MT40P – HIC Mule Team Dropping Soon!

[michael_aos]

Halpern Titanium scales.

[Hatuletoh]

My mules have arrived. All the way from Switzerland, interestingly. If it had been mentioned elsewhere that that is where they were made, I missed it. Can't wait to cut some stuff.

[sal]

Hi Michael_aos,

Welcome to our forum.

sal

[legOFwhat?]

Halpern Titanium scales.
IMG_8358.jpeg

That looks great! Thanks

[FullScaler]

Do you have a CNC setup??? That's pretty sweet looking!

Yea, I recently picked up a small cnc to learn on. I love making things and so far it has been a great tool to use.

Ive made detailed textured maple scales, smooth birdseye maple, smooth walnut, and I have some ironwood and mahogany here that i'm going to try next.

Sp far the hard maple holds the best details, but the walnut just feels so good.

[Davidspeed13]

I messed up, or maybe not, and scheduled friends to come over to shoot with me on my backyard firing range right at the time for the drop. So I didn’t get around to ordering till a little after 2pm my time, 3pm Spyderco time. The ordering process was smooth and easy by that point and I snagged two HIC Mules along with a couple of other items. From the discussion here in the forum, it sounds like I just did get my order in before it showed “sold out”. I have not received a shipping notice yet, but understand that it might take a bit for folks at Spyderco to fill my order. Especially if they are going in the sequence that orders were received. I am surprised that the price($150 each) didn’t scare more people away from this drop. I’d also gladly wait a bit longer if that means the individual sharpening these is able to take a little bit more time refining the edge. I eagerly look forward to seeing just what kind of edge is on these and how well it holds up. I do like the idea of eventually seeing this material used for a regular production blade with a spydie edge. I’m a little torn on whether a small gentleman’s folder or a small fixed blade would be better for a regular production HIC knife with the spydie edge on it.

Sal, Kristi, and all of the rest of the team at Spyderco, y’all really cannot know just how much all of your hard work, dedication, and willingness to offer innovative products at reasonable prices is truly appreciated.

[JestersHK]

Beautiful scales you guys are making, I took my first HIC and wanted to get it functional and yet keep it lightweight. I used Yablanowitz's paracord wrapping guide again as I've done a few times before, but this mule quickly presented me some new challenges.

Please ensure you tape your blades up really well. Although not my sharpest mule its plenty sharp that you need to wrap it a few times for safety. I will say the electrical tape did leave some residue behind so ignore the discoloration on the blade, but we'll clean that up later.

1st is the lack of lightening holes. I got a bit creative and added some twists for some girth under the wrap, mainly just use whatever method to get some filler in there.

My next challenge was without the front lightening holes I had a heck of a time getting things started and the ability to hold the starting section of the cord in place.

I got creative here and found out this mule is super slick. I first tried some hot wax which just slid right off. Next was a dab of hot glue and it also would not hold. I even tried some CA super glue and it too popped right off. These blades are already impressing.

I finally had to run a thin strip of electrical tape in order to hold the paracord in a good starting position. This so far worked pretty well, but we'll see how this wrap holds up and how bad it slides around with only the 3 holes to try and anchor the wraps around.

I'm still trying to figure out how to finish up the end of this, I'm likely going to try and snake it back through the last hole and see if that will hold it.

Thanks again Spyderco team, this Mule is going to make a great hiking companion.

[standy99]

Moved

[Michael Janich]

We sharpen on a hard wheel and WorkSharp's 800-grit diamond stones will sharpen the HIC Mule, so I imagine Wicked Edge's will also.

Stay safe,

Mike

[kennbr34]

Yikes...

This is an old BESS tester, so you actually need to add 50 to that score to compare to the new ones.

820 BESS from the factory...

Give you a better idea...



If this is the best edge the factory can get, I don't foresee this being a viable material.

[Toker]

If this is the best edge the factory can get, I don't foresee this being a viable material.

That video had me wincing thinking there was going to be a fountain of blood. I hope they all don't come from the factory like that.

[FullScaler]

Ahhhh, man that was painful to watch. I can't believe that is the best this material can do.

[Bolster]

Sadly mine came with a sharpening flaw, a section where the angle obtused. The rest of the grind is good, but to sharpen the entire edge, I'd have to take the whole edge down so far I think I'd grow old trying. It's to a degree that I don't think I'd be able to sharpen it out. The knife draw-cuts printer paper OK but snags at that spot. Even though it can draw-cut printer paper, I can run my thumb parallel along the edge with a surprising amount of pressure, and not get cut. A strange and interesting blade.

[kennbr34]

Sadly mine came with a sharpening flaw, a section where the angle obtused. The rest of the grind is good, but to sharpen the entire edge, I'd have to take the whole edge down so far I think I'd grow old trying. It's to a degree that I don't think I'd be able to sharpen it out. The knife draw-cuts printer paper OK but snags at that spot. Even though it can draw-cut printer paper, I can run my thumb parallel along the edge with a surprising amount of pressure, and not get cut. A strange and interesting blade.

It's not actually as painfully slow to remove material with it as I expected. I already have it reprofiled down to 20dps. The factory geometry was 17dps with a 30+ dps microbevel... So that's quite a bit of a geometry change, and it only took about an hour or two. I've had steel take longer.

But this material is weird... I would love to see Todd Simpson put it under an SEM. Because when I look at it under 120x magnification, it looks like any other steel edge apex that should be hair splitting and sticky sharp. But it hardly cuts receipt paper and doesn't pass a three finger test. I mean, I can at least get it to start cutting my finger pads without depressing the skin at this point, but it's not really what I would call "sharp" yet.

If I had to guess, when you put this under an SEM, that instead of having the ragged looking peaks and valleys of steel micro serrations, it would instead show a bunch of radiused highs and lows.

[Wandering_About]

Mine arrived today. Edge just draw cuts paper but that's about it. I suppose I will end up trying to put it to stones sometime to see if it can be improved. The edge is even and without any other obvious flaw though. Right now I'm kind of with Bolster's thoughts of "strange and interesting" on this one.

If the material can take a better edge, it may have some potential. If it's something that simply doesn't take a very sharp edge, I have to admit I'd rather have a steel blade. But we will have to give it a little time and see what happens with this ceramic stuff.

[Toker]

Got mine in today and the factory did a decent sharpening job. Edges look even and the color is gorgeous in person.

The factory edge cuts newspaper OK. Not as good as a really good edge on a steel blade. The material feels really nice, but the edge doesn't catch on my fingernail like a really sharp metal blade does. Originally, I was going to keep this and sell one of my 15V, but now I'm going the other way. I don't know if I'll have the patience to experiment with sharpening techniques compared to how easy it is to sharpen knives on my Wicked Edge.

I am grateful that Spyderco has the Mule program so that these types of materials can be tested and experienced.

[j15w]

I received my mule today and it's simply not sharp. If Spyderco can't send them sharp from the factory, I don't want to even bother trying with my sharpening setup. Disappointed.

[JestersHK]

My 2nd HIC showed up today, and it's sharper than the 1st one, sharp enough I'll likely leave it alone for now. Appreciate all the info here, and I also watched the torture testing.

I think this material was never meant to be a replacement for a steel knife. Not for my use anyways. It will be an excellent corrosion resistant pack knife for my fishing setup. My buddy ordered one to try as a dive knife. I also love the non metallic aspect for very discreet carry options.
I fully understand it's not going to be a durable as steel, but I also don't get the guys hate that he wasn't able to cut a brick with it either... who cuts bricks with knives. To me it's a great additional tool in the toolbox. Can't wait to get in some real world use. It is a beautiful knife as well.

[Hatuletoh]

Mine arrived today. Edge just draw cuts paper but that's about it. I suppose I will end up trying to put it to stones sometime to see if it can be improved. The edge is even and without any other obvious flaw though. Right now I'm kind of with Bolster's thoughts of "strange and interesting" on this one.

If the material can take a better edge, it may have some potential. If it's something that simply doesn't take a very sharp edge, I have to admit I'd rather have a steel blade. But we will have to give it a little time and see what happens with this ceramic stuff.

In my very amateur opinion, I think the issue is that the edge has no tooth. I have no way to test it other than my finger, but it feels incredibly smooth. I was cutting an orange today and had a heck of a time getting the blade to bite into the skin. Once I pierced through it with the tip the rest of the ceramic blade cut through better than most knives, but without micro-serrations to catch and begin to split the medium being cut, the edge doesn't cut as well as steel. One other real world observation that would seem to support this idea: the knife is excellent at cutting cardboard that's thin enough to slice through just with downward pressure, but if the cardboard is thick enough to require a back and forth sawing motion, the blade doesn't cut well at all.

[Hatuletoh]

Oh, one other thing: as advertised, my mule did not fit the standard MT Boltaron sheath...until I put the Spyderco G10 scales on it. For whatever reason, with the scales on it fits quite well. A little tighter than other mules, but not so much that it can't be easily drawn with one hand. Anyone else try and succeed to get it in a standard Boltaron sheath?