working Stellite Steel

T

Thor

Joined
Jan 20, 2000
Messages
5
Wondering if anybody has worked with Stellite steel in a stock removal system. I am planning on making a trial knife from this material and would like any information in regard to heat treating if required, as well as grinding and finishing

Thanks
 
I made several small neck knives out of stellite. I got the material from the company I work for as a machinist. I cut out the blank with a carbide grit blade and milled the profile on a CNC milling maching with carbide endmills. I milled the chisel style edges also in a milling machine. All of the holes were drilled with carbide drills.
Due to the toughness of the material, this was not easy even in a fully equipped, modern machine shop! The Stellite I worked with is around Rc63, MUCH harder than Talonite!!!
Here is a picture of the same knife in D2.
0355_5.jpg

Have fun working with Stellite!
Neil

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LiteWaves and Hawkbills in stock!
http://www.geocities.com/Eureka/Meeting/5520/index.html
 
You can work Stellite with not much problem. First off Stellite isn't a steel per say. It has only like 2 percent carbon in it and is mostly cobalt, which is why it will never rust! It only Rockwells out at in the low 50's. Don't be alarmed by the low Rockwell numbers. Due to it's structure it is a little softer but cuts like the dickens and doesn't get dull to quick. It's used alot in machines that cut alot of paper and don't need to be sharpened to often. It grinds just a tad harder than other hardened steels. It already comes heat treated so no need to do that. You have to use carbide drills to drill thru it just like if you worked heat treated stainless. When you drill it , it almost looks reamed already, drills really clean. Also a bandsaw won't cut it so you need to either grind it to shape or use some form of a cut off wheel set up. When grinding don't use alot of pressure or you will just dull the belt out quicker, especially on the finer grits. I use a 10 inch Makita chop box with a diamond blade to ruff cut the shape out.Works for me! Stellite is 6K and Talonite is 6BH. Both basically the same except that Talonite is more accesible. You can also get alot of info and flat stock, at least for Talonite from Rob Simonich at:

http://www.simonichknives.com/idxtest.htm



[This message has been edited by CJ (edited 01-29-2000).]
 
can you cut tellite with a plasma torch? i plan on cutting 5/32-3/16" over the cut, so i can grind off the HAZ. i can get a tungsten carbide grit bandsaw blade from LENOX if it can't be cut with the torch.
 
be advised that there is more than one stellilte product....the Talonite that is pictured above is stellite 6bh, and there is also stellite 6k, which from my observations is much tougher and harder to grind, although it might be more brittle, but i dont have enough info to say for sure. both are very expensive. by the way neil, i use a cuttoff wheel and save all the little scraps for lathe tools...stuff works great for that.
whats the read on the stellite that is 63 rockwell???? and the reason stellite doesnt rust is because it has no IRON, plus being 30 percent chromium doesnt hurt...but iron is the rust factor in all steel, thats why most of the 300 series are nonrusting, and nonmagnetic.
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http://www.mayoknives.com




[This message has been edited by tom mayo (edited 01-29-2000).]
 
For what it's worth - Stellite is a Deloro trademark and is made in Canada. Talonite is 6Bh and is made by another company in a foreign land. They used to make some nice fighter planes for the loosing side.
Both have carbon, 6K has a little more than 6Bh. Both still have less than 2%.

As CJ said, it's not that hard to work but you have to have the right tooling to do it.
6Bh is much easier to get, so call Rob.

Finding Stellite 6K has been a pain in the butt for the last 12 years that I have been using it. 6Bh is much easier to get.

I know, Will Y. I still gotta answer your questions on 6K. I'm just about caught up.

 
could be wrong....often am, but i did a search for stellite a while back on the net and Deloro had been sold to a British company..they wouldnt respond to my emails about getting some 6k.

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http://www.mayoknives.com


 
Mainly Q's on Schwarzer's forged 6BH, but I would like to know more about the strength and toughness of 6K and 6BH compared to steel, as indicated in the edited questions under my thread. Thanks, Kit. I don't have any knife fights or survival situations scheduled, so no rush.--Will
 
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