A shot of the Kellam M571 alongside with some bill hooks from the Kellam knives website :
A shot of the S-1 Mora knife from the Ragweed forge website :
The review consists of :
The Kellam M571 All Purpose Knife has a 3.5 inch blade of forged 1095 high carbon steel hardened to 60 HRC. The blade is is 11/16" wide, 0.105" thick and the scandinavian edge bevel is a quarter of an inch high sharpened at 12 degree per side. The tip has a simple v grind that starts a quarter of an inch back from the tip. The handle is a solid molded-on red plastic ergonomic grip. The sheath is lightweight black plastic with holes along the back and one at the very bottom for drainage. The M571 came fairly sharp and several swipes on an 800 grit ceramic rod got it to shaving sharpness.
The Frosts of Sweden S-1 Mora knife has a laminated carbon steel blade with a red painted birch handle. It has a similar plastic sheath like the Kellam without the drainage holes. The knife has a 3 3/4" blade, 0.105" thick with the same edge profile as the Kellam. The tip however is much thinner due to the distal taper. At a quarter of an inch back from the tip, the Mora is 0.06" thick, and the Kellam 0.105" . The Mora came fairly sharp, and like the Kellam several swipes on an 800 grit ceramic rod got it to shaving sharpness.
As noted on rec.knives by Mike Swaim this style of knife cuts very well. The thin stock and acute edges, allow the blade to easily out cut a hollow ground Buck skinner whittling woods, cutting ropes and fruits and vegetables. Of the two, the Mora cuts better, mainly due to the slickness of the steel surface as the Kellam is somewhat rough. The edge retention is fairly low on abrasive materials as explored in detail on another Mora in the same steel, however however because of the high cutting ability due to the slim profile, the lifetime of the cutting ability is still in general very high.
These knives are also commonly used for rougher work, oftened use as disposable knives as they can be so inexpensive. Both were stabbed through the bottom of an old paint two dozen times and made made a half dozen slices through the side. They both suffered a little impacting of the tip, about 1/32". However the Mora suffered worse damage to the edge with three small dents (less than 1/32" deep), the Kellam had one rough spot but it was much less significant than the dents on the Mora. They could both still cut wood, cardboard and even rope. However they had little precision cutting ability, could not slice grasses, and would would just tear paper and fabrics had to be held under high tension.
They were also used to dig through a piece of 2x8". The Kellam was easy to work with, the hook on the end of the butt made a nice thumb rest and it could be stabbed deep into the wood and break chips out with no problem. The tip on the Mora would flex too much and pop out from the wood without breaking it out. The blade was then given a quick bend test and could easily take a permanent bend by just flexing in my hand due to the weakness of the side laminates.
Since the scandinavian edge is so wid, it is fairly easy to keep a constant angle on a stone. However it takes a lot of time to remove metal from a very wide bevel. Often the most optimal solution for sharpening is to apply a slight secondary bevel to keep the blade working and then as time allows rework the primary edge with an x-coarse hone to keep the cutting profile stable.
The Kellam's plastic grip is much more secure with a guard and a rounded butt. On the harder to cut material the differences in the grip retention is significant. One the extreme side, with stabs it is very hard to maintain a grip on the tapered Mora handle, with a wet or otherwise compromised grip it would be near impossible. The grip can be enhanced by high friction tape, or checkering the wood. Note the tang of the Kellam does not extend through its plastic handle but the Mora's is the full length of the grip.
In the kitchen these knives excel at paring type work and they are very solid for wood carving. the laminted versions are really easy to bend as the side laminates are weak however the forged carbon steel models are very tough for their size. In general the use of a primary grind is a more efficient geometry however the single bevel scandinavian grind is traditional. Generally the initial sharpness is low and they blades ususally require a full sharpening before the true qualities of the steel are revealed, Jim Aston has explored this aspect in detail. Much more work has been done with other similar scandinavian beveled blades in later reviews.
Comments can be sent to : cliffstamp[REMOVE]@cutleryscience.com, feedback can be seen in the following thread :
Jim
has lots of info on such knives at www.oldjimbo.com.
| Last updated : | 04 : 27 : 1999 |
| Originally written: | 06 : 20 : 2000 |