HI there, ive scored a wee bit of titanium from a scrap pile, anyone out there have any hints on forging it? cheers heaps ned willett.

Here you can see it done. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_uO7PU8l8Y&feature=g-upl&context=G2a47eb0AUAAAAAAADAA

You'll see that it's harder than stainless so due to it's alloy find which heat it moves under the hammer best for you. Don't burn it as it glows like a welding rod welding. What are you making and what size do you have?

Yes you can, if you have the correct alloy, and No you cant forge them all, its covered the other thread about it.

The alloys which are closest to pure, grade 2 in particular, are the most forgeable, at least by hand. Some things to keep in mind are that it has a very narrow forging temperature range, and it heats and cools very fast. IIRC, forging range is something like 1900-2300. it may even be narrower than that. Other than that, it works much like stainless alloys do, really hard.

Hi all, Thanks for your replies< been very helpful. @ Randy its metric round bar, about 1 inch imperial by 4 inches, not big, but i live in the uk and its not so easy to come by here, (well it wasnt until i started my new job umm i was thinking of forging and or machining some repousse punches with it, but after reading the other thread i dont know if it will be suitable, so i might just have a bit of a play, perhaps see if i can make a damascus billet, and if so some jewellery if the pattern looks nice. ive used some rolling mill tongs made from it before, so i might make a pair of small tongs when i get some more, who knows...

 

Please do not use odd fonts makes it hard to read.  Some people have to enlarge the screens to read normal size.

My Dad talked with a smith years ago at an event at the Napa County Fairgrounds who was forging Ti tent pegs for a circus (lighter weight). He told Dad that it worked really easy, and liked working with it.

My Dad talked with a smith years ago at an event at the Napa County Fairgrounds who was forging Ti tent pegs for a circus (lighter weight). He told Dad that it worked really easy, and liked working with it.

Yeah, the pieces I've worked forged like butter or not at all. As soon as you got below the forging range it just didn't move. Much easier than steel.

So far all of the scrap or drops I've had have been forgable. What I've used is harder than stainless under the hammer and when it cools down you'll know when to stop hammering as the hammer literally bounces off of the metal. In teaching a class in non ferrous metals a student asked me if I'd ever burned titanium. I said no, I try not to burn anything, Ten minutes later he came running over with this burning orb in the end of his tongs. It was just glowing white hot like the end of a welding rod when welding. It was so bright you needed welding goggles to look at it. Plus it stayed like that for what seemed a long time. Weird!

BTW, if you can't find companies near you that work in titanium where you can get scrap pieces to forge there's a website that sells smaller pieces in bar, plate and tubing, www.TitaniumJoe.com

I've found CP grades to forge much softer than steel and the alloys to be more like forging stainless. As most of what I do does not need alloy Ti I like the CP grades!

ye the titamium i forge was eazy  it forged like mild steel only softer  and yes dont try to forge it to cold alawys keep it hoter the 900 c  a bit lower but to move it best over 900 

  i made a flower from a lump 2'' round 2'' long 

 moony

I played around with a bar end from work, and it forged like a dream. We are using .375" 6-4 alloy
for a job, and I informed the boss that I want to buy the bar ends from him.

I purchased a set of Ti engine valves on Ebay, (cheap, used, from a nascar class engine rebuild), I used a complete valve to make a light bodyhammer, contemplating making some punches from the other valve stems. 

have lots of odd of this, largest is nearly as big as a brick, have 60mm round 30mm round, rectangular blocks, might have to see if I can find a use for it someday

I've got some orthopaedic joints forged out of Ti as well as some round bar 25mm diameter and upto about 400mm long. All rescued from a clients skip.

I'm planning to make a knife as I've seen some for sale in the dive shops.

Dive knives as it won't corrode and has no magnetic signature. 

 

Won't hold an edge worth beans if cp grades; slightly better for some of the alloys but still not as good as a good grade plain steel.  I have a Ti camp eating knife that I have taken my belt knife, (edge made from a file), and cut a curl of Ti off with it to show the difference...OTOH after a campout I can throw the Ti knife in the dishwasher and leave it there until anything on it has said *Uncle!*...

This is a topic I've been thinking about since I started getting interested in blacksmithing, mostly because I work in a shop that 95% of our work is in titanium, and bar ends are readily available. Thanks to Borntoolate and his post about searching google to search IFI site more efficiently I didn't have to be a true newbie and post a new thread.

Work any of the CP grades or is it all alloy?  Some folks would be happy to buy scrap from your company for forging if you can broker small deals...sort of thing that goes over well at Quad-State---I bought 15N20 and 1087 there this year myself...

Thomas we run mostly 6-4 but we do run CP in small diameters. I am limited to a certain amount I can purchase. I can get you the phone number of the local scrapyards, being the orthopedic capital of the world I'm sure they handle a bunch of Ti, and stainless. I'm interested in making some tongs out of some 6-4 I've got. Has anybody tried this and is it feasible?

I forged a set of tongs from CP1/2 a decade + ago, like them for the gasser as they don't transmit heat down the reins as fast as steel does.

 

Forged like butter!  When I had a bad case of blacksmith's elbow CP Yi was all I could forge for a while as I could use a tiny hammer on it and my elbow never noticed...

 

And yes you have to love the "whap whap whap *TING*" of forging it...

Make some titanium dioxide for more usages

 

Welcome to the Forum, could you Please explain your post?  we deal in serious  answers to questions here, and your does not appear to be serious.

The scale when forging Ti was less prevalent than that when forging iron.

I noticed that with some I forged, very little scale.

I will be bringing home close to 400# of Ti this week. We have a long running job at work that uses 3/8" Ti round stock. The bar ends run 7" on up - mostly up-this time, so I figure I will get a lot of good stock at scrap price instead of the $39.50 per pound new.

What alloy? If it's CP or another good forging alloy how much do you want for dropping a couple pieces in a flat rate box?

Frosty The Lucky.

The alloy is 6al4v.  

I would suggest investigating the hand forging of that alloy before investing much in it.  Isn't that one of the duplex alloys that can make you sick?  I've tried to stay with the CP grades myself.

Edited April 29, 201511 yr by ThomasPowers