Would a thick, pure tin (or even aluminum) knife be just as useful as a stabbing/slicing hunting knife?
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July 14th, 2010
| Tags: Aluminum, Dirk, hunting knife
Lyonn asked:
Thick but of course, thin at the edges for slicing. Assuming you melted tin out of tin cans and made it into a knife and the handle is made of wood. One version’s handle is simply made of thick rolled up cloth.
I saw in wikipedia that tin can be used as a ceremonial dirk. And that dirk was forged ages ago. how much more now?
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No it wouldn’t. The edge would not hold up on either tin or aluminum.A knife that doesn’t keep an edge is worthless unless you are in the state prison.
no
in fact movie knives (crocodile dundee) made aluminum blades on the knives so no one gets hurt during filming.
they may look awesome but they are harmless toys in reality
For a one time slice it may work, however the soft malleable nature of both tin and aluminum would not hold an edge. Steel blades come in many grades and cost accordingly based on their quality. 416 carbon stainless is a common metal used. The most durable steel blades are made from tool steel such as S-7 or the like. The reason for lesser steel blades is cost and the ability for the home user to sharpen them without specialized equipment. Ceramic Zytel style blades are actually the hardest and longest lasting blades, but cannot be sharpened by the average joe. If fact Zytel is right on par with diamonds in hardness.
Good knives are built and tempered from different steels in a exact process to make the knife sharp and strong and light weight.
Tin and aluminum you make in your back yard would be useless for a knife.
It would be as usefull as whittling a branch of Pine into a knife. Neither would work for crap.
There are aluminum knives but they don’t have edge retention. Those metals would not be able to hold an edge and I don’t know if tin itself would be strong enough to maintain its shape under pressure. Probably work just once. Tin is a soft metal, easily mallable. That’s everything you DON’T want in a knife. Hell even knives made from 440A stainless steel don’t maintain an edge for very long. What one wants is a carbon steel with a lot of carbon in it. Stainless is good for pocket knives.
1. Both tin and aluminum are too soft to hold a cutting edge.
2. Tin cans are steel, and soft steel at that.
(Most are plastic coated nowadays).
Even if you could melt it, and cast or forge it, it would make a poor blade.
Everyone’s on the right path, it wouldn’t hold an edge, very soft, bad blade, not to say you couldn’t try it, but you want carbon steel for a good knife and if your interested in knife making the best and one of the basic ways to start is to make one out of an old file. Here’s some links to show you how it’s done.
Makes a really good, cheap in cost knife and lays now the basics to more other kinds.
A ceremonial dirk is cerremonial, meaning just for decoration. If it was an antique they reason they made if out of tin is because it was illegal to have a real one that could do hurt someone.