[rick-in-seattle]

I stopped in a small mining town last week on my way back from Missoula, Montana.
There was a small hardware store that looked interesting, so I went in to talk to the owner.
Once he learned that I made knives and was a woodcarver, he told me about a alloy that was mined in the area back in the 1930's.

Seems this ore was discovered by accident and it's properties when alloyed with common tool steel were amazing. This metal could hold a sharp edge indefinately; and could cut the hardest wood like butter.

(About this point in the story I became a little skeptical)

That is when he brought out a knife that had been made from that material.

It was sharp, and I mean sharp; I took it outside and chopped a branch in two and rechecked the edge, it was as sharp as when I began.

I knew then that I had to get some of this metal; so I asked the old-timer where I could get it.

He shook his head and told me the story of how the government had taken over the mine in 1932 and finally sealed the entrance in 1961.

Every bit of ore was loaded onto railcars and taken to a military installation in North Dakota.

The old miners had named the ore "Unobtainium".

[Ashbys]

Interesting story Rick! Wouldn't it be interesting to see the specs on the blade.

Ash

[rick-in-seattle]

This is all the information I could find on the internet.


Unobtainium:

Also known as thatsalaughium, inyourdreamsium, notavailium, ucantbeseriousium and nolongerproducedium, Unobtainium is the most costly element known to man. Loosely defined as any metal that is specified by Engineering and unavailable to Purchasing.

[Nancy_G]

Rick - you know Jerry was in the Air Force for 26 years and we spent most of those years on missile bases in North Dakota.

I often wondered about the odd steak knives we used at dinners in the Officers Club. The meals we were served were pretty bad and the un-named meat was too tough to chew but those steak knives cut it like butter and often cut right through the plates ... sometimes right through the table.

If I had known those knives had such interesting specs I certainly would have "saved" a couple. At least you can rest assured that the metal was put to good use.

[wade clark]

I've read about tools made out of ucanthavium, but I've never managed to get one!
Wade

[Hi_Ho_Sliver]

Are you talking about Molybdenum? If so they mine it big time in colorado. They add it to steel to make it hard. Miners used to call this stuff "Molly B damned"

[Ashbys]

HI HO ,
I think it's the same suff they have in Area 51... said it was going to ND and instead took it to Area 51.

Ash

[AlArchie]

I have to think this is a come-on, BUT, back in the mid '60s, the hardware chain I worked in began marketing a hunting knife that the maker (mystic mastic metals?????) claimed need never be sharpened as the edge was permanently sharp. They started with a razor sharp blade and applied an electrostatically applied tungsten-carbide layer over about a half inch of the edge area.

The darn things were extremely sharp, and held an edge almost indefinitely, but because of the claims, a lot of our customers who bought them, began to test that "permanacy". Needless to say, there were a lot of folks who out witted the metalurgy, and we quit selling the knives......they may have been really resistant to dulling, but they were also impossible to sharpen again.

Al

[Hi_Ho_Sliver]

I remember years ago Buck, I think it was advertized driving the blade thru a penny....supposed to be tough steel, guess it was.

[Ashbys]

Buck produced a hatchet, that holds an unbelivable edge. You can cut though bone and still skin a deer with it ...wonder how I would know that ... eek

Ash