High-performance American-made blade steels are propelling the quality and performance of today's knives to new and higher levels. A U.S.A company called Carpenter Steel recently entered the knife making arena, cutlery people noticed. Carpenter isn't a newcomer to alloy manufacturing just a new-neighbor in the community of blade steel manufacturing and they're launching a new family of alloys called CTS' steels specifically for cutlery. One of those is CTS BD1. CTS BD1 is patterned on Gingami I (also known as G2), the gold-standard for Japanese cutlerers. Its superior edge retention and surface finish are machined to a fine edge and it heat-treats consistently. From a performance standpoint, it's a winner and it's used in Spyderco's latest Mule Team fixed blade.

Spyderco's Mule Team Series is an ongoing project where the same fixed blade knife is released in different blade steel variations several times per year. Mule is the name given to a test piece in the knife manufacturing process. The project allows steel-obsessed knife knuts the opportunity to test, try and use alloys not readily available to the industry.

The CTS BD1 Mule is a limited 500-piece run with a sharpened PlainEdge cutting edge and it's sold without handle scales or a carry sheath, focusing the project on the steel. Leaving the knife handle unfinished opens creative possibilities for designing custom handle scales or handle wrappings and carry options. Pre-drilled holes in the handle allow for attaching scales or whatever the imagination creates.

How many and how often will Mules be released?

Our plan is to release several variations per year using the same fixed blade pattern produced with different exotic steels. Each steel offering is limited to approximately 600 pieces and engraved indicating the steel used. Variations are priced accordingly with the only cost variable being the steel itself. Prices will be announced prior to the release of the upcoming model.