Do Gold-colored Steels Exist for Knives?!

You might be able to get a titanium knife with a carbide edge and heat color the titanium yellow-ish/gold.
 
That's the thing though--the OP wants something that's gold-colored all the way through. :)
 
to the best of my knowledge, any metal or alloy that's solid yellow isn't going to make a good knife steel, it will be too soft. the best he's going to get is either heat colored titanium or a real durable coating like titanium nitrate over blade steel. personally, if i wanted yellow bad, i would probably go with a titanium nitrate coating.
 
Yeah, coating or anodizing... plating etc. -- that's probably the only way, but I had to ask, since I had never heard of a solid gold-colored metal which could take a usable edge (Google found nothing). Gold and brass are too soft, so they only work as letter openers when it comes to knives. Just wanted to find out if there was any way of getting a steel which would be gold colored throughout the entire metal, so that when you sharpen it, it would still be gold-colored.

Thank you for the help guys!
 
stoffi said:
Yeah, coating or anodizing... plating etc. -- that's probably the only way, but I had to ask, since I had never heard of a solid gold-colored metal which could take a usable edge (Google found nothing). Gold and brass are too soft, so they only work as letter openers when it comes to knives. Just wanted to find out if there was any way of getting a steel which would be gold colored throughout the entire metal, so that when you sharpen it, it would still be gold-colored.

Thank you for the help guys!
Click to expand...

it could be possible to add gold and or other elements to iron and make a yellow blade steel, but to find out would be a costly experiment. the problem is that all the elements used to make good blade steels are silver, grey or black. all the metals that are yellow/yellowish aren't wear resistant or hard enough.
 
I have a bronze knife i picked up in the Phillipines. It's a small folder and really not worth a darn.
 
All the same, the way the edges of bronze are hardened is through hammering to work-harden the metal. When this is done it works pretty well. Try hammering out the edge of that bronze knife and then see how it does. :)
 
I understand a little about the chemical process that goes on during heat treating to harden steel.

Has anybody investigated doing something similar with gold?

I guess since it's a pure metal, rather than an alloy, it won't easily accept alloying elements. The molecular structure that gives gold it's resistance to tarnishing also makes it hard to change gold's physical properties.

Suppose this is more of a question for a metallurgist. Do we have one on Bladeforums?
 
Gold as in jewlery consists of alloyed metal. 10K vs 24K?
Paure gold would be far too soft to be used without ad ding some sort of other elements to make it a bit more durable. Otherwise, the shape obtained from casting or brazing would be lost within a ouple days of wear.
 
Kershaw does a couple pieces which are two different steels joined together to produce a two-tone blade with what looks like a temper line. It would not be quite the same as an all-gold blade, but a similar approach, if possible, would get 75% of the way there, without sacrificing the performance of steel.

Some steels take a very high polish, as well as being wicked sharp. That way, you have twice the shiny on the same knife!

Personally, I think it would really cool, but probably impossible, to have a gold/stainless damascus blade.
 
Shorttime said:
I understand a little about the chemical process that goes on during heat treating to harden steel.

Has anybody investigated doing something similar with gold?
Click to expand...

I already posted the answer to that once in this thread. You cannot harden gold. Can't even harden a gold alloy.

The closest you are going to get to a gold colored blade (metal that is gold all the way through) is to use bronze. And even if you work harden it, it won't hold an edge as well as 420HC.
 
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