YAMTT--Packaging

[JacksonKnives]

This one's actually kinda funny...

I was looking at the second Mule I received today (which I'm holding for my brother) and I noticed a couple of small tears in the poly bag it's packed in.

http://lh3.google.com/JacksonKnives/R5a68j6C4gI/AAAAAAAAAnU/YIJmlKd0Zgo/s800/DSCF2852-1.JPG

Then I realized that the cardboard sleeve wasn't really covering the tip of the blade. The knife must have been cutting the bag during shipping.

I sat and thought for a minute--those cardboard sleeves are on there pretty tight. For the tip to poke out like that, you'd have to hold the sleeve and push on the handle... unless...


http://lh3.google.com/JacksonKnives/R5a7uj6C4hI/AAAAAAAAAnc/vn05wVwgSNI/s400/DSCF2854-1.JPG

All the moving around inside those UPS trucks was pushing the top of the sleeve up against the end of the box, but the inertia was enough to keep the blade moving inside the sleeve. After this happens enough times, the tip just starts going through the end of the box...



http://lh6.google.com/JacksonKnives/R5a85T6C4iI/AAAAAAAAAnk/72Dql2TTvng/s400/DSCF2853-1.JPG
Don't kid yourself, folks, those blades are sharp!

[uhiforgot]

Actually, same thing happened to mine except it didn't poke through the cardboard; there's just one end of the plastic that's thoroughly shredded. :eek:

[Slick]

Where I work we have learned that UPS will test the mettle of the very best packaging engineers. I have often wanted to put one of those inertial recording devices in our UPS shipped cartons just to see how many G's a UPS package must endure. BTW it is not just UPS. All of our carriers are capable of amazing abuse. You ought to see the pictures of what comes out of the truck at the other end.

[Unsub]

Mine was the same. I was going to seal my spare Mule with a dessicant and a coat of oil because that 52100 can rust fast but my bag needed some repairs.

My Mule is very very sharp. I compared it to my Strider ED and Swamp Rat Swamp Warden which are quite similar but the spydy is much sharper. The Swarden is 52100 but the geometry is not as good while the strider has the geometry and it's S30V holds an edge a bit better but it does not take quite as good a one. After some hard use cutting leather and stingray skin my Mule needed a touch up and I managed to get it even sharper than it was when I got it.

[The Deacon]

Funny, I almost posted this a few days ago in another Mule related tread...

One minor suggestion for future runs. Make the cardboard blade protector a bit longer, punch a hole or two through it, and secure the knife in it with a twist tie. Can't speak for anyone else but the tip of mine had punched its way through the cardboard, the platic bag, the end of the box, and had made a few small breathing holes in the tyvek Priority Mail envelope NGK shipped it in. No blood stains, so am assuming no governmentl employees were injured.

[Piotr aka Cypis]

Funny that my Mule made the trip over the ocean without slipping from protector for even a bit ;)

[dpsmith]

Jacksonknives,

Excuse my ignorance but what is YAMTT? I received my mules safe and sound but have no idea what YAMTT means. Mine only had to travel 90 miles though.

[The Deacon]

Funny that my Mule made the trip over the ocean without slipping from protector for even a bit ;)Not surprising really, am sure a fair percentage of them made it to their destinations without problems. And, I'm sure the vast majority were shipped in cardboard shipping boxes rather that envelopes, lessening the possibility of the point penetrating the exterior of the package. But that still leaves the ones which poked their way part or all the way through.

With all the holes punched in their handles, securing them to the cardboard sheath should not be a major problem. Spyderco might even consider investing in one of the "buttoneer" type devices stores use nowadays for attaching price tags to clothing and other items with a little plastic do-hickey.


Jacksonknives,

Excuse my ignorance but what is YAMTT? I received my mules safe and sound but have no idea what YAMTT means. Mine only had to travel 90 miles though.Acronym for Yet Another Mule Team Thread perchance? :D

[JacksonKnives]

Acronym for Yet Another Mule Team Thread perchance? :D

Somebody give this man a prize!

[sal]

Thanx. I'll pass on the information to packaging.

sal