Spyderco Forums

A newby to this Mule thing. I always try to do a deep dive when I discover something. So far I am not aware that all the information about a mule is available when it is released. HRC is only found after someone or other gets the mule and tests it or has it tested. I can buy 87 zillion knives treated to 59 or 60 HRC. Not many knives that are treated to 66 or higher HRC. So I am willing to pay a bit more on the secondary market and only have to buy a very few mules rather than try to buy them at release and find out it is just another steel that is soft (not 1980s soft but 2020s soft). I have Rex 45 and love it. I have the BBB manix and love it. I found a mule in Rex76 after I found it was heat treated to 69ish. Doing a handle now and am sure I will love it as a camp knife. I travel full time in an RV so I am always "camping".

I will try to score a 15V if it is indeed done the same as the BBB Manix. Sharpest I have ever had.

Hi TTfulltimer,

We'll generally use the optimum heat treat for the steel being tested. It usually comes out somewhere. In my opinion, hardness should not be your only criterion for selecting a steel. Although most of the Mules have been higher than 59/60.

sal

sal

Thanks Sal, I know you cannot please everyone. Optimum for some may not be optimum for another. It would still be nice for us to know the hardness that you consider optimum and maybe what some of the criteria were for the selection.

wow, that came off like a really dismissive reply from Sal. "We'll decide what should be important to you" essentially. I'm sure he doesn't mean to come off like that... but it does.

Somebody reported that Sal had said the mules aren't selling as well as they once did. Maybe telling people something about the heat treatment would assist in sales.

Spyderco has always been reticent about publishing heat treat numbers. I don't know why, and don't really care. They have their reasons I am sure. Perhaps they don't want to be in the position of advertising a specific HRC and having people test and complain later. Which would be reasonable in my opinion.

That aside, I think Spyderco does a great job on the heat treat and tend to if anything, push it harder than other makers. My guess is that they focus on the protocol itself and let the results do what they do. But they don't tell me their secrets.

DunninLA wrote: ↑

Thu Mar 02, 2023 11:15 pm

wow, that came off like a really dismissive reply from Sal. "We'll decide what should be important to you" essentially. I'm sure he doesn't mean to come off like that... but it does.

I'm sure that Sal doesn't need the likes of me to defend him... and to be clear, that's not my intention. I've been around the block enough times to be wary of jumping into someone else's fight.

But regarding heat treatment, I've worked with a lot of different materials. I've even read a couple of Larrin's articles and watched some YouTube videos. That makes me kinda smart... smart enough to know that I don't know squat. If I want a knife blade... or a custom tuned suspension component... or my lawn greened up... I'll seek out the expert and go with what he suggests.

Hi TTFulltimer.

I didn't mean to sound dismissive. By optimum, I mean the hardest best performing RC that the steel can handle. We're like you. I'm all about "the cut". We go too hard and the steel becomes brittle, so we go as hard as we can within the limits of that chemistry.

It wouldn't be fair to you, since you are comparing the best performance possible in a given Mule. To give you something less would be like cheating. Likewise it wouldn't be fair to our ELU's (End Line User), in our production knives, to get anything less than the best it can be.

We're a performance based company. We all think that way. Performance in or product. Performance in our staff, vendors, equipment, etc.

Hope that makes sense?

sal

Hi Sal,

I’m curious what mule (steel) you would consider the best for camping and what one you’d consider best for RV’ing. This thread got me wondering about that.

A lot of fixed blade knives come in steels I would never consider desirable but I probably don’t understand due to the fact that I like fidgety folders. Thus I tend to gravitate towards premium/super steels with ball bearing pivots. I currently have only 2 mules. The last one I got was the M398 mule which seemed to get a lot of hate, but I love it. So all this just confuses me more.

Thanks,
Greg

Hi Greg,

In my opinion, any of the mules could be used for both camping and RV'ing. Some are more stainless than others, so I think that would be the only concern. If you are camping on a salt water beach, a stainless would be preferable.

Welcome to our forum.

sal

Thank you Sal, I emailed about the Red warning I get when I try to check out. Cannot even buy off Spyderco yet. Mules in the cart, no way to buy.

TTFulltimer: for me, I have to turn off my VPN to complete an order, fwiw..

bob-atlatl wrote: ↑

Fri Mar 03, 2023 7:22 pm

TTFulltimer: for me, I have to turn off my VPN to complete an order, fwiw..

Thanks, I do not have a VPN on.