Thread: Anyone tried exotic metals?

Originally Posted by Mike Blue

Joe, it's good to see you in print again.

And for those that don't know you, you sound entirely different in print than you do on the phone.

I'm not sure whether that's a good thing or not . Most of the time I prefer writing, as it allows me to distill my thoughts and focus them, whereas my conversations tend to be free-form exercises in rabbit-catching or ball bearing herding.

Exotic metals implies exotic hones!

Having said that the availability of diamond
down to 0.25 micron sort of eliminates
that as an issue. It does not address
replacements for leather strops.

True Damascus was full of exotic carbides
especially vanadium carbides.
The bottom of this link has some "hardness"
data that tells me that vanadium carbides are
way up there.

Material Hardness, Grid Grading System

The presence of boron and titanium are interesting because
borax is sometimes used as a flux for welding steel and titanium is
common in many magnetic black sand separations. Salts
in welding flux generate some exotic case hardening effects
too.

Back to "exotic metals implies exotic hones!" this may
be the key reason that ceramic knives are so hit and miss
in the market today. However they are available and
could be reground (with some care) into a form that
would let one explore it as a razor. Twice tempted... zaykastore.com
kyoceraadvancedceramics.com