Terravantium, Dendritic Cobalt

[Chris_P_Bacon]

Terrain365 is advertising an interesting alloy called Dendritic Cobalt.

Wanted to share.

https://terrain365.com/pages/product-info


Dendritic Cobalt


What makes a Dendritic Cobalt blade exceptional?

Dendritic cobalt is a non-magnetic cobalt alloy. It will never rust, corrode, pit or stain, and holds an extremely sharp edge for a very long time. These properties allow for a great edged tool for just about every and any outdoor adventure, whether scuba diving, fishing, hunting, camping, backpacking, climbing, river running, portaging or whatever adventure comes your way.



What is Dendritic Cobalt?

Dendritic cobalt is a non-ferrous, non-magnetic alloy. It's a dense network of inter-connected carbide crystals in a cobalt matrix. The carbide crystal structure is surrounded by the softer cobalt matrix which holds the carbide in place and creates a micro-serrated edge. Essentially, a microscopic, highly aggressive saw blade.

When used as a blade it sets up an edge that is exceptionally wear resistant and extremely sharp. Every time the blade is sharpened a new micro-serrated edge is exposed, producing another extremely sharp edge.



Terravantium™

Terravantium™ is our proprietary name of our dendritic cobalt products. Several types of dendritic cobalt exist on the market under various trade names, but overall remains rare in the modern cutlery industry. It is a costly material and requires a different set of processes to produce and finish. One of the distinct properties of Terravantium™ is that we do not roll out our investment cast bar stock or blades which separates the carbide crystals. The microscopic carbide crystals retain their original structure resulting in longer lasting and superior cutting performance.

[The Meat man]

That's interesting.
David Boye is famous for promoting dendritic cobalt. His company, Boye Knives, still makes both folders and fixed blades from this material. I've owned one of his folders - it is indeed a unique material, different than steel, with interesting properties.

[Deadboxhero]

Only good for low grit edges, coarse, soft structure, rust proof but very brittle at the edge.


Superior HT and Geometry with fancy steel smokes Cobalt all day.

[emanuel]

This was great about 15-20 years ago when LC200N and H1 wasn't developed yet. These 2 steels are superior to it in every single way except the magnetic part. Also, that "holding an extremely sharp edge for a long time" is just marketing. These cobalt materials are good at toothy edges (due to low hardness but high carbide volume) and can get a relatively ok working sharpness. You put anything fine and hair whittling sharp on them (if the edge even has the strength to support that), they're blunt pretty fast. I never had one btw, I'm just regurgitating what some pretty respectable people stated on a diving forum.

[JD Spydo]

That's interesting.
David Boye is famous for promoting dendritic cobalt. His company, Boye Knives, still makes both folders and fixed blades from this material. I've owned one of his folders - it is indeed a unique material, different than steel, with interesting properties.

Yeah I remember David Boye touting those dendritic cobalt blades all the way back to the late 90s if my memory is clear. There was another one of those exotic alloys called "Stelite" I remember seeing advertised back around 2005 or thereabout. But neither of them garnered much interest in the overall market from what I can remember.

With the surging popularity of these nitrogen based steels I'm doubtful if any of these exotic alloys make much of a dent in the overall market.

[The Meat man]

Only good for low grit edges, coarse, soft structure, rust proof but very brittle at the edge.


Superior HT and Geometry with fancy steel smokes Cobalt all day.

I've used my BDC knife to cut through thick hard plastic straps and carve seasoned hardwood without suffering any damage whatsoever.
Not saying that BDC can compete with modern steels, but I didn't find it nearly as brittle as I'd been led to expect. It's actually quite resilient.
Comparing it to steel is almost apples to oranges. I once did a cutting test, Boye Dendritic Cobalt versus CPM M4. Same edge geometry, same grit finish, same level of sharpness, using the same amount of edge length.
I used 3/8" polypropylene rope, testing sharpness after every 10 cuts by measuring the amount of force required to cut through 550 paracord.
The results were that the BDC stayed right behind the CPM M4 in performance. Even after over 200 cuts through that terrible plastic rope, both knives were within 4-5 lbs of force when cutting through the paracord.
Interestingly, the Boye didn't "feel" very sharp; nevertheless it kept cutting.
As a comparison, VG-10 barely made it 10 cuts before I had to saw back and forth repeatedly to make a cut. PE H-1 would have been even worse. That polypropylene rope is awful.
Also, the BDC was quick to return to hair popping sharpness. In sharpenability, it reminded me of PE H-1.