I’ve seen a couple threads for the K294 mule but none dedicated to performance testing. So I guess I’ll start this one. I’ll admit I overlooked this one for a while due to how well the AEB-L mule performed. It was just really hard to transition on from that knife. I’m kind of shocked that the K294 mule has not sold out but we did get several mules dropped in a short period of time and this one cost a little bit more.
I had gotten the bevel on this mule down below 15dps but I had also gotten into a bad habit of stropping too much. I was leaving a wire burr on the blade and didn’t realize it. I used diamond plates to re-bevel the mule to 17.5 dps. Then continued with an Arkansas whetstone 600-800 grit and then used a polished jade stone to finish.
For the testing I came up with something new for me to test this and future mules I get. I got molds for epoxy knife scales and I decided to use wood shavings in the knife scales. I took shavings from several different hardwoods - Canary, Black Locust, Padauk, and jatoba wood for the mule testing and the scales I’m making. In between each wood type I did slice testing and push cut testing on cardboard and paper.
The first wood that I carved shavings off of was canarywood with a 1,520 janka scale rating. The mule easily cut shavings off of this wood with no signs of dulling. After finishing the shavings I did a push cut and slice cut test on cardboard and post it note paper. The mule showed no signs of dulling at all.
Next I attacked the Black Locust wood 1,700 Janka scale rating. The mule cut shaving off of this wood almost as easily as the previous wood. During the cardboard slice cut I did notice some resistance on a small part of the blade about an inch down from the tip. No problems on the push cut for both cardboard and paper. The slice cut on the paper confirmed one dull spot with some small tearing.
Wood shavings from a piece of Padauk were next. Padauk has a Janka rating of 1,725 which I know is close to the previous wood hardness and I am planning to change to a harder wood in the future. The results for this wood were identical to the Black Locust wood with the only noticeable difference being a slight lengthening of the dull area on the blade.
The last piece of wood was Jatoba wood 2,350 Janka scale rating. This wood was so hard that the mule struggled to get small shaving pieces off of it when I started. It was a struggle throughout the process and only got harder as the knife dulled more noticeably. I had been hand holding each piece of wood throughout the process and did the same here. But it was painful to hold the wood and to try and slice small pieces of the wood. The mule still had sharp places along the blade which did well on the push cutting. But on the slice cutting for both cardboard and paper the mule showed very noticeable dulling. The cardboard showed some resistance for the first time and the note paper tore in several spots (3).
I used the Arkansas whetstone and piece of jade to sharpen the mule. The mule responded quickly and did not take very many strokes to sharpen. Confirmed the knife was back to a good sharpness by testing on the cardboard and post it note paper.
The take away I had from this is that the knife retained its sharpness pretty well until it hit the hardest wood I had on hand. It was able to complete the job without any touch ups, although I was tempted on the Jatoba wood. The knife performed better than I thought it would at 17.5 dps and it was very easy to re-sharpen.
I won’t really know how this mule compares until I run more mules through this test process. I will test the AEB-L Mule next. I know the bevel angles are very different but I’m still curious to see the difference.
