Spyderco Forums

TkoK83Spy wrote: ↑

Mon Jun 21, 2021 8:07 pm

I like seeing you guys giving these some real use, trying some wild things as well. Pains me when I see people saying that want one just for food prep. I feel that's not the purpose of a Mule!

Yeah, Spyderco is nice enough to offer these to us for what seems to be pretty much cost so it's the least we can do to show our appreciation.

TkoK83Spy wrote: ↑

Mon Jun 21, 2021 8:07 pm

I like seeing you guys giving these some real use, trying some wild things as well. Pains me when I see people saying that want one just for food prep. I feel that's not the purpose of a Mule!

Agreed! IMO we kind of owe it to Spyderco. I can't imagine they're making any money on these at $50 apiece.

Ha, Turbo beat me to it. :)

My wife and I are taking a camping trip to a cabin in the middle of the woods in a few weeks, I'd have loved to be able to have one of these to provide some of my own feedback for Sal and the crew! You guys are doing a great job so far though, keep it up!!

Turbo...very interested in how this steel/chip responds to your sharpening skills!

bbturbodad wrote: ↑

Mon Jun 21, 2021 10:48 am

...I measured the BTE thickness on the 3 knives.

PD1 and PMA11 Mules averaged ~.020"
Z-MAX Mule ranged from .024" to .027"

I also noticed a much thicker edge on my Z-Max Mule. It’s about 0.024-0.026” bte, while my PD#1 and PMA11 are both 0.014-0.019” bte, and my B70P is 0.016” bte along pretty much the whole edge even after a couple of light sharpenings.

This is the same trend that I’ve seen in most if not all Golden vs Taichung models that I’ve handled. Taichung grinds are usually much more slicey than Golden grinds.

I have a little warping in the handle on mine also, but not too bad. I'm making liners to go with the Halpern scales and wondered why I was having issues getting it to fit. I thought I had the process down better after making them for my SPY27 Mule. Now I know what the problem was and why I was having problems. No matter, I got them to fit and it's hardly noticeable. After all, it's a $50 blade, maybe $100 with scales and liner. Less if I paracord wrapped it. Not finished with the project yet and hope to have it all set to take to camp 4th of July to compete with Mules 28 and 31 in chores and sharpening.

So I used the DMT fine sharpening bench stone to put a hair popping edge on the Z-Max mule and used the same first 1 1/2” and got 20 min in before it would not cut paper without a hiccup on some super hard plum tree branch that had cured for 2 years in the hot sun



After putting a bur on both sides and again hair popping sharp it lasted another 40 min on this dry hard wood.





I am happy with the amount of abuse it can take before not being hiccup free paper cutting sharp

For those who have tried, how is your mirror edge cutting? I tried twice to get my mirror edge to cut but was not happy with it. The fine DMT with good pressure seems to be the trick to pop hair. Now I almost have no hair on both my arms trying to get this steel sharpening down.

Fireman wrote: ↑

Tue Jun 22, 2021 11:59 pm

For those who have tried, how is your mirror edge cutting? I tried twice to get my mirror edge to cut but was not happy with it. The fine DMT with good pressure seems to be the trick to pop hair. Now I almost have no hair on both my arms trying to get this steel sharpening down.

When I had mine with a semi polished edge the edge retention was meh. Initial sharpness dropped off immediately and overall for a steel I assume has an HRC in the high 60's doesn't hold an edge even close to as well as Maxamet which lasts forever with a polished edge.

As I noted earlier the grind on my example is quite a bit thicker behind the edge (and will be even thicker when I grind out the chip from chopping the nail) than most of my knives so I'm going to sharpen it with a more acute angle and see if that helps to offset the thicker grind and bring up the edge retention.

One more note on sharpening, Z-MAX is easier/faster to grind than I expected, but I am having to spend extra time and care to compensate for the warp in the blade.

TkoK83Spy wrote: ↑

Mon Jun 21, 2021 8:07 pm

I like seeing you guys giving these some real use, trying some wild things as well. Pains me when I see people saying that want one just for food prep. I feel that's not the purpose of a Mule!

From the Mule Team Project Edge-U-Cation page -
"...the ultimate goal of the project is to actually use your knife to evaluate the cutting performance, edge retention, corrosion resistance, and ease of sharpening of its specific steel."

The people using their mules for food prep can undoubtedly provide feedback that is just as useful as the people cutting cardboard and rope. Food prep can provide information about corrosion resistance that many other materials just simply can't. All feedback is beneficial, assuming it's honest.

Speaking of food prep, when I did use mine for food prep, it got a nice light patina which I like. On a side note… After 1 hour of solid whittling on hard soon with just a paracord wrap, I did have some hand discomfort the next day. Need to get scales.

I am finding the z-max is starting to stain just being in my garage. It is humid here being summer but disappointed that I already have a tiny rust spot when it has never seen water. I think the oil and sweat on my hands is doing it as the whole blade has light markings you can’t rub off.

I hope the z-wear will be closer to stainless.

I was lucky enough to purchase one of these and decided to bring it along on a family trip to Hawaii. Naturally it is the designated pineapple slicer. It sat covered in juice for a while after cubing up a pineapple and developed a light, inconsistent patina. Other than some meat, vegetables and cardboard boxes I really haven't challenged the edge yet. However I am surprised and pleased with the corrosion resistance so far.

https://i.imgur.com/sHjtaCb.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/XpMUPqG.jpg

I did finally put mine to the test on drywall repair, taking off old paint, texture, tape, and mud where previous repairs had gotten wet and sagged/cracked/started to peel. I think it stood up as well as Maxamet, maybe a bit better.

Dear uptownmerle:

Welcome to the Spyderco Forum.

Stay safe,

Mike

My Z-Max Mule had a somewhat busy weekend.

Spent time in the kitchen cutting chicken, onions, peppers, and other veggies. It got the usual standard of care for all my knives - used and left dirty until done with preparations. Then washed off with soap / water and dried.

I'd say corrosion resistance is a bit better than K390. The K390 Mule did have more obvious staining after that type of kitchen work.

My Z-Max Mule also was used on fire duty this weekend, and that included peeling bark off of very wet wood and some light batooning (1-1.5" dia. sticks). It did fine, and it was still sharp afterwards, although maybe not sticky. There is a small chip mid blade that I noticed today when I touched up on the Sharpmaker. Not worried about it - it'll sharpen out soon enough. Assume this is from the batooning.

Sharpening was pretty easy - did about 15-20 strokes on the brown flats and about 10 on the white flats. Back to sticky sharp.

After sharpening, and showing the light patina that is forming:

bbturbodad wrote: ↑

Mon Jun 21, 2021 7:45 pm

Not something I'd normally do but I was curious...


Forgot to post the comparison.

I think these two pics deserve more hype. Certainly pushing the limits of what one may considered appropriate testing mediums for the Mule Team. What are you cutting anyway?

Thanks for doing it. I'm still working on wood and plastics dreaming of enough use to consider sharpening the factory edge.

ykspydiefan wrote: ↑

Mon Jun 28, 2021 6:47 pm

I think these two pics deserve more hype. Certainly pushing the limits of what one may considered appropriate testing mediums for the Mule Team. What are you cutting anyway?

Thanks for doing it. I'm still working on wood and plastics dreaming of enough use to consider sharpening the factory edge.

Great timing! I just finished putting a fresh edge on it a few minutes ago.

They're nails from a nail gun I had laying around.


We'll see how the edge retention is with this much more acute edge. It's thicker BTE @ .030" and I'm guessing about 11 dps. It's definitely sharp, if you look where it's touching the table the thing that looks like a chip is actually the edge cutting into the table when I angled it up to take the pic.

I used mine to prep around 3 quarts of mire poix and let it sit for a couple days to see how it might patina. I wish I had remembered to take a photo before I cleaned it, but I didn't notice much of anything. I'll have to give it a run at something more acidic.

On a side note, I underestimated the factory edge on this bad boy and I have to resurface my cutting board because I went a little ham. Still left it sharp enough to shave so great job on that grind.

I wrote a bunch of stuff and accidentally deleted it. :mad: So heres the short version.

I broke down and ordered a handle. I still want to make my own but I need to finish remodeling my shed first.

I chopped up a lot of jalapenos. The knife did fine. Edge was still slicing paper sharp. Suprisingly there was almost no staining after being covered in jalapeno guts for an hour. Just one small spot on the back of the knife.

VooDooChild wrote: ↑

Wed Jun 30, 2021 10:48 pm

I wrote a bunch of stuff and accidentally deleted it. :mad: So heres the short version.

I broke down and ordered a handle. I still want to make my own but I need to finish remodeling my shed first.

I chopped up a lot of jalapenos. The knife did fine. Edge was still slicing paper sharp. Suprisingly there was almost no staining after being covered in jalapeno guts for an hour. Just one small spot on the back of the knife.

20210630_233316.jpg20210630_234715.jpg

Oh that sucks. When I was first working on the 3d printed Manix LW scales I accidentally deleted the model right when it was finished. Luckily it had to be changed anyway so it wasn't that bad.

This is the one Mule I really regret not getting so any feedback is great. Do you have any Maxamet? If yes how close do they perform in use?