In the spring of 2017, during our first Morakniv Adventure, we were out in the woods just north of Mora. There were several adventurers who asked me about old knives and how we could recognize the various local manufacturers who have been active here in Mora and also the time period they came from.
When you’re cooking in the kitchen, chop vegetables and then scrape down what is cut in the salad bowl, always make it a habit to turn the knife over and scrape with the back of the knife. If you scrape with the knife edge, the outermost foil-thin part of the knife edge is bent sideways and is clearly visible under a microscope. This is exactly the part that a sharpening steel has the task of straightening.
My grandfather Krång-Johan Eriksson was born in October 1889 in the village of Östnor, just north of Mora, in the village that would later become well known for, among other things, its knives. The metal industry had already gained a foothold in the village and he grew up in a craft and industrial environment with good opportunities to earn a living. Johan showed his business talent early on when he was 12-year-old and went to his big sister who had a café next to the church where he could buy buns and bread and then cycle around in the villages and sell them. It is said that he already by then earned as much as an adult man with permanent work.
The artist Anders Zorn is probably quite familiar to most Swedes but also known abroad as he became world-famous for his portrait paintings and made a fortune painting, among other things, several American presidents. That Anders Zorn also designed a knife may not be as well known.
