MT36P – K294 MICROCLEAN Mule Team Dropping Soon!

[Guts]

Nice scales. Where did you get them?

They're 3D printed. Found the model over on thingiverse and printed them myself. Saves me a good bit of money for every mule vs paying an extra $50 a pop for the G10 scales, plus there's tons of color options in terms of filament. I just put the extra money towards more Spyderco's . Pretty sure it was a member here who designed this particular set.

Man, Im glad I asked. Ive been wanting to get into 3D printing... suggest a website to learn about 3D printers so I can get on the bandwagon?

There's a number of good channels on youtube that go through how to use all the software and such. 3D printing nerd, Teaching tech, Make with tech, CNC kitchen, etc. There's a lot more obviously, but those are some I can remember off the top of my head. In particular you'll want to learn how to use a "slicer" sw depending on which printer you end up going with. More of a visual person myself so it helps seeing how the sw is used. The slicer basically takes a model from a place like thingiverse, printables.com, or your own designed model, and converts it into a format your printer can understand called g-code which is printer-specific, unlike the STL files you can find on the aforementioned sites.

All3DP.com or matterhackers.com have a bunch of guides that are helpful, like common 3D printing issues. Hope that helps.

[alphaneuron9]

Man, Im glad I asked. Ive been wanting to get into 3D printing... suggest a website to learn about 3D printers so I can get on the bandwagon?

While you are gearing up, you can contact Josh Crutchley (the designer) or FullScaler (both on this forum) and see if they will print you a pair. FullScaler printed me a green set.

Thanks, Bolster!

[alphaneuron9]

Nice scales. Where did you get them?

They're 3D printed. Found the model over on thingiverse and printed them myself. Saves me a good bit of money for every mule vs paying an extra $50 a pop for the G10 scales, plus there's tons of color options in terms of filament. I just put the extra money towards more Spyderco's . Pretty sure it was a member here who designed this particular set.

Man, Im glad I asked. Ive been wanting to get into 3D printing... suggest a website to learn about 3D printers so I can get on the bandwagon?

There's a number of good channels on youtube that go through how to use all the software and such. 3D printing nerd, Teaching tech, Make with tech, CNC kitchen, etc. There's a lot more obviously, but those are some I can remember off the top of my head. In particular you'll want to learn how to use a "slicer" sw depending on which printer you end up going with. More of a visual person myself so it helps seeing how the sw is used. The slicer basically takes a model from a place like thingiverse, printables.com, or your own designed model, and converts it into a format your printer can understand called g-code which is printer-specific, unlike the STL files you can find on the aforementioned sites.

All3DP.com or matterhackers.com have a bunch of guides that are helpful, like common 3D printing issues. Hope that helps.

Thanks, Guts!

[Ramonade]

Waiting on it today or tomorrow.
Paid the import fees and taxes Saturday so it shoudl be imminent

This time I only had to pay 10€ instead of the usual 70€ for 3 Mules (T15, SPY27 and K294)

[standy99]

Waiting on it today or tomorrow.
Paid the import fees and taxes Saturday so it shoudl be imminent

This time I only had to pay 10€ instead of the usual 70€ for 3 Mules (T15, SPY27 and K294)

I might get mine before you this time….mine are due today

[Ramonade]

Waiting on it today or tomorrow.
Paid the import fees and taxes Saturday so it shoudl be imminent

This time I only had to pay 10€ instead of the usual 70€ for 3 Mules (T15, SPY27 and K294)

I might get mine before you this time….mine are due today

Competition, I see....
I think I won again, but the gap is getting smaller and smaller ! Next race might be my undoing !

[sal]

Hi B12Buddy, Nathan,

Welcome to our forum.

I finally got my sample of K294. A tad late to the party, but I've been busy. Just put a standard G-10 scales on the model. I'll be testing this outside as well as kitchen duty. I really like Crucible's 10V's edge retention so it will be interesting to compare the performance from two different foundry's with the same chemistry. Something we don't get to do with too many steels. I have found that there are often differences even though they are supposed to be the same.

One of the advantages of the Mule samples is that a rare steel like K294, not often used by custom makers and hardly every used by factories, is available at all. Just being able to get a "piece of the stuff", ready to use, in a very functional format, is not a common opportunity. I think this steel would be a excellent material for Ed Schempp's "Rock" design.

Looking forward to hearing what you think of it?

sal

[alphaneuron9]

There’s my answer from the man, himself. Thank you. (I was asking earlier for the motivation behind K294)

[standy99]

Competition, I see....
I think I won again, but the gap is getting smaller and smaller ! Next race might be my undoing !

You got me by Less than 24hrs….can’t complain as it’s usually a week after you. I know if I lived in Sydney or Melbourne I would have had you by 3 days. Funny how postage from the US fluctuates from anything from 5 to 20 days. With 20 the norm….

(no duty for me though )

[xnmw]

201 left! Excited to try it out! Thanks to everyone for cluing me in on how you actually order these--I had no idea they were in-stock and I thought I'd be waiting for the next run. Kudos to Spyderco customer service that helped me switch from AEB-L after I'd already ordered, too.

[barnaclesonaboat]

201 left! Excited to try it out! Thanks to everyone for cluing me in on how you actually order these--I had no idea they were in-stock and I thought I'd be waiting for the next run. Kudos to Spyderco customer service that helped me switch from AEB-L after I'd already ordered, too.

Wow! Didn’t realize there were so many left. Crazy that people are sleeping on a such a value for such a compelling steel in this platform. I haven’t tried 10V in any form, but the K294 Mule has become a favorite of mine for fine but hard-wearing edges.

Enjoy! And tell us what you think of it!

[swknight]

If you have a copy of Dr. Larrin Thomas' book: The Story of Knife Steel
- skip over to page
447
Second paragraph down - and read about K294...

Heck of a great steel... Heck of a great price herein too at $95 ish...

Best wishes to all,

Steven Wayne Knight

[Steeltoez83]

Wow that many still available. I kinda wanted to get the spy27 mule next but having to throw out 8 grand for the emergency surgeries my wife needed has halted my knife budget. I sure hope I get to hear honest feedback from actual user experience with this one.

Only 65 left now. And i also snagged the last of the T15 so i wouldnt have to pay shipping.

[VeraX_Knives]

I finally got my sample of K294. A tad late to the party, but I've been busy. Just put a standard G-10 scales on the model. I'll be testing this outside as well as kitchen duty. I really like Crucible's 10V's edge retention so it will be interesting to compare the performance from two different foundry's with the same chemistry. Something we don't get to do with too many steels. I have found that there are often differences even though they are supposed to be the same.

One of the advantages of the Mule samples is that a rare steel like K294, not often used by custom makers and hardly every used by factories, is available at all.

Sorry for being late to the party, but I just wanted to kinda agree here a lot like. I find that even the same chemistry in the same factory has sometimes had.. what say in uh the HIC knives we would call asperities technically speaking and unlike KSN, while sure okay I do the normal testing Larrin does and then some because I have a few gadgets that he doesn't and he has one big one I don't. Always have access to a scanning electron microscope. Gotta admit I'm a bit jealous but I have access to gc/lc-ms-ms testing equipment which has come in handy for narrowfication (yes I just made up a new word, sue me for the IP rights lol) of the "what in the world mystery steel is this" and why not end the night on a typical Jason note.

Usually even with the dang equipment I can't find a composition that exists on the interwebs and end up wasting a week of some poor grad students life and have to tell whomever I was doing it for that I failed again lol .

And of course, can we kinda maybe stick with steel alloys here for a tad bit longer? I cannot say that I am asking that for myself personally. It's just a pretty obvious vibe that I'm getting over the forums that people... How do I do this politically correct. People don't like change it's human nature but moreso I'd have to say that.. it's not a common material and while many ceramic dive knives exist, I personally am PADI certified and I am friends with a bunch of people who are former military now that have much higher certifications, but they don't know what to do with the material to make it work and as much as you guys do give all the IMO 99+% correct information on how to sharpen it, it does have a much higher elasticity (ε) than steel so sharpening it by hand, as was mentioned somewhere, with result in.. unique results?.

-Jason

[legOFwhat?]

Wow that many still available. I kinda wanted to get the spy27 mule next but having to throw out 8 grand for the emergency surgeries my wife needed has halted my knife budget. I sure hope I get to hear honest feedback from actual user experience with this one.

Only 65 left now. And i also snagged the last of the T15 so i wouldnt have to pay shipping.

That 1 T15 has lingered for a couple of weeks and it was all I could do not to buy it glad it found a good home!

[Steeltoez83]

Wow that many still available. I kinda wanted to get the spy27 mule next but having to throw out 8 grand for the emergency surgeries my wife needed has halted my knife budget. I sure hope I get to hear honest feedback from actual user experience with this one.

Only 65 left now. And i also snagged the last of the T15 so i wouldnt have to pay shipping.

That 1 T15 has lingered for a couple of weeks and it was all I could do not to buy it glad it found a good home!

Thanks dude I appreciate that. I'm probably gonna test the k294 first tho. I still am shooting for the HIC mule today as well. But I want to put k294 thru some work first to get a good idea of what it can do. To me it was very high praise from Sal to imagine this steel on the Schempp rock. As far as I'm aware that design won 5 cutting competitions in a row for Mr Ed Schempp.

[VeraX_Knives]

Could someone explain to me what a cutting competition is exactly? How they work and whatnot? I'm assuming this is something at like blade show ? Basically I guess my question is.. is it a real thing or is it like Forged in fire type? And no I'm not asking if it's a CATRA test accurate level deal, I don't think people would find two CATRA tests interesting to watch hahaha.

I'm also assuming it's not open entry.

I'm a little bit competitive. Just maybe

Thanks dude I appreciate that. I'm probably gonna test the k294 first tho. I still am shooting for the HIC mule today as well. But I want to put k294 thru some work first to get a good idea of what it can do. To me it was very high praise from Sal to imagine this steel on the Schempp rock. As far as I'm aware that design won 5 cutting competitions in a row for Mr Ed Schempp.

Hope ya get one and like it

J

[Steeltoez83]

Never watched forged in fire. Altho most non knife friends always recommend it to me.

In the video I watched Mr Schempp mentioned rope was used back then. Nowadays it's an obstacle course.

[CasperFatone]

Could someone explain to me what a cutting competition is exactly? How they work and whatnot? I'm assuming this is something at like blade show ? Basically I guess my question is.. is it a real thing or is it like Forged in fire type? And no I'm not asking if it's a CATRA test accurate level deal, I don't think people would find two CATRA tests interesting to watch hahaha.

I'm also assuming it's not open entry.

I'm a little bit competitive. Just maybe

Thanks dude I appreciate that. I'm probably gonna test the k294 first tho. I still am shooting for the HIC mule today as well. But I want to put k294 thru some work first to get a good idea of what it can do. To me it was very high praise from Sal to imagine this steel on the Schempp rock. As far as I'm aware that design won 5 cutting competitions in a row for Mr Ed Schempp.

Hope ya get one and like it

J

I think you’re probably talking about Bladesports, which is a basically a series of back to back cutting tasks done in a timed competition. If you search for it you’ll find plenty of info. Everyone has to use a knife built within certain parameters, which off the top of my head I think are 2” max blade height, 10” max blade length, 5” max handle length, and a forward lanyard is required.

I only know this because I made one of these built to spec knives, known as a Competition Chopper, just for fun a few years back. I’ve honestly had a ton of fun chopping the **** out of everything with it. Mine is made from 1/4” thick 80crv2 with a slightly convex zero grind with a Sapele handle. Here’s a pic for you-

[VeraX_Knives]

Alright thanks. Seems interesting but as steel mentioned.. all I'm wondering now is how much people send their specimens out for proper scientific analysis because anyone who.. does this kinda thing knows that it starts at the steel company. Much longer before we ever get it. And some stuff just cannot be fixed, so knowing exactly what you're dealing with is VERY valuable information. I'd almost guarantee that these guys have density and multibeam radar tests/Ultrasonic testing done before the competition. (Available for anyone who works in law enforcement FYI)

Definitely looks fun however and nice blade man if I had to build something for that purpose - same deal just going PM for the "let's hope whoever runs that plant is a little bit more anal". No lie I don't think I'd change anything hahaha. I do infinity grinds already (kitchen magnacut, 86 I have to bevel) and it's.. geometry lol the most simple part and the most complicated part of making a knife at the same time. How interesting lol.