Latest Mule Team project

[phillipsted]

Here is my latest Mule project. I've had an older ZDP-189 Mule stuck in my workbench for a while. It is one of the first run of MT-04 blades with the extremely hard heat treat. I decided to put a set of stabilized rock maple burl scales on it. It was down to the very end of the job - I had to do the final fit out of the bolts then finish the trim on the tang and polish it up.

When I was inserting the middle bolt, the holes must have been slightly misaligned. PING! The handle broke clean in two across the tang - right through the bolt hole. It almost sounded like glass cracking, it was so brittle. It was totally my fault -I wasn't paying attention. Even though I wasn't exerting that much pressure, and I had reamed the scales and tang previously, I thought there was enough clearance. I caught it with just the right amount of force at exactly the right place...and PING! Just goes to show you how much of a tradeoff you have to make to get blades into the upper hardness ranges!

Anyway, I went ahead and assembled the knife - I figured it can at least look nice in my display cabinet. I polished the maple out to 1000 grit and since it was nicely stabilized, I just added a top coat of Ren Wax and called it a day.

TedP

 

[PGeo00]

Looks great. Too bad about the breakage

 

[zl1]

great work!
sucks for the break

 

[9blades]

Very nice! To bad about the split......

 

[jtoler_9]

That surprises me about a break right down the middle. Regardless, those scales look great as always. I am a fan of your work and choice of scales.

 

[bdmicarta]

Epoxy those scales on and that knife should still be very functional.

 

[Rurouni]

cool story -- Shame tho! In my opinion the knife would look better if the screws/screw-holes were sanded flush with the handle. I guess that's an extra wrinkle. (my Mules are para-cord handle).