Review on Orange Morakniv Companion Outdoor Knife - 4.1-Inch Sandvik Stainless Steel Blade For Camping And Hiking (M-11824) by Carson Zoberman

Swedish brand Morakniv has never been a particular favorite of mine. I’ve never been much for the fish cleaning look all of their knives remind me of. This is a much stouter blade than that, but it still has a cheap, plastic appearance that is very much off-putting, subjectively. That said, there’s no disputing that, for the money, Mora is hard to beat. Maybe impossible. The sheath and handle may be nothing more than plastic, but the ergonomics couldn’t be better and the black rubberized handhold is extremely grippy. Make no mistake, this is an extremely, refined, well thought-out design. Finding a better made fixed blade under thirty bucks, much less at the ten to fifteen dollar mark the Mora Companion so often sells at would be a daunting task indeed.Stainless Sandvik is pretty universally regarded as one of the better budget steels. And Mora capitalizes on it with a rare, full scandi grind, without a secondary v-edge reducing it’s cutting prowess. This blade was made for slicing. It’s not as useful for tougher bushcrafting. It doesn’t have the weight for chopping, nor the size for batoning. And the spine will need flattening before you can get any sparks. I couldn’t even get the edge to stick in wood when chopped. I tried both hard cherry (pictured) and soft poplar, as well as some cut timber of unknown species that has already started to rot. Even my folders will stick in the cherry stump without any difficulty. But this Mora Companion wouldn’t. I presume it was a combination of the extremely light weight and the edge geometry, as in each wood type I tried, I just couldn’t bury it deep enough to reach the straight upper spine.But for slicing, a full scandi grind is fantastic! If you need a blade designed more for bushcraft, the heavy duty companion, which doesn’t cost that much more, might be more to your liking. The Mora Garberg is their most popular bushcraft blade. But it falls into a price range that has a lot more serious competition for your dollar from the likes of Kabar, Schrade, Gerber, RAT, and others.This basic model Companion makes for a great around the house or shop knife. I also like it as a cheap boating knife that won’t hurt too bad if you drown it. In fact, assuming they don’t already, Mora should consider making a version that floats, just for that purpose. Between their high visibility colors, lightweight materials and stainless blades that would be absolutely perfect!Sheath retention is firm. The knife can be shaken out, but not easily enough to be cause for concern. And the handle is pretty much a perfect one size fits all. Even if you wear large size mitts, it’s ergonomics should at least be agreeable.It would seem that Mora knives don’t come from the factory as sharp as they used to. There are a number of vlogger reviews alluding to such, usually showing their sharpening recommendations for getting the edge to really sing. My experience was the same. This knife was sharp from the factory, but just barely arm-hair shaving. And stropping alone wasn’t enough. Most average knife users will no doubt be satisfied, while others who really want to see what full scandi is legendary for, will need to help it out. A ceramic honing rod will do. But for those wanting to ensure the grind angle isn’t altered even slightly, from shoulder to edge, some 3,000 grit or higher paper or stones will be needed to really see what this blade geometry is capable of, as well as to keep it there after use, along with subsequent stropping.Updated to include pictures.