Single crystal blade technology

[Bill1170]

Jet turbine blades face extreme stresses, both thermally and mechanically. One method for resisting those stresses is to solidify the metal from a single nucleation site in a mold where cooling is very carefully controlled so the crystal very slowly grows from one end to the other.

The reason these turbine blades are so strong and resist creep so well is because the grain boundaries are eliminated completely. It’s all one grain!

I have no idea if this would be at all helpful for knives, and I know it is terrifically expensive to do, but it’s a fascinating technology and reading about it piqued my curiosity. Does anyone here know more?

[Synov]

I don't think single crystal turbine blades are made of steel, they are made of nickel alloys. Also, having no grain boundaries should actually decrease strength since grain boundaries act as barriers to dislocation shifts and allows the steel to absorb impacts without fracturing. Hence why having smaller grains increases toughness. The primary benefit of single crystal material is to resist thermal creep, which is not an issue for knives.

[SpyderEdgeForever]

What about nanosized grain metals?

[Synov]

What about nanosized grain metals?

Should be stronger, inversely proportional to the square root of grain size, up to the point when grain boundary sliding becomes more energetically favorable than dislocation shifts. I have no idea where you would get that steel from.

[Wowbagger]

the grain boundaries are eliminated completely. It’s all one grain!

. . . it’s a fascinating technology and reading about it piqued my curiosity.

OH MAN ! ! !
Thank you for posting this !
Made my day !
So cool to know about this .

[Wowbagger]

. . . turbine blades are made of . . . nickel alloys.

so Titanium is pass'e ?

Why didn't somebody warn us ? ? ? ?

WELL !
This means we NEED nickel turbine alloys for knife handles at the very least !

[BornIn1500]

Sounds like you watched one of the latest Veritasium videos.

[Bill1170]

Sounds like you watched one of the latest Veritasium videos.

I haven’t seen that video, but I have read a bit about them. It’s a frontier in metallurgy that I wasn’t aware of. No idea if there’s any applications relevant to cutlery. Just figured I’d put it out there.

[Synov]

. . . turbine blades are made of . . . nickel alloys.

so Titanium is pass'e ?

Why didn't somebody warn us ? ? ? ?

WELL !
This means we NEED nickel turbine alloys for knife handles at the very least !

Titanium is really bad at high temperatures. It's used for the fan blades which suck in cold air but not for the turbine blades which are blowing out 1600-2700 F air. Turbine blades are at the back of the jet engine, not the front with the cool spiral spinny thing.

[SpyderEdgeForever]

An aerospace guy I spoke with said space in both our solar system and galactic and stellar space is full of nickel iron cobalt asteroids, star cores are full of carbon and iron, as are carbonaceous chondrite asteroids. He said Mars is rich in iron and carbon and the Moon is rich in much metal and oxides.

He said one large nickel cobalt iron can provife all hunanity on Earth with more than enough of cobalt steel. Think VG10. Nitrogen exists too out there so think H1 H2 LC200N.

Think of the knives that could be made once you can literally rapidly grow any 3d structure you want.