2022-007 | MORA COMPANION

IT WAS IN EARLY 2015, THAT I get to own a MORA Companion. My first and only knife from MORAKNIV of Sweden. It was a gift from my student who took the 2014 edition of the Philippine Independence Bushcraft Camp. It is made of carbon steel with a plastic sheath. The handle is made from a combination of different synthetic material which, surprisingly, produce a good grip. 

The MORA Companion then became part of my array of blades that I used for a living here in the Philippines. I am an outdoors educator, bushcraft and survival instructor, adventure guide, blogger and explorer. I travel with my blades when I do survival trainings in other parts of the country. I am also a knife-carry rights advocate, educating people about knife safety and carry ethics.

My MORA Companion, like all my other blades, are extensively used during my training sessions. However, no student would touch a blade until they listen and understand first about knife care and safety. Then I let them engage in knife-dexterity exercises during survival-tool making and when batoning notches. Although supervised, I would never know how they would use the blades when left alone for a while. 

When I examined the blades afterwards, some, if not, most, has edges suffering traumatic results. But one of the very few blades that had not been affected by that undetected and unseemly use is the MORA Companion. The result led me to believe that MORAKNIV has superior heat treatment which made their blades impervious to the wear and tear of use in the outdoors. 

Even when I know that the MORA Companion has three-fourths tang, I subjected it to rough handling as if it was a full-tanged knife by carving it on hardwood or of batoning with a heavy stick. The blade had not chipped nor bent nor it showed signs of separating itself from the handle. The hardness of the blade could be attributed to the preference of MORAKNIV to design their blades with industrial standards in mind. 

I have exposed my MORA Companion to salty air when I did an exploration of the Dayhagon Canal, an expanse of chest-high mangrove forest, mud flats and fish ponds in Northern Cebu, on April 2015. I slipped it in the chest strap of my backpack and inside a float vest. On other times, I used this on sponsored corporate bushcraft sessions with kids on beach and island resorts.

Then I did the unthinkable. I slipped my MORA Companion into the sleeve of my dive suit as if it was a diving knife when I participated in an international coastal garbage cleanup at Mactan Island in September 2017. Rust was never an issue for the metal responded well to my care. Immersing the whole knife in fresh water overnight and coating it with oil the next day solved that problem. 

The MORA Companion weighs just 110 grams, to include the sheath, and I brought it in my route explorations of the last six segments of the Cebu Highlands Trail Project, a long trail I established in between February 2011 and November 2016.  I brought it again when I hiked through my finished project, across the central cordilleras of Cebu, of a south-north axis, 408+ kilometers long in 29 days. I even carried this in our local Camino de Santiago, 10 days and 175 kms. Long. 

What I liked about the sheath system employed on the MORA Companion is that it is very safe to carry and remove blade. The hard plastic sheath kept the blade from cutting through to you when you take a hard fall. If you want to remove the blade safely from the sheath, you just hold the handle and, with the thumb, push the sheath away. Very child-friendly and a very convenient way to teach knife safety. 

The hole on the tip of the sheath drains water away when you are immersed in chest deep of water or drenched by rain. Because it is plastic, it discourages moisture to accumulate inside which causes rust to form on your blade and it is safe to store your MORA Companion inside its sheath although it is advised to separate both. 

The only downside of the sheath design is its belt clip. I already experienced two cases of missing MORAKNIV blades from two different individuals: one had a Companion and the other had a Basic. Both were used in jungle environment where wiry vegetation would snag on anything. It is best clipped facing inward instead of outward and hanging loose. 

I rarely open carry the MORA Companion on my belt except when I am within the comforts of a camp. I preferred its sheath clipped and tucked in a series of MOLLE webbings of a tactical backpack or just clipped inside of a side pouch of a bag when I walk the trails. Both ways, I could retrieve the blade quickly if I need it. My Companion is indeed a companion and I share my joys to you by acquiring yourself one. 

MORA Companion comes in military green, black, beige and pastel colors of blue, pink, green, and orange. Aside from carbon steel, a Companion is also made in stainless steel and is thicker by 0.5 millimeter. The carbon steel is 2.0 mm thick. There are other Companion variants like the Serrated, the Expert, the Heavy-duty and Heavy-duty Serrated, the Spark, the SRT and the Rescue SRT Safe, the Service Knife, the Electrician and the Fishing Fillet.

The MORA Companion and other MORAKNIV products are available online from their own website. These are also available online at Amazon and all outdoors-and-sports-oriented online stores. Here in the Philippines, it can be bought from real stores like Forged Philippines, Derek’s Classic Blade Exchange and Tactical Asia or online from them.