New gold is harder than steel!

Looks like the real reason it's so hard is because it's 22% boron carbide. Just 'cause it's hard doesn't mean it's impact resistant. ;)
 
Looks like a useful alloy for jewelry. Nothing sucks as much as having jewelry get smaller from daily wear.

Also seems useful for plating.

For edged tools? Why? Remember how much gold costs? Gold is selling at $1633/oz today. It would cost even more to alloy it like described.
 
Sounds like it would be great for watches!

I can see using it as a bolster material, as well.
 
I could see using it in Jewlery and decorations on knives and maybe just maybe on industrial blades, but I don't see an application in consumer blades with the price of gold and the possible brittleness imparted by the ceramic.
 
There are already materials used for plating industrial cutting tools. Hard chrome and TiNi come to mind immediately. These just add a few dollars to the cost of high speed industrial tools.

For example, a TiNi coated high speed router bit (1/2 x 1/2 x 4) would cost you $35-50.

That same bit made out of gold (estimated wt. 2 ounces) would cost $2,449 just for the gold (18kt) and does not include the cost for alloying it and manufacture into a bit.

If you wanted to make a KA-BAR knife, the approximate cost just of the gold would be $9,798 (~8 ounces x .75 for 18kt weight) using today's rate for gold.
 
A gold/ceramic blend like that seems to be the perfect candidate for making a gold toilet with. :D
 
CWL said:
There are already materials used for plating industrial cutting tools. Hard chrome and TiNi come to mind immediately. These just add a few dollars to the cost of high speed industrial tools.

For example, a TiNi coated high speed router bit (1/2 x 1/2 x 4) would cost you $35-50.

That same bit made out of gold (estimated wt. 2 ounces) would cost $2,449 just for the gold (18kt) and does not include the cost for alloying it and manufacture into a bit.

If you wanted to make a KA-BAR knife, the approximate cost just of the gold would be $9,798 (~8 ounces x .75 for 18kt weight) using today's rate for gold.
Click to expand...
I'm personally interested in something that could coat a knife edge with a hard material, but be fine enough to take a keen edge. Kind of wondering if TiNi coating would do the trick, though I suspect there would still be the issue of the coating itself being brittle, or the process blunts the sharp edge.
 
Here you go...

goldtoilet-1.jpg


Solid gold toilet made from 910 Kg of gold.

I did the math, using today's rate for gold, that is a $52,418,173.00 crapper!

(hope I don't get dinged for deal spotting!)
 
CWL said:
Here you go...

goldtoilet-1.jpg


Solid gold toilet made from 910 Kg of gold.

I did the math, using today's rate for gold, that is a $52,418,173.00 crapper!

(hope I don't get dinged for deal spotting!)
Click to expand...


He probably got all that gold from selling cheap chinese knives.
 
Check out the watch business. There are many watches that are made in limited editions with very high price tags .There are people who have lots of money to spend !
 
forcedestrike said:
http://www.asminternational.org/por...toid=ed738ffcafea4310VgnVCM100000621e010aRCRD

Is this legit & will it ever find its way to edged tools?

:eek:
Click to expand...

Legitimate, yes. Also very expensive, as already noted by others, and extremely dense. This sounds like a sintered composite, not a true alloy, although it could be argued that it is only a matter of degree, having to do with particle size. These things are typically named metal matrix composites; gold/aluminum is the matrix in this case. It could well be very tough, as gold is soft and malleable while the boron carbide is very hard ceramic. A similar material is tungsten carbide, used for cutting tools. Woodworking grades are about 97% carbide and 3% cobalt binder metal. Metalworking grades have higher cobalt for better shock resistance (toughness).

This new material is 75% gold by mass and 22% boron carbide by mass. Remember that gold is very dense and boron carbide is very light, so the volume of each is in a very different proportion than the mass. This would account for the high hardness. A blade made of this stuff would be very pretty, and probably extremely stainless, since gold is noble, boron carbide is ceramic, and only the 3% aluminum is a reactive metal.

Honda Motor Company has made racing engine blocks out of ceramic whiskers in an aluminum matrix. The result has very high tensile strength while retaining the good heat-dissipating properties and toughness of the aluminum. This is pretty cool technology. It could possibly make a decent knife blade, let us wait and find out. It will certainly cost more than the other exotic alloys we use today in knives!
 
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Didn't Boker use to have a similar material they called Cera-Titan? That didn't really take off did it.
 
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