Description
Spyderco Mule Team CPM-4V Tool Steel MT21P
Made in Taichung, Taiwan
About CPM 4V:
Spyderco’s twenty-first Mule Team installment showcases Crucible CPM-4V blade steel, a powder metallurgy tool steel that offers high impact toughness and very good wear resistance. Developed for demanding industrial applications where a combination of strength, wear resistance and toughness is required, CPM 4V has significantly more carbon, vanadium, and molybdenum than CPM 3V. The result is a steel that is capable of a higher attainable hardness and even greater abrasion resistance than CPM 3V and significantly better toughness and wear resistance than D2. Despite these advanced performance qualities, CPM 4V has only 5% chromium--below the threshold of stainless steel and therefore must be properly maintained to protect it from corrosion.Like conventional steels, particle metallurgy steels begin with a homogenous bath of molten high-alloy steel. However, instead of being poured into ingot molds, the molten steel is forced through a nozzle under high pressure to create a spray of small spherical droplets that quickly solidify into powder particles. The small size of the particles forms micro-ingots, drastically reducing the alloy segregation in the steel and ensuring an extremely fine, uniform carbide structure. This enhances the steel’s edge retention, as well as its grinding and polishing characteristics. CPM 4V's exact alloy composition is as follows: Carbon: 1.35%, Manganese: 0.40%, Silicon: 0.80%, Chromium: 5.0%, Molybdenum: 2.95%, Vanadium: 3.85%.
What is the Mule Team:
For those of you unfamiliar with the Spyderco Mule Team Project, it is unique to Spyderco. They call knife samples designed and built for testing and evaluation Mules. There is a healthy percentage of knife users that are interested in different blade steels and their performance abilities. Running with that, Spyderco released the ongoing Mule Team Project. Several times per year they unveil the same single-piece fixed blade patterned knife in a different and exotic blade steel. This lets steel-obsessed knife knuts test, try and use something normally not offered to the industry. Product runs are limited to 600 – 1000 pieces of each steel type depending on foundry requirements.
Mule blades are leaf-shaped with a sharpened and finished plain cutting edge but with an unfinished handle providing a do-it-yourself opportunity. The unfinished handle has a series of holes for attaching custom handle scales or for wrapping with para-cord. Each piece is sold without handle scales or a carry sheath focusing the project on the blade steel. This opens endless creative possibilities for the owner to design their own handle scale and carry options.
Features:
Blade Material: CPM-4V Tool Steel
Handle Material: CPM-4V Tool Steel
Blade Length: 3-3/8
Overall Length: 7-3/4
Weight: 2.7 oz
Description
Spyderco Mule Team CPM-4V Tool Steel MT21P
Made in Taichung, Taiwan
About CPM 4V:
Spyderco’s twenty-first Mule Team installment showcases Crucible CPM-4V blade steel, a powder metallurgy tool steel that offers high impact toughness and very good wear resistance. Developed for demanding industrial applications where a combination of strength, wear resistance and toughness is required, CPM 4V has significantly more carbon, vanadium, and molybdenum than CPM 3V. The result is a steel that is capable of a higher attainable hardness and even greater abrasion resistance than CPM 3V and significantly better toughness and wear resistance than D2. Despite these advanced performance qualities, CPM 4V has only 5% chromium--below the threshold of stainless steel and therefore must be properly maintained to protect it from corrosion.Like conventional steels, particle metallurgy steels begin with a homogenous bath of molten high-alloy steel. However, instead of being poured into ingot molds, the molten steel is forced through a nozzle under high pressure to create a spray of small spherical droplets that quickly solidify into powder particles. The small size of the particles forms micro-ingots, drastically reducing the alloy segregation in the steel and ensuring an extremely fine, uniform carbide structure. This enhances the steel’s edge retention, as well as its grinding and polishing characteristics. CPM 4V's exact alloy composition is as follows: Carbon: 1.35%, Manganese: 0.40%, Silicon: 0.80%, Chromium: 5.0%, Molybdenum: 2.95%, Vanadium: 3.85%.
What is the Mule Team:
For those of you unfamiliar with the Spyderco Mule Team Project, it is unique to Spyderco. They call knife samples designed and built for testing and evaluation Mules. There is a healthy percentage of knife users that are interested in different blade steels and their performance abilities. Running with that, Spyderco released the ongoing Mule Team Project. Several times per year they unveil the same single-piece fixed blade patterned knife in a different and exotic blade steel. This lets steel-obsessed knife knuts test, try and use something normally not offered to the industry. Product runs are limited to 600 – 1000 pieces of each steel type depending on foundry requirements.
Mule blades are leaf-shaped with a sharpened and finished plain cutting edge but with an unfinished handle providing a do-it-yourself opportunity. The unfinished handle has a series of holes for attaching custom handle scales or for wrapping with para-cord. Each piece is sold without handle scales or a carry sheath focusing the project on the blade steel. This opens endless creative possibilities for the owner to design their own handle scale and carry options.
Features:
Blade Material: CPM-4V Tool Steel
Handle Material: CPM-4V Tool Steel
Blade Length: 3-3/8
Overall Length: 7-3/4
Weight: 2.7 oz
