MT37P - AEB-L Mule Team Dropping Soon

[defenestrate]

I see, that explains. Say, how did you know where the AEBL was being made? That's some good research skills ya got there.

Haha, thanks.

I don't remember where I first saw it (but I do remember having a hunch because it's a german steel (Bohler) and Italy would be closest).

We can confirm it on the technical specs for the MT-37, though.

https://www.spyderco.com/catalog/details/MT37P/2393

[Wandering_About]

I'll see if this one sticks around for a while. I do enjoy AEB-L (it's my preferred steel for outdoors fixed blades that may see rougher use) but have some knives in it already.

I do encourage folks to try it if they have not. It's quite nice stuff.

[msum]

We chased it down because you asked for it. We gave the maker Shawn's heat treat. Be sure to let us know what you think?

sal

Out of interest, does quality control testing get done at Golden to make sure that the heat treatment instructions were followed? I guess my question applies to all offshore manufacturing, whether Japanese, Taiwanese or Italian. And I assume that sharing HT information means an acceptance that it might be copied and used elsewhere? Not to be too untrusting here - I’m sure Spyderco would only work with partners they consider reliable.

One other thing, are Mule Team release times usually the same? It makes purchasing from AU/NZ trickier… But there’s never a time that suits everyone!

Happy for anyone to answer these questions. They aren’t specifically for the esteemed Mr Glesser.

[Bolster]

We can confirm it on the technical specs for the MT-37, though.

https://www.spyderco.com/catalog/details/MT37P/2393

Aha! I believe this falls under the "R.T.F.M." injunction! Sorry to ask a dope question. Thanks just the same.

[Rwstubbz]

We chased it down because you asked for it. We gave the maker Shawn's heat treat. Be sure to let us know what you think?

sal

Can you give us an idea of the final HRC?

[sal]

Hi Msum,

All QC happens in Golden.

sal

[tcarltonw]

We chased it down because you asked for it. We gave the maker Shawn's heat treat. Be sure to let us know what you think?

sal

Can you give us an idea of the final HRC?

I haven't been Muleing that long but it seems that HRC is usually tested independently after the Mule has been released.

[RamZar]

Is this AEB-L MT produced by Fox or LionSteel in Maniago, Italy?

If you look at Larrin’s Stainless Steel chart below you’ll see that AEB-L is very similar to 14C28N, 420HC and LC200N. It’s closest to 14C28N. All 4 have high toughness and good corrosion resistance but relatively poor edge retention.

[JRinFL]

We chased it down because you asked for it. We gave the maker Shawn's heat treat. Be sure to let us know what you think?

sal

BBB is here, he's there, he's everywhere!

Thanks Sal!

[JRinFL]

Is this AEB-L MT produced by Fox or LionSteel in Maniago, Italy?

If you look at Larrin’s Stainless Steel chart below you’ll see that AEB-L is very similar to 14C28N, 420HC and LC200N. It’s closest to 14C28N. All 4 have high toughness and good corrosion resistance but relatively poor edge retention.

I believe AEB-L is the parent to 14C28N. From Larrin's other graphs AEB-L had comfortable lead in toughness over the other three. Interesting to see how they group in this chart.

[bobartig]

We chased it down because you asked for it. We gave the maker Shawn's heat treat. Be sure to let us know what you think?

sal

Interesting, more collaboration with Shawn Houston? Or another Shawn? I wasn't aware that there were other collaborations outside of the 15v. Very cool!

Does anyone know about this heat treat and what we might expect?

[bobartig]

Out of interest, does quality control testing get done at Golden to make sure that the heat treatment instructions were followed? I guess my question applies to all offshore manufacturing, whether Japanese, Taiwanese or Italian. And I assume that sharing HT information means an acceptance that it might be copied and used elsewhere? Not to be too untrusting here - I’m sure Spyderco would only work with partners they consider reliable.

A novel heat treat method could receive legal protection as a trade secret, so long as it derives independent economic value from not being generally known (e.g. produces favorable steel properties), and is subject to reasonable efforts to maintain its secrecy (limiting distribution, securing the information in a vault, not letting others near the facilities while the HT takes place).

That can entail things like contract provisions that prohibit disclosure or reuse of the heat treat method, and restricting access to the specific information within the partnering entities, and ensuring that they also use secure methods in handling the information.

I have no idea if the knife industry treats Heat Treat information this way, but there are legal frameworks in the realms of intellectual property and technology licensing for managing this kind of commercially valuable information.

[RamZar]

Is this AEB-L MT produced by Fox or LionSteel in Maniago, Italy?

If you look at Larrin’s Stainless Steel chart below you’ll see that AEB-L is very similar to 14C28N, 420HC and LC200N. It’s closest to 14C28N. All 4 have high toughness and good corrosion resistance but relatively poor edge retention.

I believe AEB-L is the parent to 14C28N. From Larrin's other graphs AEB-L had comfortable lead in toughness over the other three. Interesting to see how they group in this chart.

All four are bunched together in the Toughness - Edge Retention graph.

[Traditional.Sharpening]

We chased it down because you asked for it. We gave the maker Shawn's heat treat. Be sure to let us know what you think?

sal

Hi Sal,

Can you share with other what other recent Mule's might have been made with Shawn's Heat Treat protocols? I know the 15V is but can't help but wonder about the M398 and T15...

[sal]

Hi Traditional.Sharpening,

We've received Shawn's M398 heat-treat but haven't tested it. Nothing on T15.

sal

[Vaugith]

For you folks who are planning to test this one thoroughly - the benefit of a high toughness, moderate hardness, fine microstructure steel is that with that edge strength/stability comes the ability for the edge to remain stable at lower angles and thinner geometries. Low angles and thin geometries can improve edge retention even more than carbides can. The biggest hurdle to this for me in the past has been finding a maker producing this steel with a good enough heat treat to make it shine. I trust spyderco will deliver here and anyone testing this run out at low angles and thinner than stock geometry will find some very interesting properties.

[msum]

Hi Msum,

All QC happens in Golden.

sal

Thanks Sal.

[Tucson Tom]

This steel has me right away thinking about 52100, which is one of my favorite steels of all time. And I read that some people call AEB-L "stainless 52100". So I am totally OK with it not having fantastic edge retention if it has some of the properties I admire in 52100. I have especially found 52100 to be very easy to sharpen. If AEB-L is similarly cooperative that will be great. 52100 had a great reputation for toughness, and what I read about AEB-L suggests similar things.

The mule team is all about variety, probing the knife steel game in all different directions.

[rooster81]

Is this AEB-L MT produced by Fox or LionSteel in Maniago, Italy?

If you look at Larrin’s Stainless Steel chart below you’ll see that AEB-L is very similar to 14C28N, 420HC and LC200N. It’s closest to 14C28N. All 4 have high toughness and good corrosion resistance but relatively poor edge retention.

I believe AEB-L is the parent to 14C28N. From Larrin's other graphs AEB-L had comfortable lead in toughness over the other three. Interesting to see how they group in this chart.

All four are bunched together in the Toughness - Edge Retention graph.

You want to look at the more detailed chart further down the post to see the specifics in terms of actual results at respective harness levels:

https://i0.wp.com/knifesteelnerds.com/w ... =757&ssl=1

AEB-L looks slightly tougher at higher hardness to the other steels mentioned.

[RamZar]

You want to look at the more detailed chart further down the post to see the specifics in terms of actual results at respective harness levels:

https://i0.wp.com/knifesteelnerds.com/w ... =757&ssl=1

AEB-L looks slightly tougher at higher hardness to the other steels mentioned.

In that graph as the hardness goes up toughness goes down. Unfortunately, the tests for LC200N and 14C28N didn’t go as far as AEB-L for various hardness.