After reading about Ragnar's Ragweed Forge here and elsewhere I decided to order a couple of inexpensive Swedish knives for my oldest son and myself. Here are the descriptions and pics from Ragnar's site:



#640; The carbon steel Tradesman has a 3 7/8" (100 mm) of blade (.079" thick) and a hollow plastic handle with a large guard to keep your fingers off the edge. The blade has a scale and square inscribed. The knife and sheath weight about 3 1/4 ounces. $7.


#761; and yet again with a florescent orange handle, and a partially serrated stainless blade. I'm not usually a great fan of serrated blades, but I've added this one at the request of firemen and Emergency Medical Technicians. $13.50


#73-164PS; This one is listed as a "Woodcarving knife for Children". It comes with a carbon steel blade just under 3" long, 5/8" wide, and .080" thick. There is a stamped metal guard to keep the child's fingers off the blade, and the 3 1/2" wood handle is sized for smaller hands. The knife comes with a plasitc sheath for $14.

The first one is for my toolbox, the second is for my boating bag and the third one is for my 10-year-old son (along with a book on whittling and woodcarving) for Christmas.

With shipping that works out to $40.50 or exactly $13.50 per knife. I am a sucker for good, simple knifes (my EDC is an Opinel) so I imagine that if I like these I'll go back for more. I'll post some pics and reviews once I get them and use them for a while.

Cheers,

Matthew

Matthew_Long

I have a fondness for capable but inexpensive knives. All a knife has to do is cut. You can spend literal thousands of dollars on knives that are no more reliable and cut no better than a $13 model. Most people will need the reassurance of having a knife just a bit more expensive than $13, the myth about getting what you pay for will live on for a time, but I have several knives that are about as inexpensive and they have served me well.

Please, let us know how they work out for you.

I bought a Brusletto Kniven from him, based on probably an email conversation of 4 back-and-forths. Really, amazing customer service to tolerate my questions, requests, and thoughts. Excellent turn around time too and answering.

I've not beat the Kniven to bits yet. However, I did sand a touch of the finger rest down on the handle. The Kniven is doing well in my uses so far, though admittedly I haven't really gotten physical with it.

I also bought a 5" clip point blank to do my own knife from him. Fun project, a PITA with only hand tools. Again though, great CS when figuring out what I wanted to do.

I think you'll be happy. They're suprisingly solid knives for their dinky price! Keep us informed.

I like my Frosts from Ragnar. These knives cut, which is about 98% of what I want to do with a knife. But if, for some reason, I need to stab a car door to death, I'll use my Falkniven pilot knife.

The only thing I have ever disliked with Mora is the sheaths they use.

Being a left-hander, they are among the only factory sheaths I can use. Being a cheapskate, I find the price agreeable.

I also appreciate the workmanlike, un-tactical appearance of both the knives and the sheaths.

Great CS from Ragnar. I agree, a Mora and an F1 covers just about every forseeable need.

I agree that Ragnar offers great deals along with even better service.

I use my Moras for tons of stuff I'd never use a more expensive knife for. And they cut just as well as the expensive knives, but you don't worry about damaging them because they're inexpensive. So you USE them, instead of just admiring them. Some knives are just too expensive to use much, so you end up protecting them instead. Which is silly when you analyse your behavior for what it is. I got a few Moras and use them harshly without worrying about it. That was somewhat of a new (and refreshing!) concept for me. They are easy to resharpen and work just as good as new after you do that.

p.s. - You might want to watch those direct links to pictures on other peoples websites. It's considered very poor internet manners, and some webmasters will get downright hostile about it when they find out.

Thanks all for the comments, I'll follow up when I receive the knives, which may take longer for me than for most as my mail follows a complicated route.



Thanks for the tip, though I don't imagine Ragnar or others would have a problem with using the pics with a link to the site, in effect promoting the site, not just "borrowing" the images.

IME a typical Mora is THE ideal bush knife. In terms of blade profile and cutting performance second to none. The ergonomy is superb, perfect for woodworking (which is a major factor in traditional bushcraft).

I own many other knives, some bigger, some meaner, some stronger (in theory) and almost all of them are much more expensive. In terms of plain good old functionality and cutting ability however my Mora 2000 and Clipper win hands down.

I have ordered all my moras through him, and have been very satisfied. As most everyone else here said; the Mora is a simple, no nonsense knife-nothing special, inexpensive, and does exactly what it is designed for-to cut. I have a stainless one for kitchen use, a carbon one for field use, and bought my nephew a SS one as well, which he loves.

i buy all my mail order knives from him.real guy with real knives.

i ordered a #1 a few weeks ago and it arrived in under a week. so far i love the little thing and i doubt you'll be disappointed either. just a heads-up: i don't know about any other models, but he thinness of the blade on the #1 caught me by surprise, having only carried fixed blades of the "sharpened prybar" variety. It passed quickly though, and i've got about half a dozen other knives on my Ragnar Wish List.

I got an e-mail from Ragnar, my order goes out later today. ;-)

These are great Knives. I have had one since I was 8 or 9 years old, so 40+ years. I like the carbon steel blade as opposed to the stainless blades. Yes the cs blade get a nice patina but that is part of the appeal. Easy to sharpen, don't put a micro bevel on the edge but fallow the half bevel. The more modern sheaths are the only thing I don't like. Yes I have given my kids each one.
Cheers

I purchased several Helle knives from him several years back; a Scout for my son and a Fjelkniv for myself. After a few weeks of very, very light use the laminate steel on the blade started to separate. He replaced it quickly with no problems. He did state that Helle wanted to see the blade to determine why it failed.

Hi Bill,

How did the replacements workout?

Pete

Well, I'll hand it to him: fantastic customer service!

Placed an order Sunday evening and it arrived today (Wednesday):

#2/0 -- 3" blade

#840 -- 3 7/8" blade, carbon steel

#2000 - 4 1/2" blade, stainless (the survival knife)


At first blush, #840 impresses me most. I'm fond of the aesthetic of carbon steel and ease of sharpening.

They certainly seem cheap and plastic (which the handles and sheaths are) compared to Doug's MK3 or my Bark Rivers. But these Moras, with the exception of the 2000, are one-twentieth the cost of my Barkies.

So I'm going to now get one of Ragnar's recommended diamond sharpening stones and throw that in the car along with a couple of the Moras. If the car is ever broken into, I won't cry about the lost knives.

I, too, finally received my knives. I say finally only because my mail takes a slow and tortuous route, Ragnar's service was very fast. At first glance, I agree that the two plastic-handled knives are very, well, plastic.

1) The $7 #640 carbon steel Tradesman is the least finished, but for the price it should do fine for it's intended purpose as a cheap toolbox knife.

2) The $13.50 #761 is also a bit rough around the edges but the fluorescent orange handle is very bright and fills the hand and the partially-serrated stainless blade seems quite rugged. It will also do just fine as a boat knife to throw in with my canoeing and sailing stuff. I have small hands and the handle is almost too big, so I might stick with the Tradesmen size in the future, they are also a little cheaper.

3) The $14 #73-164PS "Woodcarving knife for Children" is by far the nicest of the bunch with a very old-style, almost medieval, look about it. The handle seems a little large for the size of the knife, especially given the intended use by children, so I will likely sand it down a bit and give it a coat of linseed oil and turpentine or perhaps just finishing wax. The black plastic sheath (with a slot for the single guard) does not detract from the package. I expect my 10-year-old son will be very pleased with that and The Little Book of Whittling.

In short, based on my very small sample of Ragnar's inexpensive Mora knives, I would tend to go with the very cheapest of the plastic handled knives but I would heartily recommend the stainless series with wood handles and guards. All came sharp and all seem much more rugged than most anything else in their price range.

I'll try to get some pics of my knives this weekend and add them to this post. For pics of the knives as displayed on Ragnar's site, see the first post in this thread.

Cheers,

Matthew

Here are those pics I promised to go with my post above.

I have a couple of the #711 knives that I keep in the cars. Today I used one to help skin and cut up five hogs my cousin raised. (Five of us sponsored pigs, and at one point we had 8 people helping to process them). The knife did very well, and the edge was cleaned up very well with a simple carbide sharpener, 8-10 strokes through the coarse side, and the same through the fine end.