Age hardening metal knife?

S

StockRemovalRichard

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Sep 20, 2023
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I've come across some metal called Duralumin which is some aluminum alloy that is suppose to age harden after heat treatment over the course of several days and can be forged.
i've found several different variations online but can't really find much information about how hard they could get other than the original duralumin which can get up to 110 on the rockwell c chart which isn't very good for a knife.

are there any other age hardening metals and metal alloys that could be used for a knife?
 
Duralumin(um) is an aluminum alloy that is harder than plain aluminum. I believe it was invented by the Germans in WW2.
The Rockwell "C" scale only goes to 100. Duralumin is WAY down the scale. File-hardened steel is usually below 70 HRC.
Duralumin is not suitable for knife blades.
 

can you delete replies here? i meant to reply to someone else but ended up just making another generic reply.
can you tell i'm new here?
 
I think you can do it yourself.
Look at the bottom of the reply you made, and you can edit or delete it. If that doesn't work, just let me know which reply # you want deleted and I'll remove it.
 
If I recall correctly....H1 steel (used by Spyderco) age hardens.
Not really sure what the benefit would be.
 
Age hardening is also known as precipitation hardening which I have written about many times. When you do a “high temper” around 1000F with steel you are performing a type of age hardening. There aren’t any types of aluminum which are hard enough for knives.
 
Grumpy Old Man said:
Once upon a time, someone had a great flash of genius and made a shotgun with duralumin barrels.

Click to expand...
I'm familiar with the Baby Bretton. There were also shotgun barrels made of fiberglas with very thin steel liners. Neither of these relatively unsuccessful uses mean anything concerning knives.
 
The OP sure has gotten some wrong info on . This is from a Wikipedia Britannica link "Duralumin alloys are relatively soft, ductile, and workable in the normal state; they may be rolled, forged, extruded, or drawn into a variety of shapes and products."

A bit of info (I think the Wiki link is ok? If not, remove please)
en.wikipedia.org

Duralumin - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org
 
Last edited:
Ken H> said:
Duralumin alloys are relatively soft, ductile, and workable in the normal state; they may be rolled, forged, extruded, or drawn into a variety of shapes and products.
Click to expand...
That quote is from the Britannica article not the Wiki article. The quote is referring to the “normal state” before it is strengthened. The article also called Duralumin strong and hard. Regardless, the “high strength” it refers to is relative; it is much much softer than steel even at its highest strength. https://www.britannica.com/technology/duralumin
 
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