My Folding Mule Project

[CasperFatone]

Excellent! May I ask how you made the complex and intricate shapes in the very hard steel of the tang? What tools can do this?

The cuts in the tang are all done freehand with a Dremel, roughed in with a reinforced cutting disc and then ground with cheap carbide bits. For the disc cuts I clamp the blade down or put it in a vise, and keep a wet paper towel handy to cool the blade regularly. I used my 2x72 a little bit on this, but most of the spots on this were hard to grind on that because of the shape. The lock cut was finished out using a flat diamond needle file.

Here are some pictures of the blade in place with the show scale removed, and of the lock cut in the tang.

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[Ramonade]

This is as impressive as it is inspiring !

[VeraX_Knives]

Excellent! May I ask how you made the complex and intricate shapes in the very hard steel of the tang? What tools can do this?

Any can technically. Most of us use CBN/MCD coated tool bits but even a softer steel would still abrade it eventually. SiC (very hard also) isn't used often but is very good for finishing work. Your common sanding belts are aluminum oxide aka alumina.

https://www.redlabelabrasives.com/pages/abrasives-101

For your own reading.

[Bolster]

Thanks for the info on grinding the intricate bits. So it sounds like high speed (Dremel or Foredom) type tools with a combo of cutting discs, carbide bits, CBN bits, and diamond bits would get the job done. The freehand level of accuracy you're able to obtain, is remarkable. I can see how the tang, where it contacts the lock bar, is nicely angled. Not too little; not too much.

[VeraX_Knives]

Thanks for the info on grinding the intricate bits. So it sounds like high speed (Dremel or Foredom) type tools with a combo of cutting discs, carbide bits, CBN bits, and diamond bits would get the job done. The freehand level of accuracy you're able to obtain, is remarkable. I can see how the tang, where it contacts the lock bar, is nicely angled. Not too little; not too much.

Yeah any rotary tool is quite able to do the cutting and grinding parts, electric or pneumatic. As far as "freehanding", the actual hardness of the steel itself makes "that process" a little bit I suppose easier than it may seem. I "know" physics but there's been times where.. what my brain expects IS wrong. Usually because I forgot to think about something and spent way too much time on something else. Now, granted, to get everything that ^ perfect it.. it's not about ease or difficulty it's simply time and it requires.. enough of it. I personally use dychem (I mix red and blue) for dying and "slow-exact material removal", a Sharpie works just, but I'm assuming that being a custom cabinet maker he knows how to make a few jigs that don't.. automate the process whatsoever just make it a little bit easier to do being human. I don't know that for sure or not, you'd have to ask @CasperFatone, but I myself definitely would even if I definitely don't have his skills. Wood/MDF comes in .. handy. Often. And I'm not necessarily talking about the handle scales whatsoever hah. For that one I'll take the synthetics sorry just how my brain works. I do actually like the aesthetic of wood much better but. I don't buy cars or houses for aesthetics either, if you could see me right now you'd just laugh out loud and say "Oh! mmk I gotcha now" I'm a married male under 35. Nuff said although I kept my balls unlike so many of my friends. I'm definitely a function over form guy.. as I typed that one my brain went to the "well why then did I need to wait for a chick that was kinda both of those and I don't mind with cars or anything else"

Edit: stick "carbide CBN MCD ceramic" into one category of "ceramics" just for ease of understanding this stuff. There's a real difference physically and chemically.

[CasperFatone]

For these cuts I didn’t rely on a jig but just did the old fashioned method of creeping up on the fit. Similar to most of my hand done wood joinery I will cut away the bulk of the material first (in this case with the cutting disc) and then change over to something that removes material slower (carbide burrs) to get even closer to the fit, then do the last bit even slower (diamond files). The more times you do it the easier it becomes and the process takes less time. This knife was done slightly different than others I’ve done because I got the tang cut looking good, and then I made slight adjustments to the lock bar to get it operating the way I wanted.

I spent some more time tuning the action so that it flips reliably and have it almost where I want it to be. It’s always a delicate dance of changing the depth of the detent ball, the lock bar tension, and adjusting the “relief” cut in the lock bar. Since I don’t have a mill I usually don’t do a traditional relief cut, but instead drill a hole through the lock bar at the bend, starting small and slowly increase the size until I have it where I want it. If the bar is too stiff or the detent ball sits too deep in the tang you might have a knife that flips reliably but flicking it will be too difficult. If the bar is too flexible or the ball doesn’t sit deep enough you might have a knife that flicks well but doesn’t deploy with enough force to flip reliably. I’m sure there is an actual formula for getting this right, but there are several factors to consider like lock bar length, blade weight, and friction at the pivot. The last one is probably why most flippers run on bearings, but I tend to strongly prefer a washer/pivot bushing setup for actual use.

[VeraX_Knives]

For these cuts I didn’t rely on a jig but just did the old fashioned method of creeping up on the fit. Similar to most of my hand done wood joinery I will cut away the bulk of the material first (in this case with the cutting disc) and then change over to something that removes material slower (carbide burrs) to get even closer to the fit, then do the last bit even slower (diamond files). The more times you do it the easier it becomes and the process takes less time. This knife was done slightly different than others I’ve done because I got the tang cut looking good, and then I made slight adjustments to the lock bar to get it operating the way I wanted.

I spent some more time tuning the action so that it flips reliably and have it almost where I want it to be. It’s always a delicate dance of changing the depth of the detent ball, the lock bar tension, and adjusting the “relief” cut in the lock bar. Since I don’t have a mill I usually don’t do a traditional relief cut, but instead drill a hole through the lock bar at the bend, starting small and slowly increase the size until I have it where I want it. If the bar is too stiff or the detent ball sits too deep in the tang you might have a knife that flips reliably but flicking it will be too difficult. If the bar is too flexible or the ball doesn’t sit deep enough you might have a knife that flicks well but doesn’t deploy with enough force to flip reliably. I’m sure there is an actual formula for getting this right, but there are several factors to consider like lock bar length, blade weight, and friction at the pivot. The last one is probably why most flippers run on bearings, but I tend to strongly prefer a washer/pivot bushing setup for actual use.

Honestly man I have to ask this. So in 2020 I spent.. upwards of 125k on scientific equipment for MYSELF personally. Not a company - not to start a company either honestly, I no. I don't want anyone here thinking that I have that kind of money because I just don't. Money is all relative and while I may..be a well known videogame cheat developer/former professional player in the early 2000s (back when top prizes were 25k split 5 ways unfortunately for me hah), but the programming side obviously I.. am assuming that people here play video games and understand the money aspects. I personally don't play I test at most. I stopped around 2018 because of the cheating and know of people who are currently semi professional gamers that do it at lans with embedded hardware firmware on the USB side, so don't think the cheat is on your mouses firmware which can be changed (another thing that.. is common with dumber developers), NOPE. It's always there the second you plug it in and by default it's going straight into ring1. It's just not possible to do competitive gaming anymore legitimately and TBH I got much worse at it than I was, that's called aging which didn't help the decision nor the fact that I honestly hated it. I enjoyed the beginnings but it became work very quickly for me personally.

My point there, is that I literally have a bunch of useless stuff that I know for a fact that I will never use. I've settled into one specific.. group of people interested in what I do and I just won't ever need to contour diamond texture a scale.

These guys have access to sem imaging, I have similar access to a TF model (better than phenom systems) but I don't own it myself it's.. a company that you would know of that makes cookware. That kind of talk is.. not exactly what I am aiming for here. More basics.

*EDITED - No Buying, Selling, Trading, or Advertising - Post edited to meet forum rules. - TazKristi*

[CasperFatone]

Got the action tuned just the way I want it with no blade play

Now I just need to make a clip and figure out how I want to contour and finish off the scales. I’m tempted to do a pattern similar to the Lotus style PM2 scales, but don’t want to remove too much material for fear of introducing flex to the handle. Right now the thing is stiff as can be and I’d like to keep it that way.

[CasperFatone]

This one is all done, and I have to say I’m really pleased with how it turned out. Contouring the scales really made it feel good in my hand and gave so much better access to the Spydiehole for flicking. The Ti clip weighs almost nothing and the final weight is just under 80 grams, which is right about where it was when it came out of the box. I carried it today and love how light it is.





I figured I’d throw in a family photo as well :)

[Bolster]

Righteous. A lovely custom knife. Love it. Looks fantastic. I like the longer-than-normal tab for unlocking.

[horzuff]

They all look amazing, though this one tops it I think!

Would love it if this was an actual product. Imagine there being a folding mule team project, where You would get just the blades and there would be a standard handle available. Not sure what lock would enable doing this (as in it didn't need tuning) but would be awesome

[Elderberry]

HOLY COW

How many people (show of hands) prefer the Mule blade profile to most of the other Spyderco blades? I think it's awesome and the only thing that could make it better is to add Ti scales/liners, and the only thing better than that is a compression lock.
Zip.. Whang.. POW !! Outta the park!

Nice work. Instructables, templates, kits.. so many people would love these. Awesome...

[SaltyCaribbeanDfly]

This one is all done, and I have to say I’m really pleased with how it turned out. Contouring the scales really made it feel good in my hand and gave so much better access to the Spydiehole for flicking. The Ti clip weighs almost nothing and the final weight is just under 80 grams, which is right about where it was when it came out of the box. I carried it today and love how light it is.





I figured I’d throw in a family photo as well :)

Bravo!!!