New Spyderco Mule Team made in Taiwan?

[dkb45]

Don't judge a knife by country of origin. Doing so makes you miss great knives. If you must only have american knives you can't have a Spyderco Domino or Southard, both great knives. If you want to keep your pseudo patriotism, go ahead, but in the gloalbalized market of today you elhage almost no choice but to buy foreign made goods. And that isn't a bad thing.

 

[shqxk]

That why I didn't buy it when I have a chance.

 

[smokinbasser]

Having been stationed in Taiwan during that little police action in the late 60s and early 70s I would not have a second thought about buying just about anything from Taiwan. I saw some outstanding motorcycles chopped by them and was impressed with their work, If I'd had the cash I'd have sent a bike back home. I would suspect anything they set their minds to build/ make it will get done just fine.

 

[Bob6794]

There are plenty of people who wanted to pick up one of those mules but missed the chance. Each time they went up for sale they were gone within minutes. If you're not happy just post it for sale for what you paid plus shipping and PayPal fees. It will sell in a heartbeat.

For me, a spyderco being made in Taiwan is a positive selling point. They are consistently great knives at very fair prices. If you don't want to buy them then just vote with your dollars as you said you will. No need to make a stink about it.

Minutes, not always. The first time around it went fast I imagine, than I think I saw the second time around go fairly fast, it was gone within the hour after someone posted it was back up for sale. Third time around that I knew about I picked up my 2nd knife, something I regret not doing from the get go and posted that they were in stock again. That lasted a couple days till they were out of stock again.

After I got the first knife and saw the "Taiwan" stamp on it I was slightly disappointed because I was hoping to see "Made in U.S.A" stamped right on it. That disappointed lasted for the length it took me to finish reading it and another second or two to get over it. At the end of the day I paid roughly $100 for a good quality knife with S110V steel, I don't care about the knife origins as much as I do quality. And as far as I can tell the quality is pretty dang good as far as I could tell.

As much as I like seeing that Made in USA stamp I can never quite get the whole boycott and dislike of other countries goods when they make something right. The way I figure it is if you build a good product with a good price to match I buy it over your competitor if I believe your product is better for me. I'd rather reward a company for putting out a superior product than reward them for being located in my same geographic location.

 

[Stays Sharp]

You dont like it? Sell it. Its already sought after and causing quite a stir on the secondary market. Then you shouldnt be a hypocrite and sell your Iphone, laptop, Levis jeans, Nike shoes, Northface Jacket, TV, Mexican assembled US car, and up to 90% of the other things that you own which isnt made in the US.

 

[craytab]

If you care so much about country of manufacture why are you complaining about it AFTER YOU BOUGHT THE PRODUCT. Most people who care about where something is made make their purchasing choice based on that rather than blindly buying a product and then complaining about country of manufacture after the fact. Basically you have come on a public forum and stated you care deeply about where something is made, but just not enough to research where it is made before you buy it. Makes no sense.......

 

[bh49]

Just because some people want to stick with American made doesn't make them racist,

+1
I also prefer to buy US made products, when I can.
But I think that no harm done with these mules. OP can sell them right away and even make few bucks.

the problem is that both of you are somewhat surprised that a company which started ONLY as an importer of knives has a knife not made in the US... it's practically like being surprised Honda makes some cars in Japan.

I agree that this is a "little" unreasonable expectation for all Spydercos to be US made. It never was. But not every knife enthusiast knows Spyderco history.
I hate to see American jobs to go overseas. Spyderco does totally opposite: Glessers family created and keep creating jobs in US. Currently Sal is building new facility in Golden and I hope to see more new Golden made models and variants in the next few years.

 

[archer292]

I'll take it...

 

[Sonnydaze]

from a previous post by bdmicarta...
"MT18 went on sale, but I don't think it was a secret. I've noticed that the knife is manufactured somewhat differently from the USA made models. For instance it appears that the USA Mules are tumbled then the blade grind is made, whereas the MT18 handle seems to be surface ground. I don't know that one is better than the other, they are just different. I've also read that the edge is a bit thinner on the MT18 than on previous mules."

Sal ships the USA-made Crucible Industries CPM-S110V steel directly to the Taiwan plant. Sal does not YET have enough production capability within the U.S. to make the Mule, but he is currently working on a new production facility in Colorado.
This Mule steel is 0.119" thick, flat-ground, and is 0.020" just behind the edge. I suspect it will slice like a laser.
A mule that I've been hoping for...for a long time. I love it. And...you can buy ready-make G10 scales from Halpern...a no-brainer.
Sonnydaze

 

[Franciscomv]

Txknifefan, I fully understand that Taiwan Spydercos are some of the best the brand has to offer, but I still chose to buy only models made in the US and Japan. No real sensible reason, just a pet peeve of mine. So I'm really careful to check country of origin on most of my knives (in those under 50 dollars or so, I don't care so much).

While Spyderco doesn't list country of origin in the description of each knife, you can do a search by country. Anyway, just to ease your mind, you're getting a great knife. I got the Chinese Mule as a gift and it's a great design.

 

[Sal Glesser]

Hi Txknifefan,

Sorry for your disappointment. Our Taiwan people are among the best in the world. It got down to make it in Taiwan or wait a year or two or not make it at all. The next few Mules will also be made by the same maker. He's good enough to make them and gracious enough to bother. They are not easy to make.

sal

 

[JNewell]

I was very excited when I had the opportunity to order the Mule Team 18 knife. Got it in earlier and it had Taiwan on the blade. I ordered this knife directly from the Spyderco website so I wasn't worried about it being a fake or knock off. I just feel somewhat let down that I spent $90 on a knife that was not made in the USA. I'm not trying to say this knife looks or will be less reliable. I just felt like if I'm going to drop that kind of money on a blade it should of had Golden, CO etched on the blade. And for anyone wondering Spyderco now has the Mule Team 18 listed under Taiwan for Country of Origin.

Next time I'm sending my money back to Benchmade or one of the Busse's.

If you think you can get an S110V blade with a proper heat treat for $90 from Benchmade or Busse, you really need to take another look at things.

 

[ceptor781]

Sounds great Sal! Thanks for finding a way to keep the Mule train running on time. No matter where they are produced we are still supporting an American company that caters to us knife nuts. What more do you really want.

 

[bdmicarta]

If you think you can get an S110V blade with a proper heat treat for $90 from Benchmade or Busse, you really need to take another look at things.

Just for rough comparison...

You can get the Benchmade Adamas 375, D2 steel, for about $140 from a dealer. You can get the CRK Professional Soldier, S35VN steel, for about $195 from a dealer. Or you can get an Izula for a lot less, but it is smaller and has much cheaper steel.

 

[JNewell]

Just for rough comparison...

You can get the Benchmade Adamas 375, D2 steel, for about $140 from a dealer. You can get the CRK Professional Soldier, S35VN steel, for about $195 from a dealer. Or you can get an Izula for a lot less, but it is smaller and has much cheaper steel.

All of those blades are essentially commodity steels: well known in the industry, with little to no learning curve and economical fabrication costs. You can't find S110V blades just lying around in production company catalogs. Off the top of my head, I know of only two production companies that have offered S110V blades, and they have been extremely limited in numbers made.

Edit - forgot Kershaw!

 

[bdmicarta]

All of those blades are essentially commodity steels: well known in the industry, with little to no learning curve and economical fabrication costs. You can't find S110V blades just lying around in production company catalogs. Off the top of my head, I know of only two production companies that have offered S110V blades, and they have been extremely limited in numbers made.

Well yes that was kind of my point- lesser steels for more money.

Sal has already said that they do make profit on the Mules, and it helps to pay for the learning curve and testing, but is not the profit they would like on their normal production knives.

 

[Stays Sharp]

Well yes that was kind of my point- lesser steels for more money.

Sal has already said that they do make profit on the Mules, and it helps to pay for the learning curve and testing, but is not the profit they would like on their normal production knives.

It doesnt mean you win the argument or a cookie. Put it this way, with any product, You're either in the red or you make profit. And aiming strictly to break even will cost you sooner or later when unforeseen problems occur. The relatively small overage after cost paying for the time spent by Sal and testing further enforces that the Mule is a unique program offered to knife nuts. Just pointing this out since you are so insistent on both here and the Spyderco.com forun on pointing out that they do make a profit on them.

 

[Ankerson]

I was very excited when I had the opportunity to order the Mule Team 18 knife. Got it in earlier and it had Taiwan on the blade. I ordered this knife directly from the Spyderco website so I wasn't worried about it being a fake or knock off. I just feel somewhat let down that I spent $90 on a knife that was not made in the USA. I'm not trying to say this knife looks or will be less reliable. I just felt like if I'm going to drop that kind of money on a blade it should of had Golden, CO etched on the blade. And for anyone wondering Spyderco now has the Mule Team 18 listed under Taiwan for Country of Origin.

Next time I'm sending my money back to Benchmade or one of the Busse's.

It's about the steel mostly, CPM S110V is very hard to work with due to the extreme wear resistance and one can count the number of makers and or factories that will even work with it on one hand....

And CPM S110V is VERY limited as it's very difficult to produce and it's expensive.

Only 3 Companies have offered knives in CPM S110V.... Strider, Kershaw and now Spyderco, all very limited production.

It wasn't hidden at all that the MT 18 was going to be made in Taiwan and was discussed in depth long before it was made.

So we are very fortunate to even have the MT 18 at the $90 price point in the 1st place....

Try and get any knife made in CPM S110V, it's going to be a Custom made by one of the very few makers that will even work with it and the wait times will be very long and it's going to cost a lot more than $90..

One could buy at least 4 MT 18's for the price of the above described Custom Knife.

 

[Ankerson]

Here are my MT-18 Photos....

Some with MT-17 also.

 

[Bronco]

I was very excited when I had the opportunity to order the Mule Team 18 knife. Got it in earlier and it had Taiwan on the blade. I ordered this knife directly from the Spyderco website so I wasn't worried about it being a fake or knock off. I just feel somewhat let down that I spent $90 on a knife that was not made in the USA. I'm not trying to say this knife looks or will be less reliable. I just felt like if I'm going to drop that kind of money on a blade it should of had Golden, CO etched on the blade. And for anyone wondering Spyderco now has the Mule Team 18 listed under Taiwan for Country of Origin.

Next time I'm sending my money back to Benchmade or one of the Busse's.

So you came up a bit short in your due diligence and made a mistake by buying something manufactured in Asia. Don't beat yourself up. Stuff like this happens. It's only important to maintain some perspective in these times.

Fortunately, you purchased a very high quality product by accident. The upside to this is that you can now turn right around, take your MT-18 to a resale site and actually make a profit on it. It's the ultimate win-win scenario - whatever knife you purchase to replace it will actually come to you at a discount compared to what it would have cost to buy it outright and you get to stand by your principles not to be disappointed by buying anything of Asian manufacture.

Merely as a point of academic interest though, I am curious, what device do you use to access Bladeforums?