I contacted Kershaw about the broken torsion bar on my Blur, and Brittany at Kershaw Customer Service told me they’d send me a replacement for free. She also said to send the knife in for a free warranty repair if I had any problems.
Torsion bar arrived in the mail yesterday, took about five minutes to install, and now the Blur is restored to proper *snikt*-ness. So thanks, Kershaw, for backing up your products with great customer service. Mad props, or whatever the kids say these days.
You know what that is?
That, my friends, is the end of my search for a reasonably priced quality fixed-blade utility knife. It’s a Mora Classic No.2, and it’s made in Sweden.
The Mora is sort of a Puukko clone. It lacks a handguard because apparently only kids and sissies need a handguard on their knives in Sweden. (Seriously–Mora makes “training knives” for youngsters that sport a handguard, but most of the adult models omit it.) The steel is Swedish Sandvik carbon steel. My “Classic” model has a birchwood handle, but they make “updated” versions with injection-molded handles that have small handguards molded in on the edge side of the blade.
You know how people sometimes describe a knife as “sharp enough to shave”? Well, this thing comes from the factory that way, and it really is sharp enough to fill in for a straight razor without any extra assistance. It’s easily the sharpest knife I’ve ever handled. The blade has a true Scandi grind, so it will be ludicrously easy to resharpen to the scary sharp factory edge. This is no hyperbole–the Mora edge cuts like a lightsaber.
This is how it does on the paper test:
It does the same thing to a sheet of paper held by the short edge, too.
It’s not much to look at if you’re partial to the tactical look. I chose the wood handle version precisely because it has a traditional appearance. At first glance, it looks like a kitchen knife. But there’s beauty in functional simplicity, and this blade just plain works. It comes with a simple but functional thermoplastic puukko-style sheath, and it’s very lightweight at four ounces with the sheath. The birchwood handle fits the hand just right, and the whole thing feels like an extension of the hand–lightweight, balanced, nimble. The overall size is perfect for a utility knife, too–despite the four-inch blade, it’s skinny and lightweight enough that it feels like a smaller knife. I carry mine in the corner of my front pocket, where the folders usually reside. Only the top half of the handle sticks out, the parts of the knife in the pocket are completely covered by the sheath, and it doesn’t feel any bigger than a folding knife in there.
The best part? The Mora costs a whopping $16.
Sixteen bucks for a knife with a classic look, a comfortable handle, and a tough Sandvik blade with an edge that can split a fleeting thought? Sign me right up. At that price, there’s no good reason not to try one if you’re looking for a new utility knife for the belt or the toolbox. I like this one so much I’ll probably buy a few spares.
We got an email from Pup #2′s new owners this morning. Rocket (his new name) is doing very well, picked up potty training amazingly fast, and got a great bill of health from the vet when he went in for his third round of shots.
What made me smile was their comment that Rocket’s owner is walking him to the bus stop twice a day to see the kids off to school, and that he has achieved “rock star status” with all the kids in the neighborhood as a result.
Rocket’s new family had an older dachshund that had to be euthanized a few days after Rocket joined the family, so his presence mitigates a bit of the pain from that loss. He’s well loved, which makes all the work and heartbreak we had with this litter worthwhile. Pup #1, Arthur, will be picked up by his new owner in a few weeks. He’s going to Virginia with a friend of ours. She’s a major animal lover, and Arthur–like his brother–will not be missing any comforts or care in his life.
Dogs really are the ultimate evolutionary success story. They’ve wormed their way into our hovels and hearts in only a few ten thousand years of cohabitation. Sneaky little shits, they are.
Arthur and Rocket
Because all the cool kids are doing it, here’s my leap onto the “Which knife is in your pocket right now?” meme wagon.
It’s a Kershaw Blur in red, with the old “skateboard tape” style inserts. As you can see from the wear on the scales, it has seen some use. I’ve carried it daily since about 2004. The torsion spring for the assisted opening mechanism gave up the ghost recently after thousands of openings, so now it’s just a plain folder. I really should get a new Blur and retire this one.
I have plenty of other blades, but the Blur is the one I like best. Nice blade shape, easy to sharpen, holds an edge well, and quick to deploy.
While we’re at it, here’s the wife’s EDC knife, a Spyderco Native:
A good sharp knife is just a necessity, even for the tranquil suburban environment. Yes, it’s a fine close quarters self-defense weapon in a pinch, but more importantly, it’s an indispensable everyday tool. I mean, how else are you supposed to open Amazon.com boxes and stubborn bags of candy?
Team Munchkin Wrangler went to Lincoln, NH this weekend to attend the 2011 NH Scottish Highland Games. For those who have no idea what that is, the Highland Games are a loud celebration of All Things Scottish: caterwauling bagpipes, cask-strength single malt Scotch, men in wee skirts, and delicacies made from the animal parts most other cultures reject as unfit for human consumption.
We had tickets for the Laphroaig Scotch tasting, which was easily the highlight of my weekend, but all the other stuff was neat as well. Here are some snapshots:
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police Pipe & Drums, basically the varsity of bagpipe teams.
The White Mountains of New Hampshire, doing their best to approximate the Scottish Highlands, only with more trees and tax-free liquor.
The kids, doing their now-traditional annual ride up the mountain in the resort ski lift gondola.
Your humble correspondent (on the right) in a kilt. The tartan is MacMillan (ancient), and the kilt is a loaner. Next year, I’ll go to the ball in my own kilt, which will be the lovely New Hampshire state tartan.
That “Cask Strength” single malt is quite possibly one of the crowning achievements of human ingenuity.
When we got home earlier today, it was cool enough to fire up the pellet stove. The dogs are currently celebrating the recurring annual ritual of The Lighting Of The Warm Cozy Red Thing.
And just in case you’re still wondering what kind of stuff one watches at the Highland Games, here’s a brief iPhone video I took of the RCMP Pipes & Drums doing what they do.
Pup #1 went with his new family yesterday. He will be living in New York state, in a household with other dachshunds. His new owners named him “Rocket”.
Pup #2, Arthur, did OK by himself until this morning around 3AM when he started howling and barking…and kept up the ruckus for what felt like the better part of an hour. It’s amazing how a dog that small can crank out a racket that loud. As a result, Robin and I got a few hours less sleep than usual, so I was dragging a bit this morning. Arthur won’t be going to his new home until October, and I sincerely hope the little shit won’t repeat that performance every night until then. If he does, I’ll have to buy artillery-grade earplugs.
We’re going to the Scottish Highland Games in Lincoln, NH this coming weekend. We went last year and liked it so much that we put in a reservation for this year as well. I’ll be wearing a kilt at the Tartan Ball Dinner & Dance, but with some luck, there won’t be any incriminating photographic evidence of the event. I also have tickets for the Scotch tasting on Saturday, so there’s a built-in good time right there.
The last few months have been all go-go-go, but with the onset of the fall I feel like I’m getting my equilibrium back. There’s still plenty of work to do to get the Castle ready for the winter, and there’s always writing work on my plate, but it doesn’t feel like rolling a millstone uphill anymore. I’m probably weird in that respect, but I don’t care much for the summer. Too hot, too many bugs, lawn that needs mowing every week…no sir, give me a crisp New England autumn instead. For my money, it could be late September weather all year long, but then just about everyone would want to live here.
How’s that for a diary-type entry? I need to keep that kind of stuff in check, lest they kick me off WordPress and make me switch to LiveJournal…
She just showed up in the living room like that and said, “Look! I’m Saturn!”
How many dachshunds can you fit onto a recliner?
Four or five if you have the stackable model.
I spent the day plugging away at a new short story, putting a bookshelf together for Robin, playing with the kids, and talking to my family in Germany over Skype. (This was my mom’s first experience with the Interskypes, and the first time she has seen the grandkids since we came over with Quinn seven years ago, so she was a little overwhelmed.) All in all, it was a pretty good way to spend the day.
As announced, I have a few plugs for you—neat stuff I found on these here informational megaparkways that I think are worth the money.
That concludes the commercial recommendations for this evening. I may actually hit the hay early tonight, because we have visitors coming tomorrow, which requires bright-eyedness and bushy-tailedness on my part. Good night, imaginary Intertubes pals.
We did some rearranging, and the living room now has a cozy sitting corner. Just for giggles, I tried to do some work from the couch this morning:
The Bluetooth keyboard works just fine at that range. I started up a text editor, blew up the font magnification to 400%, and wrote a few hundred words that way just for kicks. It’s not something I’ll be doing on a regular basis, but it’s nice to have the option.
I have a bag full of links regarding neat and interesting stuff I want to recommend, so look for a dedicated pimpage post a little later today.
I won’t post any 9/11-related stuff today, in case you were wondering. Today is one of those days I’m especially glad that we didn’t hook the Castle up to any television service. I’ll be spending the day writing, putting together a bookshelf for the wife, hanging out with the kids, and calling my brother and his family on Skype this afternoon to chat. In other words, I’ll be busy with life, which is the best way to mark the passing of that particular anniversary. And that’s all I have to say on that subject right now.
