Spyderco Forums

Xplorer wrote: ↑

Tue Mar 14, 2023 12:59 pm

I completely agree with the finishing wax suggestion. It's easy to apply, provides nice protection to the wood and buffs up nicely.

I use a different brand. I've used Howard's Citrus Shield Premium Paste Wax for many years and I love it. It's Brazilian carnuba, bees wax and orange oil. It protects, shines and smells fantastic! Even though I usually treat unfinished woods with multiple applications of boiled linseed oil first, I always finish with Howard's wax. If I'm going to skip the linseed oil for any reason, I still always apply the wax. No wood project of mine is complete until it smells like oranges.

The Citrus Shield can you showed is all Carnauba in orange oil, a good choice indeed. The other product they have that is food safe is a blend of Carnauba and Beeswax in mineral oil. I wonder if the orange oil base is considered food safe? For this old goat I don't give a rat's patooty.

Since I am finishing without any carrier just the pure wax, it is food safe.

standy99 wrote: ↑

Mon Mar 13, 2023 11:33 pm

Special thanks to LegOFwhat? For the gift that arrived in the mail today.

Beautiful set of scales to put on my ZDP-189

Looks amazing, what a guy!

Xplorer wrote: ↑

Tue Mar 14, 2023 12:59 pm

I completely agree with the finishing wax suggestion. It's easy to apply, provides nice protection to the wood and buffs up nicely.

I use a different brand. I've used Howard's Citrus Shield Premium Paste Wax for many years and I love it. It's Brazilian carnuba, bees wax and orange oil. It protects, shines and smells fantastic! Even though I usually treat unfinished woods with multiple applications of boiled linseed oil first, I always finish with Howard's wax. If I'm going to skip the linseed oil for any reason, I still always apply the wax. No wood project of mine is complete until it smells like oranges.

Is there any reason to use the method you mention here vs stabilizing? High humidity is occasionally an issue where I live so are both methods able to deal with that?

Some of the reasons I might prefer to use linseed oil (or mineral oil) and finishing wax would be for a project too large to stabilize or when the wood is already so dense and oily that stabilizing isn't very necessary. Sometimes cost or convenience plays a role. Usually if stabilizing is an option, stabilizing would be the best choice. But that's not to say that stabilizing solves all problems either. I wouldn't suggest that stabilized wood will not warp and move in humid or wet conditions. It depends on the stabilizing, the wood species and the severity of the conditions. In wet or humid conditions I would suggest using finishing wax to maintain any wood handle even if it's stabilized.

Wet and humid conditions……. good luck trying to stabilise timber. I would have to stabilise inside with the air conditioning on for 24 hours for 2 days to not have the cactus juice turn to gluggy soup…. (Realises this when reading the instructions after already buying everything)

I've had some stabilized woods come bent. It occured during shipping because covid slowed things down (and because it came for very far away). It's not fun !

More wooden scales action!

Started with Birch, then made a set of White Oak from floorboards, and now I've just finished off a pair of Wenge. These things nearly killed me (never worked with such hardwood!), but I'm oiling/waxing them a bit before mounting them up.

Why do the factory scales not fit flush? The handle is a slight bit proud all around it?
Is this a feature or a flaw?

SpiderIsland wrote: ↑

Fri Mar 24, 2023 10:51 am

Why do the factory scales not fit flush? The handle is a slight bit proud all around it?
Is this a feature or a flaw?

They are "recessed" my guess is since these mules might vary slightly a bit of setback provides an always fits scale. You could grind the mule tang to fit I suppose.

TTFulltimer wrote: ↑

Fri Mar 24, 2023 11:02 am

SpiderIsland wrote: ↑

Fri Mar 24, 2023 10:51 am

Why do the factory scales not fit flush? The handle is a slight bit proud all around it?
Is this a feature or a flaw?

They are "recessed" my guess is since these mules might vary slightly a bit of setback provides an always fits scale. You could grind the mule tang to fit I suppose.

Yea I guess but I'd rather grind the scales as it would be much easier for my talents :)

My M398 Mule with purple heart. I had finished the scales a couple months ago but they were a bit blocky and only sanded to 500 grit. I decided recently to thin the scales and give them more contour. I sanded the wood to 3000 grit then did 8 layers of clear coat. After that I sanded the last coat to 12000 grit. What a difference!

Pacu0420 wrote: ↑

Mon Mar 27, 2023 12:01 pm

My M398 Mule with purple heart. I had finished the scales a couple months ago but they were a bit blocky and only sanded to 500 grit. I decided recently to thin the scales and give them more contour. I sanded the wood to 3000 grit then did 8 layers of clear coat. After that I sanded the last coat to 12000 grit. What a difference!

That looks great!

A couple more pics from a different angle.

Picture of my Mule Family

From left to right: 2 MagnaCut mules with burl ironwood scales; 2 Rex 76 mules - one with stabilized redwood and the second with burl Maple; the last is the newest Spy27 mule with African Rosewood.

A couple of close-ups of my latest Spy27 mule with African Rosewood handles.

Ooo! That’s much more pleasant looking than the product page shows. I think that the straight spine doesn’t work as well on the mules as on others. However, with that nub removed and its final form, I think it works well!

Nearly finished, a few more grits to go.

attila wrote: ↑

Tue Mar 28, 2023 8:10 pm

Ooo! That’s much more pleasant looking than the product page shows. I think that the straight spine doesn’t work as well on the mules as on others. However, with that nub removed and its final form, I think it works well!

Yes, I agree. When I first saw the picture online, I wasn't crazy about the straight spine mule. But once you sand down the nub and smooth out the lines of the knife it really looks nice!

And it's easy to do... I have a small 1x30 bench-top belt sander that I use to sand down and back the nub (sand it back from the edge), and then I take a small wooden dowel with some sand paper and hand-sand a curve going up to 1500 grit. It takes some time, but I think the end result is worth it. I should also note that I used a mini drum-sander attachment for my drill press to smooth out and slightly increase the radius/curvature of the thumb ramp... although I did this after the wooden scales were attached during the process of sanding everything flush.

Here's a picture of a new Spy27 Mule that I'm just starting to shape (prior to attaching handle scales)... I've grinded down and smoothing out the nub, and I've also sloped and smoothed out the thumb-ramp area.

Cool! Thanks for the explanation!

I shortened the nub on one of my Magnacut Mules too, but not that far down. Using a 2x72 grinder, I also lowered the obnoxiously abrupt thumb ramp. I have since reduced the blade height to make the spydiehole sit more symmetrically between spine and thumb ramp.

Some of you folks run the handle material so close to the blade, it reminds me of a ruffle collar.

Not that there's anything wrong with a ruffle collar.