Tuesday, February 2, 2016

MORA 511 HANDLE MODS

It’s good to be back after two months working on another writing project.  More on that later but during this hiatus I found time to make some knives and leather sheaths and I plan to spend the next few posts focusing on various mods and knife styles.  There are other things to talk about and those are in the queue as well.

As always I’d check the various knife and bushcraft forums and YouTube videos to see what others are doing and it’s interesting to see how people approach both subjects.  Take knives for example.  About every two or three months someone will come along and say that the Mora knife is “a good beginner’s knife.”  Now that statement has always seemed odd to me.  Facts are that there’s no such thing as a beginner’s knife or a master’s knife or professional’s knife or anything like that.  A man or woman adept at using a knife won’t make distinctions about knives as long as the knife used fits the occasion; and even then people will make do.  In other words, some knives are probably more suitable for gutting and skinning a deer as opposed to carving a spoon or a kuksa but an experienced knife person will make it work regardless.  But here’s the important point: If a knife is intended for woodcarving and costs ten bucks and it’s well made regarding heat treatment, steel type, tempering, and if the bevel is properly designed then what more does anyone need?  You can spend hundreds of dollars on a beautifully made knife but you won’t have anything better than a good old Mora when it comes to woodcarving.  A carbon steel Mora knife comes as close to the perfect woodcarving blade as one can get especially when using one of their woodcarving-specific blades.  One of my favorite pastimes is sitting out on the front porch or under a tree out in the woods carving a spoon or small bowl with a Mora and one of my crooked knives.  There is, however, one small complaint I have about Mora knives and that’s the handles.  With the exception of the model 711 and its stainless steel cousin and a few longer bladed models, I find Mora knife handles either too short or simply uncomfortable.  Of course, the answer is to remove the handle and make a new one from a branch or block of wood.  Attaching handles to stick tang knives is as easy or hard as you want to make it.  But if you’re not fussy then simply grab a suitable branch, drill a hole into it, fill the hole with epoxy, insert the tang and wait a few hours.  Make sure the hole is in line with the branch and the tang was inserted straight.  Otherwise you’ll have to use a rasp or heavy sandpaper to true up the lines.  But aside from that it’s an easy process.  Admittedly, I prefer puukko blades that are a bit fancier with different woods on the handles and brass bolsters, things like that. But I didn’t go that far on two Mora 511s I own.  One is the older model with the extended handguard and the other is the newer model that came out about a year ago.  Brother Ragnar sells both models at his Ragweed Forge.  As much as I’ve tried to adjust to the Mora 510 and 511 handle design I find it awkward and a bit small for my large hands.  And the newer model 511 is just too short of grip area for my hands to fit.  So the solution was to modify them and that’s what I did.

Older model Mora 511 as sold by Ragweed Forge

(Left) Modified Old Model 511 with (Right) Mora 510 for comparison

Note the older 511 above.  Aside from taking the handguard down considerably I reshaped the back of the handle into a gentle curve.  The knife is now comfortable to use and as mentioned above, you can’t beat the Mora for woodcarving.

New Mora "Basic 511" as sold by Ragweed Forge


Two photos above show New "Basic 511" with modified handle

Now the new model “Basic 511” presented a few more problems because the space between the rear of the handle and the front of the handle is just too small for anyone with large hands.  One night I decided to wrapped the blade and put the handle to a 2x48 belt sander and in about a minute I had an entirely different knife in my hands.  I really like the way I modified this knife.  It feels natural now and fits my hand perfectly.  I’m going woods roaming in a few minutes.  It’s a cloudy day and the breeze is blowing out of the north: A perfect late afternoon for moseying through the woods, contemplating things and being renewed.  We’ll get together in just a few days.  No more long respites because I’ve got a lot of things to say and talk about.  So please stick around.

10 comments:

  1. I have an original Frosts before they became Mora and love the handle as it is. Could not imagine modifying it. On a slightly separate subject. Have you seen this fellow's work?
    http://www.trollskyknives.blogspot.com/

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    1. Yes, my 510s, Clippers, laminated woodcarvers are all Frosts. I've just got big butcher's hands and need large knife handles. Hey, Trollsky is the man! I love his videos.

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  2. Hope you were able to get ahold of some Russell Green River blades to make knives out of, I'd like to hear your thoughts on the quality of them.

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    1. Hi, Bob: Sorry it's taken awhile to get back to you. It's been pretty hectic here around the place. I purchased two blades but have not had a chance to attach any scales. The quality looks good to me. I plan to give one of the blades to my son who lives out West. The other blade project will wait until I get a nice piece of wood for the scales. Hope all is well out your way.
      Arturo

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  3. Hi Arturo.
    Was the factory sheath still functional with this mod?

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    1. Not on the Mora 511. But the plastic sheath still works on the Basic 511. For the older model I am using some left over Mora plastic sheaths that I've collected over the years.

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  4. Dear Arturo, since I first discovered your blog some days ago (your project on doing improvised sheaths brought me there), I check by every day. And I was so happy to find out that there are still dozens of entries which date back to 2011. And even stories and books...
    That's because your writing transfers the heat and dust of the thorny brushlands that surround you, the smell of fresh cut wood and the sound of files on thin steel edges thousands of kilometers...
    Concerning your thoughts on knives: Sure, the Scandi blades excel in whittling tasks because of their acute edge angels, narrow blade width and most often good steel and handle. But they are not excellent for everything as you stated lots of times, especially when it comes to cuttung deep into materials with a tough structure. Perhaps you like my blog entry at http://www.lang-underwood.de/das-perfekte-outdoormesser-skandinavische-messer-gehoeren-zu-den-beliebtesten-bushcraft-klingen-zu-recht/. And from your entries I additionally learnded of their shortcoming when it comes to your kind of vegetation with especially hard and dense woods and thorns everywhere, which was unknown to me. So I just had to have a Tramontina machete, which I just ordered. I'm looking forward to touching that up a little.
    Just two questions: Do you still use your pocket adze as part of your personal carry, as you did some years ago?
    And when you speak about the knives you make and prefer, you talk about a deep secondary bevel. Are your prefered hunting and wood knives angled with a plane section at the top, followed by the blade grind and another extra edge bevel, kind of like the hickory butcher features? Kind regards from Lake Chiemsee, Bavaria
    Oliver

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    1. Oliver, the realities of the woods in South Texas dictate that we must use blades with robust bevels; essentially, as you described, the bevels are either semi-Scandi with a secondary bevel, or we have full flat grinds that terminate with micro bevels. The knives that I forge are designed in the second way. In other words, I forge the blade into a steep V that then is given a micro-bevel. This makes for a blade capable of cutting into woods that have specific gravities above 0.80. Mesquite, for example, has a SG of about 0.87. We also have woods that have SGs over 1.0. That is extremely hard wood.

      The Tramontina is an excellent machete. I own several and use them frequently. Made from 1070 steel and given a moderate Rc hardness, they work best with light shrubs.

      As for the pocket adz: Yes, I use it often for various woodworking projects. In fact, I used it last week (actually, a second adze blade similar to the one in the post) to shape an atlatl and dart for someone.

      I've never been to Bavaria but people say it is truly a beautiful place.

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  5. Thanks for your answer, Arturo. I first heard of Semi Scandi grinds when commercial US knife manufacturers like TOPS introduced their models like BOB Fieldcraft or Scandi. Before that, at least in Germany, it was kind of frowned upon modifying the true single bevel Scandi Grind to a more robust geometry. But with your vegetation in mind... Anyway, an ordinary flat grind with a micro bevel, either flat of convex, is suited very well for almost any task. Bavaria, especially the south east of upper Bavaria where I live, surely differs from your landscape a lot. Now in summer it's green everywhere. The landscape is quite densely populated, there is still a lot of dairy farming and then there are the pre alpine mountains with forests up to 1800 m, a lot of lakes like Chiemsee and Königssee and many smaller streams... Our hardest trees are Robinia and Beech, Kornelkirsche, Cherry Tree and Oak.

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    1. I have seen many photos of Chiemsee lake and the surrounding area. It seems like a paradise. My part of the world has its own beauty, though some would claim it is forbidding and hostile. But for those of us who grew up in the desert-like brushlands this is simply home. In fact, the isolation and ruggedness (even the rattlesnakes, scorpions and venomous spiders) give it all a deep sense of adventure: A wildness that's hard to leave.

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