Has anyone on this Forum used either a talonite or stellite knife? If so, what are your opinions on the materials?

The general feeling has been - very expensive,difficult to sharpen [requires diamond ].exceptional wear resistance ,excellent corrosion resistance [good for salt water environment]. Most conclude that a high end stainless such as S30V is a better value.

Have made blades from CPM 10V, CruWear (VascoWear), and M2 tool steels ... this stuff is EXTREMELY abrasion resistant. Have made cutting tools from stellite ... add harder at red heat than cold to the abrasion resistant characteristic. All of these really are difficult to sharpen for other than makers who have real equipment. They are also somewhat brittle.

If you want an exotic material for a larger blade, try a carbon steel like L6 or 1084-1095 heat treated to Bainite. These materials are hard but flexible. They will hold a shaving (or rope cutting) edge and can be bent 90 degrees and spring back almost straight ... without chipping the edge! They can also be sharpened by the mere mortal.

If that degree of flexibility is not required or rust resistance is required then S30V to S60V heat treated to RC 59 and cryo'd is the ticket.

Look here :
http://www.physics.mun.ca/~sstamp/knives/MEUK_talonite.html

The real problem with talonite is its very soft matrix, so it will not hold edge when cutting harder materials, also it will bend when prying in wood etc.

Steel is steel, if you want something really exotic and performing, look at ZDP-189, Cowry X, Ferro-titanit, CPM-15V, CPM-Rex121 for ultimate edge holding, for example Bohler K390 for great edge holding and toughness or for CPM-3V for ultimate toughness.

Steel is steel.

Jiri

I wae employed at Stellite for 5 years while it was owned by Union Carbide and Cabot Corp.
The company manufactured several types of knives with various alloys. Most of the knives were industrial types,they also manufactured fillet knives and scalpels.

There are or were many different alloys of Stellite,some were suitable for knife making ,many were not.

It has been so many years since I worked there that I don't remember which alloys were used for knives.

WC