't even really know how I ended up at this channel, but I definetely always wanted sharper knifes and I got myself a sharpening stone and now actually do have knifes that I are pulling the hair off of my arms. Propably not AS sharp as if this guy right here did them, but still - they can shave! And I had ZERO sharpening experience and just gave it a try and it took less than 10 minutes for the first knife. He's trying stuff to find out more about what is actually good and how good. He claims it's not super scientific, but actually this is what science is all about. I myself am splitting wood by hand with an axe and going to try flattening the edge as I've seen it here. I love how this guy spends time crafting stuff and trying around with materials and "designs", while so many people sit in front of their monitors and tell him he'd just be wasting time. - If people would always be like: "We have working stuff, so why bother trying to improve it or find out more in general?" we'd still be living in caves...
I bet that if put a lot of adjacent holes into your 1084 knife (except for the edge of course) arranged in a hive-like structure, if won’t be able to break it like the previous ones
mora basic is crazy cheap for what your getting. its sharpee than a razor and is great. really strong easy to sharpen if you have a decent cheap set of stones. i got a tri set for like 20bucks on amazon all my knifes and pocket knifes are razor sharp. !!!careful if your new to very sharp knifes if you get a mora knife out of the box Try not to Cut yourself. your finger your hand anything its sharp unlike most knifes. i got the basic origional mora im actually thinking of getting a much mroe expencive one just for the handle and extra blade length.. and yes you can batton with it but dont slam on it trying to batton stupid thick wood and not battoning on the side instead of the top. its not a fucking full tang lol but its still really strong and sharp . i esp like the grind. even the top of the line folding pocket knife would break. batoning if for heavy duty full tang or axes. unless your doing small thin branches
Have you seen the coast crew chief fixed blade it's 10 bucks I think it would be better for batoning it thick full tang it's softer steel but that means it probably not as brittle you just have to sharpen it more often
I really didn't expect the Mora to snap like that. I spent a week in the boundary waters with mine and batoned a lot of wood. Thinking back, it was mostly dead standing or fallen pines , but hey, at least it survived that. While I have retired the mora for a Benchmade, I always held the Mora in the "indestructible" category. Nowadays it's in my fishing pack and isn't used for much more than cutting bait and line, but hey, good to know I got lucky!
I'm not in the least surprised by this! The Mora is not just hidden tang but also only about 3/4 tang, and most have a blade thickness of only 2 - 2.5mm. Like you; I would only use a Mora for [Very] light work.... So I don't really think there is much point in buying one. For this sort of work I'll stick with my Schrade F56L :) .... and anyway; I don't like Scandi Grinds. Full-width (or deep) Flat grind or Hollow grind - Yes!
Great review. Unfortunately, as with many " bush-craft " videos, many spout more excrement than a bomb in a sewage works, and are just about as healthy, giving criminally dangerous advice that can, and will, get people killed and injured. This is a fantastic knife, for the price. It is not a bush-craft knife and should not be relied upon as anything other than an absolutely emergency reserve knife, and for lightweight food prep and paracord cutting out in the field. Breaking a knife in the field could lead to you taking dangerous risks using the broken parts, or being injured, potentially fatally when a would cannot be staunched, or emergency aid brought to bear in time. Possibly even worse is just abandoning the broken, but still sharp, blade to harm other people and wild-life. In short - DON'T MISUSE TOOLS AND TAKE IDI0TIC RISKS !!! I completely agree with you and love this knife; I have three of them and they are amazing tools for lightweight work. I also have a robust for heavier duty work and that I do recommend for bush craft, but because of its length, still as a secondary or backup knife. However, I do have a lot more faith in the Robust than the 511 when it comes to abuse :)
A tomahawk handle weighs about a half of a pound and a tomahawk head weighs anywhere from 1 lb to 2 lb. And it is way lighter than any sawzall you could possibly imagine.
i feel like if im making a fire each night it'd cost me less calories to carry a lil hatchet or a splitting wedge than to batton. gets you set up a lot quicker if you find a good spot a bit late in the day too
@Outdoors55 i wanted to ask you something, because you're a really good freehand sharpener - i remember reading one time, that even a 90-degree right-angle edge can cut you if it's sufficiently honed. i'm not sure what to think about that statement and unfortunately can't remember where i encountered it - but i'd be very interested to see if it's true.
I've had a companion for ten years, snapped the tip off at some point, but I've used it for battoning every campfire or BBQ we've had in that time, decent knife. Was considering buying a few mora basics to build new handles but there's obviously a reason they're so so cheap.
