Mora Companion Knife 860
Around 5-years ago, Gavin at Bushgear.co.uk got me out of a pickle. You see, at the time I was writing a group review on stylish, yet practical boots for Practical Caravan magazine and unfortunately I’d been let down by a manufacturer. Stepping in and saving the day, and article, Gavin kindly sent over a pair of his brilliant Redback boots, which as you can read here, are still going strong, despite my best efforts!
Recently, he did it again. I explained that I wanted a good, dependable general purpose camp knife, a knife that can easily cut rope, feather branches, slice food and so on. I didn’t want anything fancy or ridiculously expensive either as I have a bad habit of losing things!
“You’ll want our Mora Companion Knife then” was his confident reply.
The first thing you notice is the colour - yes, it’s orange. Well, it has an orange heavy duty plastic sheath and orange tips on the comfortable rubberised handle, so you’ll be hard pressed to misplace it!
Over the past couple of months the Companion has earned it’s crust out in the fields, from feathering a sacrificial sapling thinly enough for it to ignite, to throwing sparks using a fire steel. Speaking of that, what I did notice is that the spine of the Companion required sharpening a bit just to give a better 90º angle, no hassle really, just a couple minutes with a sharpening stone, if that.
Preparing food is a doddle as garlic, mushrooms and onions are sliced and diced, and chicken is cut into strips with ease. What I've learnt is that 'Companion' is a very apt name for it!
If I have to moan about something it’s that handle support for my forefinger stops the blade from lying flat on a chopping board making cutting veg a tad inconvenient, but I’m being petty.
It's at this point that I feel the need to admit to a degree of ignorance about the difference between expensive and affordable knives. I’ve been using the Companion Knife as a simple tool, and as long as that tool does what it's supposed too, and does it well, I don't have an issue with price, high or low. I’ve watched a few videos recently comparing expensive vs inexpensive knives, and apart from quality of the handles and thickness of steel, pretty much everyone of them hasn’t a bad word to say about the Mora Companion, especially considering its value-for-money price.
Will a £400 knife last longer? I don't know, but why would I want to spend the same amount of money on a knife as I would an 18 year old Ford Focus? I suppose its like the difference between buying a Skoda Yeti and a Range Rover; they'll both get you out of a muddy field and take you on a relaxing 3-hour journey, but one may make you feel better than the other.
Getting technical, and blatantly stolen from their website, the blade of the Companion is made of cold-rolled special stainless steel from Sandvik, and its 12C27 stainless steel has a much finer and even distribution of carbides giving it a finer sharper edge than most other steels.
Being honest, I don’t know or really care what that means, because after a few months of regular use both in the kitchen at home and the occasional bushcraft meal, my conclusion is that for what I want a knife for, the Companion is perfect.
And to quote a good friend of mine, "I’ve had mine 5 yrs now... paid £10 for it from the Cheshire Game Fair and it still scares me how sharp it is."
One of the best things about the Mora Companion knife is that at £12.95 it's great value for money, and if do foolishly misplace it, or it breaks then I’ll simply phone Gavin at bushgear.co.uk and order another one!
Have I mentioned that the plastic Hi-Viz orange sheath has a belt clip and that the blade length 4”? No? Ah well…
Website: www.bushgear.co.uk - £12.95