Mora spoon knife review

When teaching courses in spoon carving we always try to inspire students to carry on the craft once the course is over. Spoon carving is a great introduction to traditional handcraft (I think it was Barn 'the spoon' Carder that referred to it as the 'gateway drug to green woodworking') because it only requires a few tools and the raw materials are easily available.So, to help them on their spoon carving journey we always take some time to recommend the tools they need to get started. Recommending a straight knife is a no-brainer. The Mora 120 and 106 are fantastic knives and are really cheap, being available from several different retailers for under £20 posted. Good quality axes can be obtained cheaply on the second hand market, but they will inevitably require several hours of work and possibly additional tools to get them to a usable state, so it's much better for beginners if they can buy something suitable off the shelf. I think the Robin Wood carving axe is an excellent option here. Less than £50 posted and ready to go. You can read my review of it here.

The problem comes when we have to recommend a spoon knife. There are lots of great spoon knives out there, but they all come out at around the same price point. There are three British makers that I know of that make great quality spoon knives; Ben Orford, Nic Westermann and Wood Tools. I've never used one of Nic's spoon knives, but I've heard great things about them and all of his other tools that I've used have been fantastic quality. Unfortunately his waiting list is over a year, so it kind of rules him out as a recommendation for beginners who want to continue the craft. My first real spoon knife was one of Ben Orford's and I still use it regularly. They are usually in stock and cost around £48 posted. I have several of Wood Tools knives and really like them. They were originally designed and made by Robin Wood to overcome the problem that I'm talking about here, that is recommending a spoon knife to students that is cheaper than the blacksmith made ones. Unfortunately the price has crept up a bit since and they now retail at £39, which though still slightly cheaper than most spoon knives, when you factor in their £8 flat rate postage, it bumps the price of a single knife up to the equivalent of the other makers (one solution to this would be to buy the spoon knife with the axe, thus spreading the cost of postage).

This brings me to the Mora spoon knife. For a long time it has been lambasted in spoon carving communities, but it's back now with an improved design (with help from Swedish woodworker Beth Moen). I decided that I should probably give it a go and my first impressions are pretty good.

It comes sharp out of the box and also includes a pretty neat leather sheath (this is the only spoon knife I have ever seen that comes with a sheath). The sharp tip has gone and the back of the blade has more of a curve to help with concave cuts. The new knife is also made from stainless steel, which should mean that it holds its edge for a bit longer, but could also mean longer sharpening time. The compound curve means that it will cut aggressively towards the tip of the blade and can also be used for more deep hollowing, but there is a flatter section towards the handle that can be used for smoothing out the bowl.

I've used it to hollow out several scoops and have really enjoyed it. The handle is a bit thick for my liking, but that is easily remedied. I'd like to try one with a more open curve, but unfortunately they only do that shape in the double edged version.

To be honest I would still rather recommend a knife made by a local maker. If the Wood Tool knife had a more reasonable postage charge for a single knife, then I would definitely encourage students to spend that little bit extra. As it is the improved Mora 162 is a good alternatively that can be found for less than £30 posted.