The Mora chisel knife is a knife with a chisel tip. Or is it a chisel with a beveled knife edge?
It’s part of Morakniv’s Craftline series of fixed-blade knives aimed at hard utility use, and is officially described as a Pro chisel for carpentry and construction applications.
The knife features a 3-inch blade with single-bevel edges, and TPE rubber handle for a secure grip. Its overall length is 7-3/4 inches. The carbon steel blade is 3.1mm (~1/8″) thick and should sharpen easily.
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I’m a fan of Mora Craftline knives. They’re essentially slabs of sharpened steel with comfortable handles. The quality is good, and the pricing usually more than fair. They offer high utility at reasonable pricing.
The knife’s spine is “raw” and unground for the purpose of being “rugged and value oriented.” In other words, Mora doesn’t put unnecessary time or labor into making the back edge of the blade looking pretty.
Similar is true for other Morakniv Craftline series knives.
It comes with a plastic sheath with belt loop for keeping the knife secure and accessible.
Price: $17
COO: Made in Sweden
If you’re on the fence because of the price tag, Hultafors has something similar for under $10.
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If you want something more chisel-like and less knife-like, the Dewalt Side Strike chisel is also reasonably priced at just $15.
I’ve had one for a long time and it has worked well.
My chisel’s front edge is looking rather gnarly, and I’m pretty sure fixing it will require grinding away a fair amount of metal. The Side Strike chisel was hard to find for a while, but now that I see it’s available again, I might add a fresh one to my tool kit.
MM
Is this a single-bevel or double-bevel grind?
Jared
Single bevel on the Mora. I don’t have the Hultaflors, but I thought it was a double.
MM
Bah. I would prefer a knife like this to be single-bevel, but as a lefty this would be backwards for me.
I see that Bahco makes one too and that one also looks like a double.
Jared
I’ve got a couple double-bevel chisel knives too and the Mora’s single bevel is MUCH better. I bought the others first, but I don’t really use them anymore except as beaters in my shop.
The Hultaflors might be ok despite the double bevel – at least it’s short like the Mora.
While it’s not the same thing, I also really like the Stanley Fatmax Folding Pocket Chisel. Stuart has posted about that one before. It’s a handy option to keep in my tool bag. I have a similar folding chisel from Fascap too, but the Stanley is better.
The Stanley folding chisel paired with a regular scandi-ground Morakniv… that might be even better than just the Mora chisel knife!
Jared
It occurred to me to add that the Stanley folding pocket chisel is better than the Fascap – UNLESS you actually plan to put it in your pocket. In that case the Stanley is a bit heavy and the Fascap appreciably lighter.
William Adams
Lee Valley’s Batoning chisel comes in left and right-hand options:
https://www.leevalley.com/en-us/shop/tools/hand-tools/chisels/specialty/67735-batoning-chisel
MM
Thank you for the heads-up on that!
Koko The Talking Ape
You’re right on the Hultafors. Beveled on both sides. I had to look carefully at the customer photos on Amazon.
IMO, that makes it a completely different tool. It’s just a knife with a square tip.
Stuart
Single-bevel.
Berg
One thing to note for anyone comparing chisel knives: some are single bevel like an actual chisel, and some are double bevel like a normal knife. The Mora is single, the Hultafors or Bahco versions are double bevel. It’s annoying when product photos don’t clearly show both sides of the blade because it can sometimes be hard to determine what kind it actually is.
For a lot of situations the difference might not matter, but I have occasionally used the Mora one for paring cuts that you couldn’t do well with a double bevel. The single bevel is also likely at a lower angle than two bevels combined, so it will have a thinner edge, but whether thinner is good or bad will depend on how you want to use it.
Jared
I’m a big fan of Morakniv – tremendous value! Most of the lineup uses plastic handles and partial tangs, yet they are still comfortable and very robust.
This chisel knife is made with Mora’s carbon steel – I think it’s 1095, but don’t quote me. It’s good stuff, holds an edge well and is tough, but not very stain resistant.
Mora uses Sandvik 12C27 on their stainless models, which is also very good for the price.
It’s really hard to beat the value. Condor’s Terrasaur is probably the closest competitor (not for a chisel knife, but a scandi-ground knife like most of the Moras).
AC
No tool has cut me more times than this chisel knife.
Koko The Talking Ape
Yeah, that’s why I haven’t bought one. With a regular chisel or knife, it’s easy to keep track of the sharp side. But with this thing, I’d feel like using it as EITHER a knife or a chisel would put my off hand in contact with an edge.
Let a knife be a knife, and a chisel be a chisel, I say. They aren’t all that expensive or bulky. Why not have both?
Steve
I haven’t seen a chisel knife before. Don’t know where I’ve been, but I like this. Single bevel on the chisel and double bevel on the knife please. I may be asking too much, but I’ll be looking for some…
Bonnie
Eh, I’ve used one a handful of times. It just ends up being both worse as a knife and worse as a chisel. I can’t really imagine the scenarios where you’re so limited in space, while also needing to made a chisel cut, that you couldn’t fit both a utility knife and a small beater chisel.
Andrew
The tool to compare it to is a traditional hacking knife. This was used to remove traditional linseed oil putty around glass panes, which were held in their rebates by small nails (‘sprigs’). This is an awkward job for either a chisel or a utility knife. No doubt hacking knives were used for lots of other jobs too.
Koko The Talking Ape
Single bevel on the chisel and double on the knife? If no other grinding is done, then the chisel end won’t be square. It will have a clipped corner, where the bevel on the back of the knife cuts away away some of the chisel edge. Maybe that’s not a problem.
I guess you could grind away some of the thickness of the blade at the tip, to make that tip more square. Some Mora knives have that kind of thinning grind at the tip. But that would make the chisel thinner and weaker. Maybe that’s worth it, I don’t know.
MKY
Stuart –
The knife’s edge is “raw” and unground for the purpose of being “rugged and value oriented.” In other words, Mora doesn’t put unnecessary time or labor into making the back ***the*** edge of the blade looking pretty.
Stuart
Thank you – *fixed*
Jared
For that matter it might be better to say the knife’s “spine” is raw and unground – the “edge” is definitely sharp. 😉
Stuart
Whoops. I had “spine” in both places, changed one from spine to back edge, but apparently did that twice. Thanks!
Albert
I use a chisel regularly but don’t know where I would use the side edge. What do people use it for, except as a knife?
fred
Perhaps some use it like a batoning knife or chisel to split shims or other thin pieces of wood.
https://www.leevalley.com/en-us/shop/tools/hand-tools/chisels/specialty/67735-batoning-chisel
Ted
Great info! Thanks Fred!
Birdseed
The first thing I thought was single bevel? but then I thought hmmm does the end of the handle have a metal end piece (like the Dewalt) or is it just the plastic handle? For the money I feel it should be full shank with a thick metal cap.
Troy
I have this knife, love it, and highly recommend. A lot of uses in general carpentry and installation work. Chisel, pry bar, box cut, score, scrap glue, etc.
I believe this knife has come up a couple time on Amazon Prime days for cheap. If memory serves me correct, sub-$10.
fred
I bought 3 of them in 2017 from Amazon for $12.99. Gave them as stocking stuffers.
A year later I bought several Mora #121159 Companion knives for $9.23 each – also for stocking stuffers.
Stuart
It hasn’t been on sale for that low in a very long time. When it went on sale more than 2 years ago, the lowest price of the season was $13.48.
Blocky
Also from Mora, I keep a “Pro S” on my hip when woodworking. The wide single bevel is so easy to sharpen and so useful for riding the plane of a workpiece. I like the belly on that knife quite a bit and prefer it to the chisel-knife. Sometimes I use it to clean up cuts that didn’t quite make it through a board.
Rob L.
I love mine – have one that lives on my CNC table to clean up and cut tabs, and another always in my tool bag. Super useful and cheap.
just sayin' Ma...
Looks like a Divers Knife…
DocDawg
A bit of a smug comment as I am Not sure any would really know what that means… and are divers knives pointed?
just sayin' Ma...
Not all Drivers Knives have Spear Tip Blades…
( https://images.app.goo.gl/gJni2ii37A37f8gj6 )
Birdseed
I didn’t think it was smug. It was a simple comment saying that they thought it looked like a divers knife. Anyone interested could have Googled ‘divers knives’ if they didn’t know what they looked like and I’m pretty sure the people in this group know what divers are geeze
David Z
Commonly seen by anyone watching Bond movies, too. Or Discovery Channel. Or Jacques Cousteau.
DocDawg
It’s a fantastic EDC for hard daily work. I learned about it on Wranglestar , glad to see it here under Stu et al. Single bevel, however that is an arcane comment for daily hard EDC not a shop tool.
Jared
In this same category, there’s the “razel” knives from CKRT. There’s several different versions in fixed blade and folder, though I’m not sure how many are current production (still a few, but there’s been many different iterations).
They are more premium-priced and look that way too. They come in a variety of sizes too – from a diminutive “neck knife” to the new Razel “Nax”. Some have been single bevel, others are double.