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