KA-BAR Desert Mule.

I posted on another thread about this knife. Word from near the front lines is this knife is gaining in popularity over there as a practical utility/combat folder. Maybe a bit on the larger size for a pocket knife, but I like what I see so far. I have asked for a critique at Bladeforums and I may order one today. It is a $40 knife, plain or partially serrated blade made of AUS 8A. Blade length looks to be nearly 4". Overall length is a little over 9". It weighs about half a pound, and includes a specialized tactical cordura sheath system. Looks like it can also be had in Tanto style.

I will keep you posted.

Have have one in black(non-tanto)and yes it's big.Like it a lot.I got mine from BQM and it comes with a low profile clip and a multi-position sheath.Generally I like it for camping-it takes up too much room front pocket of jeans for everyday use-for me anyway and I don't usually carry a pocket knife in a sheath.All in all I like it-only used it a few times-but it is not a one handed knife and the lock back is strong but really needs two hands to operate.
I believe it to be worth the money-like you said,it's on the inexpensive side and won't set you back if you find if uncomfortable and could easily be resold if need be.I won't be letting mine go.

Here's the response I got from KA-BAR to my initial inquiry.

Mr. Price,



Thank you for the future review of our M.U.L.E. Folder. (Good or Bad)

Before I get into the knife specifics, I think a little insight into the reasoning for this folder may be in order.

We have had, for several years prior to the intro of the M.U.L.E., members of both the military and Law Enforcement communities telling us what they needed was a knife that had all of the attributes of the Ka-Bar Fighting/Utility fixed blade knife but in a folding version. These attributes included toughness, good lateral strength (Side-to-side), easy to sharpen, good handle ergonomics and comfort, cost effective and lastly have the F/U knife look. Most of the military and LE persons are not rich so in short, they wanted a knife that could take a heap of abuse and if it broke or got lost, would not break their bank account.

The design was done in house at Ka-Bar. We looked at probably 40-50 competitor’s folding knives; examining each for our above mentioned criteria. We used and abused and tore apart all of these knives, subjecting all of them to a full battery of physical abuse and metallurgical tests.

We settled on a clip point blade (for the first model, anyway) with a traditional lockback locking mechanism. We believe most people know how to use this lock as opposed to the linerlock, arc/axis lock and other new mechanisms. The lockback has been around for a long time and the bugs have been sorted out fairly well. We added some modern adaptations like the recessed lock tab (for added lock release security) and mid-back tab location made popular by Al Mar (as opposed to the more traditional lock tab at the tail or butt end). We settled on a flat extruded wire as the spring. I would have liked to have used a round rod spring but internal space constraints and the lock configuration confounded our best plans.

Because lateral strength was a key priority, we used fairly thick stainless steel as the frame liners. The main blade pivot assy. is an oversized stainless pivot with a flatted side to prevent rotation, held together by a loc-tited screw. We used thin, wide Teflon side washers to smooth the blade movement, and also to keep side to side play to a minimum. With the SS liners we knew the weight would be an issue; or so we thought. It wasn’t! In fact the extra weight was thought to be an advantage or positive attribute by ALL of our testers! (That’s why it is important to listen to the customer!) Over the SS liners we fixed Glass filled nylon handles (GFN). The soft grip inserts are Kraton and held secure by cavities under the handle slabs. On these handles we tried to move away from the typical flat slabs found on most folders and give the user a 3 dimensional ergo grip. We also wanted a multi positional sheath that can be used on both the traditional LCE gear and the newer MOLLE arrangement for both military and LE. After many, many tests, iterations and improvements, whew! We have the M.U.L.E.



As far as your tests, I’m sure you can break this knife (In fact after 18 years in the business, I believe that all knives can be broken), but for example we grind the blade so the tip is left thicker for point strength. The clip is not quite as pointed as other clips to keep that point stout. We like hollow grinding so the edge will be keener and stay that way longer. While flat grinds can be stronger, the blade sharpness begins to suffer after some years of sharpening. We can get that strength back by saber grinding and utilizing the flat panels (full thickness) of the blade.

The stainless liners should add a tremendous strength to counteract lateral stresses. We use good quality, moderate stainless steels (In this case AUS8) in our blades. This is to reduce cost and also to offer some toughness. If there are no defects in the blade steel, batoning with the M.U.L.E. should not prove an issue.

We have also heard the reports of sand gritting up folding knives in Iraq. We suggest that because the knife is made of stainless and synthetics, that it can be dosed in water, scrubbed, blown off with compressed air and the moving joints lubed with synthetic lubes or oils. (Any lube with no ionic attraction to dirt and grit. Regular oil is bad in this respect) In fact, because there are Teflon side washers and also the blade is black Teflon coated, no lube on the pivot would probably be okay.

As with all things there are compromises to be made. This knife is big and heavy. If weight is a factor there are many other knives that are lighter. But it is robust and strong and should take a beating. Oh, and it’s an excellent value.


The next phase will be to do the evaluation/test and then submit my report.

I will let y'all know how it goes as soon as the knife gets in my hands.

Okay, so I got my Mule in the mail. I opened the shipping box and inside was a full size KA-BAR combat knife box. Not to worry, the Mule and its sheath were inside, though it wouldv'e been just fine if it'd actually been a real KA-BAR fighting knife model.

Anyways, first to the sheath. It is quite a tactical rig for a folder, even one this big. Maybe it is too much. It is chock full of straps with velcro and snaps, and can be worn on the belt either in vertical or horizontal orientation. There is a small problem with closing the cover strap over the knife, I'll expand on that in a moment.

Getting to the knife itself, the first thing I noticed is that for a folder, it is big, meaning longer than I thought. This is attributed to handle moreso than the blade. Something else I notice right off is that this knife feels solid in the hand. There is a belt clip attached to the knife, and it is probably the single biggest drawback about the whole thing. Not that it doesn't belong, but it is mounted from the factory on the wrong side of the handle. Gripping the knife, it is going to bite into the meat of your palm. It is attached using a couple of removable spline head screws, and it is possible to take it off and put it on the opposite side, where it more properly belongs for a right handed grip I think. As soon as I can find a small enough spline driver, or maybe I can get a small allen wrench to work, then I will see if having it on the other side of the grip makes it better. If not, then I will have to consider how else I can carry it without it's sheath for EDC.

The grip is a high density plastic slabs in a khaki tan. Apparently you can get this knife in both olive drab green and black slabs. Spline drive screws are used throughout to hold the knife together. Each slab has a set of little hard rubber inserts running parallel along the center two thirds of the length of each slab, which along with the well profiled indents makes the grip quite ergonomic and secure, with the belt clip the exception. The knife is a standard lockback type that is centered in the top of the handle and detented so that it doesn't really interfere with the ergonomics. The locking mechanism is really solid and secure, and there's no doubt when the blade is deployed it is positively locked in place. Pulling the blade out is easily accomplished due to the pass thru stud atop the spine at the back of the blade. I had no problem extracting the blade with one hand, although the hinge is probably the stiffest I've ever encountered. I am not sure that my wife, who has a weak grip, could do it with one hand. It is a trade-off of having a solid hinge that it will be harder to open I suppose. In time I suspect it will soften up a little as the friction points smooth up, but it will never get super easy. There's just too much metal to metal and the hinge is assembled to a very tight tolerance.

Once deployed, the blade is rock solid. There's no doubt what the engineers had in mind with this knife. Having been in Iraq, I know what I would want in a folding knife, something as rugged as my fixed blade that got used for all sorts of tough prying, poking, and slicing work. I like the way this knife blade looks, it is finished in that satiny smooth, gun blued look that KA-BAR blades have been knowned and recognized for. The blade is two thirds to an inch shorter than the grip it seems. That's okay. Long blades on folders isn't so great in a tactical situation, and if I need more knife than the 3" + blade of this folder, I would opt for carrying one of my fixed blades. Nope, this length seems to be pretty manageable.

Like with the Spyderco Endura knife, this blade comes from the factory "Scary" sharp. That is to say that it is razor sharp, sharp enough to push cut into my skin without much pressure at all. That is what I call scary. The manufacturers must've realized this is a sales point. It convinces me that AUS 8A is still a desirable knife metal that can take an excellent edge, and after testing it, can hold that edge well.

So after shaving half my left arm bare, and push cutting through some old rags, the sole of a boot, some belt leather, and a plastic coat hanger (okay the coat hanger took a little more weight to push cut through, but it went). I took it outside. There's some old seasoned sycamore out back that the landlord needs to get hauled off, but for now I will see what I can do with this knife. Of course, the first big test is to stab the tip into a chunk of wood and see how it penetrates. As expected, the knife tip goes in just as you would expect of any stout knife. No problems with the grip, save for that darned belt clip digging into the palm of my hand, making me feel just a little tentative about having my grip slip on a full power thrust, so I hold back from a full bore stab. I have no doubt that this knife will penetrate tissue just fine, and should go through a door panel about as well as my most popular fixed blad will. The hinge end of the grip has a reverse tape just enough to feel like a guard that keeps my grip from sliding down on the blade.

Next is the throwing. Because the handle is so much larger, the balance point for this knife when opened is well back of the hinge point. Underhanded throws were a little more successful than the overhand trys, but it was hard keeping oriented to the right rotational force applied for a given distance, and most of my tosses ended up boucning off. In fact, the harder I threw, the less often it stuck, but when it did, it was really positive.

After maybe a hundred throws, the handled had a few dents and dings, but the hinge was still quite tight and there was no play in the blade. This was as expected. Because of the balancing point, this knife doesn't lend itself to chopping action very well. I would not be expecting to do a lot of chopping with a folder anyways, prefering instead to either slice, or baton if the knife will take it.

While this knife blade is thick enough to baton with, it is not as robust as any of the fixed blades I baton with. I decided to exercise a little care about impact behind the hinge, which would normally really loosen up a folding knife in short order. Using another piece of wood, I was able to split 2" diameter chunks with work, the blade wanting to rotate out of the split due to the geometry. Once the blade went below the surface of the end of the wood, then I removed it and relocated so that only half the blade penetrated the split, this in order to keep the impact point from the baton still on the blade and not behind the hinge. I wouldn't take on splitting wood chunks that were bigger than maybe 3" diameter with this knife. Too much work, and too much energy applied to the hinge point. I will say that the hinge did take a few incidental blows, and this did not seem to do any harm to it. However, I would still be wary of doing that too often, regardless.

Finally, I drove the end of the knife into the end of a big piece of wood and drove it in about half an inch deep. Then I tried flexing the knife all around to pry it loose. I tried flexing the tip deliberately to see how the blade flexes, and just like KA-BAR fixed blade knives, this blade is also quite rigid and not prone to flexing much at all. It will take a lot of lateral stress, about 130 lbs laterally without incident. Upon final extraction, I noted no apparent tip deflection.

I guess there's more I could say, and pictures would always be nice, but that's not an option at this point. My conclusion is that this is a darned good utility/tactical folder. It may not be the easiest to rapid deploy, and there's little about this knife that I would consider diminutive. However, I wore it clipped into the front right pocket of my slacks all day yesterday, and there's no doubt in my mind I could EDC this thing anytime without feeling burdened or encumbered anymore than any other folding knife with a 3 to 3 1/2 inch blade. I can extract it from my pocket fast enough to use as a blunt instrument, which is recommended in certain self defense circles, and because even folded it extends more than an inch out below my hand. Give me another couple seconds to flip the blade open and regrip it properly, and I am ready to go.

For a wilderness setup, this would be a fine belt/pocket knife to carry. I guess it depends on what you are looking for, but for me, I want to take something that will take loads of abuse and remain reliable. This would be the folding knife I would reach for, and it will be the one I take with me in and out of New York City from now on.

Hey Benjammin, great review. From what you've said, the Mule looks like a good choice for a heavy duty folder. Any way to get the hinge open a little easier? Maybe you could loosen the front screw a bit if possible. I did this with another folder that was really stiff. It instantly solved the problem though it might not be so in this case if the lockback is producing so much friction.

Is the false edge on the clip point just cosmetic or is it actually sharp/sharpenable? Not that it's a big deal but I personally like to sharpen the clip point on Bowie-style blades (like my fixed blade USMC Kabar).

In this case, I don't think just loosening the pivot screw will help much. The bearing surfaces between the lock and the blade are what is binding, and the spring that holds the lock mechanism against the blade is pretty strong. You'd have to back that pivot screw out so much to generate enough slack that it'd make the whole thing pretty wobbly. If I really wanted to cut the tension down, I'd think about maybe softening up the spring tension or honing down the bearing surfaces a little. A couple attentive minutes with a dremel tool would probably solve that problem. In fact, I've been opening and closing the blade a few hundred times this weekend and I've noticed it is getting easier, so maybe it's just a break-in thing. It is still stiff, but getting better.

As for the false edge, you'll be happy to note that it is quite similar to your USMC KA-BAR. It is not sharp, but it would be easy to sharpen the false edge just like a standard KA-BAR. I'd be careful about that, though. That edge is exposed when the blade is closed, and if you are gonna keep it in your pocket it might be a bit of a hazard. The point is well protected to about 1/3 of an inch up the blade, beyond that, the false edge is going to be exposed. You will have to do a fair amount of honing to get an edge, no different than with a regular KA-Bar I reckon.

This is a brute of a folder for $40. It isn't a slimline ultra concealable instant opening type. For that, I would probably go to a Spyderco or something similar, but this is definitely the stoutest folder I've come across. After spending almost $2,000 in the past few months on Busse knives (yeah, I got a problem, I am dealing with it), it is nice to find a unit I can actually EDC that cost me less than a tank of gas.

Some more tidbits about the Desert Mule.

The screws use a T-6 Torx driver. Luck of all luck, I found one at the Sears tool section for $2. So now the belt clip is on the right side of the handle and it feels good and secure in the hand.

Thanks to an annoying citizen in the parking lot of a nameless shopping center, I now know that the knife, when locked out, will positively penetrate a car door panel. It went in about as easy as my Cold Steel SRK fixed blade does. No edge damage, the joint still feels supertight, the point is still in good shape. Yep, I think this will be a most excellent EDC tool.

Okay, and the rest of the story is. . . Did the annoying citizen stick your knife in his own door?

Nope, he sorta asked me to...in an indirect kinda way, know what I mean?

{: )

It sounds a lot like those fellas who either slip on a bar of soap or fall up a ladder, type of scenario!