MT39P – CPM 15V Mule Team Dropping Soon!

[Mage7]

It seems that the tip on the Mule is ever so slightly thinner than that of the Manix. I reprofiled the Mule to the same angle I did my Manix to last night, and when I was done I tested it out a bit and heard the tip chip a little. It's nearly imperceptible, though; if I hadn't heard it I wouldn't have known it happened and it's still plenty pokey, but I can't deny it happened when looking at the two tips side-by-side.

Ii profiled it to about 14.4 degrees per side. In other words, I calculated the main blade grind to be about 2.4 degrees, and used a 12 degree angle wedge as a guide to freehand an edge on. So it's probably around 14-16 degrees per side, give or take. I don't have a goniometer to measure.

It's held up at this angle great on the Manix so far, even despite me accidentally running the tip into some metal once or twice. I wasn't doing anything nearly abusive with it, but I had placed the tip down on a cutting surface and was trying to drag a piece of foam across it as the blade remained stationary, and perhaps this created a weird sideways load on it.

It's literally such a small amount of damage it's hardly worth mentioning, but what was surprising is how loud it was. I think I may have gotten it closer to 14 degrees per side than I intended, and it seems like that's kind of the lower end of the scale of edge geometry to run it at without risking edge stability issues.

But personally I just wasn't very pleased with the geometry from the factory in terms of wear resistance. It stood up great cutting through some pretty dirty cardboard that my cat's litter comes in. That stuff has micro-chipped out my Manix 2 in 15V at a similar edge angle so I wanted to see how the factory bevel would stand up to it. It was good edge stability, but noticably less edge wear resistance as I continued cutting into the cardboard. I think it was only 17 DPS from the factory, and I wouldn't have thought it would make much of a difference versus 14-15 DPS, but my Manix 2 definitely felt like it dulled much more slowly through the same cardboard. I'll have to wait until I have more empty boxes of it around to test the Mule's new edge. But given the way it lost its tip last night, I am expecting some chipping.

[Josh Crutchley]

Not sure if it was intentional or not but I like the way the BBB logo goes from light to dark. As for the steel the factory edge didn't seem as strong as the Maxamet Manix LW. The edge had micro chipping after cutting bamboo dowels where Maxamet did not. Will put a fresh edge on it when I have time and test again. Also really like the blade finish as it seems more corrosion resistant than the PMA11 mule.

[nerdlock]

Dropped on my door. Hotter than a pan of cookies. I bought two, one accepts scales easy, the other will need some work.

IMG_20230602_200301915fifteenV.jpg

That edge near the ricasso looks like it's been sharpened too much!

[electro-static]

Did anyone find sharpening the mule easier than the folders.

[horzuff]

Probably because of the thinner edge

[weeping minora]

I didn't particularly find the edge itself, nor BTE dimensions, "thin", but as has been stated amongst the whole run of 15v knives: the steel certainly sharpens very nicely, with Shawn's heat treatment.

[Striple765Rider]

Well I tried my hand at making my own scales for the first time ever. Considering it was my first time ever and what I had to work with (no belt sander or anything you’d normally use) I’m pretty happy with the results.
I went to knife maker and bought the barrel spacers, hex head screws, a pair of OD green canvas micarta scale slabs and a pair of OD green with red liners G10 scale slabs.
I watched several YouTube videos and dos a lot of reading on here and other knife forums to get ideas and learn as much as I could. I decided to start with the micarta scales since they were the cheapest and they’re very easy to find. I did all this with a hand held jig saw, hand drill, angle grinder with flap discs, a palm sander and a little hand sanding.
I messed up a little bit right up at the lower guard area and I want to recess the screw heads more because I don’t like them being out past the scales. I’m also thinking about trying to contour them some instead of just being flat slabs but for now it feels very good in the hand (other than feeling the screw heads) and doesn’t look horrible. I think next weekend I’ll start on the G10 scales and a second set of scales for my awesome 15V mule.

The top picture was right after I finished up and the second picture was after a light coat of mineral oil.

[Ramonade]

Did anyone find sharpening the mule easier than the folders.

I'm telling you that soon, I have to put my own edge on the Mule. According to Shawn Houston/BBB it seems like the Mules are ran a bit harder so maybe I'll be able to feel a difference on the stones.

I only sharpened my 15V Manix for now and it was as good an experience as sharpening my Maxamet N5 LW (It's not ironic, everytime I sharpen it it goes so smoothly it's crazy)

[Striple765Rider]

I sharpened my mule and found it pretty easy to do. I put it in my work sharp precision adjust and find the one bevel right at 15°abs the other was just a little steeper and close to 17-ish. I started on the 220 grit and got them both sitting at 15°and a burr going and then progressed all the way up through the ceramic. Then I stropped it on 3 micron venev Diamond paste and then 1 micron. Both are loaded on smooth leather mounted on wood. It’s not a super clean mirror polish but it’s got a very nice shine to it and it is crazy sharp.

[sal]

Hi Striple765Rider,

Welcome to our forum.

sal

[Striple765Rider]

Thank you Sal!! You guys are incredible with how humble and involved you are in your business. A LOOOT of people get to your level and just become another corporation and are just about numbers. You and your son are 100% true knife guy’s and truly love your work. That’s so awesome to see these days. A big part of why I pretty much have only bought Spyderco’s for years now. Not just because of how high quality they are and the really cool steels you guys are always using but because you’re still just guys who love to make really cool knives.

[Ramonade]

I wanted to sharpen the Mule directly but since factory edges have been a subject of discussion as of late, I decided to test it. I made a bunch of cuts in printing paper and receipt papers to see if a burr was there, apparently everything was good. I decided to use the last inch of edge at the heel.



I have pizza boxes that all have the same dimensions and cardboard. They're made of square of 30X30cm (I'll put everything in centimeters and convert the total cut length in the end, so that nobody is like (what's that scenti meters thingy ?)
All the cuts are of the same length (I tried to keep as straigth as possible) :



The part of the edge I used started to snag a bit on paper after 260 cuts :




260 cuts of 30 cm makes a total length of 7 800 cm. Converted in feet it makes 255.9 feet.

I don't know if it's a sensible score or not, I'm going to give it a real edge today and I'm pretty sure this result will radically change.

[Ramonade]

I've been gathering lots of cardboard for my next test(s). It's double corrugated cardboard though, so It won't be ok for a comparison. I'll have to eat a lot of pizzas to really compare

In the meantime, here's a video of the first edge at 17 dps (like other Mules, to keep the same geometry).
F240 edge with 3, 1 then 0,25 micron stropping.



Sorry it's hard to cut watching through a phone, might look like and idiot.

[weeping minora]

I've been gathering lots of cardboard for my next test(s). It's double corrugated cardboard though, so It won't be ok for a comparison. I'll have to eat a lot of pizzas to really compare

In the meantime, here's a video of the first edge at 17 dps (like other Mules, to keep the same geometry).
F240 edge with 3, 1 then 0,25 micron stropping.



Sorry it's hard to cut watching through a phone, might look like and idiot.

Sharp!

I cut a large box of double corrugated cardboard last week and 15v didn't even blink at it. I think the cut count total of that box was somewhere near ~269. That number sounds about right anyway. I had done a decent amount of unrecorded cutting before then and the edge, whilst no longer "crisp", was still cutting with some serious aggression. A quick strop with 4 and 1 micron brought the edge back to hair splitting.

On a side note, I was shocked to see a patina form this morning instantaneously after hitting it with Bar Keeper's Friend to knock off a bit of corrosion that started to form under the G-10 scales I had affixed. I have it soaking in mineral oil before putting some new scales on at the moment. I'll have to snap a pic before I put some new scales on to update with evidence. Never seen anything like that happen before. It was interesting though .