Hultafors Heavy Duty vs Mora Robust Pro Abuse Test

Hulk vs MoraA viewer asked me to do with the new Mora pro, what I did with the Mora High Q Robust. He simply wanted to know if the new knife would be as strong as the old one. So here I am, pulling my self up on knives again 🙂

This time, however, I decided to make it even more interesting and include my favourite inexpensive bushcraft/survival knife – Hultafors GK Heavy Duty Knife. I haven’t done this test before using this knife and I wanted to know for myself what exactly would happen. Obviously, these tests are not very scientific, as there’ll be many variables I can’t control for. But just out of curiosity… How much abuse can your knife take?

My usual tests such as batoning didn’t surprise me at all, but carving that hard seasoned hazel did something I did not anticipate. It was much harder than I’d expect hazel to be and made a serious impression on both blades.

When it comes to the pull ups, no big surprise there. Although, conditions were a bit different – the knives wouldn’t go in as deep as the old Mora – and that didn’t go unnoticed. Both knives bent slightly. I was able to straighten them up but, despite the fact that Mora was a bit shorter and probably didn’t have to take as much weight as the Hultafors, I was a bit surprised to see this knife to wobble and bend that much. It felt soft. Much softer than the Mora.

That’s not to say it’s better or worse. You should never have to use your knife like that anyway. It’s just something I wasn’t aware of up until that point.

The Mystery of Hultafors Knife Steel Solved

Flint knives

After my review of the Hultafors GK Heavy Duty knife, I kept trying to find out something more about the carbon steel it is made out of. This, then, unknown high carbon steel continued to amaze me and I simply couldn’t let it go.

The answer to my question was closer than I thought – Facebook. More precisely, Hultafors Group Facebook page. I asked them my question and got the answer within several days. What did they tell me? Well, watch the video 🙂

I also took the opportunity to talk a bit about the importance of steel type, its chemical composition and heat treat (quenching, hardening, annealing, tempering and all that good stuff). For that reason, I brought out some of my other knives for comparison: Condor Windfang (1075), Blue Mountain Forge bushcraft knife (o1 tool steel) and a hand-made, Scandinavian knife with an antler handle and NC6 high carbon steel blade.