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Sal and all check this out:

https://eknives.com/blog/why-sm-100-bla ... nifemakers

It is a Nitinol Nickel Titanium alloy that can reach 61 to 67 RC Hardness.

Old news and there are good reasons knifemakers aren't commonly using it. Starting with price: $150 for a 6" long, 3mm thick, blade blank.

dsvirsky wrote: ↑

Mon Feb 16, 2026 7:42 am

Old news and there are good reasons knifemakers aren't commonly using it. Starting with price: $150 for a 6" long, 3mm thick, blade blank.

Expensive.

That reminds me of a nanotech engineer who told me in a discussion I had about wanting Spyderco to produce Diamondoid steel blades. He said he has made, in a real lab, a fullerene based steel in which the iron atoms are bonded with and encapsulated by Carbon 60 covalent molecules that would be both tough and elastic and rust resistant, and be hardened to the RC 70 to 75 level.

I told him that is so cool and he said if sal and Spyderco wanted to contract with him to use it, it could be done.

I asked him "What is the downside to this?"

Ready?

He said unless a way was found to bring the cost down, each knife would have a retail cost of 1000 to 2000 US Dollars per inch of the material.

So Spyderco would have to charge you and me say 4000 to 8000 dollars for a 4 inch long blade.

Want a Mule of that? :)

Materials science. What a fascinating job to have. We will no doubt have new and interesting materials to play with coming down the pipeline on a regular basis over the coming years. I was told of a 1/8 inch rod of ? material that was used as a one inch part of a drive line on a big rig and they were unable to break it, even hauling a full load! I have been blessed with long time friends that worked for Lockheed Martin, and even though they won't talk about their work, (and never will), little tidbits pop out over the campfire B.S. sessions.

SpyderEdgeForever wrote: ↑

Mon Feb 16, 2026 3:40 am

Sal and all check this out:

https://eknives.com/blog/why-sm-100-bla ... nifemakers

It is a Nitinol Nickel Titanium alloy that can reach 61 to 67 RC Hardness.

EKnives is local to me. I went to their brick and mortar shop for the first time the other day. I was impressed. They have an amazing inventory on hand.

I bought 2 Spydercos while I was there too

8th_Note wrote: ↑

Thu Feb 19, 2026 2:33 pm

SpyderEdgeForever wrote: ↑

Mon Feb 16, 2026 3:40 am

Sal and all check this out:

https://eknives.com/blog/why-sm-100-bla ... nifemakers

It is a Nitinol Nickel Titanium alloy that can reach 61 to 67 RC Hardness.

EKnives is local to me. I went to their brick and mortar shop for the first time the other day. I was impressed. They have an amazing inventory on hand.

Very cool. What was that like? Did they have Spyderco?

SpyderEdgeForever wrote: ↑

Thu Feb 19, 2026 2:34 pm

8th_Note wrote: ↑

Thu Feb 19, 2026 2:33 pm

SpyderEdgeForever wrote: ↑

Mon Feb 16, 2026 3:40 am

Sal and all check this out:

https://eknives.com/blog/why-sm-100-bla ... nifemakers

It is a Nitinol Nickel Titanium alloy that can reach 61 to 67 RC Hardness.

EKnives is local to me. I went to their brick and mortar shop for the first time the other day. I was impressed. They have an amazing inventory on hand.

Very cool. What was that like? Did they have Spyderco?

Yes, they have a showroom with many many high end brands that you can try out. Spyderco, BM, Hinderer, Spartan, Microtech, Bastinelli, Heretic. It's quite impressive

dsvirsky wrote: ↑

Mon Feb 16, 2026 7:42 am

Old news and there are good reasons knifemakers aren't commonly using it. Starting with price: $150 for a 6" long, 3mm thick, blade blank.

Fine edge holding similar to elmax, other than weight (and corrosion resistance) can’t see much of an advantage over current PM blade steel grades.

The Ferrum Forge guys have multiple videos from back during the SM100 Stinger run. I can't remember if they showed it performing, but Elliot did nerd out on it at length if you're curious for more first hand info on the material. The article being a decade old I wonder about it's current price, if dropped considerably then Spyderco would definitely be the production knife company who could make it happen. A run of Mules would be awesome, I mean they did ceramic blade so why not give this a shot.

A ten year old super steel? I'm at the front of the line!

Not a steel since it is a nickel-titanium alloy. I would take the Elmax edge retention claim with a grain of salt. It is free of carbides so only the hardness provides wear resistance. So it would be similar to a low alloy simple steel with low wear resistance. The few knifemakers that use it sometimes will say that it grinds terribly so they claim that means high wear resistance. They don’t know that the poor grinding is due to low thermal conductivity similar to straight titanium.