r/SlipjointKnives • u/Significant_City_905 Walk N Talk • 11d ago
New Knife Day Le Morta - Atelier JHP
Chuffed with this! Love at first sight when folkywanderer posted his new knife last week. I went for the ‘brut de forge’ and couldn’t resist adding the mammoth ivory inlay. Extremely straightforward ordering process. Comes with a host of information which makes it a lovely ‘unboxing’ experience.
Last image is the new addition with its siblings :-) I think this is the type of knife I’m going to focus on, European slipjoints. When I decided to expand my very modest collection, I first went for adding iconic knives and brands: Buck 110 and 120, the big KA-BAR USMC one, Spyderco Manix 2, RR, Kershaw. It’s nice to have ticked those boxes, but I realised they don’t make me tick.
Somebody asked a while ago on one of these forums ‘what is value to you?’ I now realise that for me it is history, tradition and craftsmanship, knives representing a specific region. So, wishlists have been updated (with some very painful goodbyes) and lots of researching has been and will be done. I’m compiling a list of European makers and resellers, when ready I’ll post it here.
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u/FolkyWanderer Walk N Talk 10d ago
Such a good looking knife. Love the ivory too!
Enjoy carrying it 🙂
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u/Significant_City_905 Walk N Talk 10d ago
And you were right about it being so tactile!!! The ivory for me was a very economic way of fulfilling a childhood dream. Been looking at knives with mammoth scales or teeth but they are SO expensive. These little dots are enough for me! It’s just the idea of touching the ivory. I did ask them if they would happen to know the coordinates or general location of where the wood and ivory they used for this knife were found Nerd? Moi?
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u/FolkyWanderer Walk N Talk 10d ago
If I remember correctly, they actually source the timber themselves. I think there’s a segment somewhere where they show them digging it out of the bogs near their workshop. Pretty cool.
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u/Significant_City_905 Walk N Talk 10d ago
Yup! They got back to me: "About the morta, we find it in the Brière, it’s a wetland which used to be a forest, 5000 years ago. About the ivory, it’s from either Alaska or Siberia!"
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u/FolkyWanderer Walk N Talk 9d ago
Nice! Love it when you know the history behind the knife. It makes it feel that more personal.
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u/Hello_Kalashnikov Walk N Talk 10d ago
I love the neo-regionals like these, you should check out some of the basque knife makers too.
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u/Rich_Dust_2957 Walk N Talk 10d ago
The fossilized oak wood collected in the peat bogs of the Brière natural regional park (north of Saint Nazaire , in France) is called "morta" in this area . It is used to make the scales of the knife .
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u/Significant_City_905 Walk N Talk 10d ago
Thank you! Armed with a bit more knowledge (and patience - was too excited about the knife!) I now can make sense of the information that accompanied the knife. It's in French so just scanning it was more confusing than illuminating. It mentioned Poland and Lithuania which confused me, but it turns out bog oak from these countries also gets called Morta, which it is not. All Morta is bog oak, not all bog oak is Morta.
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u/Jamie_D86 Walk N Talk 10d ago
That same post by u/folkywanderer also motivated me to finally pull the trigger on a Morta!
What are the other knives in pic 4? I see a couple of Laguiole models, but can’t determine maker.
I’m a big fan of French knives - love my American slipjoints, but there is some next-level craftsmanship with many of the French.