007 Agent ZZero
Basic Member
- Joined
- Jan 23, 2006
- Messages
- 2,515
During the last year I think most of us have been working on little COVID sanity-saving projects. After the last S45VN Mule this has been a project between two good friends, he’s a woodworker and I’m a knife guy so it seemed like a fun cross-hobby project. The Mule series is a great jack-of-all-trades economical design and we wanted scales that really brought out the best in it. I personally have a PSF27 and S45VN model and love both. I also owned Halpern scales but never liked the fact they aren’t quite flush with the tang. I gave him my input based on specific pieces from my collection that had handle characteristics that complimented the blade geometry and felt natural to hold, and over the last several weeks I think we really managed to nail down something great for the Mule. These are some of the final design prototypes we’ve come up with after a lot of iterations with different thicknesses, grip contours, and fishtail geometry.
So far we’ve made scales in hard maple, sapele mahogany, and walnut. The largest hurdle actually ended up being finding removable fastening hardware that held the wood firmly without introducing a lot of stress around the bolt heads. Ended up going with some 3/16” hardened stainless steel gulso bolts since the heads are wide enough to clamp down on the wood without pressing outward on the barrel holes and risking the wood splitting under pressure.
These are hand finished to 400 grit and have a week’s-worth of Truoil applications. Another application each week for a month and then monthly for a year will really bring these to a full show-shine. Like I said, this entire project grew out of the lack of removable handle options for the Mule. Even if there are some models out there it’s hard to reliably get your hands on one, and more easily available ones cost more than the Mule itself. We wanted to make something that was functional, comfortable, and can get the knife out in the field for a reasonable cost.
We don’t have firm production plans just yet, so for the time being we figure we’ll just post them up once we get a few more made. Since these are our first crack at making scales we’re thinking of offering them for around $40 shipped as a “first run” price. Payment is accepted via Venmo or postal MO. These ship via USPS first class. Priority is available for an extra $5. Please post in this thread an “I’ll take # “ and identify which set you interested in. There is one set of Sapele in the mix (#8). I have 2 more sets of Walnut with Truoil drying that I will post tomorrow. Stay Tuned!!
We’d also love for this design to be a bit of a launching point for experimentation in the Mule community at large. Since these are wood they can be tweaked with sandpaper or a file and then refinished with Truoil. We think they’re already great but we’d love to hear from people who modify theirs to suit their needs or tastes!
So far we’ve made scales in hard maple, sapele mahogany, and walnut. The largest hurdle actually ended up being finding removable fastening hardware that held the wood firmly without introducing a lot of stress around the bolt heads. Ended up going with some 3/16” hardened stainless steel gulso bolts since the heads are wide enough to clamp down on the wood without pressing outward on the barrel holes and risking the wood splitting under pressure.
These are hand finished to 400 grit and have a week’s-worth of Truoil applications. Another application each week for a month and then monthly for a year will really bring these to a full show-shine. Like I said, this entire project grew out of the lack of removable handle options for the Mule. Even if there are some models out there it’s hard to reliably get your hands on one, and more easily available ones cost more than the Mule itself. We wanted to make something that was functional, comfortable, and can get the knife out in the field for a reasonable cost.
We don’t have firm production plans just yet, so for the time being we figure we’ll just post them up once we get a few more made. Since these are our first crack at making scales we’re thinking of offering them for around $40 shipped as a “first run” price. Payment is accepted via Venmo or postal MO. These ship via USPS first class. Priority is available for an extra $5. Please post in this thread an “I’ll take # “ and identify which set you interested in. There is one set of Sapele in the mix (#8). I have 2 more sets of Walnut with Truoil drying that I will post tomorrow. Stay Tuned!!
We’d also love for this design to be a bit of a launching point for experimentation in the Mule community at large. Since these are wood they can be tweaked with sandpaper or a file and then refinished with Truoil. We think they’re already great but we’d love to hear from people who modify theirs to suit their needs or tastes!
