Amorphous (Glassy Metals)

[s0rce]

A company called Liquid Metal makes an amorphous (non-crystalline) bulk glassy metal based on zirconium. It possesses high hardness, excellent corrosion and wear resistance. It also has extremely high strength and high ductility. It is making its way into consumer products such as a base ball bat, a golf club (amazing energy transfer properties) and cell phone cases. It also has been used in scalpal blade so it seems that a knife blade made out of it would be amazing.

Note that I do not work for Liquid Metal im just a materials nerd who wants something to out do my zdp-189 caly

http://www.liquidmetal.com/

-Lyle

[Harry White]

that is a fascinating technology with a lot of benefits to offer (if it becomes widely used). one to watch.

thanks for the link -- cool reading.

[Ed Schempp]

I believe this material was fairly abrasion resistant and achieved about 46-52 RC hardness. The hope was to cast a finished blade. The material contains beryllium and is fairly toxic under the right conditions. There was work being done to eliminate the beryllium from the alloy and retain its properties. Forget about this stuff out performing your ZDP or 420 J2. The USA is one of the few places that beryllium is not considered a strategic or toxic material and heavily regulated....Take Care...Ed

[smcfalls13]

There was a knife company a few years back who was discussing using Liquid Metal for knife blades. Can't remember who, or whether it actually happened, but I do recall they either scrapped the project, or decided to use Beryllium Copper blades instead. Both materials are incredibly toxic to work with, and handling them at all isn't very good for you either.

That stuff is like making a blade out of Uranium, sure it'll last twice as long, but you're lifetime will be cut in half.