This kit from Morakniv consists of the Outdoor Axe and the Outdoor 2000 knife. In the interest of full disclosure, I do own several Mora knives and use them quite regularly. They make a good knife at a decent price, and use good steel for their knives. It may not be the most up-to-date high tech steel, but it does its job well, and comes with and holds a very good edge if you know how to put sharpen properly. The knife is made of stainless steel in a profile grind to be more useful, along with a plastic handle in bright orange with a ¾ tang. While not the strongest tang it is set solidly in the handle. The axe has the same bright orange handle as the knife, and is sharply curved at the end for better grip.
Morakniv Outdoor 2000 KnifeI really looked forward to this review, as knives are ALWAYS fun to play with! I took them out to one of the local canyons with the task of practicing my fire making skills in mind. I thought about making a shelter, but that would end up too destructive for the area that I was in. As I set out to collect wood for building a fire, I found some dead branches for making kindling. First I chopped up the branches from about 6 inches at the largest, then attempted to split these branches down to small usable pieces. I use an army metal match to start my fires and found that I was glad that I made one modification to the knife before I left. It seems that Morakniv, in their manufacturing process, don‘t leave a nice sharp square edge on the spine, it is a bit rounded. So I used a file to square the spine edges off in order to use with my firesteel. It wasn‘t perfect, but it would get sparks now. The knife was used to make feather sticks, and kindling, along with the axe.
Morakniv Outdoor AxeWhat I found while using this is that stainless steel needs a little extra effort to strike on a steel for sparks, and a pretty sharp edge, but this isn‘t exclusive to this set. The axe is a piece of Boron steel that has been implanted in the handle and has a quite comfortable grip, which stays in the hand with little effort. The blade is made from a piece of Boron steel that appears to have been implanted in the handle when it was made. This provides for a secure grip on the bit. It even appears that Morakniv thought it out to wedge it further into the handle as it is being used. I found the axe was good for collecting small wood and kindling for fires and making shelters, as well as light camp chores.
This set would be great to throw into a 72 hour kit or in the back of the car for emergencies. The axe doesn‘t have the design for heavy or prolonged use but due to size and weight (and price), it would be great in something that you would have around for emergencies or in the camping kit. My final thought is that this would be great for those kids in your life that are so hard on things and seem to always lose gear when they go out camping with the troop. If (when) they drop or misplace one or the other, the bright orange makes it much more likely to be recovered by someone (Scout Master) and returned home. This is also a good starter set to learn with. Well worth the $79.99 MSRP. industrialrev.com
– Rob S.
Disclosure of Material Connection: We received the Morakniv Outdoor Kit from Industrial Revolution, in consideration for review publication