What's the point of using Nitinol as a blade material?

LorenzoL

LorenzoL

Joined
Mar 9, 2009
Messages
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I recently saw a Strider with a Nitinol blade, made some research and found out that it is an alloy that has some sort of shape memory properties. Nowhere is any mention made of properties that would make it suitable for cutting applications such as in a knife blade.
I suspect another ploy by the good people at Strider to justify an even more exorbitant price for their knives.:rolleyes:
I mean no offense to Strider fans, but I really would like someone who has actually cut something with a blade made out of Nitinol to explain what advantages this alloy brings to the knife world.
 
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I suspect another ploy by the good people at Strider to justify an even more exorbitant price for their knives
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The nitinol was very pricey , I forget the cost , it was posted on Badlands forum before it closed.

reason for 60NiTinol PM steel use:
non magnetic , non corrosive ,

if I recall the knife was designed for ordinance use .
 
ericb445 said:
If you are disarming bombs, You don't want any metal around.
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If you are disarming bombs, chances are you won't be spending 1000$ on a knife. There are cheaper, non-magnetic alloys and metals that can take a decent edge. They may be useful in the field, why someone would shell out that much for a knife that will never see a mine other than on the Discovery Channel beats me.
 
why someone would shell out that much for a knife that will never see a mine other than on the Discovery Channel beats me.
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Maybe the same reason someone will by a New Vette and never take it over 65MPH , or a new Hummer and never leave the asphalt , they buy it because they can and they want to.

Why question what someone else spends on something ? It's not your money they are spending.

Don't hate the players , hate the game ( or switch games if you can't hang ).
 
John T Wylie Jr said:
Why question what someone else spends on something ? It's not your money they are spending.

Don't hate the players , hate the game ( or switch games if you can't hang ).
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I agree with the part about not caring how other people spend their money.

The rest is just nonsensical, but oh well. :p

Every person has to make their own decision on value. Massively overpriced but worth it to someone. All depends on your point of view.
 
LorenzoL said:
I suspect another ploy by the good people at Strider to justify an even more exorbitant price for their knives.:rolleyes:
I mean no offense to Strider fans, but I really would like someone who has actually cut something with a blade made out of Nitinol to explain what advantages this alloy brings to the knife world.
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Yes, it's a ploy :jerkit: ...60 NiTiNOL PM is a titanium alloy manufactured using powder metal technology. NiTiNOL = "Nickel Titanium Naval Ordinance Laboratory". It was developed by NOL and is used in EOD tools.

It's lightweight, non magnetic, non corrosive and has extremely high inherent hardness, something along the lines of 65 HRc. Normal titanium alloys approach mid fifties in Rockwell hardness and not many steels are this hard either... This makes the 60 NiTiNOL PM far superior to other titanium alloys and very good blade material. But it is expensive to manufacture.

Strider knives made from this alloy are customs as far as I understand it so the amount of manual labour is high on them anyway and the manufacture of NiTinOL is hard on equipment increasing costs. And yes, it's rarer than the bees knees.

So in summary: It's truly a highend high performance blade material with highend price.
 
Should I understand that 60 NiTiNOL PM is not plain Nitinol, which is useless for cutting applications? What are the characteristics and composition of that alloy, please?
 
Thanks for the explanation, mete. Besides being non magnetic and non corrosive, do you know how 60Nitinol compares to, say, S90V, in terms of edge holding?
 
Nitinol was developed at the Naval Ordnance Laboratory when it existed in White Oak, Maryland. Back in the early 1960's my Father worked there and told me about this material that they were making knives out of for Navy EOD and UDT personnel. It could cut through chain and other knife blades and was non-magnetic for use around magnetic influence mines like the mark 57/67. Later they had knives made from Haynes alloy #25 under contract by Imperial. They cost the Navy approx. $560 back in the 1980's and the Nitinol models were more expensive. I have an Imperial knife from Haynes #25. They made about 1100 of them, many were lost in VN and many were disposed of by the Department of the Navy.
 
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