Hi everyone, here is my strategy for sharpening and maintenance for Mora knives. I'm planning on adding more sturdy knives later. Like a Grohmann knife or a Katz or the like.

Doug R. wrote "Always sharpen a production knife by hand before putting it in your kit or taking it into the field."
Does this apply to Mora knives? It seems they are already easy to sharpen though, thanks to their wide bevel.

Ragnar of Ragweed Forge wrote that he carries a thin diamond plate the size of a credit card in his wallet backed with a 7-micron abrasive film for a strop and that it's all he really need to maintain his knives indefinitely. Do you find it a good idea to carry an abrasive film in your wallet (and maybe use a flat surface when you need it like an altoid tin to spread the film)? It sounds like a good idea to me. As for the diamond plate, I bought a DMT mini-sharp fine.

As Chris K. told me, you may want to "steel" your knife most of the time with a fine ceramic rod (it's not removing material). I've found out that Fine ceramic rods are usually white and have a 600 or 700 grit. I was wondering why not use a smooth steel for that purpose but as I understand it, smooth steels work with kitchen knives because they have a lower HRC (Hardness Rockwell C-scale). Mora knives, with their HRC 58-61, need a slightly more "agressive" grit to do something. I guess one of Lansky's Crock Stick models would be a good choice.
Question: when you steel a wide bevel knife with a rod do you give it a slight angle or do you lay the whole wide bevel flat against the rod? I guess that if you give a micro second bevel as Ragnar suggests on his site you would follow that bevel angle when steeling.

I'm also looking for oil to prevent rust.
question: would it be a good idea to use a petroleum jelly saturated cotton ball (intended for fire making) to oil your carbon steel blade for rust prevention in the field? Also, the Japanese use Camellia oil and the advantage is that it's edible. The drawback is that it becomes rancid with time. Is it an issue for a survival knife to be protected with edible oil (since you could use it to skin a animal for exemple)? Is Sentry Solution Tuf-Cloth's dry micro-bonding crystal barrier "edible" or rather suitable for food use?

That's a lot of questions, I know. Thanks for reading me. Here is the lyrics of a song from Hedningarna, a Swedish folkmusic band. I was listening to this while browsing the Ragweedforge site watching all the wonderful Viking and Celtic jewelry.

UKKONEN (THUNDER GOD)

Ukkonen, you highest master
mighty old man of the heaven
now pull out your sword of fire
stained with blood of the black viper
pull it from its fiery scabbard

strike a fire, father of winds
send out lightning, Väinämöinen,
over the boundless open waters
over the waves of wide and high seas

The master of death, he did strike fire
sent out lightning, the wise old man,
the flame in fright struck up in the hearth
in alarm the sparks flew yonder
burned the knee-caps of a young boy
burned the breasts of a young maiden

Okay <img src="/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

I'm a big fan of those Moras. They're not tough, but they are incredibly sharp, thanks to the single bevel and narrow angle of the edge.

To sharpen it, you can either do it the long way, or do it the easy way... The long way is with japanese whetstones, starting with 1000 and slowly working up to 8000 (mirror finish). That gives you a beyond shaving sharp edge.

The easy way it to just sharpen the wide bevel using either a DMT card, or an EZE-Lap, or even 600 grit metal sand paper. Then you steel it with the steel you prefer (some even use fence wire or the back of another knife). That creates a very small secondary bevel that makes your edge a lot more durable, without taking away MUCH of it's sharpness. You still get shaving sharp, but not beyond shaving sharp. your choice <img src="/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

As for oils, I just cut dry sausage with the Mora all the time, so it's covered with an edible fat film. You can use just about anything, from butter to olive oil... Just put some on a cloth and wipe the blade. That does it, as long as you keep your blade pretty dry.

Cheers,

David

Friankie:

For field use, any oil or fat that resists water should work. You can always run your fingers through your scalp, or any part of your body that tends to secrete oil, for a workable amount of oil to rub on the blade if you do not have anything in liquid or paste form.

For longer term storage, I tend to be biased in favor of "RIG" gun grease in heavier amounts for my guns and knives. For shorter term application, where I may be wiping the blade off for cutting food or swabbing the bore clean for shooting, I usually have a thin layer on there that was wiped on with a "RIG" grease impregnated cloth, let stand in a warm area for a while, and then lightly wiped off.

Good luck!

Bountyhunter

Ragnar has a fun website and great service. He reminds me of the viking in Monty Python <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> I have the diamond plate he sells and carries. I also pack some sandpaper for woodworking chisels in my PSK. People do clean up Moras with very fine stones and compounds. New ones will show traces of grind imperfections, usually on the forward upsweep where we make feather sticks. I would experiment with both edges. These are modestly priced training knives, so train. Personally, I'm lazy. They allready pass my sharpening test out of the box. When I manage to produce a flowing red stream of blood from a finger when sharpening any knife it's done. <img src="/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" />