Spyderco Forums

I wanted to share a recent project that I’ve been working on with my most recent Mule purchase. This is the second Mule for me, and I realized that even though I love the concept behind the Mule Team I don’t ever carry fixed blade knives. Since I carry a pocket knife everyday I decided to modify this m398 Mule into a folding knife. This way it will get tested doing all of the tasks that I use my regular knives for.

Ok, enough about my reasoning here let’s get to the good part! For my design I decided to go with a finger choil since that is what I like. I’ve also started planning to make another folding Mule that will keep the original Mule shape but will probably wait for either the Rex T15 or the SPY27 production Mule for that one.

Here is my mock up of the design, which is made out of 1/8” MDF and 1/4” plywood. I went through a couple versions of this before deciding on this one, which felt the best in my hand. This is the same low tech method that I’ve used to design folding knives in the past, it’s just this time I started by drilling for the pivot in MDF, placing the knife on a pin in the hole, and tracing out the Mule blade. Conveniently, the Mule already has a perfect 3/16” hold for the pivot.



Now for the point of no return!



My plan for this knife is to make a titanium liner lock using .060” thick material for the liners. For the pivot I am using Ticonnector hardware, phosphor bronze washers, and a steel pivot bushing. While the knife is being fitted I am using a single stand-off, but will either add a second one or make a backspacer. For scales I have some twill carbon fiber that I am planning to use, but I haven’t started on those yet.

Anyways, here are the progress pics. Please keep in mind this is not close to my finished work so it’s a little rough. All of this is done free hand with low tech tools (bandsaw, 2x72 grinder, drill press, dremel), so no mill or CNC.









Obviously there is still a fair amount of work to do here. Next step is going to be drilling for the detent ball and setting it, along with the indent in the blade for the detent. Once I’m happy with the fit and lockup I’ll get to work on the scales. After the scales are made I will sand and bead blast the liners, then carbidize the lockbar to prevent lock stick. Also I will make a titanium deep carry clip out of .040” Ti.

Feel free to ask questions and offer criticism. Hope you all like this or at least find it interesting.

Very interested to see this develop! I'm really digging the overall profile.

What kind of clip do you foresee designing into it?

Very fun. Thanks for posting your project!

Oh man, a dream project of mine ! Happy to see someone pursue it before I'm even ready to do traditionnal folders !

That 50/50 choil is looking good, so does the general lines of the folder. I'm directly heavily invested in your progress. You seem to have done most of the hard work already

Congrats and I'll be lurking !

I logged in just to go bonkers over your project. There are modifications, and then there are super-mods. Wow!

I am certainly going to follow this thread to the project completion.

Thanks for sharing.

On a related note, it would be nice if someone like yourself started a thread, "Mule Modifications thru to Supermods." Does not have to be that exact title, but some thread where all of us spectators can see all of the mods in one place. Preferably one to 3 pics, not a lot of text, and a link to the overall project thread.

I have been consistently impressed with the forumites who are keen to get their Mules leaned down and modified for specific tasks. Everything from "that nub," reshaping the thumb ramp, jimping or cutting it down into a chef knife, all the mods in one place would be nifty. I dare to speculate that there will be more people cutting Mules down when more Mules are available.

I have never modified a mule and have no business starting that thread.

This, Folding Mule Project thread is spectacular.

Thanks again.

Saw this over on Reddit. Glad you're posting it here too. Very excited to see the progress on this super cool project.

This is cool.

You have skills. Nice work.

Rymanz wrote: ↑

Tue Dec 06, 2022 9:02 am

Very interested to see this develop! I'm really digging the overall profile.

What kind of clip do you foresee designing into it?

Most likely I’ll make a pretty basic two screw deep carry clip, in part because I make a bunch of them. I could also do something a little more interesting like one I did for my Magnitude, which mimicked the original clip it had. Maybe I’ll do something similar but without the speed holes.

Some of my regular clips-



Magnitude clip, and a Shaman clip-

Subscribed. Saw you on Reddit, and stoked you came over here.

Very nice work. Looking forward to see how it comes together.

Very cool and excellent work! I look forward to updates.

I wanted to share my progress on this project with everyone. The scales have been profiled but still need to be contoured, and I decided that I want to contour the scales before doing a cut for lock bar access.

I’m fairly happy with the detent, but will make it a little stiffer in my final adjustment. I’m using ceramic detent balls and it’s already smoothed out after flicking the knife open around 50 times. There’s a good chance I’ll end up polishing the sides for the tang just to see how silky I can get this thing, but I’m already pretty happy with the action. The lockup is also a little on the shallow side but I’d rather give it a chance to break in before I remove any more material.

I’ll update again once I get my contours done. Thanks to everyone that’s shown interest in this project!

Now for the good part…

Link to an action video (not sure how to post vids here if it’s possible)- https://i.imgur.com/snliJqp.mp4

Hi Spook,

Welcome to our forum.

Nice work Casper.

sal

This is amazing! Well done.

Regards contours: How will you bevel the edges of the scales? With a router bit or...?

This is already starting to look good !

I'd be willing to try such a project but the only Mules I have in stock are REX76 and these are at like 69 HRC

Looking forward to see the results of the contouring !

I could buy the tools to do something like this, but I could not buy the skill or talent to do something like this. Well done! I’m looking forward to seeing more.

Although I am watching….I have so many folders I would like to make fixed blades.

GB1 in a fixed blade for EDC…….