Sapphire Knife

[The Johnny]

Russian guys makes knives made of sapphire.

These knives can be easily taken inside the airplane in your handbag, for example if you care about your right to use your knife anywhere you want.

These knives cannot be discovered by any sort of metal-detector, they have none metal parts at all.

Their blades are being made from artificial sapphire, the same material that is being used to make non-scratchable watches by leading Swiss brands. Handles are made of the bone.

Only diamonds exceed it in the hardness, so anybody can easily make his name carved on the airplanes bull's-eye airplane window. It scratches glass without any difficulty and can be sharpened only with special diamond whetstone.

http://englishrussia.com/index.php/2007/01/18/sapphire-knife/

[DiscoUkulele]

So how much longer til we have to start flying naked?

[Jasper]

Handles are made of "the" bone?  Should I be worried?

[Eater of Clowns]

Handles are made of "the" bone?  Should I be worried?

THIS KNIFE WILL FUCK YOU.

IT FUCKS YOU, SIG.

[Richter]

Compulsive sharp thing want.

It's an oddity, but seems there are very few folks who will REALLY need one.  Working around high voltage, explosives, or powerful electromagnets comes to mind, since these will avoid conducting, magnetism, and (maybe) sparking as much as a steel knife.

For hide-a-knife spy games though, you can get the same effect with a $5 abs resin knife.  It won't be able to scratch glass, but if you really need to scratch glass, (I don't know, for breaking thick windows, or some such?)  you can carry a $10 carbide tipped scribe (many of which look just like pens.)  Also, it's easier to get knowledge, training, and experience through security checkpoints than physical items that will guarantee you jail time if found.

If you already are trained to kill with a knife, need to to bad things past security, and make the kind of cake where high end exotic weapons are called for, might be good.
If you have a perverse love for odd implements (Guilty  ), and too much money ( Nope  ), might be good.

[Jasper]

I'd sooner dump my money into getting a wasp knife, since the only possible thing I could need it for was if I was an assassin.  But for simplicity and sharpness potential this one is cool.

[Shibboleet The Annihilator]

Came here to comment about resin knives being available for dirt cheap, also came here to point out that if you want to stab someone a pencil is a fine implement and available for about 25¢.

[Jasper]

The sapphire knife seems to still have a niche as a functional heirloom.  I mean, it is sapphire.

[Doktor Howl]

Why not just use a regular ceramic for the knife?  Or flint?

[Richter]

I can see brittleness still being a problem, saphire of commonly available ceramics. 

The flint is an idea though.  I can see it being held back by the fact that working it is a pretty niche skill.  I had a link to a how-to site that got posted to Verwirrung.

[Golden Applesauce]

I'm just waiting for synthetic corundum to be cheap enough that I can get an entire ring carved out of a single hunk.

[Nephew Twiddleton]

How well can said blade hold up in use, and is it cost effective (ie, are there better materials)?

That said a sapphire knife sounds like a very pleasant looking piece, that would do very well on a mantle, at the very least.

[Richter]

http://gizmodo.com/5589586/a-knife-made-from-fiber-optic-glass

[Jasper]

That's a really beautiful knife. 


But can it cut tomato?

[Requia ☣]

I'm just waiting for synthetic corundum to be cheap enough that I can get an entire ring carved out of a single hunk.

I've been planning on making some, if I can just find an (affordable) material that won't melt when I apply the necessary heat.