Craftline Pro Robust (C)

Some have difficulty reconciling this shorter knife w/other Moras i.e. the most popular Companion. I did at first. The new Mora Pro Robust is thicker than it and the little Mora 511. It's as thick as the Companion HD (for Heavy Duty) which is a 1/3rd price-increased, color-changed, slightly-wider-angled-edge version of the original Mora Robust High-Q. The "replacement" Craftline Pro Robust has a wider blade than all those other Moras. The blade also shares the HD's slightly wider cutting-edge angle for heavier-duty edge retention. One minor drawback is it's only about 1/2 tang vs 3/4 tang as many if not most Moras are. Still, this is a strong knife w/a secure, multi-purpose profiled, blade. Face it; none of these are meant to be pry bars. Moras are often described with the qualification of being great if not the best"for the money." They are inexpensive, yes, and I refer to them as repurposed steak knives, but they are quality for what they are. OK, I add a hair band to all my Moras' sheaths to help insure retention in the plastic sheath. The new Pro Robust costs proportionately less than the Companion HD. The Robust's short, sturdy blade and the handle with significant finger guard up front plus the exaggerated pommel are especially useful under hard use and for younger people afield in my opinion. It is arguably somewhat safer to use than the others as far as control. It has a nice rubbery grip. It is not threatening; its size, including blade length, and color-scheme are subdued and utilitarian vs. militaristic. Indeed this knife is designed for working men and it's my first choice now, my "dumb reach" when I know I'll need some kind a knife to do tasks. It's sharp out-of-the-box and an easily sharpened Scandinavian grind quality Swedish steel. I just gave one to a budding Eagle Scout with an earned Totin' Chip patch for his Summer excursions. This is a great, budget, introductory and/or basic fixed blade knife that is earning the respect of demanding bushcrafters (who also own a file to square the spine for striking fire rods). You really can't be disappointed with this knife -- it's impossible, they're so good and affordable for what they are.

Sturdy little knife ! This knife came sharper than any knife I've ever bought. I use knives a lot in the restoration of our 100 yr. old house. It occurred to me that a small, stout belt knife might be the perfect blade instead of abusing my cherished, yet inexpensive, collection of Kershaw, CRKT and Sarenmu folders. This knife fits the bill perfectly. Immediately upon opening the package I tested it on some thick leather scraps left over from some knife strops I make and sell. This knife cut through it better than a utility knife with a fresh blade. It practically push cut this tough leather. The sheath is perfect for what I'll be using this knife for and retention is good to go. Holding the knife upside down and shaking the hell out of it will cause to knife to come out slightly but not fall out. These retention tests I see frequently on Youtube are pretty ridiculous. I can't imagine ever hanging upside down with this knife on my belt and being violently shaken enough to worry about my knife falling out of the sheath. The knife feels great in hand. If I were to nitpick.....I'd like to have a sharpening choil as I can see that it's gonna be impossible to sharpen the blade where it comes out of the handle. And the crest shaped plastic piece on the front of the sheath that allows this knife to piggyback another Morakniv is pretty useless to me as it's gonna get snagged on things (and I'll never use it). I'll be trimming this piece off. The blade is really thicker than I need, but I guess that's a good problem. Perfect for what I need at a crazy good price. The way I care for my knives, this knife will surely last the rest of my life. Thanks Morakniv and Amazon !

- Craftline Robust - - Truly a robust small blade knife. - Very sharp out of the bag. - The blade did appear to have a small amount of surface corrosion near the handle. Not sure if the corrosion is on the steel inside the handle, but I would assume so, because it is all the way to where the blade meets the handle. - The non-stainless blade was not coated with oil, but had a mirror polished finish. - Excellent for shaving wood. It cuts steak well, but leaves metalic taste and stains easily - I won't do that again. - I like the plastic sheath. It is well made and sturdy while also flexible. It fits onto another Morakniv craftline sheath I already had. The sheath is exactly the same as the other (Marakniv Pro all around stainless knife). - The handle is VERY comfortable and has a very nice, solid rubbery grip. It will fit up to about 3 3/4" wide palm without exceeding the handle grip area. - The knife spine is unfinished and soft edged. I sanded mine to a sharp 90 degree edge with a dremmel sanding wheel. I also notched in some shallow jimping on it easily with a dremmel cut off wheel. It took about 5-10 minutes total. Now it will throw sparks using a fire steel and my thumb doesn't slide while pushing on the blade spine. - Thick blade does not flex side to side under medium pressure usage. It's stout. - Excellent value for a tough working knife.

This is a handy knife I'm not afraid to use. It was also pretty cheap - around $10. Some knives I buy to collect and never use. This is not one of them. The handle is grippy. It's made of plastic and I believe it would still have grip even if wet. I have a diving knife - it's similar to that handle. The blade came pretty sharp and had a decent finish. I spent 5 minutes with a sharpener and made it sharper. The spine of the blade is not finished. It's kind of rough. I think you could use this with a fire starter. The hard plastic case it comes with will do a good job holding the knife. I'll probably get a rubber strap to hold it in better. The case seems to have a "tab" near the hilt that is designed for that. Otherwise, I could see the knife potentially falling out if you were hiking, etc. Minor complaints (but keeping in mind it was about $10): -There are some minor blemishes on the blade. If you hold it to the light, you can see a few small "pits". -I think it would be nice to have a hole in the handle to run a lanyard through it. I might drill my own.

After ruining the tip of my Morakniv Companion, I wanted my next Morakniv to be thicker. I decided to try the Craftline Robust over the Companion Heavy Duty because I thought the smaller knife would give me a smaller conceal profile and be better suited to the length laws where I live, but the sheath really doesn't do that well so I'm disappointed with that. The reason being is that the knife handle is at a slight angle away from the sheath wall, and the sheath has that connector tab, which I may cut off and file down. Plus the Companion's sheath is just overall way better feeling too. So the sheath was a bit of a let down coming from the Companion, but that's splitting hairs really as the sheath is still an excellent sheath for what it is. I was just not expecting that the Companion would conceal with a lower profile than the Craftline would. So I feel like I made the wrong choice here, but it's still a Morakniv so I can't complain. The handle is great, it's very comfortable and big hands would like it too. It feels weird to have no thumb grip though. This knife is made to have the thumb be able to rest on the spine for fine work, but I'm going to file the spine with some spaced indents to create a thumb grip because the smooth spine is too much slip for my liking. It was actually the gray color that initially attracted me to this knife. The only flaw I find is that the handle does not fully seal at the base of the knife as there is a 0.1mm gap on both sides of the blade. The Robust's blade is very nice, thick and sturdy, and Morakniv's reputation of having top tier heat treating and all. Sweden has some of the best steel ore in the world as well and they've been making knives for a long time, so don't let the low price make you think the quality is not here, it's just a phenomenal knife for the price. The only thing you don't get is a full tang, but whatever plastic Morakniv uses for the handle is also some mad strong plastic that's built to last. It is no ordinary plastic handle. I got the high carbon version but Morakniv's stainless steel is actually super good, making their high carbon knives a bit pointless actually because they're the same price and quality. I'm going to blue mine with some Birchwood Casey and seal it in some kind of oil. The factory edge is good too but I had to strop mine with some diamond powder polishing compound. It has a secondary micro bevel. I bought a Companion Heavy Duty for someone else and noticed that it too has a second micro bevel. I don't know when Morakniv started doing this as my first Companion was a full bevel like Scandi is supposed to be. Unless I'm wrong about this, but I'm not fond of the second bevel for my uses so I'm going to have to sharpen mine. The blade length actually feels weird compared to the Companion. I thought it wouldn't matter since I rarely make use of the full length anyways, and it's only half an inch reduced, but I already think I should've gone with a Companion Heavy Duty. The Craftline series is $5 cheaper than the Companion series, so it's an okay trade off in terms of price. This knife was on sale when I bought it, so being under $15 for a Robust is fine by me. In the end, I would suggest the Companion Heavy Duty over the Craftline Robust as you really get a lot more with that $5 and $5 isn't much of a difference, but both are very nice, top quality at a low price. I actually have a morapuukko knife from another brand that I like more which is like in the middle of the these two knives for handle shape and price, but this was on sale and I wanted to try it out. Mine came in plastic bag instead of a box or package, which I found strange, but it's still giftable either way. Morakniv knives make wonderful gifts for people, as they are useful and good quality plus low priced.

I have an Al-Mar folding knife that I paid $140 for more than 25 years ago, and I think this is a better knife despite the fact that I paid less than $16 for it ... IF you keep in mind that this knife is designed as a tool and not as a pretty folding blade with fancy wooden sides. This is probably the sharpest knife, right out of the plastic bag that it comes in, that I have ever bought. With NO micro bevel. The bevel that you CAN see, starting about 1/3 of the way up from the edge, is sharpened from the start of the bevel all the way to the edge, providing an edge sharp enough to shave hair from your arm without appreciable effort. The "Robust" adjective given this knife is certainly well deserved. The handle has a rubbery feel that is certain to give you a very good grip although the gray plastic insert in the center of the handle is rather slick. The thickness of this blade is also certain to provide you with the greatest durability that can be had for a knife this size. The spine of the blade, has been left rough, ostensibly so that it will easily draw sparks from a ferrocerium rod, although I have found it impossible to do so on my 1/2" x 6" rod. No big deal, as I have a dedicated striker on the same lanyard as my ferrocerium rod. This is a Carbon Steel knife, which is a great plus for this knife. Carbon steel knifes keep their edge longer than stainless steel knives do and maintaining that sharpened edge is easier. The only thing that I have seen so far that I do not like about this knife is that there is no lanyard hole at the far back end of the handle. But again, no big deal as this is not a full tang knife, and I can easily drill a hole for a lanyard should I continue to lament its lack. My first action performed with this knife was to create a small pile of shavings from a piece of pine limb that is SO hard that I HAD to use a chain saw to cut off an 8 inch length so that I could use a freshly sharpened hatchet to split into kindling. The small piece of wood that I cut the shavings from is shown in the photo below. This tiny pile of shavings took a good 5 minutes to create, and when I was done with this high effort task, I could not tell the difference in how sharp the knife is compared to how sharp it WAS, fresh out of the shipping package. Despite the hardness of the wood. I normally give a maximum of 4 stars, in any review, thinking that there must be something better somewhere that just haven't seen yet, but I have, without any hesitation, given this knife a full five stars, as the quality of this knife, added to its remarkably low price make it a knife that truly deserves five stars. I do indeed LOVE this knife. I anticipate a great number of years of usage where this solidly built knife is concerned. I just cannot believe how satisfied I am with this very impressive knife.

I prefer a carbon blade, although this might be more sentiment and superstition than knowledge. I like the tradition of 'real steel,' the knife's symbiotic need for extra care (your stainless knife doesn't care), and the apparent sharpening advantages of carbon. I acquired this knife specifically for butchering deer prior to grinding, and it performed beautifully. What one needs is sharpness (check), a good point (check), and confidence in the hand (double check). What would I change? The blade is a bit short, but a deer isn't a moose and the size is close enough for the proportions. It's also thick with a broad and unyielding spine, which is great for cutting leverage but bad for attempting fine cuts (e.g., trimming fat and connective tissue). I'm not a pro and this isn't surgery, so I am willing to tolerate the crudeness in this area, because this is an otherwise great knife. And the price cannot be beat.

I love the Morakniv so much I ordered another for myself, so much that I will be gifting these to all my friends and family who enjoy the outdoors this year. Sure you may have to do a modification to get it to strike a Ferro rod but for the price point I can have the job of grinding the top of the blade nice and flat with my dremal in just a few minutes. I have recently decided to get into bush crafting and I wanted to get a good knife cheap and man did I ever find the right knife! I cannot say enough good things about the look, feel and function of the Robust Morakniv! Here is a little advise, If you are looking at buying the Morakniv HD (heavy duty) just save yourself a few bucks and buy the Robust! It has the same blade thickness as the HD, maybe just slightly shorter than the HD but that's it! Not much to quarrel over between the two! There are many videos out there on how to mod this knife in many different ways and the durability and quality that you are getting for a small price compared to so many other knifes out there that cost so much more is outstanding! I have so many knifes in my collection and this Morakniv Robust is one of the best! Thats saying something, it simply out performs most of the more expensive knifes in my collection. Buy it if your were wondering the Robust is a good knife, you will be hard pressed to find another brand that has so much to offer at such a little price!