KNIVES ILLUSTRATED Article on Stellite Knives

[Cobalt]

The following was an article by M.C. Adley dated April 1996.

Knives created of Stellite were introduced around 1908, shortly after a chemist and entrepeneur, Elwood Haynes, developed this then-new wear-resistant metal. Note, I say metal, not steel. This is because Stellite os NOT a form of stell, which is essentially an iron compound with added materials. Stellite is a cobalt-based metal featuring chromium and tungsten. During smelting this mixture is cast into sheets. when the mix cools below 1800 degrees F, it attains a working hardness, and therefore does not have to be heat treated. The sheets are then rolled to a desired thickness, which produces a wrought metal. Because Stellite is so hard, it is very difficult to grind, but makers feel its attributes, including outstanding resistance to wear, are worth the effort.

Today this material is being produced by Deloro Stellite, who has been producing pre-shaped blade blanks to makers who furnish a template. These blanks are profiled with their hydro(water)cutter. They also provide Bar Stock.

While a growing number of custom makers are producing Stellite bladed knives, Deloro Stellite, the source of this wonder material, decided to go one step beyond.

They recently contracted with Gerber Legendary Blades to produce a limited edition, serial numbered (200 copies) that will be available exclusively from Deloro Stellite. Known as Presentation 525's, this beautiful knife features a satin finished 5.5 inch Stellite blade, polished stainless guard and butt cap with brass spacers and a beautiful Cordia wood handle. the knife is furnished with a nice leather sheath

I will add part 2 later since I'm sick of typing.

 

[Hopsing]

Hey, where is the rest of the article? I want to read the rest of it.

 

It's just wonderfull to hear (at last) that Stellite is NOT steel and therefore does NOT behave like steel...
In modern words: it is a cobalt "Superalloy".
Congrats.
:;

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D.T. UTZINGER

 

[Cobalt]

Hopsing, nice name by the way. Hold your horses or I'll have Hoss eat all your food. Geez gone for a little while and have one with impatience and another a smart ass. Here goes:

Part 2:

Furnished with a sample, this author performed a number of evaluation tests with the knife to get an idea of how it performed. Granted, these tests are not really in-depth, meaning they weren't conducted until the knife went dull. We did cut into the edge of hard pine boards a few dozen times to determine the blades cutting ability, then sliced through some very soft suede, and, finally, skived the edges of the suede. These latter tests really tell you if a blade is razor sharp. the stellite blade performed great in each test.

Deloro also performed tests on their own. they report testing a Stellite 6K knife along with knives featuring 440C, ATS-34 and D-2 blades. A Canadian Guild member, Paul Johnston, sharpened all four knives. They were tested on 1/2 inch diameter hemp rope stretched and clamped to a 2x8 piece of wood. Each cut through the rope was made with hand down pressure on the knife and a back and forth sawing action. The first 3 knives made 15, 9 and 36 cuts, respectively, barely going through on the final cut. At 130 cuts the stellite blade was still cutting, although with some effort. It is assumed all blades were the same profile and featured the same type of edge.

So there you go, one test done in 1996 of stellite. I have one of these blades and can tell you that it did not come sharp from the factory. It was easy to put an edge on it, however.

 

[Biginboca]

I am suspicious of the results there a little. Not in regards to the stellite, but the other steels. I would guess that some of them, especially the ATS-34 did not have the ideal heat treats.
What leads me to this thought is the result of ATS-34 having only 9 cuts, almost half of the 440C's 15.
Now ATS-34 under ideal conditions should not last about half of what 440C does, I think everyone will agree with that.
So I would think this data is either off due to differing edge geometry or poor heat treats. And if one data set is off, how can we rely on the rest?
But the article was interesting and thanks for posting it. I was surprised to learn how long Stellite has been around!
Take care,
Al

 

[tom mayo]

Yes the stuff has been around a while...but i think some improvements have been made on the stuff in the last 90 years...the test sure looks suspious....what did the knives look like...how were they ground...who make the knives...and as al said, who heat treated them.....as we can see..they did NO lateral bending tests....

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http://www.mayoknives.com

 

[Cobalt]

I only posted what was on the article, nothing more. When you get manufacturers doing their own testing I would guess that you have to take it with a grain of salt. Most manufacturers aren't going to want to make themselves look bad.

Tom, the stellite blade is a hair over 5/32 inch thick and I would guess that the competitors blades were probably the same width. Bending tests on blades that thin would be useless as they would all give fairly quick. You are also right about the fact that it is different today than it was 30 years ago.

I guess the fact that canadian guild member did the comparison means nothing. The same would then be true in the US. Being a guild member means nothing here either?

 

[Cougar Allen]

I don't mean to hassle you, Cobalt; you only typed it in ... but ... ??? Can you imagine cutting 1/2" (13mm) hemp rope on a cutting board and not being able to make more than 9 cuts with anything that a remotely sane person would call a knife??? They could hardly get it through the rope on the last cut??? If it were wire they were cutting instead of hemp I might believe it, or if it was a knife they cold-forged out of copper tubing.... There is something very wrong with this test. I don't expect much from the magazines but this is ridiculous! A $2 "surgical stainless" knife could do better than that.

-Cougar :{)

 

[Cobalt]

Cougar, it's no hassle. The comparison doesn't look right. My Aus8 blades can cut more than that. It's too bad that they didn't go into more detail on that test.