Broke my favorite carving knife in the middle of a project at my buddy's cabin

I was out at a cabin near Lake Placid last fall working on a birch bark canoe when the tip of my Mora knife snapped off on a knot. Had to finish the rest of the cuts with a dull pocketknife I found in a junk drawer. Has anyone else had a tool break at the worst possible time and found a weird fix to keep going?

3 comments

3 Comments

kevin_west25d ago

Honestly, is that really a crisis? @the_spencer is right, just grab the junk drawer knife and finish up.

ivanross27d ago

The Mora knife is a great tool but the tip is fairly thin so it can snap if you hit a knot at the wrong angle. I think the real issue was using a full size knife on birch bark in the first place. Birch bark work usually calls for a smaller, more flexible blade or even a sharpened scraper. I had a similar problem a few years back when I was trying to split cedar shingles with a hatchet that had a badly chipped edge. I ended up grinding the hatchet down to a smaller shape with a bench grinder and it worked fine after that. Did you try reshaping the blade on your Mora or did you have to get a new one?

the_spencer27d ago

The old junk drawer pocketknife special, the great savior of every broken tool situation. That tip probably went flying into some birch bark sawdust, never to be seen again. Hate it when a knot fights back like that, especially when you're out in the sticks with no backup plan.