Thursday, July 12, 2012

Metallic Glass Tactical

This is my first "tactical" knife.  It was quite a challange working with the metallic glass as it has to be kept cold during the grinding and the dust is toxic. I had to build a containment barrier in my shop and wet grind  with flood cooling, and all the hand work had to be done wet or underwater. the properties of the material are interesting according to inventor it is self sharpening, non-magnetic, highly corrosion resistant (except for clorine based compounds), and harder than many steels. It is quite different from steel in many ways sharpening stands out (as I just finished that) as it doesn't need to be stropped, in fact the structure is such that a few passes on a 320gt diamond stone will but a nice edge on it that gets better with a bit of cutting. I did a limited amount of test cutting and was impressed with the material.

The knife is 6" overall with a blade made of a metallic glass (zirconium, beryillium, etc) that is technically a liquid.
The grips are Carbon Fiber and are held in place by Titanium pins.
 I really enjoied working with the Titanium and the carbon fiber, although the carbon fiber requires quite a bit of planning to avoid making a complete mess of the shop (and your lungs, hands, etc.).
I am planning on working with both of the handle materials again in the future.