MT19P - Mule Team - PSF27
What is a Mule?
In the English language the term mule has multiple definitions: There’s the obvious equine reference being the offspring of a male donkey and a female horse. It can be a coin minted from two dies by mistake and the auto industry refers to their test vehicles as a mules. Spyderco also calls knife models designed and built for testing and evaluation Mules. When a group of these are brought together they make a team of mules, thus the name of this knife series: The Mule Team. Knife and steel-devotees love trying out new blade steels. Spyderco leads the industry in offering, testing and manufacturing knives using new and exotic blade steels. Taking that idea a step up, why not offer a series (team) of blades using different, exotic and freshly unveiled steels? In doing this steel-obsessed knife knuts can try, test and use something normally not offered to the industry.
What is the Spyderco Mule Team?
The Mule team project was created as a simple, inexpensive venue for “steel junkies” to have an opportunity to test different blade steels themselves. Each run will have a different interesting steel. Each run will have the same pattern, a fixed blade with a full tang. Each run will have the same thickness, grind, edge and will be heat treated to the optimal hardness for that steel. The blade is leaf-shaped with a sharpened and finished PlainEdge blade, but with an unfinished handles providing some a do-it-yourself opportunity. The unfinished handle has a series of holes for attaching a custom handle or for wrapping in cord. No handle, scales or sheath are provided. This not only saves you funds, but gives you the opportunity to make (or have made) custom handles and sheaths.
How many and how often will they be released?
Spyderco’s plan is to release several variations per year using the same fixed blade pattern produced with different exotic steels. Each steel offering is limited to approximately 600 pieces and engraved indicating the steel used. Variations are priced accordingly with the only cost variable being the steel itself.
Spyderco’s nineteenth Mule Team features PSF27, a tool steel produced using the Spray Forming Process. Spray forming, also known as spray casting or spray deposition, begins by melting an alloy steel in an induction furnace. The molten steel is then poured through a ceramic nozzle and broken up into droplets by an array of gas jets. The droplets are accelerated by the jets to impact onto a collection surface while still in a semi-solid condition. There they build up to form a spray-formed billet, assuming the shape of the substrate surface. The small size and rapid cooling of the droplets minimizes alloy segregation to produce an extremely fine-grained homogeneous steel. PSF27 combines the advantages of the Spray Forming Process with an alloy composition (1.55% carbon, 12.00% chromium, 0.75% molybdenum, 1.00% vanadium) that is basically equivalent to D2 tool steel. The synergy of these alloys and the Spray Forming Process results in a steel that offers increased toughness, wear resistance, crack resistance, and higher hardness. It is also more predictable and dimensionally stable during the heat-treatment process.
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