Stellite

Stellite is a range of cobalt-chromium alloys designed for wear resistance. It may also contain tungsten and a small but important amount of carbon. It is a trademarked name of the Deloro Stellite Company and was invented by Elwood Haynes http://www.wpi.edu/News/Conf/Roundtable/Barcelona/alumni.html in the early 1900's as a substitute for flatware that stained (or that had to be constantly cleaned).

Properties

Stellite is a completely non-magnetic and non-corrosive Cobalt alloy. The 6K alloy is most used for cutting instruments and tool usage. It's Rockwell is around 55, but it will not lose its temper even at 4000 degrees F. The 6K alloy is available only from Canada; as it has not been made in several years. It cannot be forged; knifemaking is by stock reduction. This makes it difficult to work with for any knifemaker, and is exclusive to knifemakers who want to assume the headache of dealing with this. The #1 Stellite knife maker in the world is George Young of Kokomo Indiana.

Related Topics:
Cobalt - Alloy - Cutting - Rockwell

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Stellite alloys display astounding hardness and toughness, and are also usually very resistant to corrosion. Stellite alloys are so hard that they are very difficult to machine, and anything made from them is as a result very expensive. Typically a stellite part will be very precisely cast so that only minimal machining will be necessary. Stellite alloys also tend to have extremely high melting points due to the cobalt and chromium content.

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