Sal: Silicon Carbide/Steel Blades for Spyderco?
Posted: Fri Aug 26, 2016 9:06 am
Sal, I was examining some of the properties of silicon carbide, the extreme hardness, strength, heat-resistance, lightweight, and other properties. It would make a great blade material if it could be produced in such a way as to give it more toughness and less brittleness traditionally associated with ceramics.
IF a method was developed by which silicon carbide in some form could be assembled into a knife blade, and it could be done economically/inexpensively enough and could be done in such a way as to build a Spyderco knife blade with the hole in the blade to open it, and where it was tough and reliable and would not shatter or chip or splinter within large extreme boundaries of stress, would Spyderco ever consider making such exotic hybrid or pure SiC blades, like, perhaps meshed in with steel alloys or other metals?
At this point this is all theoretics, but, I would like your viewpoint on it.
I can envision Silicon carbide or Silicon nitride knives or hybrid knives where the SiC or Si3N4 is blended in with VG10 steel or other steels, or, polymers, a Silicon Carbide Polymer Spyder Edged Knife that would actually bend if deformed and would not shatter or break like a broken coffee cup.
Some of the benefits to such knives would be:
- lightweight
- strong
- hard
-tough, and elastic if made properly with atomic precision control over the nano and micro and macro structure.
- any color. They could be made to look like any steel or metal or any color shade or combination of colors. Color is simply a function of light reflection of surfaces and once Spyderco could structure things with atomic precision, you could make ceramics that look like metals or plastics or plastics that look like metals or vice versa.
- rust proof.
Sharpenable with Diamond or Boron NItride Sharp Maker Rods.
Knives like this would make H1 look like straw in comparison, Sal.
It looks like the big key to doing all this would be to make Molecular Assemblers. Once we have molecular assemblers you could start cranking out these knives and similar designs like pancakes.
Thus here is one way to do this, and also change the world in such a drastic way as to literally revolutionize everything:
In Golden, Colorado, in the headquarters there, you could set up a division of Spyderco to create the first assembler, the "Spyderco Assembler Project" or also called "Project Nano Knife". Right now the main bottleneck is that we need the first assemblers. Once you have the first you can use those to replicate and reproduce endless copies and then the bootstrap bottleneck is conquered. Like bacteria, they would replicate when provided with energy and materials and soon you would have billions and trillions of the devices and you can program them to make all the knives you want.
No more centralized factories anywhere but Golden. You could literally then mass produce all of the knives in the main Spyderco headquarters and that is only the beginning, Sal.
Think about this: If Spyderco were to build the first working operational molecular assemblers, and we know they are possible and this is not violating any known physical or chemical laws (Bacteria, Proteins, Enzymes, Ribosomes, are ALL BIOLOGICAL Molecular Assembler systems that work everyday. You, me, and every one of us has them inside our body at this very moment. All that is being done here would be to make synthetic manmade versions of these beauties!), you could then license assemblers and nanofactories based on assemblers to governments, companies, corporations, cities, towns, and individuals across the whole world, globally.
Once the assemblers were reproducing and replicating we would have no more material poverty. What is poverty? Lack of sufficient material goods. What is the difference between a billionaire and a homeless person? The one has access to all the material he can desire, the other doesn't. Spyderco would have been responsible for bringing about the end of material poverty on the Earth. People could have assemblers and because they would replicate they would be dirt cheap, and they could make their own clothes, shoes, knives, tents, houses, cars, computers, solar cells, solar batteries, tools, toys, you name it, as long as it can be programmed into a CAD file or blueprint encoding, or as long as it can be scanned, and as long as the atoms and the energy to run the assemblers are there, you could make anything you want.
Infact, Sal, imagine this: A Nanocomputer, Assembler, and Nano Disassembler could work together to disassemble an object, scan its structure to the molecules, and rebuild perfect exact copies of it, ad-infinitum.
I already know of an entire group of people who would be willing to work with you all on this (nanotechnology people who's goal is to produce molecular assemblers) and would gladly get you in contact with them.
Can you imagine, Sal, if you could have an entire line of "Spyderco Super Ceramic Knives", from Dragonflies and Manbugs, to Delicas and Enduras, on up to Tatankas, and the fixed blades, made with shatter-proof diamond, ceramic, ceramic-metal composite, and other nanomaterials?
What do you think my friend?
PS: Here is one way to make the first assembler.
Presently we have non assembler technology. We have Scanning Probe Microscopes like Scanning Tunneling Microscopes and Atomic Force Microscopes. These are able to image individual atoms and molecules. The STM was made by IBM.
The main drawback at this point is this: The STM and AFM needs to be able to have a "Molecular Gripper" tip that is able to pick and place and bond molecules to a substrate in three dimensions. If you can somehow get the knowhow and people together and make a Molecular Gripper Scanning Probe Microscope, this is called the Proto Assembler. You then use the proto assembler, Sal, to build the early crude primitive assemblers. These crude primitive assemblers will then be used to build ever-better ever-more advanced assemblers unto you have full scale self replicating self reproducing nanotechnological assemblers and nanofactories to make the above dreams into tangible reality.
1 Proto Assembler (Molecular Gripper SPMs)
2 Crude Early Assemblers made with polymers and glasses and other materials.
3 Fullerene and Diamondoid Assemblers.
4 General Purpose Molecular nano Assemblers/Replicators.
We are presently right at the stage of the proto assembler, which we need. That is the starting point, or one starting point. Other teams are working with DNA based nano machines and self assembling macro molecular chemistry. But I would absolutely love to see you, sal, and Spyderco, be the ones to bring about the Nanotechnological Age.
IF a method was developed by which silicon carbide in some form could be assembled into a knife blade, and it could be done economically/inexpensively enough and could be done in such a way as to build a Spyderco knife blade with the hole in the blade to open it, and where it was tough and reliable and would not shatter or chip or splinter within large extreme boundaries of stress, would Spyderco ever consider making such exotic hybrid or pure SiC blades, like, perhaps meshed in with steel alloys or other metals?
At this point this is all theoretics, but, I would like your viewpoint on it.
I can envision Silicon carbide or Silicon nitride knives or hybrid knives where the SiC or Si3N4 is blended in with VG10 steel or other steels, or, polymers, a Silicon Carbide Polymer Spyder Edged Knife that would actually bend if deformed and would not shatter or break like a broken coffee cup.
Some of the benefits to such knives would be:
- lightweight
- strong
- hard
-tough, and elastic if made properly with atomic precision control over the nano and micro and macro structure.
- any color. They could be made to look like any steel or metal or any color shade or combination of colors. Color is simply a function of light reflection of surfaces and once Spyderco could structure things with atomic precision, you could make ceramics that look like metals or plastics or plastics that look like metals or vice versa.
- rust proof.
Sharpenable with Diamond or Boron NItride Sharp Maker Rods.
Knives like this would make H1 look like straw in comparison, Sal.
It looks like the big key to doing all this would be to make Molecular Assemblers. Once we have molecular assemblers you could start cranking out these knives and similar designs like pancakes.
Thus here is one way to do this, and also change the world in such a drastic way as to literally revolutionize everything:
In Golden, Colorado, in the headquarters there, you could set up a division of Spyderco to create the first assembler, the "Spyderco Assembler Project" or also called "Project Nano Knife". Right now the main bottleneck is that we need the first assemblers. Once you have the first you can use those to replicate and reproduce endless copies and then the bootstrap bottleneck is conquered. Like bacteria, they would replicate when provided with energy and materials and soon you would have billions and trillions of the devices and you can program them to make all the knives you want.
No more centralized factories anywhere but Golden. You could literally then mass produce all of the knives in the main Spyderco headquarters and that is only the beginning, Sal.
Think about this: If Spyderco were to build the first working operational molecular assemblers, and we know they are possible and this is not violating any known physical or chemical laws (Bacteria, Proteins, Enzymes, Ribosomes, are ALL BIOLOGICAL Molecular Assembler systems that work everyday. You, me, and every one of us has them inside our body at this very moment. All that is being done here would be to make synthetic manmade versions of these beauties!), you could then license assemblers and nanofactories based on assemblers to governments, companies, corporations, cities, towns, and individuals across the whole world, globally.
Once the assemblers were reproducing and replicating we would have no more material poverty. What is poverty? Lack of sufficient material goods. What is the difference between a billionaire and a homeless person? The one has access to all the material he can desire, the other doesn't. Spyderco would have been responsible for bringing about the end of material poverty on the Earth. People could have assemblers and because they would replicate they would be dirt cheap, and they could make their own clothes, shoes, knives, tents, houses, cars, computers, solar cells, solar batteries, tools, toys, you name it, as long as it can be programmed into a CAD file or blueprint encoding, or as long as it can be scanned, and as long as the atoms and the energy to run the assemblers are there, you could make anything you want.
Infact, Sal, imagine this: A Nanocomputer, Assembler, and Nano Disassembler could work together to disassemble an object, scan its structure to the molecules, and rebuild perfect exact copies of it, ad-infinitum.
I already know of an entire group of people who would be willing to work with you all on this (nanotechnology people who's goal is to produce molecular assemblers) and would gladly get you in contact with them.
Can you imagine, Sal, if you could have an entire line of "Spyderco Super Ceramic Knives", from Dragonflies and Manbugs, to Delicas and Enduras, on up to Tatankas, and the fixed blades, made with shatter-proof diamond, ceramic, ceramic-metal composite, and other nanomaterials?
What do you think my friend?
PS: Here is one way to make the first assembler.
Presently we have non assembler technology. We have Scanning Probe Microscopes like Scanning Tunneling Microscopes and Atomic Force Microscopes. These are able to image individual atoms and molecules. The STM was made by IBM.
The main drawback at this point is this: The STM and AFM needs to be able to have a "Molecular Gripper" tip that is able to pick and place and bond molecules to a substrate in three dimensions. If you can somehow get the knowhow and people together and make a Molecular Gripper Scanning Probe Microscope, this is called the Proto Assembler. You then use the proto assembler, Sal, to build the early crude primitive assemblers. These crude primitive assemblers will then be used to build ever-better ever-more advanced assemblers unto you have full scale self replicating self reproducing nanotechnological assemblers and nanofactories to make the above dreams into tangible reality.
1 Proto Assembler (Molecular Gripper SPMs)
2 Crude Early Assemblers made with polymers and glasses and other materials.
3 Fullerene and Diamondoid Assemblers.
4 General Purpose Molecular nano Assemblers/Replicators.
We are presently right at the stage of the proto assembler, which we need. That is the starting point, or one starting point. Other teams are working with DNA based nano machines and self assembling macro molecular chemistry. But I would absolutely love to see you, sal, and Spyderco, be the ones to bring about the Nanotechnological Age.
. Living close to Golden, I don't know how I feel about 820 Spyderco Way being destroyed in a cautionary tale of achieving too far too fast lol. :p