Mule Team™ PSF27

This model is no longer in production. 

Spyderco’s Mule Team™ Series is an ongoing project that enables steel-obsessed knife enthusiasts to test different blade materials using the same exact fixed-blade design platform. Sold without handles or sheaths, Mule Team blades are also ideal for aspiring knifemakers and hobbyists.

This expression of the Mule Team concept features PSF27, a tool steel produced using the Spray Forming Process. Spray forming—also known as spray casting or spray deposition—begins by melting an alloy steel in an induction furnace. The molten steel is then poured through a ceramic nozzle and broken up into droplets by an array of gas jets. The droplets are accelerated by the jets to impact onto a collection surface while still in a semi-solid condition. There, they build up to form a spray-formed billet, assuming the shape of the substrate surface. The small size and rapid cooling of the droplets minimizes alloy segregation to produce an extremely fine-grained homogenous steel.

PSF27 combines the advantages of the Spray Forming Process with an alloy composition (1.55% carbon, 12.00% chromium, 0.75% molybdenum, 1.00% vanadium) that is basically equivalent to D2 tool steel. The synergy of these alloys and the Spray Forming Process results in a steel that offers increased toughness, wear resistance, crack resistance, and higher hardness. It is also more predictable and dimensionally stable during the heat-treatment process.

All Mule Team blades are sold consumer-direct and available only at the Spyderco Factory Outlet or through Spyderco.com. 

Released: August 2014