Mora Knives - whats it all about ?

[MBJ]

They used to do a laminate (don't know if they still do) that had a carbon core with stainless on the outside, worth a look, I have one of the old school wood handled ones made from laminate and it's nice, I just don't like the handle.

Just be careful with the laminate as you can't strike a Ferro Rod with it.

[Jamesey1981]

You can strike a ferro rod with broken glass or a piece of tin can.
Composition of the steel makes no difference at all, my laminated one works fine, makes a difference with flint, which is where people are getting confused, but not a ferro rod, with flint the steel sparks and the chromium in stainless stops the steel oxidising as well, (which is pretty much the point) with ferrocerium the rod sparks, all that it needs is a sharpish edge that's harder than the rod, which is pretty soft, softer than aluminium in fact, ferro rods have a vickers hardness of between 70 and 90, aluminium is between 160 and 350.

The main problem with ferro rods and moras is that most don't have a 90 degree spine so you'd need to use the edge, but five minutes with a file sorts that out, or you could just use a striker, really don't get the obsession with using a knife, my striker (a piece of broken hacksaw blade) is on the same piece of cord as my ferro rod, I'm unlikely to lose the striker without also losing the rod, it's nice to have a 90 degree spine to scrape fatwood or bark but if it was just to strike a ferro rod I'd rather leave it rounded and make it easier on my thumb.

[shocker]

my striker (a piece of broken hacksaw blade) is on the same piece of cord as my ferro rod, I'm unlikely to lose the striker without also losing the rod.

Same here

I have has a lump of magnesium with an embedded rod that I have been using for 30 years plus. Its pretty much in rag-order now and the rod is dished in the middle but its still working - its in my BOB/beltkit right now.

Forgot - its on the same round carabiner as my silva compass and whistle. Obviously any one would need to be detached to use it, but since everything I have is on a length of paracord thats not a problem. And they do not get tangles as the cord is all done up in slip-coils.

[Jamesey1981]

The ferro rod bit fell off my lump of magnesium, but at least it gave me another edge to scrape bits off!

[shocker]

"The rod fell off"...that old chestnut, eh ? Cant you get tablets for that now, mate ?

[Jamesey1981]

The tablets help with the hardening, they don't stop anything falling off, for that you need gaffer tape.

[shocker]

We dont call gaffer tape "nasty" for nothing !

[Deeps]

We dont call gaffer tape "nasty" for nothing !

We call it 'black maskers' or 'HBM', if we're being formal 'Harry black maskers' in The Andrew. The fleet is held together with the stuff, if the Russians designed a ray gun to disintegrate the stuff we'd be in the do-do. Its great stuff though, I've got plenty rolls of it stashed away.

[Jamesey1981]

The entire theatre industry is held together with gaffer and insulating tape as well, every show will arrive with an entire flight case just filled with tape, you actually couldn't do a show without it.

[Deeps]

Cable ties are also pretty bloody useful. I used to use a lot of them too.