Boye Knives?

Flattop5 · Mar 25, 2021

Hmmm. Interesting.

Boye Cobalt Basic 3 Fixed Blade Knife

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Marshwheeling · Mar 25, 2021

Missing a key piece of information.

s&wchad · Mar 26, 2021

Interesting material. Their cobalt alloy sounds similar to Talonite or Stellite, only softer and completely impervious to corrosion. A friend of mine is a metallurgist and loves hardened Stellite 6K blades. He tells me they need to bring the material to high temps and use diamond cutters to shape the blanks. These high tech materials cost upwards of $200/lb. D cobalt can be cast, which makes it easier to work with. This is from the Boye site:

Boye Dendritic Cobalt is a super-performing, investment cast, non-rusting cobalt alloy. It excels on tough fibers like hi-tech rigging line, deck and anchor line, as well as netting. Because it is not a steel, it cuts aggressively and keeps cutting, is completely impervious to seawater corrosion, and is non-magnetic.

Investment Cast Blades

Boye Knives are made differently than other knives. Each Boye blade starts out as a wax model, and a hard porcelain shell is built up around it. Molten Cobalt Alloy 6 is poured into the shell, melting out the wax (lost wax), and taking the shape of a blade. As the metal cools, a dense, unified network of fully bonded, hard carbide crystals grows throughout the blade in dendritic (tree-like) patterns. Each blade has its own one-of-a-kind carbide crystal formations, so no two blades are alike.

Carbide Crystals and the Dendritic Cutting Effect

The cutting edge of each Boye knife has micro-serrations, tiny sawblade "teeth," produced by the alternation of the hard carbide crystals and the cobalt matrix. The fully bonded, hard carbide microstructure holds the geometry of the edge intact over time and is extremely wear resistant, both of which keep the blade sharp. They are the reason why Boye blades have such an amazing ability to cut long, deep, fast, and clean through hundreds or even thousands of cuts of tough line. Sharpening exposes fresh carbide micro-serrations ready to go to work.

The Boye Knives Difference: Dendritic Cobalt Blades

It’s specially designed for sailors/nautical use. All the reviews say it cuts soft material really well (rope, cloth, corrugated, flesh, etc...). The cobalt alloy is soft: only about 40Rc. That’s why it sharpens so easily, with only a couple strokes. I doubt the edge can take much abuse. If it hit anything hard (wood or bone), you’d probably roll the edge and have remove a fair amount of material.

I’m not a sailor, so I I don’t see myself spending $360 on a specialized tool like this. If someone wants to give me one, I’d be happy to test it out!

Stevens · Mar 26, 2021

I wonder about the deep groove along the blade, it looks like it would get gunk in there and be not real easy to clean. Especially since they mention cleaning fish (small ones). same for the cord handle
Steve W

Boye Knives?

Flattop5

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Marshwheeling

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s&wchad

Administrator

Stevens

Well-known member

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