Incredibly stupid question about a knife material no one seems to use...

fracmeister

fracmeister

Petroleum Engineer
Joined
May 26, 1999
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Yep, that incredibly dense spent Uranium! Ok, it is definitely poisonous and even spent Uranium is a bit on the radioactive side -- but SURELY some incredibly goofy knifemaker has a Uranium titanium platinum meterorite steel damascus for that extra special knife...


Quasi-seriously -- is uranium too soft, too dense, too posionous to grind, to radioactive to fool with, too expensive --- someone out there is an expert.

PS, search engine was down when I posted this -- I sure don;t want to do this topic twice (well, it can't be worse than another "What are you carrying now?" thread!)
 
I don't know about spent uranium but I did see some meteorite knives in BLADE this month. Bill Moran was the first modern bladesmith to use this material. The article was written by Wayne Goddard who also uses this material. He writes: "Nickel/iron meteorite is only suitable for a stock-removal, decorative-type blade. There isn't enough carbon in it to give it any ability to harden".
 
I think Uranium is too poiseness and radioactive period. It would have to be in a sealed case to even look at it. That is of course if the Federale's didnt throw you in prison for having more than a minute amount ( which is still illegal, and very dangerous ). On the tech side, while very dense I'm not sure it has any properties that would make it uselful for a knife - Charles
 
Well, I know they use depleted uranium for armor piercing tank rounds... but I have no idea how "poisonous" it is. I had been thinking that depleted uranium was no longer radioactive. (and thus, wouldn't hurt you) I thought they just used it because it was incredibly dense. :confused:

Interesting question! Now I'm wondering about it too...
 
You will not see it as a knife material. It is hazardous, which translates into pain-in-the-ass.

It is mildly radioactive and that creates a health hazard.

Like other heavy metals, it is poisonous as well. The problem shows itself when the dust is inhaled or gets into the body.

It would be very hard to shape it without making the dust.

Uranium dust, even if it were not radioactive would be right up there with lead and cadmium as a health hazard. The radioactivity adds to the problem.
 
depleted uranium is mildly radioactive but wildly chemically toxic. If you inhale / ingest / otherwise intake the dust into your system, it can cause terrible & permanent health problems. I don't think any knifemakers would be too eager to take a grinder to the stuff.

Ah, I see Chris and Gabe already posted while I was googling.
 
Here's a thought: DU is also pyrophoric, i.e. when it fragments, the pieces burn intensely like phosphorus. This is an asset in its anti-armour role, as the splinters generated by punching through an AFV's armour will spontaneously ignite inside the hull of the AFV.

The downside from the knife user's point of view should be obvious: Consider BF forumite Coonhunter. He's out in the fields, looking for a raccoon on which to test his new DU bowie. He spots one, runs at it, sweeps the blade towards its neck... and hits a stone.

Boom!

Several pounds (DU is twice as heavy as lead) of mildly radioactive white phosphorus equivalent detonates in his hand. That's going to sting for a while...

maximus otter
 
Never, at least not in the U.S. Here we are crazy about radioactive materials and cautions, which isn't such a bad thing, but even the Tritium button Halos (microtech) were even banned in this country. It's a fact that more radiation comes from the brick walls of buildings than tritium or other low laboratory grade isotopes.
 
Hey, if you can make a tanto point knife out of it, then you can really say that it's an armor piercing blade.
 
Let the spalling begin! But why stop at DU? Why not move up a notch to Plutonium metal. Cross your Pu swords and you get a criticality. Or how 'bout Technetium. The Ruskies used this radioactive metal to plate submarines hulls. It certainly kept the barnacles off. But the workers kept dieing. Fun with nuclear materials.
 
Only an idiot pictured with Bush would ask a question that stupid.

Lets make a blade out of Uranium so it glows in the dark and you die after a few years of using it cause you have radiantion possining. Smart really smart BUSH.

Platnum well it is veru expencive and to soft to do anything but bolsters with.

Meteorites well they could be used, after all most meteorites that contain any forme of metal usualy contain Iron Ore even if it is hyper exotic Ore it could still be used to make steels with yes.

And well Titanium we all know about that.
 
That's uncalled for, Nimravus. We won't get into your spelling and punctuation errors.:footinmou
 
Way to go Nimravus. Insult a forum contributor (who asks a pretty interesting question!), insult a country and our President.

Great way to act. Veerrry classy. There's a political forum for your "opinions". Why not go there to vent?

Lighten up. This is a place to have a little fun.

Are you still pi••ed off about the exchange rate? Or is it that Quebec secession thing?:barf:
 
Originally posted by Nimravus
Platnum well it is veru expencive and to soft to do anything but bolsters with.
Click to expand...
Expensive? Yes. Soft? That depends. In it's natural state, definitely (and way too soft for even bolsters). If it was alloyed with other metals (although I've never heard of it being alloyed with Titanium and Uranium) it could work. Considering they've found ancient blades made of alloyed gold that can hold an edge (see King Tut's treasures for an example), and since Platinum and Gold share similar metalurgical traits, I don't see why it couldn't be done, especially if they have the money to burn.
 
A Technetium alloy would be a much better choice. Just 55ppm of it added to carbon steel renders it almost rust proof. Of course, the stuff is very radioactive.

I used to work for a hospital fixing X-ray and similar equipment. One of the procedures we offered was a "Nuclear Medicine Scan." A tiny amount of Technetium, a few milligrams, was mixed with another chemical that happens to be absorbed by cancerous tissue and not most healthy tissue. Then, we used a machine that would image the patient and map the levels of radiation detected. The "hot" areas were the cancers. This procedure, still used today, is very good for lung and intestinal cancer. These cancers often take the form of many tiny tumors that can't be seen in conventional X-rays, CT scans, MRIs, etc, or with the naked eye. Once the Nuke Med Scan was done, the doctors would use it as a roadmap for surgery to remove the cancer.

The injection used cost $2500. It contained a couple of milligrams of Technetium. So, Technetium is very expensive stuff.
 
Regardless of how radioactive/toxic DU is, or how soft it might be, it is certainly heavy. Would you really want a knife so heavy that only the very serious weightlifter is going to be able to use?

Apart from that, I'm sure if some crazy knifemaker were able to get hold of the stuff and make a knife out of it there would be plenty of people eager to buy it, even if all they could do with it is keep it in a lead box!
 
More realistically what about Zirconium? This is a metal that is really used here in the nuclear/chemical processing industry to make tanks and junk 'cause it's very corrosion resistant (e.g. is used to hold large volumes of hot nitric acid which dissolves Al and stainless steel cladding of spent nuke fuel rods).
 
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