MT05P – Mule Team Fixed Blade featuring 9Cr18Mo

[jabba359]

Sal said before that the Mules are made in the country of origin of the steel. Their steel, their machining, their heat treating.
hickster

All China.

Edit... Hickster was faster

Ah thanks. I must have missed that post by Sal.

[gaj999]

I got mine in record time - ordered Sunday, shipped Monday, at my door Tuesday. UPS ground. Wow.

The cheap price and the possession of two led me to silly bravery and an attack on one with the bench grinder. I'll let you all know how it comes out ...

Gordon

[BWPerdue]

I got mine yesterday. Did a quick cord wrap and made a cardboard and duct tape sheath so I can start using it. I'll be doing something more elegant shortly.

[BWPerdue]

Well, looks like I need to rethink my ghetto sheath...my Mule poked out the bottom and got me in the pocket this morning. Thankfully, nothing important was harmed.

[rodloos]

Wow, glad you weren't seriously injured with the knife poking out through the sheath.

That is something I am even LESS confident about, is building my sheath, but I ordered both Kydex and Concealex (along with several different materials to try for the handles) and hope to fashion something workable. I do have an inexpensive heat gun, I'm hoping that can help to shape the sheath material well.

I think I am going to pick up a drill press today so I can actually have some accuracy in the holes I am drilling, and hope to have at least one knife fully dressed with scales and sheath.

I am already contemplating purchasing some more Mules, I have so many materials I want to try :) .

[BWPerdue]

You sound like exactly the same boat I'm in!

[dsmegst]

Wow, glad you weren't seriously injured with the knife poking out through the sheath.

That is something I am even LESS confident about, is building my sheath, but I ordered both Kydex and Concealex (along with several different materials to try for the handles) and hope to fashion something workable. I do have an inexpensive heat gun, I'm hoping that can help to shape the sheath material well.

I think I am going to pick up a drill press today so I can actually have some accuracy in the holes I am drilling, and hope to have at least one knife fully dressed with scales and sheath.

I am already contemplating purchasing some more Mules, I have so many materials I want to try :) .

From my experience so far, a toaster oven works better when shaping initially since you're forming the entire slab of kydex. It also prevents any hot spots or cool spots and either "burning" the kydex or having uneven shapes.

I bought my wife a new toaster oven before using the old one to prevent any marital strife. Worth every penny. :D

Then I use the heat gun to work on sections as needed. Make sure to shield the parts you don't want to reheat. I also scratched up some blades as I didn't pad the blade. A layer of masking tape works well and creates enough clearance around the blade while shaping. Also clean it out well before test fitting. I had to refinish 2 mules with scotch-brite pads. :o

[Agent_Ohm]

Your package is on time with a scheduled delivery date of 10/28/2009.

[dolphincry]

received mine yesterday. Thank you Spyderco...!

[araneae]

I'm really not trying to hog the thread, but it's seems I am anyway.

I've hardness tested 6 of the blades so far and here are the results.

59.3
58.9
59.1
59.1
59.1
58.9

All but one of those numbers represents an average of 2 tests. If you're not familiar with heat treating and hardness tests, that is amazing consistency.

As I was doing the hardness tests after work, two more guys found me and want Mules. For $20, it's hard to refuse.

Thanks for the data. :cool:

[sarguy]

So far my mule is doing fine for daily odds and ends tasks with the factory edge and no resharpening. I haven't gone around cutting Pepsi cans or anything, but plastic packaging, weedeater twine, paracord, zip ties, and some cardboard boxes have all felt its sting.

[grubbster]

Here is a pic of one of my new mules. It's wearing a set of ash scales. I am probably going to do some more shaping on the handle after I use it for a while.

[HaroldB]

That ash handle looks great. I think I'll go with a para-wrap for MT5.

Looks like a good steel so far, just a little more weight than some of the others

[JLS]

Well, here's a dozen of them ready to start handle work. One for me, one for the wife, 6 more Christmas presents and I'm doing the other 4 for a guy at work. I'll update with pictures as they get done.

[THG]

Has it been asked yet? What's the next steel going to be?

[dolphincry]

received mine last week....pretty fast for international shipping. Now waiting for Halpern Titanium for their first production run of black G10 scales...

[jabba359]

SFO is showing them as out of stock! Hopefully means we have MT06 coming very soon! :D

[aero_student]

dang it.

I missed out on this one. Anyone want to make me an offer on one?

[psimonl]

That steel is very hard to work with...

I have been trying to "wideing" 3 holes with 4 different kind of "approaches" AND IT DOEASN'T WORK. (I have some cool hardwood waiting to be put on)

Tonight, I went and bought a Cobalt drill bit to try... Hope it works,,

This China steel is hard stuff....

Simon

[Mr.Sparkitle]

Any idea on when the seconds, if any seconds are going to go on sale. The MT06 has been announced, thought the MT05 seconds would be on sale by now.