Show your Mule

[Ramonade]

Here's my second one !

Beautiful work Robin!

The nickel corbys are just a little more wear resistant than the wood, so when you sand it takes extra effort to get the all the scratches out of the corbys. Just be sure to use something hard and flat behind the sandpaper (like a piece of aluminum) when you clean up the corbys so that the wood doesn't wear away too much while you do it.

Congrats on your beautiful new Mule handle!!

I've used some rectangle aluminium stock and some copper tubing in wich I sliced a slot ! Thanks for your advice, it helped a lot. In this situation I think I was afraid of messing the curves of the handle by keeping with straigth hard backing. I'll take some time to rectify this at home.

And thanks again This is addicting, I took more than a week thinking and working on the 1st one for my father, and did this one in 2 days . I most definitely went a bit fast (but didn't skip on labor, I hand sanded for hours).

[z1r]

My Magnacut Mule with the Scales and Sheath that FullScaler so generously gave away! They fit nicely and I really dig their see through nature. The sheath is nice and small. Definitely recommend them.

[DougB2]

I've been away from this forum and others for far too long. Moved, 2020 happened, garage not set up to work on knives or anything else. I finished this one in RWL34 with urban camo KVH series Tac-Cam scales,probably three years ago.

[DougB2]

This is another Mule I finished on 22 August 2020 (an otherwise awful day, that's why I remember the date). This is PD1 with kirinite scales; red, white, and blue G-10 liners and pins. Went with the patriotic theme.

[chkn]

Factory second 52100 Mule I finally gave handles to. Since the small holes are a different size from other Mules the Halpern scale hardware doesn't fit. I had tried to expand the holes to fit the hardware but it was a futile attempt with just a hand drill, so I got different hardware and modified the scales instead.

[Ramonade]

Third mule. SRS13/SUS405 with yet again some Elder Burl stabilized handle (I can't help myself, I love this wood). You can clearly see how blue/midnight blue it is. Reminds me of Starry Night ! That's why I tried to have what I'll refer as "the moon" on the top of the handle. I'll take better pics once the handle is buffed, right now it's sanded to 10k.





And right when I applied oil (will certainly look more like that once buffed) :

[jwbnyc]

Beautiful work.

[legOFwhat?]

Robin, Starry night is exactly what I thought of when I saw the 1st picture. Fantastic job!

[Xplorer]

Beautiful Mule Robin! I agree with Larry on the Starry Night vibe. Your handle is not only reminiscent of a famous work of but it's also a work of art itself. Well done!

[Ramonade]

Thanks a lot to the three of you ! I can't wait to see what my buffing contraption with the drill press will give as result !
(But i'll try on other things first, don't want to scar my Starry Night before it gets any kind of use )

[standy99]

Beauty mate. That handle looks great….

[Bemo]

Awesome!

[Ramonade]

Awesome!

Beauty mate. That handle looks great….

Thanks again ! I'm getting addicted to this, the hours spent are stupidly high, but I'm going faster and better with each handle. I'm just trying a new thing at each time, so the total time spent on 1 handle is approx. the same
Reminds me of a post of yours standy99, in wich you said you kept making it more intricate with each Mule. I love the one you made with the tubes.

[standy99]

Just a hollow pin

[Dane]

Another spyderco mule in magnacut, this one is sligtly modded....and probably will be mine :)

[mreagan]

Third mule. SRS13/SUS405 with yet again some Elder Burl stabilized handle (I can't help myself, I love this wood). You can clearly see how blue/midnight blue it is. Reminds me of Starry Night ! That's why I tried to have what I'll refer as "the moon" on the top of the handle. I'll take better pics once the handle is buffed, right now it's sanded to 10k.





And right when I applied oil (will certainly look more like that once buffed) :

Absolutely stunning! Do you stabilize your own wood? I have some maple burl that I need to stabilize for some handles.

[KnifeKnuts]

[Bolster]

...

Ramonade, I appreciate the way you relieve the front of the scales so they are not full thick near the blade.

...

Super interesting, KKnuts! How about you fill us in with a little background info on your unique scales? Or is this a production item?

...

Kudos for actually modifying the profile of the steel, Dane! Strong work. I have done similar with mine and really like a tang area that is not quite so tall.

[Bolster]

...

[Ramonade]

Ramonade, I appreciate the way you relieve the front of the scales so they are not full thick near the blade.

Thanks, I followed the "Coca-Cola bottle" shape on my first, but kept changing on each handle. This third handle has more of a ramp going from the highest corby to the champfer. It's still a bit high on this one. I've been telling myself I'd fix that for a couple of months now

Absolutely stunning! Do you stabilize your own wood? I have some maple burl that I need to stabilize for some handles.

Thanks a lot !
No, sadly I'm still learning and buying tools one step at a time. I'm in love with burl (especially elder burl, even if I've started to like poplar burl) and mostly order it from a Ukrainian maker that does excellent scales for a relatively good price ^^.
I've looked into it a bit, depending on the size of the piece of burl, it can necessitate some big equipment.