Spyderco Forums

Spyderco’s unique Mule Team Series elevates the concept of a “mule” in-house test knife by allowing our customers to join in the process. Offered without handles or sheaths, our Mule Team blades are also popular “kit” blades for aspiring knifemakers and hobbyists.

Our 32nd Mule Team installment features laminated san mai (three-layer) construction using a central core of SRS13 clad between layers of SUS405. SRS13 is a unique powder metallurgy martensitic stainless steel enriched with molybdenum, vanadium, and tungsten that is the steel of choice for many premiumgrade Japanese kitchen knives. SUS405 is a ferritic stainless steel that provides greater overall blade strength and toughness while allowing the hard SRS13 core to excel at cutting performance.

Japanese kitchen knives are made of very thin cutting core (typically less than 1 mm thickness) clad in softer stainless steel. There are two reasons this.

• For ease of putting initial bevel when the knives are made. Cutting cores are typically made of harder metals, thus they cause more wear and tear on the tools used to grind them. To minimize wear and tear, cutting cores are made very thin (typically less than a 1 mm), and clad in softer stainless steels such as SUS405 or SUS410 for added strength (so the knife doesn't snap in two) and protection (against corrosion).
• For ease of sharpening. Most people use their kitchen knives much more often than their sporting knives. For this reason, kitchen knives will typically require sharpening more frequently. Thinner core means easier sharpening and their sharpening stones will be subjected to less wear and tear.

Skidoosh wrote: ↑

Tue Jan 11, 2022 8:00 pm

I think this will be the first "clad" mule team. Was super blue solid or clad?

legOFwhat? wrote: ↑

Wed Jan 12, 2022 10:13 am

Count me in! Honestly Sal could make a MuleTeam of glitter Damascus from 1980's prom dresses and I'd still want one.