Mark Ling Posted September 17, 2016 Share Posted September 17, 2016 So, one of my neighbors stopped by this evening, and dropped of what he called a "piece of scrap steel" from his work. This piece of scrap steel, he described as "shape memory alloy" with 60% nickel 40% titanium. He than told me that the piece I was holding was worth about $600. The dimensions are 1/4" X 1 1/2" and is about 10" long. I was like "WOW, that's an expensive piece of steel!" . Anyways, he wants me to make a knife out of it, he will pay me he said, but the steel was quite the payment in my opinion. My question is, is that even possible??? typically I would just try it, but not what I'm going to do with a piece worth this much! he also mentioned that he can get more, if it works out! I tried doing some research, and nowhere did It mention that its good for blades, and also seemed like a very complex piece of steel. Somewhere I believe it mentioned that when its being manufactured it has to be heated up to 932F-1112F for thirty minutes to be worked, and that if it gets too hot it can crystalize? He said that he has been researching this for years, so if I got any questions I can ask, he thinks it would make a good knife. oh, and he had us bend it slightly while cold, and then stuck it in the forge for about 10-15 seconds and it straightened its self out! Really neat piece of steel!! if anything it would be a cool thing to bring to demonstrations....I hope I'm not opening up a can of worms......Thanks! Littleblacksmith Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
templehound Posted September 17, 2016 Share Posted September 17, 2016 60% Nickel and 40% Titanium....what has this to do with steel?.... there about 5 grades of Titanium from butter soft to springy hard....this are the worms and the can is made out of nickel.... There You go......lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hay River Posted September 17, 2016 Share Posted September 17, 2016 Its probably a material called Nitinol. I have a little machining experience with it. Not fun to machine. I don't know if it will make a very good blade though. Its a magnificent tough material. I just dont think it will be hard enough to retain a cutting edge. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian923 Posted September 25, 2016 Share Posted September 25, 2016 Before changing anything. Try putting an edge on the stock andncut, scrape, chop sone stuff and see if it dents or dings. If it does, then you'll have to see how hard it can get once hardent and if/how expensive that would be. Good luck Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Ling Posted September 26, 2016 Author Share Posted September 26, 2016 templehound- sorry 'bout that, I'm not really surprised I kept on using the word steel, as that's pretty much all I work with, but do completely understand that it is not steel. honestly, later this October I'm probably just going to stick it in the forge and see if I can make a knife shaped object. grind it put a handle on it and see how it performs. if I fail, not too big of a deal, 'cause I don't really have anything else to make from it, and would be a good learning experience. The guy I'm making this for won't probably use this at all. except for opening his mail, but that's probably a stretch, i'll ask him, see if he will be using it for anything and go from there. Before I do any of this, is there any safety issues other than the usual with steel. any toxic fumes, or anything else?? Littleblacksmith Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Sells Posted September 26, 2016 Share Posted September 26, 2016 get Ti too hot and it burns. and wont go out Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Ling Posted September 26, 2016 Author Share Posted September 26, 2016 and how hot is too hot? thanks, it helps a lot. and by burns, do you mean like the same as burning steel, with just a bunch of sparks, or more? Thanks!! Littleblacksmith Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jackdawg Posted September 27, 2016 Share Posted September 27, 2016 Chandler Dickson has a U tube video where he forged titanium in to a knife successfully. Unknown whether what he had was a similar alloy to what you have though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BIGGUNDOCTOR Posted September 27, 2016 Share Posted September 27, 2016 I usually forge my Titanium stock close to white heat. It moves really nice at that temp, a lot tougher when it gets cooler. I would research Nitinol or memory metals. But neither of those metals (Nickel / Titanium) make a good knife. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kozzy Posted September 27, 2016 Share Posted September 27, 2016 It's just an anecdote but I had a long conversation with the guy who does some laser cutting for us a while back. He mentioned that he was making good money cutting blade blanks from a titanium/nickel alloy similar to what you described (don't remember the exact mix). The demonstration he was shown was a blade being bent past 90 degrees and springing back without permanent distortion. He was told they also held an edge really well. These were for sale to the US military after final grinding. If the material was in my hands, I'd probably laser or water jet cut the blanks and then finish grind. Because if the problems with Ti fires, I'd make sure the work was done in a place where the worst couldn't happen...even if the odds of that are minimal. Having seen the inside of a CNC milling machine after a Ti fire, I'd never risk that possibility. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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