Talonite

[Alpha Knife Supply]

talonite never caught on imho.

Talonite sold quite well. We still get lots of requests for the material. The devaluation of the US dollar caused the price to increase to a point where it is too expensive.

is it because of low edge retention?

Based on you question I'd say you have never used a knife with a Talonite blade. When used to cut some materials the edge retention is better than steel blades. When used on the wrong materials the edge retention was horrible. Talonite is a speciality material that excelled at some cutting tasks.

David Boye pours 6K blades for his Boye Dendritic Cobalt knives.

Do you have a reference for this?

Stellite 6B and 6BH (Talonite) are different materials with the same composition. 6BH is 6B that has been hot rolled and age hardened. Stellite 6B is not a good blade material but 6BH worked well. The Talonite name was used to help separate it from the other 20+ Stellite alloys. I would not say it was proprietary. I've seen some knives marked at Talonite 6BH.

I have custom knives made with Stellite 6K, Talonite and Boye Dendritic Cobalt. The all work well if used for what they were designed for.

An interesting point about Talonite is how it cuts. I've cut myself multiple times during processing. At times I thought the billet edge grazed my skin. A few minutes later I would notice blood drops or dripping. I rarely felt the cuts. I cut myself on my Siminoch Bitteroot a few weeks ago when I pulled it from the kydex sheath and the blade tip grazed my finger. It bled for a few minutes but there was no pain.

 

[tiguy7]

I saw a blurb on the net that David Boye made his Boye Dendritic Steel out of 440C and his Boye Dendritic Cobalt out of Stellite 6-K. I wish I could remember the site. Maybe I will email David and ask him if this information is correct. I have knives made from 6BH, 6K, and BDC. I love them all.