future super Spydey materials

[druid]

and wondering if anybody has suggestions or knowledge of any new materials spyderco might be using or can use in the future. My most useful suggestion is carbon fiber like material that uses Kevlar fibers instead of carbon fibers sure there are trade-offs but the resulting material I believe has more give to it. there are surfboards made of this material that are supposed to be fairly indestructible as they interesting looking green and black checked pattern. there is also carbon fiber made with boron threads that I don't know much about. There are also other materials such as beryllium that has some small use in mountain bike frames a space-age metal with a very high tensile strength and light weight. I don't know if you can make a frame lock out of it but it might make an interesting alternative to a titanium front lock.

[Bolster]

This is a link that Deacon posted for us some time ago, regarding the "bleeding edge" of new fiber/composite materials. Very interesting reading, thanks Deacon!

http://www.sciencemaster.com/columns/re ... te_two.php

Druid, when you get a knife rehandled in Boron Fiber, be sure to let me see it! We're practically neighbors you know.

[JD Spydo]

I am patiently waiting for some of the newer blade steels to be implemented in the near future. I am anxiously awaiting the Crucible M-4 and other steels that are awaiting.

You can be sure with all of the high technological materials that are being used in the space program that there will be new handle materials coming soon as well.

I am also looking forward to blades made with Non-steel type materials/metals. Bring it on. JD

[Bolster]

I am anxiously awaiting the Crucible M-4 and other steels that are awaiting. JD

JD, can you enlighten me regarding this new steel, M-4? I know nothing about it--have only heard whispers here and there--and would appreciate a bit of education, if you can spare the time.

[Zatx]

One word...

Ceramic!


Has Spyderco ever made any blades from ceramic?

[DRod]

I don't know. Ceramic is still brittle in blade form right? I know Keyocera is big on it and they actually make a folder, but it also says if you drop it, its going to break. I don't know how much more durable the Boker Ceramic is but it seems to have a decent enough price.

[Zatx]

Spyderco has been the leader in new folder technologies... lets see them perfect the ceramic blade!

[uhiforgot]

Spyderco has been the leader in new folder technologies... lets see them perfect the ceramic blade!

There was a thread about this a while ago. Sal said something to the effect that they had it in testing, but couldn't get the edge as sharp as they wanted it to be, so the project was scrapped. That's not to say that ceramic is a bad blade material, though...

[Padawan]

One thing I've been hoping for is the use of some different Japanese steels with some of the Seki-made knives. I think it would be great to see Blue or White steel offered as some sort of Sprint run. As for scale materials to pair with it, I think something a bit more "traditional" such as wood or Micarta would be nice.

[druid]

I have one of those ceramic, Japanese made paring knives, and isn't as sharp as my, other high-end paring knife in traditional high carbon kitchens steel, also I fumbled it once and dropped only about six to 8 inches onto the metal rim of the glass table and got a small chip in the edge, doesn't affect function in mint slices fine, but it's definitely not as sharp as a new spyderco, I've heard under the right conditions they can be very sharp indeed. but this is probably one fractured to create very small scalpel like cutting implements, when ground to produce blades do result in my experience is not a spectacular. The sharpest blade I've ever heard of is a tiny scalpel used for splitting cells in opening cell walls it is made from a small piece of high-grade diamond, and is supposed to be able to cut through flash with no discernible effort. but doing so it took the blade with skin particles and ruin it. I wonder though if in the not too distant future. we won't see serrated blades with fracture like serrated edges, these can be very interesting cutting implements, perhaps they could even be reinforced with nano carbon thrives, but I do read too much science fiction. As for getting a boron carver fiber custom scale done, as soon as it's offered at a decent price, although I probably go for the Kevlar fiber, a be a custom Kevlar fiber yoJimbo.

[smcfalls13]

There are blades made of synthetic sapphires(Corundum) which are use for surgical scalpels. Not feasible for a large blade, but for a scalpel, that's just kinda cool

[uhiforgot]

Strange as this sounds, I'd like to see if it's possible to do any blade work in Tungsten or Amorphic metal (metallic glass).

Sure tungsten would be expensive, but I know it's tough as nails and holds its shape through a lot of abuse. Although it's heavy as nails too :rolleyes:

Amorphic metal is AFAIK very difficult to make, but has almost ZERO elasticity and is very easy to work with (when hot). The only downside is that if it chips it produces sparks that have been measured in the thousands of degrees Fahrenheit. :eek:

I've also been curious about the durability of resins that are used in certain types of rapid prototyping. Definitely not for blades, but some intricate 3D scales could come out of this!

[Xplo]

Beryllium would probably be a poor choice for a blade material; IIRC, it's extremely poisonous in powdered form (where it can easily be ingested or inhaled), so forget about sharpening! Tungsten is probably too brittle to make a good general purpose knife. I'm also curious about amorphous metal as a blade material, but as I recall, it's very elastic.. maybe this depends on the composition.

I'm also curious about M4.. but skeptical, too, since new steels seem to be routinely overhyped...