Do Gold-colored Steels Exist for Knives?!

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stoffi

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Jan 14, 2008
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I'm looking for a knife steel which is gold colored throughout. Does this exist? Are there any other colored usable knife steels?
 
You mean like this?:
K-1660GLD-Kershaw-Gold-Leek.jpg


The steel itself isn't gold colored, it's just coated to look like gold.
 
gold coated, cold coloured natually is probably impossible? besides it has "gold in it"
 
stoffi said:
Do Gold-colored Steels Exist for Knives?!
I'm looking for a knife steel which is gold colored throughout. Does this exist? Are there any other colored usable knife steels?
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Steel looks like "steel". Kind of a silvery metallic look. No other colors.
You can paint it any color you wish, but if you scrape off the coating it will still look like regular steel.
 
I've noticed that S110V when left with a beadblast finish, looks much darker than say S30V. I've also noticed that ZDP-189 has a slightly brassy color to it when seen under certain light compared to VG10. Finally, CTS-20CP as seen in the Para2 sprint, is much brighter than the S30V or S90V varients of the same model. No gold colored steel though, unless it's plated.
 
I'm aware of plating or coating, but that's not what I'm after. I want a good steel with gold dye in it, so that when it wears, the color won't change. I've never heard of it, which is why I'm asking.

Can one harden real gold to take a useful edge? I know about 24k being soft and 18k being harder (hybrid), but not suitable for usable edges.
 
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stoffi said:
I'm aware of plating or coating, but that's not what I'm after. I want a good steel with gold dye in it, so that when it wears, the color won't change. I've never heard of it, which is why I'm asking.

Can one harden real gold to take a useful edge? I know about 24k being soft and 18k being harder (hybrid), but not suitable for usable edges.
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Closest thing you'll probably find is the Strider SMF CuBe with a Copper Beryllium blade. I believe it was designed for the EOD guys.

3298407339_32d7017655_b.jpg
 
Bronze will do it, and edge retention will be pretty ok--but WAY softer than iron let alone modern steel. You might be surprised by the performance though. For bronze swords or knives, this is the guy to talk to. He's an expert on the subject of ancient bronze casting of knives, tools, and weapons.
 
It is possible it seems to coat your blade with brass! I once had an extra opinel around and didn't like the patina. I ended up using a brass wire brush on it and it kind of coated the blade with brass! I later experimented with heating the steel and produced some cool greens and blues and made the brass "coating" stay (which was my aim, to kinda melt the brass to the steel). I'm sure I ruined the temper to an extent, however it still was very much useable. You could try something like that.
 
There are some old diving knives that were made from copper beryllium that has a brass/gold color. From what I understand it was nasty stuff, definately not a good material for a knife that might come in contact with food. I have no idea how good the blades were, but they were supposed to be nonmagnetic like titanium. current good blade material that is brass/gold colored would be really cool. maybe one day.

Grizz
 
Hello,

I think the only real option is Copper Beryllium alloy 25. Its the hardest of all the copper alloys, but from what Ive been able to find it can only get to 45 Rockwell hardness. Its extremely poisonous as vapor or while ground up as dust. Probably not worth playing with unless you really know what your doing.

Have a good one,

Chris

From ejbmetals.com

Copper Alloy, CDA-17200 is the most commonly specified copper beryllium alloy. In its age hardened condition, Alloy 25 attains the highest strength and hardness of any commercial copper base alloy. The ultimate tensile strength can exceed 200 ksi, while the hardness approaches Rockwell C45. Also in the fully aged condition, the electrical conductivity is a minimum of 22% IACS. Alloy 25 also exhibits exceptional resistance to stress relaxation at elevated temperatures.
 
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I wondered the same thing. On at least a couple of knives I have seen, I thought, "Wow, that would look amazing with a gold-colored blade." I think it's a very interesting idea.
 
They used to make swords out of bronze. Not the best metal for a knife by modern standards, but you could probably make something with it.
 
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