Show your Mule

[phillipsted]

This is my first attempt at putting scales on a mule. Except for some overzealous filing in a couple spots I am pretty happy with it. My question would be about finish, I have currently sanded to 600 grit and buffed the handle. It is bubinga and I would like to maintain a somewhat food safe finish. I understand that food safe finishes may need to be re-applied as time passes but was considering walnut oil with a coat of bees wax. Does anyone have experience that would recommend not doing this?

First off, welcome to the Forum, farns! And what a beautiful mule - very nice work on the scales!

I'm sure others may have thoughts about the handle finish - but I wouldn't worry too much about the handle being food-safe. Normally, the blade is the main thing that comes in contact with the food.

As far as the scales are concerned, my main worry would be water infiltration of the wood and the harboring of bacteria. The best way to address this is to make the scales as close to "waterproof" as possible - this way you can wipe them down and sanitize them after use.

And the best product I've found for making knife scales waterproof is Tru-Oil, which is sold in sporting goods stores as a gun stock finish. Tru-Oil is a polymerized linseed oil base which cures hard and waterproof. Just make sure to put on very thin coats, wipe it down, let it dry, buff it with steel wool, and repeat. I've used it for years - and on a recent mule (see the pictures of the Purpleheart Swick above), I put on 8 thin coats over a couple of days. It sealed the pores and made a clear, hard, impervious finish. Great stuff!

TedP

[DCDesigns]

I have a question, how does everyone do this?

Where do you all get the handle scale materials?
Do you do this with power tools (like a dremmel, etc.) or do you use files and sand paper?
How do you put the finish on (wood) or texture for other materials?
What screws/pivots do you all use?
and how do you figure out where the holes in the handle are behind the handle scale so that you can put the screw there?

I am thinking about getting one and trying this all out and just was looking for some advice because the mules on this forum are beautiful, thank you...

That is way too much to explain here. What you basically are asking for is a beginners crash course on knife making. I will explain the basics, but you have more research to do, books to read, websites to find, forums to peruse. The skill and information it takes to make and fit handles correctly is not likely something that can be learned just through one post. There is no one correct way to do it, so most likely you will develope your on technique based on your skills and whats available to you. What I use are three main tools to do just about everything when Im making handles. 1- Bandsaw- to rough out the handle shape - 2 Drill Press, to drill holes (as well as to use with a spindle sanding attatchment to do inside radii) 3- Belt/circular combination stand alone sanding machine- to do the rough shaping on outter radii. However, thats a couple grand worth of equipment, so if you arent a wood worker already, it is not likely you will have access to all of these. The one thing I would say you need access to out of these is a bandsaw (or scroll saw, even a jigsaw, something you can get a rough shape out of wood scales with) . However the most useful of the three, and if you were to BUY one, I would say get a drill press. Many attatchments exist that can turn it into several different tools. Also, it is MUCH MUCH more precise than trying to clamp things and use a hand drill. Its also the cheapest. You can find a decent Delta bench mounted drill press for $200 (dont bother with anything cheaper. Just as I would say dont bother with cheap bench mounted bandsaws. If all you are doing is shaping .3" thick wood, then I guess its ok, but it really cannot handle much thicker. for that you need at least 1 hp) The bare minimum saw I would say that is worth buying is a 14" 1hp+ bandsaw. They start at around $500 when you figure in shipping the 250lb thing and go up to a grand or more with all the bells and whistles or if it has a prestigious badge.

to answer some of your more specific questions. Where do you get handle material: personally, I sell figured woods for a living, so I fire up a chainsaw and walk into the forrest. But there are too many options to list for that aswer. Any knife supply website will have handle material, not necessarily at a value price, but they have it. Also many websites exist specifically to sell pre cut knife scales. The finish: again, no right anwer. Hundreds of products exist out there for finishing wood. You want one that is easy to apply evenly, that will not rub off after a lot of handling. You want durable. I have used everythign from CA (superglue) to automotive clear coat). Pin material - There are many options from screws to corbys to regular pin stock. I use regular old pins, solid metal rounds. And for your last question, how you figure where the holes go, you use the knife itself as your template. And I dont mean mark it, through it then drill, odds are you will screw up. I mean clamp the bloody thing to the handle material, and drill through it! Once you have one hole drilled, slide a pin the same size as the hole through the knife into the handle material to hold it still, and then drill the other holes, repeating the steps with the pins... Pro tip- you want a perfectly flat piece of material at least a half inch thick (High density particle board works well, but you can use any perfectly flat piece of hardwood), that you use as a sacrifical piece under your project. SInce you will drill through the handle material anyway, you want whatever is under it to be unimportant but perfectly flat. It will also help when you slide the pins through if you can also slide it into the sacrificial piece to keep the whole thing still. Do the same for the other side, then put it together. Take it to a sander and make the handle flush up to the steel tang and start shaping. There is your crash course. Hope it helps!

[DCDesigns]

Sorry for the tease, guys. I was just so excited about this one, I couldn't wait to share the results. This is my Super Blue Mule shod in some Cocobolo purchased off the 'bay. The Cocobolo was a bit softer and than other cocobolo I've worked with in the past and had more of an open grain - it might be an alternate species. But the color and contrasts are very fetching. I'll probably end up sealing it with TruOil sometime soon.

As I noted in the previous post, I used the washers under the screws to provide a more secure attachment. The scales are just screwed on at this point - they aren't expoxied. There are good points and bad points to that, I know. But I wanted to be able to take off the scales and check the scales for discoloration/rust periodically.

TedP

Thats beautiful work man. Very unique approach. If-8 I didnt commit one set of scales to one mule Id go crazy making tons of them to match my outfit and what not lol. Its always a tough choice for which wood to use. I have probably 12 different sets of scales commited that I have pre-roughed out for mule handles of the highest figured woods I have collected over the years, that I drag out everytime I get a mule and try to match the wood to the "character" of the steel. Its never easy!

[DCDesigns]

Looks like a good excuse for a first time post

Desert Ironwood scales

WOW, Great first post! welcome to the forums! Gotta love ariszona Ironwood. That is one really nice looking sheath too! The pieces Im using are the wildest of burls I have found. Im working on an Ironwood re-scale myself. Check it out!: Ironwood Bushcraft Thread

[farns]

First off, welcome to the Forum, farns! And what a beautiful mule - very nice work on the scales!

Thank you for the nice comment. It was an experience filled with many lessons learned.

And the best product I've found for making knife scales waterproof is Tru-Oil, which is sold in sporting goods stores as a gun stock finish. Tru-Oil is a polymerized linseed oil base which cures hard and waterproof.

I have read a lot on the forums about Tru-Oil. My budget on this is very small, so if I can not spend more that would be great. I have read some information about using teak/danish oil which I have some of that and rub on poly. Maybe those would work ok as a two stage application process. The teak oil looks very nice on a scrap piece of wood I have left over. Thoughts?

mule_finishsample_01.JPG

[phillipsted]

While we are waiting on the new 204P Mule to drop, I thought I would check in to see what everyone is working on.

I've got my last Woodcraft S30V Mule in the shop right now. I found the coolest set of black and white ebony scales on eBay. They are a cream salt-and-pepper along one edge and sort of a mottled reddish color on the other edge - with a jet black streak running right down the middle. I set up the knife so that the pins are drilled right smack dab in the middle of the black streak, which runs the entire length of the scales. My wife says that they look like a "calico cat".

Anyway, I finished shaping the scales today and start the sanding and finishing this week. I should have some pictures online in the next few days.

TedP

[xceptnl]

^^^ WOW ^^^ Those look great Ted. Looking forward to seeing how they look on your 204P.

[nlmd]

more purple, ebayed sheath

[phillipsted]

Well, summer's been a slow season for Mule'ing. Too much fun stuff to do outside before it gets cold this winter! But I finally got finished up with the Woodcraft Mule I've been tinkering with for a few months. You can see the wood slabs a couple of posts above - it is a really nice set of black-and-white ebony scales. My wife says the coloring (gold, black, red) reminds her of a calico cat.

In any event - it did my usual treatment of bolting the scales with no adhesive, giving me the option of replacing them at some point. Because ebony is so porous, I finished these scales with TruOil. I ran into a little bit of trouble with dust settling on the scales during the finishing - summer is a bear for flying dust and other contaminants. I ended up polishing the scales with steel wool and adding more top coats. All-in-all, I added about 10 coats of TruOil to these scales and it sealed up the grain very nicely.

Now, off to my next adventure - making a Native V into an Orange G10 monster!

TedP

[eitenbuffalo34]

That is way too much to explain here. What you basically are asking for is a beginners crash course on knife making. I will explain the basics, but you have more research to do, books to read, websites to find, forums to peruse. The skill and information it takes to make and fit handles correctly is not likely something that can be learned just through one post. There is no one correct way to do it, so most likely you will develope your on technique based on your skills and whats available to you. What I use are three main tools to do just about everything when Im making handles. 1- Bandsaw- to rough out the handle shape - 2 Drill Press, to drill holes (as well as to use with a spindle sanding attatchment to do inside radii) 3- Belt/circular combination stand alone sanding machine- to do the rough shaping on outter radii. However, thats a couple grand worth of equipment, so if you arent a wood worker already, it is not likely you will have access to all of these. The one thing I would say you need access to out of these is a bandsaw (or scroll saw, even a jigsaw, something you can get a rough shape out of wood scales with) . However the most useful of the three, and if you were to BUY one, I would say get a drill press. Many attatchments exist that can turn it into several different tools. Also, it is MUCH MUCH more precise than trying to clamp things and use a hand drill. Its also the cheapest. You can find a decent Delta bench mounted drill press for $200 (dont bother with anything cheaper. Just as I would say dont bother with cheap bench mounted bandsaws. If all you are doing is shaping .3" thick wood, then I guess its ok, but it really cannot handle much thicker. for that you need at least 1 hp) The bare minimum saw I would say that is worth buying is a 14" 1hp+ bandsaw. They start at around $500 when you figure in shipping the 250lb thing and go up to a grand or more with all the bells and whistles or if it has a prestigious badge.

to answer some of your more specific questions. Where do you get handle material: personally, I sell figured woods for a living, so I fire up a chainsaw and walk into the forrest. But there are too many options to list for that aswer. Any knife supply website will have handle material, not necessarily at a value price, but they have it. Also many websites exist specifically to sell pre cut knife scales. The finish: again, no right anwer. Hundreds of products exist out there for finishing wood. You want one that is easy to apply evenly, that will not rub off after a lot of handling. You want durable. I have used everythign from CA (superglue) to automotive clear coat). Pin material - There are many options from screws to corbys to regular pin stock. I use regular old pins, solid metal rounds. And for your last question, how you figure where the holes go, you use the knife itself as your template. And I dont mean mark it, through it then drill, odds are you will screw up. I mean clamp the bloody thing to the handle material, and drill through it! Once you have one hole drilled, slide a pin the same size as the hole through the knife into the handle material to hold it still, and then drill the other holes, repeating the steps with the pins... Pro tip- you want a perfectly flat piece of material at least a half inch thick (High density particle board works well, but you can use any perfectly flat piece of hardwood), that you use as a sacrifical piece under your project. SInce you will drill through the handle material anyway, you want whatever is under it to be unimportant but perfectly flat. It will also help when you slide the pins through if you can also slide it into the sacrificial piece to keep the whole thing still. Do the same for the other side, then put it together. Take it to a sander and make the handle flush up to the steel tang and start shaping. There is your crash course. Hope it helps!

Thank you.

[Stew]

Bit of Horse Chestnut Burr and some mosaic pins.

[phillipsted]

Your Elmax Mule looks really beautiful - especially with those pins. Nicely done, Stew.

Just curious... How is chestnut to work with? I've seen burl on the web sites, but never handled it. Were your slabs stabilized? It chestnut dense? Hard? Chippy?

TedP

[rodloos]

Yes Stew that is beautiful! Do you have a sheath to go with it yet?

I only have one Mule I've made scales for so far, comfortable but not real pretty. Several of my other Mules I have used one variety or another of the Halpern Titanium scales. They are pretty good for the price, especially since they include the mounting hardware, but I hope to make some more of my own scales.

[Bladekeeper]

Nice job mate love it

[farns]

Well I finally finished it. In general it came out pretty nice but the blade meets handle needs a little cleanup in a couple spots. Learned some good things that I hopefully can improve upon for MT15P. Besides the handle, the CRUWEAR turned out to be a very nice performer in light to medium tasks (although I'm sure it could handle much more). Cardboard, blister packs, etc were no problem and worked well in the yard. Very happy with this and had a great time completing the project.

MT12P.JPG

[xceptnl]

...Very happy with this and had a great time completing the project

farns, that is a beautiful custom handle. Thanks for sharing and welcome to the forum.

[Bladekeeper]

Philipstead that mod with the large choil hole is great you have a clan of mules there bud , farns that is very smart reminds me of machline wear antique boxes, also gives me an idea to lay some mop in like that although I would have to ask somebody to handle it my skills are ...well limited tbh but I can still put together the concept .

[phillipsted]

While I'm waiting on the new MT15 to arrive, I decided to try some of the damascus knife blade blanks available on the web. The one I worked on the past couple of weeks is a Trail Hunter from Two Finger Knives. It is a nice blade with large 0.25" tang holes. I decided to match it with some Lacewood scales. I had never worked with Lacewood before, and it was an interesting material. The wood is fairly lightweight, and the "pithy" part of the wood (the part that looks lacy) is really soft. You have to be careful sanding it - if you sand with a sponge or mop, the soft parts will erode quickly leaving an uneven surface. On the upside, the wood is very forgiving during shaping and it responded well to sharp files, not splintering or splitting much at all. It attached the scales with 0.25" pivot bolts and finished them with about 10 thin coats of Tru-Oil.

My next project is to put some really twisted Ironwood burl on my new MT15!

TedP

[Pockets]

I need a Mule now...

H1, maybe

[Let Us Slay !]

Just got my 2 MT-15s in
One is going to be cocobolo and the other pink and orange g-10 (for the ladyfriend).