Spyderco Sapphire Knives

[SpyderEdgeForever]

Synthetic sapphire has been around since 1902. It is 9 or greater on the Mohs Scale of hardness and is a beautiful material. It is Al203 and is part of the same family as ruby, the corundum.

We need knives made of it, specifically, Spyderco knives. We need shatter proof, elastic sapphire fiber composite knife blades.

We can use diamond and boron nitride Sharp Maker rods to sharpen the edges. They would never rust and would be lightweight. Couple them with FRN handles and you have a winning combination. A compromise would be to molecularly bond sapphire and steel.

What doth sal and others here think?

As a thought experiment, do this: I want you all to create a mental picture of your favorite Spyderco knife, with the same FRN or G10 handle, but, a blade made of robust, shatter proof sapphire. Military, Paramilitary, Endura, Delica, whatever. Picture that. And remember, it does not have to be blue. It can be but it can also have other colors and patterns.

[Doeswhateveraspidercan]

Still waiting for my Spyderco Lightsaber but I guess this will do until Sal can figure out how to put a Spydie hole in the blade.

[Bill1170]

Fracture resistance, anyone?

[zhyla]

Cool. Make one and tell us how it goes.

[Bloke]

What doth sal and others here think?

[Doeswhateveraspidercan]

Who Farted?

[Brown_Recluse]

I mean... they make watch faces out of sapphire so why not an entire knife? /s

[Bloke]

I mean... they make ...

[Brown_Recluse]

I mean... they make ...

:D Dang it feels good to be a hamster

Edit: Autocorrect but I'm leaving it

[Tims]

+1 for one of those mythical Spyderco scalpel sapphire cell splitters.

[standy99]

Already a reality

https://www.wpiinc.com/var-504077-sapphire-blade

[awa54]

Already a reality

https://www.wpiinc.com/var-504077-sapphire-blade

Yep, both sapphire and diamond blades are used regularly for sectioning and as micro scalpels for scientific and medical purposes.

[SpyderEdgeForever]

Already a reality

https://www.wpiinc.com/var-504077-sapphire-blade

Yep, both sapphire and diamond blades are used regularly for sectioning and as micro scalpels for scientific and medical purposes.

Thank you for this. And as you and I have seen, various knife-makers have made practical knife blades using ceramics, so it is not that much of a leap to consider manufactured synthetic sapphire sporting knives.

Infact, look at this Russian-made one from 2007. Bloke, the giffy you posted was very appropriate, LOL

http://englishrussia.com/2007/01/18/sapphire-knife/

" Their blades are being made from artificial sapphire, the same material that is being used to make non-scratchable watches by leading Swiss brands. Handles are made of the bone."

Look at the cross-section, the thickness of that little cutting monster.

One skeptical commenter claimed it looks more like plexiglass but I don't know.

Anyhow, I think true shatter resistant composite sapphire blades would be great.

[standy99]

Australian Aboriginal cutting tool

[archangel]

Don't you think that as a steel knife manufacturer you'd need all new machinery to start producing non-steel blades, whichever non-steel material that would be? Not to mention that you'd need to learn how to do it etc. Kinda sounds REALLY costly to me to add another totally different chemistry, physics, and mechanics to your production...

Stick to your world leading expertise Spyderco, I'd say...

[emanuel]

elastic sapphire fiber composite knife blades.

Replace sapphire with carbide, and the "composite" keeping it in place with steel. Tadaaaa, we get normal high carbide steels.
Back to reality, sapphire isn't harder than carbides, and its even more brittle. Also, due to its chemical composition and fabrication process, it cannot be added into a steel matrix (and why would anyone want to do that since its nothing special property-wise). Also, a full sapphire knife would have the killer flaw of a ceramic knife, that is if it doesn't snap in two during normal chores: the apex will crumble and will never be sharper than steel on the long run.

[demoncase]

We go around these loops plenty of times it seems- but for the sake of reiteration:

-Sapphire might be super-hard and real purty on the eyes. But it's prone to chipping even on the very obtuse edges of set gems in jewellery.
And yes- we make watch faces out of sapphire glass- they are scratch resistant- not scratch proof and can still be shattered.

Consider: if Sapphire glass was utterly tough and hard then there wouldn't be an iPhone with a broken or scratched screen.....or a screen protector for the same.

-Theorising away the negative properties of a material while retaining the positive properties of a material is fun while stuck in traffic.
But that's about it.
The periodic table gives with one hand and takes away with another- the materials tool box works like a regular tool box.
While some tools and materials can be used broadly, every tool and material has weaknesses that prevent them being entirely interchangeable

There are many glassy-ceramic and industrial-tough ceramic blades out there- from knapped flint first made in the Paleolithic to Kyocera's alumina blades last week.
They all suffer the same issues. Period.

[rwasham]

I'm waiting for the spyderco obsidian blade. Real Old School.

[wrdwrght]

A Clovis point would be lovely. That’s going back in time.

[SpyderEdgeForever]

We go around these loops plenty of times it seems- but for the sake of reiteration:

-Sapphire might be super-hard and real purty on the eyes. But it's prone to chipping even on the very obtuse edges of set gems in jewellery.
And yes- we make watch faces out of sapphire glass- they are scratch resistant- not scratch proof and can still be shattered.

Consider: if Sapphire glass was utterly tough and hard then there wouldn't be an iPhone with a broken or scratched screen.....or a screen protector for the same.

-Theorising away the negative properties of a material while retaining the positive properties of a material is fun while stuck in traffic.
But that's about it.
The periodic table gives with one hand and takes away with another- the materials tool box works like a regular tool box.
While some tools and materials can be used broadly, every tool and material has weaknesses that prevent them being entirely interchangeable

There are many glassy-ceramic and industrial-tough ceramic blades out there- from knapped flint first made in the Paleolithic to Kyocera's alumina blades last week.
They all suffer the same issues. Period.

Basically what we need is something that combines the hardness and strength and toughness of carbide steel type materials, the rust proofness of H1, and the elasticity of rubber.