Talonite/Stellite/Dendritic Cobalt for Knife Blades
Talonite/Stellite/Dendritic Cobalt Blade Material
Manufacturer: Deloro Stellite, David Boye, Rob Simonich
Talonite, Stellite and Dendritic Cobalt are all Cobalt Chromium alloys, suitable for making knife blades. Talonite is the same alloy as Cobalt Alloy 6B but has been hot rolled and age hardened to improve the hardness and wear resistance while also improving it's machinability, thus making it Cobalt Alloy 6BH.
Talonite and Stellite are really just trade names for different Cobalt Alloys, ie. Talonite 6BH is the same as Cobalt Alloy 6BH. Dendritic Cobalt is Cast Cobalt 6B, Stellite 6K is Cobalt 6B with 0.5% less Carbon as the 6K series has 0.5% less Carbon, and as said earlier Talonite is Cobalt 6BH which is Cobalt that has been hot rolled and age hardened.
Cobalt Chromium alloys are very soft, weighing in around RC 42-47. Talonite and Stellite 6K claim the highest RC at around 47. As far as I can tell, Talonite is not really available anymore since Rob Simonich passed away, as he was the distributor for Talonite. David Boye's dendritic cobalt is still available on Boye knives, and Stellite 6K is manufactured by Deloro Stellite.
David Boye still produces a lot of Cobalt knives, but the hype has passed for the most part especially since the introduction of H1 Steel, which is cheaper and harder, there is less reason to use Cobalt alloys. Strider still makes many custom Stellite 6K knives and sells them for a big premium over regular steels. Cobalt Chromium alloys make fantastic salt water knives because they are extremely corosion resistant. Camillus produced a lot of Talonite knives, but they have since gone out of business. Some custom makers that did a lot of Talonite include Neil Blackwood, Trace Rinaldi, Allen Blade and of course the late Rob Simonich.
Talonite 6BH Composition
| C | Cr | Mn | Mo | Ni | Si | W | Fe |
| 0.9-1.4 | 28-32 | <2 | <1.5 | <3 | <2 | 3.5-5.5 | <3 |
Stellite 6K Composition
| C | Cr | Mn | Mo | Ni | Si | W | Fe |
| 1.6 | 31 | 1 | 1.5 | <3 | 2 | 4.5 | <3 |