NITINOL !!! THE ULTIMATE ALLOY !!!

Cobalt

Cobalt

Platinum Member
Joined
Dec 23, 1998
Messages
17,619
YEAH RIGHT!!!

I was going to wait a while to post this, but figured that this stuff would have made it here if it had been any good. Since it isn't here, it must not have gone well.

There is/was(this was about a year ago or more that I dealt with this company) a company the produced Nitinol products as I'm sure anyone in the medical inductry has heard of this alloy. Nitinol is a Nickel/Titanium alloy in a 40/60 average ratio depending on the flexibility needed. This is a "Memory" alloy like no other. Once formed you can twist it, tweak it turn a straight piece of it into a pretzel and it will just go back to it's "originally formed" shape. Very interesting stuff.

Anyway, this company decided to make knives out of this stuff by changing the % of the two components and make it a little harder, retaining it's flexibility, ie. toughness. I spoke with the president of the company at the time and he agreed to send me a blade to test, and if it turned out to be good stuff, he might have something. Price obviously was not low.

I receive the blade one day. After looking at it for a few minutes, I start off by wacking some wood. Everything is going good, so I continue, after a few minutes I stick the tip of the blade into the wood board and proceed to pull it out. DINK! 1" of the blade along with the tip stay in the wood. HUH? what the f#$%! I get the remainder of the blade and look at it. The stuff is flexible since I can see the blade flex when I hold it between my hands(thumb and index finver hold). I then continue to arch it between my fingers and DOUBLE DINK!!, the blade breaks into three big chunks. Holy s#%t! At this point I'm glad I didn't send the guy my money. Funny thing is that he stated that he send a bunch of Special Forces/Seals/Etc., Etc. people these knives to kick around and got rave reviews. I sent him an email to let him know of the problem and never heard from him. I figured he can KMA, since I was at no loss.

Has anyone worked with this stuff?
 
Cobalt,
Sounds brutal! Did this sample come from Shape Memory Applications (SMA Inc.)? You might want to compare notes with John at Mission Knives and Tools. They've had some for a little while.

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Semper Fi
 
I want my next knife made out of Kryptonite just in case Superman decides to cop an attitude.
smile.gif

Rs
Don
 
Ummm, I work in the 'medical industry' and I have Never heard of 'nitinol'. I think I am glad to be ignorant, sometimes.

Paracelsus, ignorant person
 
Yeah Nitinol has been described as "tough as the hubs of hell" and it was said that if you made a hacksaw blade out out of it, it would go through hardened ATS-34 without pause.

Rick of Mission knows a great deal more, he made a MPF with a Nitinol blade, $5000.

Cost is very prohibitive, but if the stories are true....

There are a couple of old threads about it, over at Knife Forums, I think. I think I also have a thread about it linked on my Forums page.

http://www.geocities.com/mdpoff/forums.html

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Thank you,
Marion David Poff aka Eye, Cd'A ID, USA mdpoff@hotmail.com

Talonite and Cobalt Materials Resource Page

"We will either find a way, or make one." Hannibal, 210 B.C.
 
I think some of you may have handled it without even knowing it. Remember those eye glass frames that you could literaly crumple into a ball and when you let them go they would go back to the shape of an eye glass frame. That's nitinol.

Apparently the problem with the stuff is that even though it is very tough normally, it is nearly impossible to machine, much more so that even stellite 6K. The problem with it, is that in it's normal ratio it is not hard enough for blade steel use. So this manufacturers played around with it in order to get the right mix and thought he had it. The stuff was ductile and brittle at the same time, hence my statement, "what the f#%&".

Marion, I spoke with Rick at Mission once about the stuff and he told me the same thing you heard and more because of the machining than the cost of the material. I'd bet that if Cliff did his strength test he would snap that Nitinol mission blade with ease, either that or that blade couldn't keep any kind of edge. Unless someone has figured out the right mix that works.
 
Bet it would make one heck of a fillet knife. But I don`t think the market would bear a $5000 bird and trout knife!
 
I've got a pair of glasses made from nitonol. It can be bent and twisted and flex back to normal. Pretty cool.
 
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