My LC200N Mule Rusted. How is that possible??

neffarious

neffarious

Joined
Jun 23, 2012
Messages
2,398
This is my fishing knife. This is the second time this has happened. I can polish it off with some flitz, but I didn't think it would rust this easily. Surfingringo Surfingringo leaves his in the salt, and he got a pin head spot after like a year. Mine didn't even sit in it. It was just used to cut some squid, then rinsed in the salt water. This is more than a pin head. I used Flitz and a brush to remove it, well except one pin head part that needs to extra attention.

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This doesn't seem normal to me. My Spydiechef has never shown a spot and I use it in the same conditions, and for food prep when camping.
 
Without seeing it in person with the rust in place there is no way for me or anyone else to tell what is actually going on. At a guess, I'd say there may have been other steel imbedded in the surface during grinding, and that other steel is rusting.
 
That's what I'm hoping at this point. I didn't want to leave it on there for inspection because I didn't want the staining to become permanent. I'm curious if anyone else has seen this behavior.
 
its possible they changed the heat treatment for the spydiechef based on feedback from the mule to reduce the problem you are seeing. or what the post above mentioned. I have no idea for sure. it could have just been surface rust that wipes away with soap and water and a brush. it still has some amount of carbon in it, though very small amount. its still classified as a stain less steel, so it will stain less than carbon steel for example.

edit: never mind this was rwl34
I do recall an older thread a year ago that had a similar issue with rust on this mule under the scales that was used full time in the kitchen.
 
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One part that I just noticed and struck me as odd is in the second to last picture, where the rust is on the edge. I've sharpened this knife a few times now, so I'm doubtful it's from tooling equipment, now that I think of it.
 
There has to be something else going on here, please keep us update. I was considering purchasing a Lc200n mule.
 
Very interesting.The heat treatment factor seems most plausible to me. Will be watching this thread.
 
neffarious said:
One part that I just noticed and struck me as odd is in the second to last picture, where the rust is on the edge. I've sharpened this knife a few times now, so I'm doubtful it's from tooling equipment, now that I think of it.
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You never sharpen anything else on the same equipment?
 
Was this knife stored amongst carbon steel fish hooks, leaders, or other tools?
 
neffarious neffarious - I'm sorry for your disappointment and surprised to see this. I just double checked with our Warranty & Repair department and we've not seen an LC200N Mule do what yours has done. I'd definitely recommend that you send it in for evaluation. The MT25 is still available so worst case scenario we could easily replace it for you. I would suggest that you remove your (gorgeous) handles prior to sending it in and please be sure to include your complete contact information as well as any other details you can provide about how you used the knife, how it was stored, etc.. You can even mention this thread. You'll find all of the information that you need here, https://www.spyderco.com/service-support/warranty-repair/. You'll be in great hands with our crew.

Kristi
 
Hey Nefarious, those are definitely some bizarre and unexpected results for lc200n. I have at least a half dozen knives in that steel and all of them have spent MONTHS on my kayak. They get put in the sheath wet and salty and bloody every day and never get a freshwater rinse. Aside from that one pinhead sized spot I saw on my mule (which was very odd in itself), I have never seen even the slightest bit of rust on lc200n. That you are seeing it from the use you described is VERY odd. I hope you will send that knife to Spyderco because I, for one, would be very interested to hear what is going on with that. That steel should definitely not be doing that. Could be residue like yablanowitz suggested but I would like to hear what Spyderco finds.
 
Hi everyone! It was a very busy day at work. I just got home to see all this and I want to respond to everyone.

yablanowitz said:
You never sharpen anything else on the same equipment?
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I do but I also use a #8000 king stone on it, and the same results did not happen to my SpydieChef

NJBillK said:
Was this knife stored amongst carbon steel fish hooks, leaders, or other tools?
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No, it was on the cutting board (wood) with squid or shrimp, in the salt water or in the kydex sheath. It never contacted any other metal. The sheath's hardware is not rusted, and no where did the knife contact it. It's an Azwelke FWIW. :)

Kristi,

I sent you all my information via Conversation including name, number and email.

Sal,

Thank you very much, I really appreciate it. This is my absolute favorite steel, based on my SpydieChef, and I have the Native and Carribean on pre-order. We spend a lot of time in the salt. Thank you very much for taking a look at this for me.

I've also not gone any further with the removal of the stains.
 
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Off with the handles:

Not pretty :(

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My poor scales:

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I took a brush and oxy clean and a straight edge and get 99% of it of the scale. Any thoughts on removing the little bit of the rest on the scales? I left the Mule as is to send to Sal Glesser Sal Glesser . I really was shocked how bad it was under the scale.

Here is the hardware (this is just standard Halpern Titanium hardware):

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Surfingringo said:
Hey Nefarious, those are definitely some bizarre and unexpected results for lc200n. I have at least a half dozen knives in that steel and all of them have spent MONTHS on my kayak. They get put in the sheath wet and salty and bloody every day and never get a freshwater rinse. Aside from that one pinhead sized spot I saw on my mule (which was very odd in itself), I have never seen even the slightest bit of rust on lc200n. That you are seeing it from the use you described is VERY odd. I hope you will send that knife to Spyderco because I, for one, would be very interested to hear what is going on with that. That steel should definitely not be doing that. Could be residue like yablanowitz suggested but I would like to hear what Spyderco finds.
Click to expand...

I read all your information on this steel trying to discern if you had seen anything even close to this, since you are more or less the bar for salt water knife use. Once I determined this was a one off, I figured I would post here for opinions. What I received as even better, not that i was surprised. Spyderco always takes care of business. I am really not sure what to think after I removed the scales. I am very curious to see what Sal and company say.
 
Kind of baffling. :confused: I picked up a LC200N mule at the factory store a few months back, fully intending to use as a tackle box knife with some G10 scales. I may hold off on that until results from this come in. Odd indeed.
 
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