Got My Mule (Photo Heavy)

A place to share your experience with our Mule Team knives.
Post Reply
vivi
Member
Posts: 13846
Joined: Mon Oct 29, 2007 8:15 am

Got My Mule (Photo Heavy)

#1

Post by vivi »

Got a Mule in a trade recently. Going to need to get another for field carry since I like the pattern quite a bit for a smaller FB for the woods. This one I just wanted to beat around and test.


Image

Image

Image

Image
Handle hardly damaged from being whacked with a hammer and khukuri spine several times.

I just got a cheap magnifying glass and tried to take photos at 100x magnification. They didn't turn out well. I'll get a better magnifying lens in the future that hooks up to my computer for this. The texture at the break is strange looking. The white patches you see are mostly debris from wiping it off on my shirt and pieces of wood.

Image

Image

Image


The tip broke by stabbing the knife into a log and then giving it a strong whack with the spine of my khukuri. Wasn't surprised it broke.

The steel has been working well for me. Got a patina easily as I expected. The polish helps some. The slight patina you see beneath the crud from being thrown around the woods today was from slicing up a pizza and leaving it sit for 15 minutes.

The edge wasn't as thin as I like my knives so it didn't carve wood too well. It seems durable though, and has shown pretty good edge holding. I banged the edge with the spine of my khuk a few times and ran my fingernail down the blade and hardly felt a thing. Was digging around in wood all night and doing what chopping such a small knife is capable of and the edge wasn't any worse at the end of it.

I'm going to do some edge retention testing with the blade that's left.
:unicorn
Top
User avatar
PSU
Member
Posts: 839
Joined: Fri Jun 03, 2005 1:44 pm
Location: USA

#2

Post by PSU »

Vivi wrote:The tip broke by stabbing the knife into a log and then giving it a strong whack with the spine of my khukuri. Wasn't surprised it broke.
Thanks for performing the stab into a log and then whack it with a khukuri test. I was curious to see how that would pan out ;)
People say, oh it's dangerous to keep weapons in the home, or the workplace. Well I say, it's better to be hurt by someone you know, accidentally, than by a stranger, on purpose. - Dwight The Office

It's okay for me to talk about my job, as long as I'm not specific. I am the Sergeant of a three-man Rapid Tactical Force at one of America's largest indoor retail shopping areas. - Gecko_45

The more you learn about knives, the better Spyderco looks. - Sal
Top
Lockback
Member
Posts: 381
Joined: Sun Dec 19, 2004 11:01 pm

#3

Post by Lockback »

Vivi wrote:The tip broke by stabbing the knife into a log and then giving it a strong whack with the spine of my khukuri. Wasn't surprised it broke.
You invented the Rescue Mule!
Top
User avatar
amen74
Member
Posts: 2011
Joined: Wed Feb 13, 2008 2:26 am
Location: Victorville, CA

#4

Post by amen74 »

Abuse! LOL! A brave Mule sacrificed for the good of steel testing. That poor Mule.

Anyways, thanks for the test results Vivi.
Aaron

Current EDCs: Golden models
:spyder: FG D2 Military:cool: Orange UKPK:spyder:

NEXT: Rock Lobster, Manix2, TiMil
Top
vivi
Member
Posts: 13846
Joined: Mon Oct 29, 2007 8:15 am

#5

Post by vivi »

PSU wrote:Thanks for performing the stab into a log and then whack it with a khukuri test. I was curious to see how that would pan out ;)
You make it sound so scientific. :D

A little update:

The knife was stabbed in about an inch deep then I gave it an arm swing with the khukuri. Didn't swing especially hard.

I haven't done enough regular cutting to comment on edge holding, but from the little I did I'd imagine it would be above 8Cr13MoV, close to VG10 and under S30V. I might be off though, I'm not familiar with the steel.

The edge was stable under chopping and batoning through wood. I gave the edge a little tap with the spine of the khukuri and detected no damage with my unaided eye and fingernail. Giving the edge some taps with a hammer it sort of mashes and rolls over looking at it with magnification. No chipping from that. I did some chopping into a corner of the steel neck of the hammer and the same thing happened. The edge deformed and rolled but no chipping, and even the damage sustained was rather minimal. I plan to try batoning through nails and other harsh cutting later today and see how the edge holds up.

I chopped at the Mule with a cheap kitchen knife. The Mule wasn't much thicker at the very edge. The damage to the kitchen knife was much greater, but I was surprised in that one of the first few chops knocked a chip off the Mule's blade. Small, round chip that's shorter than the edge bevel, about .8mm deep.

Image

Image

I left the tip in tap water for 5 hours and there was very slight graying overall but other than that no effect on it. I'm going to do a measured concentration of salt and water overnight and will report back in the afternoon.

---------------

Would like to hear feedback from others who have used / abused their Mule's in whatever fashion.

---------------Update

Here the tip was soaked in salt water (1 cup of water, 1 tbsp salt) for 7 hours. Only a slight darkening.

Image

Here the blade was wrapped in a paper towel soaked with Apple Cider (Not from concentrate) for two hours. Weird design.

Image

Image
:unicorn
Top
Sakuraba#1
Member
Posts: 45
Joined: Fri Jan 05, 2007 10:40 pm
Location: Northern California

#6

Post by Sakuraba#1 »

what have you done to my mule!!!
Top
Post Reply

Return to “Mule Team Discussion”