Spyderco Damascus

[451 Detonics]

Rooting through my Spyderco Mule team boxes turned up another Mule Team. This was the 7th blade offered and I have decided to scale this one in ivory for my Dad's birthday. I have the ivory on order from Jantz along with some mosiac pins and a custom sheath as well. Spyderco is not known for damascus but this is really nicely done...

Spyderco’s Damascus Mule Team is a laminated fifteen-layer steel with a Suminagashi pattern. The Damascus Mule’s steel is composed of layers of erosive and non-erosive material over a VG-10 core center. The erosive layers are hard martensite stainless steel and the non-erosive layers are anti-corrosion nonferrous metal. These layers block carbon particles in the core from spreading to the outer layers. After layering the blade is forged to intentionally distort the layer-lines making a complicated, artistically beautiful pattern called Suminagashi. Suminagashi is the traditional Japanese art form of creating ripples of Chinese ink on the surface of water. This steel mimics the art form with interesting results on a knife blade. Once the layers are distorted, the blade is bathed in acid etching the pattern to vivid relief.

They only etched the blade but you can see the layering through the length of the tang.

 

[bikerdoc]

Ivory, Mosaics, and a custom sheath!

I may have to adopt you so I can get gifts like that.

I love my son but he has lost his interest in guns and knives.

 

[451 Detonics]

I keep trying to repay my Dad for everything he has done for me...doubt I will ever get it done but I enjoy trying...

 

[451 Detonics]

Fast shipping on the sheath...lol... bought it on Ebay Monday night and it arrived today. It is a perfect fit for the Mule Team knife and will ook grat with ivory scales sticking out of it...

 

[JShirley]

Not really visible in the pic- can the pattern still be seen in the blade?

(edit)oh- you're using another of your Mules for demonstration purposes, in the last pic?

 

[BRad704]

I thought YOU were making the sheath? Either way, its beautiful and he's gonna be STOKED! (for the older folks, "Stoked" is a term expressing extreme levels of joy... )

 

[451 Detonics]

The pattern is highly visible on the blade, very sharp black and silver contrasts. The knife in the pic with the sheath is not the damascus blade...I was just using it as a size reference.

Years ago I had all the needed leather working tools but today the only piece of gear I have left is my commercial Singer capable of sewing leather. I found this sheath on ebay and it is just about a perfect fit for the drop point Spyderco blade. The light colored section at the top should highlight the ivory scales nicely.

 

[451 Detonics]

Ordered #9 today, Cobalt Special steel on this one...

MT09- Mule Team Cobalt Special – February 2011

Takefu is a premier Japanese steel company specializing in the production of steels used for household and industrial cutlery. They produce blades using clad steel. Clad steels are a composite of different metals some hard, some softer, fused or bonded to each other. Paring different steel types together elevates performance by combining the best characteristics of each material and where the steels overlay each other, a fine Hamon or line develops. Traditional Japanese swords featured clad steels, layering tough harder steel with softer bendable ones which resulted in a steel combination that made them difficult to break or bend. Spyderco’s MT09 Mule Team is Takefu’s Cobalt Special steel enveloped within slices of SUS420J2. The two steels laminated as one boost toughness, improve corrosion resistance and generate lasting sharpness in a blade that is relatively easy to sharpen.

I do have these stabilized double died burl scales hanging around...