Spyderco Forums

MT11P – Mule Team Fixed Blade featuring M390 Microclean Steel

MT11P will be available for sale on Monday, June 13, 2011 at 1000MDT

All sales will be handled by the Spyderco Factory Outlet. You can order online here.

Cost: $74.95

Domestic Shipping: Standard Shipping rates apply.

International Shipping:
International shipments will be sent out according to our International Shipping Schedule:
Shopping Cart Total: $0-$99 - Shipping/Handling Charge $25
Shopping Cart Total: $100-$399 - Shipping/Handling Charge $35
Shopping Cart Total: $400 and higher - Shipping/Handling Charge $50

International shipments will be via USPS International Priority Mail. Please be aware, we will have limited tracking capabilities. Tracking once it leaves the US is dependent upon the postal services outside the US and their ability to provide it. However, this will completely eliminate UPS Brokerage Fees.

About:
The Austrian’s Böhler Group merged with Sweden’s Uddeholm Steel Works in 1991, creating the world’s largest tool steel manufacturer, Böhler Uddeholm. Specializing in aviation/aerospace and automotive steels, they also produce tool steels used in the manufacture of consumer goods including electronics and cutlery. Through a powdered metallurgy processes they produce M390 Microclean steel which is highly sought and well suited to today’s high-performance cutlery. M390 is a martensetic chromium steel highly resistant to corrosion.

The powdered granules of Chromium and Vanadium in the steel are small, consistently sized, and finely dispersed in the steel’s matrix (mix) making it exceptionally homogenous. This means for the consumer cutting with M390 will experience a high-level wear and corrosion resistance and the blade steel can be polished to a mirror-like finish.

What is the Mule Team:
For those of you unfamiliar with our Mule Team Project, it is unique to Spyderco. In-house we call knife samples designed and built for testing and evaluation Mules. We know a healthy percentage of knife users are interested in different blade steels and their performance abilities. Running with that, we released an ongoing Mule Team Project. Several times per year we unveil the same single-piece fixed blade patterned knife in a different and exotic blade steel. This lets steel-obsessed knife knuts test, try and use something normally not offered to the industry. Product runs are limited to 600 – 1000 pieces of each steel type depending on foundry requirements.

Mule Blades are leaf-shaped with a sharpened and finished PlainEdge blade but with an unfinished handle providing a do-it-yourself opportunity. The unfinished handle has a series of holes for attaching custom handle scales or for wrapping with para-cord. Each piece is sold without handle scales or a carry sheath focusing the project on the blade steel. This opens endless creative possibilities for the owner to design their own handle scale and carry options.

For more information about the Spyderco Mule Team, check out our Mule Team Page.

Interesting, I've heard a lot about this steel.

Thanks for the info!

Cool. Maybe I can pick up a two-fer. I've held off on the Cobalt Special because of the change in free shipping threshold. Waiting for something else that I really want.

Gordon

Any word on the rockwell hardess of these mules yet?

"Any word on the rockwell hardess of these mules yet? "

You beat me to it!
I have a several knifes in M390 and feel it may be improved if
"kicked up a notch" in hardness.
I wonder how it like 62-63?

As always, looking forward to this one. When I get mine, I'll be reporting the hardness on two samples.

I need more money without involving illegal activities.

These should be 59/60.

sal

Here is the data sheet on it from Bohler http://www.bohler-edelstahl.com/files/M390DE.pdf

Page 8 has a chart showing the best hrc values with respect to tempering for both corrosion resistance and wear resistance. 57.5-60 hrc with tempering temperature around 1k deg. F is listed as the highest wear resistance, so 59/60 should be just about perfect. With a sub-zero deep freeze, it can be pushed a bit over 62, though.

Sal, could you speak to how it compares to M4? I can only assume that's a closer comparable than CTS-20cp and CPM-S90v. Thx!

Hi Blerv,

We make the Mule Team pieces so you can compare them and tell us what you think.

Corrosion resistance will be better than M4.

Hi MCM,

We believe that edge retension can be improved with a higher Rc, but it takes someone like Phil Wilson to do that, heat treating one blade at a time in a very controlled oven. Jim Ankerson did some testing witha harder blade heat treated by Phil and reported better edge retension on rope. 59/60 is a good working hardness that can be achieved with careful heat treating, and will give you a better ideas of what the steel will perform like in a production piece.

sal

Touché sir :) . Time to put my plastic where my mouth is, lol.

dapagco wrote:The Austrian’s Böhler Group merged with Sweden’s Uddeholm Steel Works in 1991, creating the world’s largest tool steel manufacturer, Böhler Uddeholm. ... M390 is a martensetic chromium steel highly resistant to corrosion.

As Austrian I have no choice, this knife is a must-have.

sal wrote:Hi Blerv,

We make the Mule Team pieces so you can compare them and tell us what you think.

Corrosion resistance will be better than M4.

Hi MCM,

We believe that edge retension can be improved with a higher Rc, but it takes someone like Phil Wilson to do that, heat treating one blade at a time in a very controlled oven. Jim Ankerson did some testing witha harder blade heat treated by Phil and reported better edge retension on rope. 59/60 is a good working hardness that can be achieved with careful heat treating, and will give you a better ideas of what the steel will perform like in a production piece.

sal

Hi Sal,

You called me out and put me on the spot on this one. :spyder: :D

Jim



Yes it's true, I did a lot of testing on M390 at high hardness using blades made by Phil Wilson. :)

Phil Wilson is a Custom Maker who is a master at Heat Treating just to give others an idea, he is likely the best there is and has more insight and experience with PM steels than most. Personally I believe he is the best there is.

High Hardness (62-63 HRC) and very thin blades M390 will perform like most people couldn't even dream of. :eek:

But to be fair to Spyderco we need to separate Custom knives from Production blades. :)

Like Sal said 59-60 HRC will be the typical range for production knives and give the typical performance levels of production knives. It will give very good performance in that range around S90V at 59 HRC performance level or so.

anyone know the country of origin on this one??

Thanks Sal.
Hope to see you at the Blade show.
Would just like to say hello & maybe a handshake.
Maybe a quick "thank you" for making the M4 Military, & putting up with my posts like the recent Bowie thread....

MCM

sal wrote:Hi Blerv,

We make the Mule Team pieces so you can compare them and tell us what you think.

Corrosion resistance will be better than M4.

Hi MCM,

We believe that edge retension can be improved with a higher Rc, but it takes someone like Phil Wilson to do that, heat treating one blade at a time in a very controlled oven. Jim Ankerson did some testing witha harder blade heat treated by Phil and reported better edge retension on rope. 59/60 is a good working hardness that can be achieved with careful heat treating, and will give you a better ideas of what the steel will perform like in a production piece.

sal

This will perform close to s90v Jim? Sounds good to me. Never tried s90v so I'm really interested in getting this Mule.

angusW wrote:This will perform close to s90v Jim? Sounds good to me. Never tried s90v so I'm really interested in getting this Mule.

It won't be the same, but it will be around the same performance depending on how hard they end up.

Say M390 at 60 HRC will be close to S90V at 59 HRC or around the same performance.

In customs there would be a difference because S90V will top out at 60-61 HRC and M390 can go to 62-63 HRC and M390 has a higher alloy content.

Once we get into this area of edge retention they are all great with S110V at 63-64 HRC being the bees knees. :D

gus88 wrote:anyone know the country of origin on this one??

Hi Gus,

The Steel is from Austria. We made the blade in Golden.

Hi MCM,

See you at Blade.

sal

Big thanks to Jim and Sal for all of their knowledge that they have shared with us about this steel. I can't wait to pick up my two and put them to good use. :D