Spyderco's twelfth Mule Team Project installment features American-made steel called Cru-Wear. Upstate New York's Crucible Steel manufacturers Cru-Wear which is very similar to Vascowear, a steel used by Gerber Legendary Blades in many of their past production knives.

Cru-Wear is a high-performance "V" tool steel that is difficult to process making it challenging for knife manufacturers to work with. It follows the same high-alloy, metallurgical tool-steel recipe used to produce D2, but with greater levels of vanadium, tungsten, and molybdenum. It is air-hardened and worked in a cold state. Cru-Wear exhibits exceptional toughness, impact resistance, and hardness for exceptional edge retention and is the first tool steel offering in Spyderco's Mule Team Series.