Diamond powder infused blades

Not that I know of but recently I saw a blade that had ceramic powder + Ti
 
Diamond saws are more than common. The thing about them though is it is useful through abrasion, not cutting per say. Just as a diamond impregnated sharpening stone sharpens blades through abrasion.

Jewlery diamonds are rough cut with steel blades and then ground and polished to shape ;)

Infusing diamond powder into the steel through crucible or forging is likely of no benefit but you could be the first on your block.

Cheers

GC
 
Diamond burns.

Having worked with diamond, both polycrystalline diamond cutters (making them), and large jewelry gems (I've eld diamonds up to 48 carat finished/cut weight), I can't see diamond powder adding strength or cutting power. It would be great for abrasion resistance if you could get an even distribution of microcrystalline diamond dispersed in the steel matrix.

To get the diamond powder to fuse and bond with tungsten carbide substrate, we used a cut pattern on the face of the carbide, then super pressure and heat, in a reduced oxygen environment.


When making the diamond powder fuse into a solid diamond matrix cutting surface, it is done in an oxygen free environment. We used cubic press, with an internal pressure of 1,000,000 plus, and a normal working heat range of 1,400 to 1,500 degrees Celsius.

(Much higher for the natural diamond stones we worked with).



You might be able to use gas precipitation technology to lay diamond on the surface of an edge, like a coating, but I don't see how you would get the heat treat on the steel correct.

To get the diamond powder to sinter, we would use other elements mixed in with the diamond powder like cobalt, and a few other nasties (not something you want in a tool you are going to be using to cut food, for sure).

If you were successful, sharpening would require cutting with other diamond powder.

Lapping, chamfering with diamond powder, and sizing the parts all required diamond. Though we also had parts that were cut using edm.
 
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Fyi, Ive done this. I have a coating under the name Sila-Coat. Website will be going up soon, im on facebook
 
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Sent you a friend request on FB Matt, interested in the coating!
 
Bigfattyt said:
You might be able to use gas precipitation technology to lay diamond on the surface of an edge, like a coating, but I don't see how you would get the heat treat on the steel correct.
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The medical engineering research lab in my last job did this. We used it to coat carbon fiber electrodes with diamond for brain stimulation, but it ended up being kind of a dead end because the layering was hard to control and messed with the sensitivity of the electrodes.

Since this is in the sword forum, I can't see what gain you'd get specifically in a sword from coating the edge this way, even if it was possible to do this and have a heat-treated blade.
 
madcap_magician said:
The medical engineering research lab in my last job did this. We used it to coat carbon fiber electrodes with diamond for brain stimulation, but it ended up being kind of a dead end because the layering was hard to control and messed with the sensitivity of the electrodes.

Since this is in the sword forum, I can't see what gain you'd get specifically in a sword from coating the edge this way, even if it was possible to do this and have a heat-treated blade.
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You can coat sensitive substrates also, you just need to take a different approach.
 
Even if diamonds could be infused into steel and retain their essential qualities (they cannot, of course), the swords would end up being pretty brittle for a sword. Too brittle, I’d imagine.
 
SharpBits said:
Even if diamonds could be infused into steel and retain their essential qualities (they cannot, of course), the swords would end up being pretty brittle for a sword. Too brittle, I’d imagine.
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It all depends really.

As long as the oxygen doesn't reach the nd they would remain intact.

It could be brittle if they weren't bonded well, but as with all alloys its a balance of properties.

You would want sub micron ND & something to improve bonding.

We really could have much more advanced materials but machining them would be a problem.

You know silicone caulking is Polymerized silicon. The Si in our steel can soft and pliable. We need to just connect different areas of science 😉
 
I'm no expert, but just working the problem best I can with what I've got. So, the first thing to understand is that swords are not just longer knives. They have a very different purpose and usage. Sword-on-sword contact or sword-on-shield contact requires significant toughness and the ability to handle the shock. However, they still need to be able to cut, so the edges need a certain level of hardness and stability. The balance is based on needs. A broken sword is less useful than a bent sword.

High vanadium steels are available today (vanadium carbides are less hard than diamonds), and the higher the vanadium content, the less tough they become. So, they are a poor choice for a sword. A magical diamond-infused steel where the diamonds retain their essence and don't get dissolved into the steel as carbon would be even more brittle than current high vanadium steels. There is a reason no one makes a 10V or 15V sword.

Also, remember, diamonds can be cut or cleaved by steel.
 
As a 50 years jeweler and gem cutter I think this is more like a Mandalorian beskar discussion than a real world sword discussion. It is sort of like who would win a fight between Superman and Batman. (The winner is Marvel Studios at the box office)

My personal EDS (every day sword) is made from vorpal steel. Since the steel does not exist to anyone else, no one can see the sword as I carry it everywhere I go. I'm looking for a supplier who carries vibranium, but the stuff seems hard to find lately. In suspect Marvel has cornered the market.

On a serious note:
Metallurgically, it would be impossible to make such a steel. In a vacuum, carbon melts, and also sublimes, at 6917°F. Unfortunately, it combines with oxygen at 1250°F, forming CO2. Even if it were possible to mix it with molten iron at 3000°F in a vacuum or oxygen free environment, the carbon would form a solid-solution with the iron to make Fe₃C. Above 2% carbon content it would be basically cast iron. Below that it would be simple carbon steel.
In no scenario I know about would the diamond crystals remain unaltered, and/or add to hardness, toughness, or wear resistance. That is what we have Mo, Mb, V, W, Ti, Nb, Cr, etc. for.
 
Regarding the OP’s question: the closest you will probably come is something like tungsten carbide, which can be alloyed to produce RC levels high enough to cut glass. On a sword it would be heavy, brittle, and all but impossible to maintain. Perhaps incorporating it into a San Mai blade can be done, but it’s hard to see any advantage in doing that.

N2s
 
I get a chuckle from folks trying to re-invent the wheel ... especially an oxcart wheel. Swords are not used in battle anymore, so making a magical improvement would gain nothing.
For the toughest sword, I would suggest a san-mai construction with a tough core steel like Pro-cut. If we are making it pretty, do suminagashi cladding..
 
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Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith said:
I get a chuckle from folks trying to re-invent the wheel ... especially an oxcart wheel. Swords are not used in battle anymore, so making a magical improvement would gain nothing.
For the toughest sword, I would suggest a san-mai construction with a tough core steel like Pro-cut. If we are making it pretty, do suminagashi cladding..
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Amen. The real challenge is that there's no way to know if our magical improvement actually IS an improvement, because as you say they are no longer used for fighting. Yep, we can make a sword out of the latest unobtainium wonder metal, infused with carbides, diamonds and weighing in at a mere .01 oz... or at 5 lbs if we think that is the improvement, but we can't KNOW because we aren't using the thing in armored or unarmored combat against skilled opponents. I'd venture to guess that I have more swords than average even on this forum, but I'm under no illusions that I can improve them more than the guys that were making them for life and death.
 
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