Ergos & Usability
Nice post, Arf. Will look at them.
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Added by edit.
Arf, I just found
this Mora 2000 for $30.
Please help me understand why you would pick that knife over a Kabar MKI.
I'm not questioning your advice, just seeking to understand it.
Couple of things, Nem.
Like hso said, the handle ergos are superior. Also, it's made of a steel (12C27 Sandvik) in which I have considerable confidence. It's really sharp. Sharp like slicing a tomato resting in the palm of my hand. I've made salads with mine, chopped up stew ingredients, prepped veggie platters, handled the post-meal processing of a turkey into usable sandwich meat, carved up roast chicken, trimmed cuts of beef & pork, opened packages, cut down heavy cardboard boxes, and done a bit of whittling with it.
It's a very good
general purpose knife. It takes an edge easily and keeps it well. It's not at all prone to rust. It's light. It's small enough that it doesn't get in my way, big enough to do regular chores.
I've tried to do those things with a combat knife.
I have pretty decent skills with a knife, but I found most of the tasks awkward with the oversized blade, and the handle tended to encourage only a couple of grips. Veggie preps with a combat knife is pure entertainment; it tends to "throw" pieces of carrot and potato. Think food preps with splitting wedge.
On the other hand, I used a combat knife to trim the unwanted branches on a Christmas tree, and it did a fine job of lopping them off.
Why would I take a Mora over a combat knife? Usability. Broader application.
I trim Xmas trees once a year. I prepare food all year round. I open packages all year round.
Now, having said all that . . .
Of the various combat and dot-mil knives available, the MkI is easily my favorite design. The blade is flat ground, making it useful for a broader range of applications and easier to sharpen -- it will take a real and useful edge. It's not absurdly long, so the blade doesn't have undo leverage over my hands, meaning I'll have better control. The handle is a bit on the round side, and made for bigger mitts than mine, but it's still not bad.
Something to keep in mind is weight.
The Kabar MkI is just over 1.2 pounds (.56 Kg). The Mora 2000 is four ounces, five if you include the sheath.
I can actually get a better range of functionality from a light axe and a Mora knife than I can from a combat knife.
Hatchets like the Trail Blazer (Canada, 17.4 oz; 13 oz for the smaller one) or the Eriksson (Sweden, 18 oz), or maybe the slightly heavier Fiskars X7 (Finland, 22.6 oz).
| Trail Blazer Ergo Hatchet: | . . . | The Smaller one: |
| . . . |
|
Eriksson Hand Axe
(ragweedforge.com) | . . . |
|
Of course a folding saw is lighter than any of those (Buck folding saw, Taiwan, under 5 oz).
Hatchet or saw? Well, if you know it will always and only be wood, then the saw. If you expect to need it in a hunting/skinning application or possibly for defense, then the hatchet.
The point is that if you're going to carry something that weighs more than a pound, it needs to be able to earn its keep, and do so in routine & mundane ways. If the venue is trenches and bleak, smoke-fogged battlefields, then a combat knife will have the edge (if you'll pardon the expression).
If the venue is the woods of Maine or the mountains somewhat further west, the knife + hatchet combo will (*koff*) have the edge.
And if the venue is daily out-and-about, then a 5-ounce compact knife that will tuck into an inside jacket pocket when it's not breaking down boxes or fixing dinner will surely be more suitable.
What about the old "throw it in my toolbox" thing? Well, I have a Mora #2 that I've had in a toolbox for most of the nearly forty years I've had it. I've never had a combat knife of any kind in a toolbox (my traveling kitchen being the exception).
At the risk of confusing the issue, let me finish with a mention of one other place where I do use a heavy knife. I have a traveling kitchen. It's a toolbox that I have pressed into service as my throw-in-car-for-long-trips kitchen utensil box. It is portable only in the sense that anything you can throw in a car is "portable" because the car carries it. In that box is an assortment of camping-friendly tools and equipment. In addition to some plain-Jane kitchen knives, hobo tools, GP camp soap, matches & fire starter, utilities knives, openers, sharpeners, compact cutting board, etc., there is a single heavy duty knife that sits all the way at the bottom. Just because. As in,
just because you never know.
Gerber Harsey Hunter/Fighter
The heavy duty knife in my
traveling kitchen box | . . . |
|
It's the only thing in the kitchen box that could plausibly stand in for a hatchet or be of any use as an actual weapon, and it would probably withstand being made to pry open a box or door. It's been in the box since 2005 or 2006. I take it out once in a while to admire it, show it off, or just reassure myself that it's still sharp. It's never actually been used. At all.
That same box also contains a Mora 2000. It's the first thing I reach for on the road when it's time to hack up some salami & cheese, make some celery stix, quarter an apple, or dismember a tomato. Of course, it also lives in the top tray. Shocker, I know.
Yes, the emotional draw of the MkI is greater. I have a considerable affinity for that knife. It is certainly more solid, a knife of more substance.
However, I'm not that teenager any more, and I can't just shrug off an extra twelve or sixteen ounces if I'm gonna carry it for any distance.
If I'm on foot, I have to justify every ounce. "Sentiment" is not an adequate justification for an extra pound of penalty weight. "Just in case" is something that I can get away with in a car, not so much on foot.
So, why the Mora over the MkI?
Weight, versatility, ergonomics.
