What ever happened to the Carbidized Blades?

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I remember about a year or so ago several makers were starting to make knives with carbidized blades.
I am just curious.
Was this a short term fad that just faded away?
Did the blades not hold up over time?
Some were kind of funky looking but the idea seemed to have potential.
 
Carbidized blades are great. After lots of testing I have decided to make many more

I'll have a series of test videos up soon to prove my findings.

I originally thought carbidized blades could be a lot of hype but they are here to stay. I am 100% sold on them, they excel in certain situations.

Interestingly enough they really are self sharpening on a lot of materials.
 
Daniel,

What situations do you feel that they excel? I'm looking forward to any other information you have regarding your testing, etc.

Thanks,

Mike LoGiudice
 
How much?? ---Ahh, i saw the other thread with your pricing Daniel, i'm gonna look you up got a project going.
 
Last edited:
Daniel Fairly Knives said:
Carbidized blades are great. After lots of testing I have decided to make many more

I'll have a series of test videos up soon to prove my findings.

I originally thought carbidized blades could be a lot of hype but they are here to stay. I am 100% sold on them, they excel in certain situations.

Interestingly enough they really are self sharpening on a lot of materials.
Click to expand...

Also looking forward to any findings you report. I know next to nothing about carbidizing so it will be very interesting to me.
 
Are we talking about carbidized steel or carbidized titanium?

Carbidized titanium seems to be as popular as ever.
 
I dunno why I never responded to this thread, since I remember it.

I've made 100 or so carbidized titanium blades, for myself and another maker of specialized outdoor equipment, we both cater to the ultralight, custom, pro/semi-pro segment of the market.

I've been obsessed with these things for a few years now. My own testing and field reports from users has given me what I feel is a very clear picture of the advantages and disadvantages of these tools.

Fwiw I have a larger industrial electro spark depositer (carbidizer), built by Electro Arc Corp, which builds a competative unit to the Rocklin units. Mine is a 10amp, 220V unit the size of a small welder.

Carbidized chisel ground ti blades do exceptionally well at certain tasks, and fail at others. They're not a substitute for steel in any impact task (chopping) or push cutting or batoning type use. They don't stand up to abuse of that type and don't scale well into large format blades or tools. They do excell at slicing tasks, cutting rope, cord, composites, cardboard, and many things that will dull even the best steel edge post-haste. Even things like spectra/dyneema which will absolutely rape a steel edge won't slow it down.

If properly done, maintenance is practically zero, and durability is what you expect from titanium. The self sharpening phenomenon is very effective. Cutting cardboard only hones the edge, doesn't dull it.


The edge is microserrated so in situations where cutting with that type of edge is advantageous, the carbized ti edge is great, but it's not like a fine steel edge at all. You'll never shave with it.


For most normal knife users, there is little advantage to this type of blade, although I carry one of my little "field scapels" as a edc utility. It never has to be maintained or sharpened, so for all the little daily tasks it's awesome, and for my market, where backpackers, adventure racers, climbers, guides, etc, count their weight to the gram, being able to have the utlity of a small fixed blade, without the maintenance, that can weigh as little as 9 grams, is aa huge boon. Especially when many of them don't usually carry knives at all, or maybe only a razor blade.
 
Carbidized titanium blades are amazing performers for certain tasks.

I think they are ideal for EDC defensive blades, and work fine for most utility purposes.

Certainly not a fad, and a great choice for many users.
 
It's dependant on only carbide coating one side of a soft-ish medium like titanium, the titanium wears at a faster rate than the much harder carbide deposit layer, which is usually less than 25 micron thick.

In fact, my understanding is that most of the smaller "hobby" sized units folder makers use for hardening lock faces, etc, have aa maximum deposit layer of roughly 2-3 micron, and less impregnation. My unit, like the rocklin units, will do single pass of 25 micron or higher, using tungsten carbide, with very little buildup over the base metal.

If I'm not careful, the unit I use will burn the base metal and light the carbide electrode bright red.
 
First thought that came to me was "Neckers".
With my normal neck knife it gets used for tasks like opening boxes and other quick cutting.
Sounds to me like a neck knife of titanium with a carbidized edge would be both lightweight and sharp.
 
They definitely are Mark, the little "field scapels" I make weigh roughly 8-9 grams, the hard part is making a sheath that doesn't weigh as much or more.

They are sharp, but it's a different "sharp" than steel.
 
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