Cobalt-Chromium- Molydenum Alloy

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fileblade

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Jun 30, 2009
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Question from a newby, has anyone worked with Talonite or other Co-Cr-Mo alloy? Can this stuff be forged? I understand it is very hard with Rockwell over 100!:confused:
 
it looks like its kinda similar to stellite. about ten years ago blade had an article where the author forged a knife from it, he had to use a hydraulic press to shaped it. in the article he stated that he could barely dent it with and hand hammer and anvil. with that said , i wouldn't think talonite would be good for forging, just stock removal. i know stellite is very abrasive, at a machine shop i worked at we used to heat shrink stellite rings in to some parts and then face off about .01 and it would take a toll on carbide inserts. so i imagine you will go through some belts.

i just read this on knifeart.com


Talonite Compared To Steel

Talonite® is an alloy that is primarily cobalt and chrome with only a very small percent of iron in it. Steel is iron with a very little bit of carbon in it. (Iron with .1 - .3% carbon and a maximum of about 2.5%). Talonite® is very different than steel and cannot be compared one to one with steels. Talonite® has a lower Rockwell than some steels but it contains carbide grains. It is softer on a Rockwell test but much more wear resistant than steels. In addition to the hardness of the carbides it also has about a 30% greater lubricity. Talonite® can be sharpened to a razor edge as well as any other material, however it will cut much better than other materials with an equivalent edge because it is much slicker. Steels have a greater tendency to grab in the cut. The grabbing creates more work and dulls the edge faster.
 
Hardness of a Talonite blade is about 52HRc [NOT 100 !!] The advantage is that it's very wear resistant and very corrosion resistant. There are hard particles in a soft matrix. The soft matrix means the edge may roll over in some use.It isn't the easiest to sharpen.It's popularity has dropped as it isn't the most practical with high cost and somewhat difficult to sharpen.
 
I do a good bit in dendritic Cobalt. As mete said, it isn't all that hard, but is extremely wear resistant and great for knives in harsh environments.
Stacy
 
Has anyone tried to forge the proprietary alloy Zimaloy? I have a hip implant made of this stuff, possibly cast. Can this be beat into a knife blade? Has anyone forged this stuff? Thanks for any info!:D
 
I tried to forge out an IMP and a hip implant for a doctor friend. The IMP was a bear ( something like Monel), but the implant was a failure.
Stacy
 
fileblade said:
Question from a newby, has anyone worked with Talonite or other Co-Cr-Mo alloy? Can this stuff be forged? I understand it is very hard with Rockwell over 100!:confused:
Click to expand...

You are looking a different hardness scale.

There are several Rockwell scales. Alloys of interest to knife folks are measured on the Rockwell "C" scale.

The reference I found to Zimaloy for your other thread listed the Rockwell hardness as "80-100 R" That would be the R scale used for plastics and has no direct translation to "C" scale values. I would hazard a guess that Zimaloy actually equates to less than 20 Rockwell C hardness. This is a good hardness for structural (bio-implant) applications, but would be too soft for a blade.
 
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