50 Blade march 2016

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IMaGeS BY THe aUTHOR UNleSS OTHeRWISe NOTed

Tomorrow’s Blade Material Today

SM-100 is the first titanium/nickel alloy made using the particle metallurgy process, here on a Duane Dwyer custom Strider SnG model. Dwyer (right) is inset with Scott Devanna (left) of SB Specialty Metals. (Brady Miller image)

SM-100, aka HIPTINITe, MakeS ITS caSe for rePlacINg STeel for

kNIfe bladeS

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Forget everything you know for a minute and imagine a blade alloy with such incredible strength it

eclipses almost every exotic steel you’ve ever known. Sounds unimaginable but it may be closer to reality than you think. SM-100 is a recently developed titanium alloy with properties that address the in-adequacies of its singular base metal and trumps the latest, greatest exotic steels in the key factors considered important in a blade material: strength, durability and corrosion resistance.

The knock on titanium as a blade ma-terial is that it’s softer than steel. That’s a given. However, titanium has several characteristics that make it superior to steel. First, titanium is stronger than steel. Second, it offers significant weight savings over steel. Third, it will not rust. Fourth, it is zero magnetic, an advantage in any type of work that is sensitive to magnetic signatures such as underwater explosives work. Finally, it can be anod-ized to produce spectacular colors.

Titanium takes on a whole new at-titude when mixed with nickel as an al-loy. Duane Dwyer of Strider Knives has been hot and heavy on the SM-100 trail for over 15 years. “SM-100 has also been unofficially named ‘HIPTiNite,’” Dwyer begins. HIP is an acronym for hot isostatic press, which is a key part of the particle metallurgy used in the powdered metal process to make the material. Ti symbol-izes titanium and Ni nickel on the period-ic table. Adds Dwyer, the te was added at the end “because it makes it a cool word.”

AN ALLOY is BORNAccording to Dwyer, SM-100 is an off-shoot of a material study by William Buehler in 1959 at the Naval Ordnance Laboratory. Buehler’s goal was to achieve high hardness levels in a non-ferrous ma-terial. His experiments produced a cast alloy called NiTiNOL. It is now in wide use with many alloys and products but, as Dwyer notes, no one had ever manufac-tured the alloy using the particle metal-lurgy (PM) process.

“My interest was simply that we, as mankind, have worked with iron for roughly 6,000 years and yet we still had no materials that are truly consistent in hardness all the way through the material at a level of 60 HRC, other than those that would rust,” he observes.

In December 2005, Dwyer asked met-allurgist Scott Devanna, current vice president of technology at SB Specialty Metals, whether NiTiNOL could be made using the PM process to achieve the de-sired hardness. It sparked a long-term quest with Devanna, who has worked in the field of metallurgy for decades. “Over the next six months, Mr. Devanna contin-ued to introduce me to men and women within the trade who are some of the brightest minds in the world,” Dwyer re-calls. “One such person was metallurgist and knifemaker Eric Bono, who was the first person of the many I spoke with who expressed a great deal of interest in the idea. With many years of success within the industry, Eric became the backbone of the existence of what we have now. His personal involvement, knowledge

and access to the materials, facilities and personnel to get the job done were para-mount.”

Bono undertook the task of developing the titanium/nickel alloy dubbed SM-100 using PM technology. “In late 2006 he shipped me a small bar with a rough fin-ish,” Dwyer recollects. “After shaping and

The “Bully” is knifemaker Eric Bono’s first folder using SM-100. Though the alloy is difficult to grind, the brilliant colors that can be achieved with it are worth the effort.

An SM-100 blade in three stages, from left: in blank form, fully ground and oxidized from the heat treat.

“You could leave an SM-100 knife or tool in Salt water

for 50 YearS and there would Be no

corroSion!”—Scott Devanna

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grinding it, which provide a completely different level of issues than ferrous met-als, I learned that drilling and milling it were even more complex.”

It took a lot more research and experi-mentation over several years to refine

the SM-100 alloy. “Advances were made in every aspect of this process and, in 2009, Mr. Bono and a partner, Mr. Fred Yolton, established Summit Materials and continued to produce small quantities of the material,” Dwyer explains. “The repu-tation of this new material grew and be-came of interest at NASA, in Formula 1 racing, in the cutlery industry and more. A host of successful knifemakers has uti-lized the material such as Elliot William-son, Jim Burke, Les George, Jon Graham, Steve Kelly, Tom Mayo, Doug Stice, Mick Strider, Eric Bono and myself.”

More recently the SM-100 quest has taken flight. “In 2014, Summit Materi-als and a few knifemakers received great press with the material by using the alloy in a small set of custom pieces for an auc-tion to raise funds for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital,” Dwyer continues. “The set was purchased for $15,000—a great success—and we hope to continue this event annually. Also in 2014, Sum-mit Materials joined forces with Puris [a titanium and alloy powder producer, among others] to continue production on a larger scale.”

UPS and DOWNSSM-100 alloy offers properties not found in stainless steels. “I talk to knifemakers on a daily basis,” Devanna notes. “When I’m asked about SM-100, the discussion gets very interesting. I tell the maker SM-100 is not a steel but an alloy composed of 60 percent nickel and 40 percent tita-

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Duane Dwyer of Strider Knives was the main force in pushing SM-100 along, and has made some stunning knives using the alloy, including his SnG. (Brady Miller image)

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nium. It offers excellent corrosion resis-tance and is basically corrosion proof. Most 400 series steels are stainless, but get them around salt water and forget it. You could leave an SM-100 knife or tool in salt water for 50 years and there would be no corrosion!

“SM-100 is extremely tough, which has advantages for knives but also causes problems when trying to grind,” Devanna says. “The material can be ground using double-disc or Timesavers® type ma-chines, but conventional grinding [mag-netic chucks] do not work. Next, and most interesting to knifemakers, SM-100 is heat treatable to hardnesses in the 60 to 61 HRC range. Edge retention and wear

resistance are very good.”SM-100’s toughness comes with a cost.

“The properties that make SM-100 a great blade material unfortunately also make it challenging to grind and machine,” Bono notes. “Knifemakers typically talk about how many blades they can grind per belt, but with SM-100 it is more appropriate to talk about how many belts you use per blade. As an example, Duane Dwyer and I are working on a dive-knife-collaboration project and we’re averaging six belts per blade—that’s over $40 in belt costs alone per finished knife! The end product, how-ever, more than justifies the expense.”

“Since I owe it to the knifemakers and our customers to be thorough, I let them

know that SM-100 is very expensive and difficult to work with—grinding, ma-chining, etc. Once they get over the stick-er shock,” Devanna says, “we usually sell them various size pieces of the material. We produce and sell pieces small enough to make one folder blade, and occasion-ally sell as much as a full sheet at a time.”

Bono explained how he achieves the brilliant colors on his SM-100 blades. “The coloration is typically done during the heat-treat process,” he begins. “Much like titanium, SM-100 oxidizes into a va-riety of colors. The basic process is to al-

B L A D EA S S I S T

7 C R 1 7S TA I N L E S SS T E E L

R X 3 5 0 B L A D E A S S I S T

N Y L O N H A N D L E

FA S T E R , S M O O T H E R , S A F E R .

L I N E R L O C K

M A X L O C K

S E E A L L O F O U R T E C H N O L O G Y A T C O A S T P O R T L A N D . C O M / T E C H N O L O G Y

B L A D E A S S I S T

Metallurgist and custom knifemaker Eric Bono was a key member of the SM-100 research team and has worked with the alloy extensively. An example of his knifemaking is his “Little Bastard” fixed blade.

54 Blade march 2016

low small pockets of air to bleed in during heat treatment, and, as the oxygen is con-sumed, you get different coloration. This is achieved by wrapping the blades in foil before heat treatment and either leaving small gaps in the wrap or poking small ‘breather holes’ in the foil in areas where you want higher oxides to form.”

ONE to WATCHObviously, the biggest disadvantages of SM-100 are its price, both in manufac-turing and grinding materials necessary to finish the alloy. However, not so long ago stainless steels produced using PM technology were expensive as well, often adding $75 to $100 to the cost of a knife. Given SM-100’s impressive properties, the new alloy is worth the consideration of knifemakers and consumers. It will be interesting to see where SM-100 sits on the desirability scale five years from now.

For the contact information for the story principals, see “Where To Get ’Em” on page 56.

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march 2016 blademag.com 55

HIP is an acronym for hot isostatic press, which is a key part of the par-

ticle metallurgy used in the powdered metal process to make the material. Ti symbolizes titanium and Ni nickel on

the periodic table. Adds Duane Dwyer, the te was added at the end “because

it makes it a cool word.”