Show your Mule

[tcarltonw]

Word, appreciate it.

[Ramonade]

The Green Orange (that's its name now) is finished.
I did not have time to take good pictures already, but here's some badly lit shots






And a small video :

[barnaclesonaboat]

@Ramonade That looks incredible! Nice work. What kind of burl is that?

[barnaclesonaboat]

First mule team handle finished(over the weekend but haven't had time to post the pics). I had made a handle for a kit knife from wood craft so technically I can't claim that this is my first ever. I really liked the feel of the thin Halpern scales so I worked off of that profile, they finished around .18" thick. This was originally a .5" thick box elder burl scale that I ripped in half(more like one third and two thirds haha). This was definitely a learning process and have some ideas on how to address whoopsies on the next one(received some advice from standy and would have been completely lost without the handle making guide put together by xplorer). Two biggest things I ran into was get the profile uniform(originally wanted to have the scales slightly smaller to expose the spine all the way around and that turned into having ~ 1/8" + of the heel sticking out so I gave up on that) to the spine without grinding the steel and the other doing the chamfer by hand. Talking to standy he suggested to leave the scales on, take it all the way to the steel, and then just sand out the marks on the blade by hand(correct me if I'm wrong there). As far as the chamfer I wanted something subtle but functional. I sanded it in first before finish sanding the flats by wrapping sic sandpaper around a .25" x 1.5" piece of wood and around a fine tipped sharpie for curved pieces.(wish I would have taken more pictures). What ended up happening is I lost most of the chamfer through the finish sanding of the flats so I will be doing that last next time around. In the end I took the flats to 400 grit with sic sandpaper then finished with two coats of Axe Wax.

tcarltonw that dark cerakote with midnight burl handles might be the coolest Mule I've seen!

[tcarltonw]

[/quote]
tcarltonw that dark cerakote with midnight burl handles might be the coolest Mule I've seen!
[/quote]

Appreciate that sir!

[BearShark44]

The Green Orange (that's its name now) is finished....

@Ramonade - incredible scales, thanks for posting. Do you use corbys .1875" pins w/ .25" heads in these 3 spots on the handle? I'm about to work on my first one and looking to get that same even pin distribution on the same line. How do you get the mosaic pin at .25" through - drill the hole larger or layer the mosaic pin on top of the recessed corby?

[Ramonade]

@Ramonade - incredible scales, thanks for posting. Do you use corbys .1875" pins w/ .25" heads in these 3 spots on the handle? I'm about to work on my first one and looking to get that same even pin distribution on the same line. How do you get the mosaic pin at .25" through - drill the hole larger or layer the mosaic pin on top of the recessed corby?

Hi ! Depends on the steel. I always use only two corbys and a good slow cure epoxy, that's plenty enough. If the steel is not too hard I try to open the center 3/16 hole to 6mm (0.236") to use a mosaïc pin all through the scales and the tang. Otherwise, I simply cut two lengths of mosaïc pin and use it as a decoration. Corby bolts are really good fasteners, once there's epoxy everywhere in addition to that, it won't move anyway !
I just ordered some larger diameter carbide drill bits, to see how it goes

[Ramonade]

Here's a second AEB-L Mule
Still stabilized elder burl and all.
The only different thing is the color of the liners, and of the wood

[Xplorer]

Here's a second AEB-L Mule...

Looks beautiful Robin! Great job!

[Ramonade]

Here's a second AEB-L Mule...

Looks beautiful Robin! Great job!

Thanks a lot Chad I found my style. Still working on making them disassembly ready though. I have a prototype right now, but I want them to be super close to the tang without having issue if you swap them on another Mule (not easy at all )

[Erion929]

This one I did have done locally by Black Boar Rifles. I had a Rex 76 one done by a guy suggested off of blade forums. I like it so far, haven't been put past any general cutting tasks but if sharpening is any indication of its capabilities I see the edge holding for a while. I just posted this in the community sharpening post but I felt like it belonged in the mule forum as well. Hopefully that's kosher.

How does the Spyderco logo not get obliterated….like the blade steel markings…. when Cerakoting?

.

[tcarltonw]

This one I did have done locally by Black Boar Rifles. I had a Rex 76 one done by a guy suggested off of blade forums. I like it so far, haven't been put past any general cutting tasks but if sharpening is any indication of its capabilities I see the edge holding for a while. I just posted this in the community sharpening post but I felt like it belonged in the mule forum as well. Hopefully that's kosher.

How does the Spyderco logo not get obliterated….like the blade steel markings…. when Cerakoting?

.

They are a 2nd cerakote spray as close as possible to the original

[weeping minora]

I believe the question was regarding how the Spyderco Bug logo on the blade was preserved in the cerakoting process.

I'll confess my ignorance on how the cerakoting process works, but I could see (as in painting) some sort of adhesive cut and shaped like that Bug logo would/could preserve it in the process.

[tcarltonw]

I believe the question was regarding how the Spyderco Bug logo on the blade was preserved in the cerakoting process.

I'll confess my ignorance on how the cerakoting process works, but I could see (as in painting) some sort of adhesive cut and shaped like that Bug logo would/could preserve it in the process.

It's not preserved... I believe a stencil is created and it's then cerakoted on top of the first layer of cerakote. Feel like I can't word good to explain it haha

[weeping minora]

I believe the question was regarding how the Spyderco Bug logo on the blade was preserved in the cerakoting process.

I'll confess my ignorance on how the cerakoting process works, but I could see (as in painting) some sort of adhesive cut and shaped like that Bug logo would/could preserve it in the process.

It's not preserved... I believe a stencil is created and it's then cerakoted on top of the first layer of cerakote. Feel like I can't word good to explain it haha

Stencil was the word I was looking for! Makes more sense that what I was trying to say .

Sublime looking Mule, by the way!!

[CasperFatone]

Lately I’ve been strapped for time but really wanted to put my new 15v Mule to work. I decided to do a set of scales as fast as I could without compromising on quality. The result was this set of Purple Heart scales, done in 1 hour and 5 minutes. The tools used were a drill press, bandsaw, trim router, and belt sanders (2x72 and 4x48). This was actually my first time making a set of removable Mule scales but definitely not my first set of knife scales. Hope y’all like them!

[Bolster]

...The result was this set of Purple Heart scales...

Nice!! I like the taper seen in the spine shot, quite a lot. What's your strategy for keeping the purple, purple?

[Bolster]

If Sophia Vergara were a knife, she'd look like this!

[Ramonade]

If Sophia Vergara were a knife, she'd look like this!

I'll admit it, I had to google that name. But I'm gonna take that as a compliment to my contouring

[Bolster]

...

If Sophia Vergara were a knife, she'd look like this!

I'll admit it, I had to google that name. But I'm gonna take that as a compliment to my contouring

I guess I should have said Brigitte Bardot instead...