which carbide has better edge retention/aesthetics?

PitbullShogun

PitbullShogun

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Apr 14, 2011
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my question of "which carbide has better edge retention/aesthetics?" is asked because im considering haveing a custom knife built, and might like a carbide edge put on it. but i want to know about tungston carbide compared to titanium carbide. which one has better edge retention? which one has a much longer lifetime on the edge of a knife before being worn down? also, what are the visual differences? lastly, are ALL carbide edge knives chisel ground?

your imput is greatly appreceated.
 
Why would you want a tungsten carbide insert on the edge of your knife?
 
Little confused here. Are you putting the carbide on a steel blade or something? And are you doing this yourself or having a maker do it for you? If it's the latter, I suspect the maker would know more. Solid tungsten carbide is too brittle to be used in a knife edge, it would be like using ceramic.

As for titanium carbide, that's really just a solid titanium blade with a chisel grind that's been carbidized on the flat side. A bit different from solid tungsten carbide, as the titanium carbide edge won't be as brittle simply because only a small part of it is actually very hard. I don't know if that can be done with tungsten carbide.

The carbide edge doesn't strictly have to be chisel grind, as I have seen a Warren Thomas fixed blade with carbides on both sides. But I suspect maintenance would be easier on a chisel grind as if it ever really gets dull, you can just grind the opposite side from the carbides to expose them again, whereas a dual side carbide edge would have to be ground on one side anyway, which makes it pointless to carbidize both sides. Grinding both sides would remove the carbides entirely.
 
Unless the knife you're getting has a titanium blade, I don't see why you'd want to get a carbide edge. It won't take as fine of an edge as a steel blade, and the carbide will eventually have to be reapplied after you've used/resharpened the knife a number of times (although the maker will probably be willing to do it for the cost of shipping the knife back to you).
 
are you looking for a solid carbide insert like san mai, or what kershaw does, or are you looking for a coating?
 
Noctis3880 said:
Little confused here. Are you putting the carbide on a steel blade or something? And are you doing this yourself or having a maker do it for you? If it's the latter, I suspect the maker would know more. Solid tungsten carbide is too brittle to be used in a knife edge, it would be like using ceramic.

As for titanium carbide, that's really just a solid titanium blade with a chisel grind that's been carbidized on the flat side. A bit different from solid tungsten carbide, as the titanium carbide edge won't be as brittle simply because only a small part of it is actually very hard. I don't know if that can be done with tungsten carbide.

The carbide edge doesn't strictly have to be chisel grind, as I have seen a Warren Thomas fixed blade with carbides on both sides. But I suspect maintenance would be easier on a chisel grind as if it ever really gets dull, you can just grind the opposite side from the carbides to expose them again, whereas a dual side carbide edge would have to be ground on one side anyway, which makes it pointless to carbidize both sides. Grinding both sides would remove the carbides entirely.
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i was thinking along the lines of what warren thomas does. i saw it on his coin knife and thought it was pretty sick.
 
What does the carbide do? IF the blade is titanium what does putting titanium carbide on it help? I think it looks awsome and i want it too but I dont really know what it does to help the blade?
 
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