Mora Clipper Review - the best beginners bushcraft knife? - 09/11/08

Mora Clipper Review - the best beginners bushcraft knife? 

Time for another knife review! This review covers the hugely popular bushcraft knife, the Frosts or to be more exact Mora Clipper. Frosts have been bought out by Mora hence the reason you may see they knife as either brand, but they are the same thing.

As with all my reviews it will be pretty much jargon free and concentrate on what I feel really matters when choosing a knife. This review has also been set up to answer a questions which I must hear several times a day ‘which is the best bushcraft knife for beginners' or ‘what is the best bushcraft knife to buy if I'm on a budget?' I really don't mind receiving e-mails from people asking this, but the answer I almost always give is the same, the Mora Clipper. There are several variations of this knife but for the purposes of this review I have focused on the 840/60MG in either carbon or stainless steel (I will explain the differences later on).


Now the first exception to the rule here is that I would almost certainly recommend a knife with a ‘full-tang' blade. This means that the ‘tang' of the blade runs through the handle, in effect the blade and handle are one thing if you were to strip away the handle material. BUT, this is a feature you have to pay a little more money for and is lacking on the Mora 840/60MG knives. These knives have something known as a stick-tang, which means it doesn't run all the way along the handle. If you are going to depend on your knife in a life or death survival situation then make sure you have a good knife with a full-tang blade, but for most of us we don't we don't usually need it, if we have a good quality knife to start with, and although cheap all of the Mora knives are of a very good quality, and what's more, even though the 840/60MG lacks the full-tang, they are still exceptionally strong and will last most of us a lifetime.


There are, as I have already said two versions. Stainless steel (860MG) and Carbon Steel (840MG). They both have their pros and cons, but again for most of us its really not worth worrying about too much. We got a long way using just flint, a material that some will argue is better than any tool made today. So to keep it simple, I will say this. If you are to use your knife in saltwater environments or don't want to sharpen it very much opt for stainless steel. If however you want to use the back of your blade to create sparks using a flint and steel then opt for the carbon steel version. Carbon steel is a little easier to sharpen, and will often sharpen up a little more than stainless, but it will blunt much quicker and require more maintenance as it is very susceptible to rust. Other than the steel types, the knives are identical, so from this point on I will talk about the two as if they were one.


HANDLE - The handle is green on the versions im reviewing here, although other colours are avalible. The one advantage these knives have, over other slightly cheaper types of knives is that of the non-slip black ruberised handle grip. Some people don't like these, but I feel they work very well with this knife as the plain plastic handles are hard to grip in wet conditions.


SHEATH - The sheath is very simplistic and the belt clip is not the best, so for me its not a feature I would rely on. But for the price you really can't complain too much about this. Yes, it could be better but then the price would be higher and everyone would moan about it.


BLADE - OK, on to the all important blade. You will find the blade has been designed with more than one use in mind. They make ideal knives for hunting, bushcraft and I have even used my copy for use in the kitchen and for filleting freshly caught fish. The edge is exceptionally sharp from new, this is something that you wouldn't really expect of a knife that ranges in price from £9-£15. The blades are easily sharpened and are very robust, suitable for skinning, right up to splitting small logs into kindling for the fire.


HANDLE 10/10
SHEATH 5/10
BLADE 10/10
PRICE 10/10
OVERALL 35/40


CONCLUSION - My only gripe with this knife is the sheath, but as I have already mentioned above if it was better, the knife would cost more and then the price score above would go down. Other than that, I would give this knife a perfect score, as there is simply nothing on the market which even comes close at the price range of £9-£15. So, if you are a beginner, or just don't want to spend much to get your mitts on a good quality bushcraft knife, then the Mora 840/60MG is quite simply the best choice out there. Get yours for only £8.99, see links below.

CARBON STEEL £8.99 (840MG)

STAINLESS STEEL £8.99 (860MG)

Catch you on the trail

Kris


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