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> It has been suggested that these chromium alloys could be used for stainless cutlery, but the high prices of cobalt and nickel have prevented the use of such

> It has been suggested that these chromium alloys could be used for stainless cutlery, but the high prices of cobalt and nickel have prevented the use of such alloys Nickel and cobalt don't seem prohibitively expensive for cutlery, around $15,000 [0] per ton and $33,000 [1] per ton respectively. By comparison, chromium is around $10,000 and iron is essentially free. Even if the optimal ratio is 100% cobalt, that might add $1.50 to the price of a dinner fork or $50 to a cutlery set that will last a lifetime. Walmart might not stock it, but that seems completely within the range of what you could charge for a premium product, if the nickel-cobalt-chromium alloys really do make for superior cutlery. Maybe it's less suitable for other reasons than cost. [0] https://tradingeconomics.com/commodity/nickel https://tradingeconomics.com/commodity/nickel [1] https://tradingeconomics.com/commodity/cobalt https://tradingeconomics.com/commodity/cobalt

adrian_b 1y ago
While cobalt and nickel alloys must be made with relatively expensive metallic chromium, stainless steel is made with much cheaper ferrochrome. Low-carbon ferrochrome, which is suitable for any stainless steel, is around $1500 per ton. High-carbon ferrochrome, which is suitable for martensitic stainless steel, which is used for knife blades and for some tools, is less than $1000 per ton. This is why stainless steel is much cheaper than any alternatives, e.g. much cheaper even than pure copper. The inventor of stellite, Haynes, thought that stellite will become popular for cutlery. It is likely that this would have happened, if the much cheaper stainless steel had not been invented soon. The window of opportunity for using stellite in such applications has closed after a decade since its invention, by the appearance of stainless steel, relegating stellite and its derivatives to applications with requirements so high that they could not be satisfied by stainless steel, e.g. special tools and surgical implants (CoCrMo alloys, which are variants of the alloy originally named stellite, have been used for decades in making surgical implants, before the discovery that titanium is even better for this purpose).

adrian_b 1y ago

While cobalt and nickel alloys must be made with relatively expensive metallic chromium, stainless steel is made with much cheaper ferrochrome. Low-carbon ferrochrome, which is suitable for any stainless steel, is around $1500 per ton. High-carbon ferrochrome, which is suitable for martensitic stainless steel, which is used for knife blades and for some tools, is less than $1000 per ton. This is why stainless steel is much cheaper than any alternatives, e.g. much cheaper even than pure copper. The inventor of stellite, Haynes, thought that stellite will become popular for cutlery. It is likely that this would have happened, if the much cheaper stainless steel had not been invented soon. The window of opportunity for using stellite in such applications has closed after a decade since its invention, by the appearance of stainless steel, relegating stellite and its derivatives to applications with requirements so high that they could not be satisfied by stainless steel, e.g. special tools and surgical implants (CoCrMo alloys, which are variants of the alloy originally named stellite, have been used for decades in making surgical implants, before the discovery that titanium is even better for this purpose).