Have we reached the pinnacle of knife development technology?

kafolarbear said:
*technically* steel is an organic material because it has carbon, in chemistry something is "organic" if it has carbon.
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Steel is a crystalline structure with carbon in it. Organic compounds have covalent bonds between atoms. Carbon chains and other shapes (benzene rings) forming the basic backbones of those compounds. So no.. i dont think its organic. Maybe Mcguyver can chime inā€¦ LOL

I stayed at a Holiday Inn once.

I think the ceramics industry is where the future of blades may be. If they could make one that is not brittle when very thin. Non-steel alloys may have a place too
 
Riz! said:
Steel is a crystalline structure with carbon in it. Organic compounds have covalent bonds between atoms. Carbon chains and other shapes (benzene rings) forming the basic backbones of those compounds. So no.. i dont think its organic. Maybe Mcguyver can chime inā€¦ LOL

I stayed at a Holiday Inn once.

I think the ceramics industry is where the future of blades may be. If they could make one that is not brittle when very thin. Non-steel alloys may have a place too
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I have a ceramic knife. It's for a Rambo fantasy and it was a dollar. It's really for apples, but I use my knives for apples. I use my K390 Dragonfly Wharnie specifically cause that patina. But, uhhhh, how am I supposed to sharpen a ceramic knife?

MacGyver doesn't need a special steel or covalent bonds... he doesn't have time for any benzene rings... those benzene rings on triazole compounds create those goofballs that all the kids are poppin' today, don't they? What are you, some kind of pusher-man? Well, we don't need yer wares here, scum... I'm going to fashion a cage and a tripwire for ya, reefer-man. Smokey McBongwater!

MacGyver song about staying clean lol I have a mental library of cheesy 60-80s era just-say-no stuff, if you remember it, I probably know it.
 
Riz! said:
Steel is a crystalline structure with carbon in it. Organic compounds have covalent bonds between atoms. Carbon chains and other shapes (benzene rings) forming the basic backbones of those compounds. So no.. i dont think its organic. Maybe Mcguyver can chime inā€¦ LOL

I stayed at a Holiday Inn once.

I think the ceramics industry is where the future of blades may be. If they could make one that is not brittle when very thin. Non-steel alloys may have a place too
Click to expand...

carbon nanotubes CNTs are where it's at... honestly... read the wiki page and inform yourself, it's fairly good

"Carbon nanotubes are the strongest and stiffest materials yet discovered in terms of tensile strength and elastic modulus. This strength results from the covalent sp2 bonds formed between the individual carbon atoms. In 2000, a multiwalled carbon nanotube was tested to have a tensile strength of 63 gigapascals (9,100,000 psi).[9] (For illustration, this translates into the ability to endure tension of a weight equivalent to 6,422 kilograms-force (62,980 N; 14,160 lbf) on a cable with cross-section of 1 square millimetre (0.0016 sq in)). Further studies, such as one conducted in 2008, revealed that individual CNT shells have strengths of up to ā‰ˆ100 gigapascals (15,000,000 psi), which is in agreement with quantum/atomistic models.[53] Because carbon nanotubes have a low density for a solid of 1.3 to 1.4 g/cm3,[54] its specific strength of up to 48,000 kNĀ·mĀ·kgāˆ’1 is the best of known materials, compared to high-carbon steel's 154 kNĀ·mĀ·kgāˆ’1. "

en.wikipedia.org

Carbon nanotube - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org
 
Riz! said:
I think the ceramics industry is where the future of blades may be. If they could make one that is not brittle when very thin.
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Rahven knives has developed a flexible ceramic blade. I have their bread knife, which admittedly is not a great test. :)
 
The future is much closer than you think. I expect that steel bladed knives will be relegated to curios within a couple of generations. The replacement will be a sonic cutting tool that will cut through just about everything provided you have the means to power the device. You would carry it like a ball point pen. Click it to turn it on and it will provide perfect cuts through miles of materials. It never needs to be sharpened and can be focused to various depth of cuts. You just have to change or recharge the batteries. The closest analog today would be the pocket laser pointer.

Finally, we would be able to put all thoughts of batoning to rest. You would cut through a tree trunk as easily as you can draw a similar line on paper.


n2s
 
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Need some 3d printed blades with integral opening device, studs, holes, disks, or other shapes not used because they're too hard to attach or machine in. That would help with the stress risers @Larrin mentioned. When that 3d printing comes with ability to control composition and crystalline structure, we should see some pretty cool shit and likely alloys that cannot be made with current technology. Well at least not made at a quantity and price point worth making knives with.
 
dirc said:
please share, I'd like to learn more
(cant say stuff like that without a tiny bit of backup)
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Thank to @Larrin we in the knife community have access to information that was too complicated for the masses to organize and understand coherently. The effects of this information has still not fully been realized, in 10 years especially you'll see more changes in the industry thanks to a better understanding of how things work and how they apply rather than people just making things up and shooting from the hip with "snake oil."
A more educated community means better knives.


Somethings that have been known for over 50 years used in materials science and metallurgy have still yet to make wide spread disimenation into the knife community as common knowledge.

The future of knife steel performance is microstructure, all the individual constituents and phases that make up the steel in the knife on a nanoscale. The future is controlling this at the edge in the finished, heat treated product and how to control it with alloying, heat treatment and processing.

Perhaps in the future this can lead to solutions with less trade offs as we have seen with MagnaCut.
 
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I don't know but I'm sure some enterprising manufacturer will make a blade out of "magic steel", combine it with carbon fiber scales and boost the price by 50% over the regular stock price. Then knife enthusiasts will wait breathlessly by their computers of the future to buy the newest sprint runs and drive the price even higher into the stratosphere.

Fun times ahead indeed.
 
I'm looking forward to a laser knife, like the doctors use in surgery. I will be small, lightweight, and have an adjustable blade length and power setting. It will be able to zip through any material you want to cut. The cost will be under $100.

www.yalemedicine.org

Gamma Knife Radiosurgery

Gamma Knife surgery precisely targets brain tumors. It can also treat vascular malformations, trigeminal neuralgia, and essential and Parkinsonian tremors.
www.yalemedicine.org www.yalemedicine.org
 
GatorFlash1 said:
I'm looking forward to a laser knife, like the doctors use in surgery. I will be small, lightweight, and have an adjustable blade length and power setting. It will be able to zip through any material you want to cut. The cost will be under $100.
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I agree 100% that there will be new and innovative solutions to how we cut things, in the not-to-distant future.

What I can also surmise by recent history, is that purists will still hold out and embrace the old school technology. Meaning that knives as we know them today (steel blade + handle) will still be used for hundreds (thousands?) of years into the future.

A good example would be watches and timepieces. Sure we have digital everything now, and every cell phone has a clock. So why are mechanical wrist watches still a thing? Not just a thing, but a growing industry that digitalization has had no effect upon. I think there are a number of factors involved, including pride of ownership, fascination and respect for precision mechanical devices, gadget factor, etc. Photography/cameras are another example. Purists still appreciate and use the old SLR/film technology, even though digital imaging could have quite easily made them obsolete overnight (as many people incorrectly expected they would).

I see the future of knives in the same light. Sure a laser beam will cut. So will ultrasonic knives. So will (insert whatever your future vision of cutting technology will be, here). But I think people will still be carrying pocket knives for a long, long time. Knives are like functional art, and I think that aspect of them will grow even more in the future. They will be admired for the craftsmanship, and used because they have timeless appeal to the primal nature in all of us to use tools that have roots going back to the dawn of man.
 
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Did you watch the new halo series?

The fingernail knife lightsaber thing the one chick has.

That is the future...maybe. idk.
 
I am going to say we have reached the ā€œGolden Ageā€ of knife development and advancement, however my take is a slightly different form of pessimism. I do not think it is economically feasible to create the ā€œperfect self sharpening ultimate edge retention never corrode and never break or chipā€ blade. Because if they did then people would buy one knife and use it the rest of their lives, and the law of supply and demand would sink the industry. We try to walk the balance of hardness/edge retention/ corrosion resistance/ toughness now, and this has been driven by a market that is conducive to innovation. If you had told me years ago that large groups of people would be spending hundreds of dollars on knives by the tens of thousands, I would have said you were crazy yet here we are. But this has been enabled because people have a lot more disposable income than they used to. With gas prices and inflation as it is, I see it as a real danger to the short term health of the industry, and predict that unless things drastically change soon you are going to see a lot of knifemakers fall by the wayside as people are going to have to start prioritizing where their dollars go. The higher the price of the products, the more at risk they are. Hope Iā€™m wrong..
 
There will always be further technological advances , but judging from historical patterns , the old ways often continue to coexist alongside the new .

We have modern firearms , but still have black powder and archery hunters , cowboy 3 gun shooting events etc .

My wife loves her advanced electric toothbrush . I much prefer a manual .

My father was an early adopter of the electric carving knife and proud of it . I've never owned one and don't plan to .

I don't think our familiar type knives will be entirely replaced anytime soon . Simple , useful and relatively inexpensive . :cool::thumbsup:
 
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