As I have said before I work at a smelting plant and can get differant types of metal one is pure titanium. Just was wanting to know what it would be good for if anything. I've seen that razor are made form it but didn't know if it would be good fore a hole knife/sword.

One of the smiths I am training with has a knife that he uses as a letter opener made from titanium. At first he didn't think that he'd be able to get it sharp, but I guess he has that figured out as well. It cools very fast, so you will need to heat it many times. It makes a tough knife, I don't think you could break it easily. Hope that helps. How much can you get? That stuff is pretty pricey isn't it?

I saw Randy McDaniel forge some Titanium at a demo last week. It is tough stuff to forge, but it gives a nice "artsy" look to the piece as it displays a grainy look when it is twisted. Hard to work, though.

Well, as far as the price it's not to much and it's useually 3 to around 3 1/2 in disk and around 3/8 in think.

last word was supposed to be thick.

I forged these two neck pendants from small offcuts of titanium alloy. It never tarnishes so is great for things like this.









I have made a knife with it but it would not hold an edge very well. Needed constant re-sharpening.

Strange stuff to forge if you are used to working with steel. As has been said, it cools very quickly so small or thin pieces need lots of heats. It also air-hardens and will go brittle under the hammer if you are not careful.
However it is very soft at forging temperature, so it's easy to get shuts in it when drawing down.

It is nice stuff to work with once you get used to it. If you are interested I will try to get some pics. of the other things I've made from it.




one_rod.

Ti makes low grade knives and swords (read the article on it over at swordforum.com) a good high carbon steel will out preform it for that use---*unless* you need something extremely resistant to corrosion or with low magnetic signature that will still have some sort of edge on it---like a dive knife.

Ti absorbs O2 while being forged and will become quite brittle after a while so you forge it as fast as possible. (especially in thin sections)

CP grades of Ti are much softer than steel at forging temperature

Me I have forged a Ti pipe tool, Ti penannular brooch, Ti eating set---knife, fork and spoon (and heat coloured them for the wild Ti oxidation colours) they are dishwasher safe! A set of Ti tongs for my gasser (don't conduct heat as rapidly as steel ones do), etc. It's fun stuff to play with but not some "magic" metal.

If you need something tougher than a good steel for a knife---you shouldn't be using a knife!

One_Rod, good idea I think I will forge some Ti anvils to hang from my beard braids...

Thomas

One Rod those are great pieces.

One rod- Sweet! The type of thing which sets an artist apart.

I was woundering if TI wont hold an edge then way are so many razors you shave with made of it.

I'm guessing the reason is for marketing. Every 9 months gillete needs a new gimmick.

A guy I know bought some Ti tongs at Tipp City last month, no word yet on how well they work as forging tools. Two things come to mind: Shiny and LIGHT!

B-H; I don't watch TV and as I don't shave either I'm not up on their ads are the blades all Ti or just have a Ti nitride coating for the edge like they do for drill bits?

One of the funny things about Ti being the latest "buzz word" is Ti laptop cases---the worst things for laptops is their problems in dissipating heat and so a Ti case is much worse for the computer than an Al one would be!

Thomas

They say on there ads that thay are sold Ti.

I think that the pieces that Hofi uses for punches and most things like razor blades are not pure Titanium, but a Titanium allow steel.

Titanium is rather, I guess you could say, overrated. Due to media blowing up it's actual quality with "Buy your PURE TITANIUM KNIFE for only 3 payments of 14.99!", many people think that it is superior to steel in all ways.

Hey Irnsrgn,
I thought Mr. Hofi used solid Tungsten punches.
-Aaron @ the SCF

The Hofi chisel is Tungsten not Titanium.

BP1003

The chisel is made out of pure tungsten (out of an armour piercing shell ). The tungsten is not steel it is a different element in nature specific gravity is almost 3 times more then the steel, and it can withstand much more heat. There is almost no friction between the steel and the chisel!! When the tungsten is red hot (we can see it later in on of the photos) the H R C is still 38 and it will go through 1200 degrees steel easy.

yup got my wires crossed, cause I don't feel good. Solid tungsten is a brittle metal, like the electodes used in Tig Welding, I'm guessing what is in the shell cores, Mr. Hofi uses is probably a Tungsten Alloy Tools steel of some sort.

Sorry

I'm thinking tungsten carbide as they mentioned at Quad-State they they were brittle and had to put a mild steel hammering end on them.

Thomas---have to see if there are any "leftovers" at EMRTC...

hey all,
i thought this might prove interesting to some of us (like me) who are still somewhat confused as to just what titanium is.
http://www.deutschetitan.de/video/Titanschmiede_dsl_eng.wmv

kind of a neat process ( the video is sorta long)
-Aaron @ the SCF

Thanks for the video link. 10 minute(19Mb) video but definitely interesting. Didn't realise there were 40 grades of titanium. Peaked my interest. Going to have to find some to play with now.

How many grades of steel are there?

Thomas

Hmmm I always only had 2 kinds of steel. Thems that work and thems that don't.
Gobbler

I was getting into metalwork a long time ago, although I didnt really stay in it long, it was mostly just for a very few years a mostly full time hobby. One of my uncles who I helped quite a bit, as he lived far away, but had land and cattle near here. He also knew I was into metalworking. He had been an airplane mechanic in WW2 and continued that for the rest of his life. For some reason he never was fully licensed but i'm not sure why, all the ones who really knew him signed all his work without question.

 He came up one time and gave me the biggest mess of metal I'd ever seen, he said it was very hard. It was simply a mess of small tubes welded very smoothly together. I had no idea what to do with it, but accepted the present very kindly.

 He said somewhere in the conversation "it's titanium, from an airplane engine frame, they use it because it is very strong, and absorbs "shimmy" very well"