These knives are completely constructed from non-metallic materials. The blade is made from artificial sapphire, which is harder than any other gemstone except diamond, and the blade from bone.
While the technology required to build a usable sapphire knife is pretty neat, it raises significant airport security concerns. Hopefully this doesn’t mean that I’ll be subjected to full bag and body searches in the future! link
dj_nme
The link at the bottom sends you back to the Neatorama homepage.
Is there actualy a link to a website that has more information on this unusual knife?
scrivy
I can’t find any reference to a knife of that size. All of the saphire knives available are either high precision medical or used for thin slicing for electron microscopy. I think that the info about saphire knives under this knife, which xould well be glass or plexi glass is misleading.
Carl
Reminds me of the knife Raven carries (“glass”) in the book Snow Crash.
The Liberal Avenger
1. Link bad
2. Ceramic knives are sharper, less brittle and less expensive
Anita
Sorry about the link – it’s fixed.
My understanding about ceramics is that they have a lower density and “hardness” than gemstones, which is why sapphires and diamonds are used for precision cutting devices and ceramics are not.
I agree that ceramics are cheaper though, which certainly doesn’t make me feel any less nervous about a potential strip search next time I travel. 
The Liberal Avenger
I have a ceramic pocket/folding knife and it is the sharpest blade I have ever experienced. It is almost too sharp to use casually. The most remarkable thing about it is that it is extremely light. It is also an off color – not silver like a metal blade or clear like this sapphire knife but sort of a dark brown – it reminds me of the color of a video or cassette tape.
Here is a nice one on eBay:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=190073819522
dwight
Reminds me of Sten series (http://www.acole.com/novels/sten/sten_samples/sten_one.html, http://www.amazon.com/Sten-Chris-Bunch/dp/1841490075/ref=rcx_ser_img/1 03-7910284-4620603?ie=UTF8&s=books) where the title character builds a crystal knife that he secrets in a “pocket” inside his forearm.
Skapi
The blade material is properly called corundum. Depending on additives, transparent corundum can be blue (sapphire) or red (ruby).
Denita TwoDragons
Are you sure that isn’t made from a worm’s tooth…?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crysknife
–TwoDragons
Random Idiot
They’ve been selling extremely cheap, very sharp knives made entirely out of high-impact plastic at gun shows for years and years. It’s ALWAYS been possible to bring a weapon on an airplane.
Think about it: you’re afraid to try it once because you don’t want to get in trouble. “They” are willing to die, and there’s thousands of “them”. They’re more than happy to spend a year in prison for trying to bring a weapon onto an airplane.
The security measures taken at airports are complete bullshit. Please don’t take them seriously. If a serious enemy felt like knocking down our airplanes, they could use any one of a ba-jillion shoulder-fired device (bought at some Somali flea market or something) and take down an airliner every day from now on if they wanted to. There is nothing stopping them.
Why aren’t they doing it, then? Please take some time to think that over.
Jason
You have named yourself well. I’ve never seen somebody wear the “idiot” label so proudly.
Carl
No actually he’s got a point. It’s completely reasonable. I mean, one of the takeoff runways for the Buffalo airport crosses over the throughway. You wouldn’t have to get anywhere near the airport itself.
Bob Basset
It is my new work. Thank you.
I am glad, that you have once again shown that at me my work.
Pro Gunner
Liberal Avenger, A knife is never “too sharp to be used casually” depending on what you mean by casually. If you mean playing with it, fine. But if you mean for everyday use it is well known that the sharper the knife, the safer it is to use because it will do its job properly and easily without any effort which may result in cutting oneself.
Random Idiot
Hey Jason! BoingBoing has a post today about Fedex testing a missile defense system on its planes:
http://www.boingboing.net/2007/01/22/fedex_cargo_plane_li.html
I may be an idiot, but even a broken clock is right twice a day.
Phil
I have recently designed two small folding ceramic pocket knives and specified stainless steel for the handles.
The ONLY reason for requiring stainless steel was to permit detection by airport magnetron detectors.
Knives that can not be detected either are or soon will be banned from sale in the USA.
PinchOfSalt
Yes, airport security is mainly public relations. It’s the classic case of shutting the gate after the horse has bolted. I don’t know if you remember pre-9/11 but the conventional wisdom for a hijack was to keep calm and do what you are told. You might end up in Switzerland or Beirut but you’d probably get out alive. So, of course, a pilot would give control of the plane to a guy who had a knife to the throat of a hostess.
Post 9/11, no captain is going to open the cockpit door to a bad guy with a weapon and the passengers are not going to sit there calmly either. So the whole idea of banning knives on planes was obsolete on November 12th 2000.
And banning the sale of undetectable knives in the USA is going to help how? If they are undetectable, they’d be pretty easy to import.
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Nathan B.
