K390 Spyderco Mule Mirror Finish

MadRookie said:
singularity35, did you also find the K390 steel to be softer than expected??

My custom M390 units were much harder to grind than the K390 mule....that was my impression anyway...????

Is it the HT....or just me....???

:)
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Awesome mirror MR! ok, maybe a tad small catch a full reflection of your grin :D Also I dig your mule wear a cf with pink liner...

My wip 5" fixed blade K390 at 63rc has about same grinding difficulty as cpm-m4 at 65rc. 100 grit alox stone scratch pattern like 800 waterstone on basic 60rc stainless steel.
 
MadRookie said:
singularity35, did you also find the K390 steel to be softer than expected??

My custom M390 units were much harder to grind than the K390 mule....that was my impression anyway...????

Is it the HT....or just me....???

:)
Click to expand...

I don't have any other K390 to compare to, but I got to the edge quite readily at the belly part. It was the obtuse angle at the tip and the heel that took me a while to even out. I had to be especially careful with the tip since I didn't want to round it off or break of the very tip. I also had to even out the edge since I was getting a recurve near the tang. As long as the stones were cutting efficiently, I could feel and see the stones working. It just seemed as though this steel loaded up my stones faster than my other steels.
 
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singularity35 said:
Thanks rookie. :)



Not a lot surprisingly. The moldmasters don't seem to wear a lot at all. I did have to lap the 150 a few times(maybe 3 or 4 times) and the 240 and 320 twice during the session since I observed that wear resistant steels seem to load the stones faster than less wear resistant steels.

It's really not that fearsome. I just put the complete studio works of Led Zeppelin on the stereo made a pot of coffee and ground away. What you have to watch out for with the moldmasters is when they get loaded and stop cutting efficiently. if you fail to notice that, you'll spend a lot of time and energy without getting anywhere. I can usually tell by how it feels but a good indication is the scratch pattern. If you seem to be burnishing instead of hogging off metal, that stone is probably loaded.
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Thanks for the info. I am always pleased with your input on the forum. The good thing is that the Congress stones aren't all that expensive and the results will be worth it!

Instead of Led Zep, how about a zillion hours of Grateful Dead concerts? An ipod full of Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk and Charles Mingus? Should I expect the same results?;)
 
PB Wilson said:
Thanks for the info. I am always pleased with your input on the forum. The good thing is that the Congress stones aren't all that expensive and the results will be worth it!

Instead of Led Zep, how about a zillion hours of Grateful Dead concerts? An ipod full of Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk and Charles Mingus? Should I expect the same results?;)
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Always glad to share my experiences for what they're worth. :D

Been a long time since I listened to Monk and Mingus. They are among the giants of music. :D
 
Polished it up a bit. This is the best result I've gotten so far with the Lansky kit + sapphire hone.

100_3770.JPG
 
I've convexed my Mule pretty heavily, then put a 17 DPS mirrored microbevel on for giggles. Damn thing will slice hanging paper towels like a champ. Not bad for a tiny kitchen knife that usually only cuts chicken and bacon.

 
singularity35 said:
Indeed. :)
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MadRookie said:
That is pretty awesome results with a Lansky!


:)
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Thanks for the encouragement!

Cypress said:
I've convexed my Mule pretty heavily, then put a 17 DPS mirrored microbevel on for giggles. Damn thing will slice hanging paper towels like a champ. Not bad for a tiny kitchen knife that usually only cuts chicken and bacon.

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I tore down some cardboard boxes with mine and the way it cuts left a big smile on my face. I bet a convex edge would perform even better. Guess what I'm going to do next? :wink:
 
I wonder if these were heat treated in two different batches???????

I have the M390 Mule and it was fairly easily re-bevelled/sharpened/polished with waterstones. It felt almost identical to my S90V blades.

The K390 Mules(I have two) OTOH, I had to go down to XC diamond to get it re-bevelled to 15 degrees. Even with the 2X6 DMT XC plate on the EP, it was quite a job. Once I got the edge set, and sharp with the diamonds, the Shaptons polished it fairly well, although I had to use 4.5 micron CBN spritzed on the 2000 to get the last of the diamond scratches out.
 
Good question that might explain the slight warping on some of the mules.
 
Do you feel that running through the atoma series before heading to waterstones makes a huge difference in ability to reduce the scratch patterns to the nothingness of your mirrored bevels that you achieved so admirably? I usually go atoma 140 -> bamboo 150 -> chosera 400-10k -> strop, but they don't come out that vibrant.

Any insight is appreciated into the merits of running a series of diamond hones before waterstones.

Thanks

Turner
 
I can't speak for MR, but I've found that if I go through the diamonds from XC to XF, the scratches are much easier to get out.:thumbup:

The 220 Shapton GS does a good job of removing the scratches from the XF DMT plate. Just be sure that you have removed the XC, C, and M scratches with the XF before going to water stones.
 
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