Sam Cade
Member
Relatively recently Morakniv of Sweden bowed to the wishes of the modern cutlery consumer and introduced a line of knives having thicker blades and larger bi-compound molded on grips with a very pronounced palm swell when compared to a standard companion. Sold as either the "HD" or "Robust" (dependent on the presence of a button nubbin on the sheath) and available only in carbon steel, presumably due to the difficulty of stamping a blade blank in stainless.
Retail cost is usually within a couple bucks of a standard companion.
So... is it any better than a standard carbon Companion?
The answer is a resounding meh.
Standard Companion on top.
The HD/Robust palm swell is oddly positioned for my medium sized hand. While it doesn't present any ergonomic difficulty and undoubtedly improves the security of the grip the palms well feels wrong and I haven't acclimated to its presence despite using it daily for many weeks.
The HD/Robust is 3.2mm thick compared to the 2mm of a reg'lar companion. While that doesn't sound like much, for a scandi ground knife it makes a huge difference in how the knife behaves since as the thickness of the blade stock increases the thickness behind the edge necessarily increases as well. This isn't an issue when cutting thin or flexible materials but drastically increases the force required for slicing through thicker, firmer mediums...like a potato or a turnip.
To rephrase: A HD/Robust Mora doesn't so much slice an apple as beat it into submission, despite being hair-poppin', mono-molecular edge sharp.
Standard Companion vs HD/Robust Thickness
If someone feels that they would prefer a larger more secure grip on a Mora type knife, I'm of the opinion that the Mora 7xx would be a superior alternative to the HD/Robust
The grip of the 7xx series is a bit larger than the HD/Robust, non weird in proportion and has the thinner, better slicing blade.
HD/Robust at work.
Retail cost is usually within a couple bucks of a standard companion.
So... is it any better than a standard carbon Companion?
The answer is a resounding meh.
Standard Companion on top.
The HD/Robust palm swell is oddly positioned for my medium sized hand. While it doesn't present any ergonomic difficulty and undoubtedly improves the security of the grip the palms well feels wrong and I haven't acclimated to its presence despite using it daily for many weeks.
The HD/Robust is 3.2mm thick compared to the 2mm of a reg'lar companion. While that doesn't sound like much, for a scandi ground knife it makes a huge difference in how the knife behaves since as the thickness of the blade stock increases the thickness behind the edge necessarily increases as well. This isn't an issue when cutting thin or flexible materials but drastically increases the force required for slicing through thicker, firmer mediums...like a potato or a turnip.
To rephrase: A HD/Robust Mora doesn't so much slice an apple as beat it into submission, despite being hair-poppin', mono-molecular edge sharp.
Standard Companion vs HD/Robust Thickness
If someone feels that they would prefer a larger more secure grip on a Mora type knife, I'm of the opinion that the Mora 7xx would be a superior alternative to the HD/Robust
The grip of the 7xx series is a bit larger than the HD/Robust, non weird in proportion and has the thinner, better slicing blade.
HD/Robust at work.
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