firebug Posted April 13, 2008 Share Posted April 13, 2008 Has anyone on here ever forged Titanium. I have a couple NICE pieces and want to make tongs and other things out of it. Any help will be greatly appreciated. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Hammer Posted April 14, 2008 Share Posted April 14, 2008 Randy McDaniel has forge titanium. His website is "http://www.drgnfly4g.com" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mike-hr Posted April 14, 2008 Share Posted April 14, 2008 I got to play with TI 2 times, at hammer-ins. I hope someone can shed some light on the different alloys.. The first piece was a crescent shaped saw drop about 4 inches long. The guy that had it asked if we could make something out of it during midnite-maddness. I got to be the forge guy, and got 2 strapping lads with 8# sledges to strike for me. After maybe 6 heats and plenty of re-hydration, we succeded in making a slightly dented crescent shaped piece, we all agreed on a stupid art-speak title for the 'scuplture', and gave it back to its owner. The other piece was at another hammer-in, a piece of flat bar, maybe 1/2 by 1 inch, we heated it up and it moved a bit faster than warm butter, but left a yellow powder residue on the surface.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Dean Posted April 14, 2008 Share Posted April 14, 2008 Robb Gunter has done this. Don't know how. I weld the stuff regularly and it not the art of welding but the art of PRUGING the stuff. On on my test coupons, back in the 80's, we cut the weld only out of the coupon and tied a knot in it. When not purged correctly it will break like glass. Fun stuff to weld. Would like to try forging it some day. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
metalmangeler Posted April 14, 2008 Share Posted April 14, 2008 I have forged grade 5 Ti some. It is absorbing oxygen as you heat it and after it is out of the fire so you would do best with a reducing fire and get the job done with a minimum number of heats. It forges best when pretty hot and starts getting hard when you think it should still be hot enough (or at least that is what I thought). Quenching in water does not seem to effect hardness/brittleness from my personal tests. To make tongs I would punch my rivet hole as it may be difficult to drill. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Golden_eagle Posted April 14, 2008 Share Posted April 14, 2008 *Titanium is softer than steel, more like aluminum but two times heavyer. you can't forge weld it (to my paltry amount of knowledge) but it is annealed by Quenching(Like copper!) *I checked the entire thing. its accurate, Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted April 14, 2008 Share Posted April 14, 2008 I've foged a bit of the CP 1&2 grades of Ti, like butter at temp; but the more/longer it's hot in the forge the more brittle it can become so start with a piece as close to the finished size you can and work *fast*. There is supposedly some Ti alloys that will give off toxic fumes. I can never remember which alloy though as my stash was CP 1&2. I forged a set of Ti tongs for my gasser about 10 years ago and punching the rivit hole is a *good* idea! (other things I have forged was a knife fork and spoon, penannular brooch, pipe tool. I have some large stock I was thinking of making some hammer heads from... need to make a tool to cut and form the peens using my screw press in one operation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
primtechsmith Posted April 14, 2008 Share Posted April 14, 2008 Dave you beat me to it! Randy makes some pretty blades with that stuff...he is someone who would be good to talk to about it. I see him in here from time to time... hmm... :-) Peyton Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steveh Posted April 14, 2008 Share Posted April 14, 2008 Mr Hofi`s BP1013 is on tungsten tools. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Sells Posted April 14, 2008 Share Posted April 14, 2008 Maybe you and I can not forge weld Titanium, but look at the all the timascus being made and see that it can be done. The timascus.com web page is dead. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted April 14, 2008 Share Posted April 14, 2008 Mr Hofi`s BP1013 is on tungsten tools. Tungsten and Titanium are two entirely different metals, no relation at all. Frosty Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steveh Posted April 14, 2008 Share Posted April 14, 2008 what was i thinking???? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted April 15, 2008 Share Posted April 15, 2008 Well, if I'd never gotten one thing confused for another I might wonder. . . But. Frosty Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steveh Posted April 15, 2008 Share Posted April 15, 2008 no kidding,thanks Frosty. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nabok Posted April 15, 2008 Share Posted April 15, 2008 Any idea what type you have? I’ve ground and done a little machining, but never forged any, I gave Ron Reil a drop of 6AL-4V bar (AL for aluminum, V for vanadium, some places list this as grade 5) I got from a knifemaker friend. After forging Ron noticed some flu like symptoms, he thought it was possibly due to the vanadium. CP2 commercially pure, aka grade 2 is another common type, and might be a little more forge friendly. Todd Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ice Czar Posted April 15, 2008 Share Posted April 15, 2008 is annealed by Quenching(Like copper!) errr...copper is annealed by heat just like steel, whether you quench it or not doesnt matter, its quicker to get back to working it, but it can cool slowly and still be annealedAnnealing (metallurgy - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Golden_eagle Posted April 15, 2008 Share Posted April 15, 2008 Thanks for telling me that! I got the information from an older metalworkers handbook(era- 1920-40), one of my faults is taking everthing i read (informational only) as fact. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bipolarandy Posted April 15, 2008 Share Posted April 15, 2008 your wrong Czar, if you heat copper, silver, brass, gold ect... and let it cool slowly, that will harden the metal. Copper and steel are different. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brianklein Posted February 1, 2009 Share Posted February 1, 2009 Interesting thread!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
element Posted February 1, 2009 Share Posted February 1, 2009 The most impressive thing i seen on titanium is a guy on you tube that made a knife with it. Right after he forged it and let it air cool he put it in a vise with the blade portion sticking out, Took a six pound sledge and and hit the blade with all his might and you could tell the force he was puting in it and it never broke or bent!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CBrann Posted February 1, 2009 Share Posted February 1, 2009 Where can I get some Ti for decent money. 2 years ago a guy I work with asked me to forge a knife for him, I looked into buying some and it was about $380 for a 3/4" x 3/4" x 12" of I don't remember what grade. But like steel and stainless there are some grades that are more forge friendly than others, no idea which ones though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Sells Posted February 1, 2009 Share Posted February 1, 2009 try this link for detailed info about titanium Metallurgy of Titanium and its Alloys Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sam Thompson Posted February 1, 2009 Share Posted February 1, 2009 The most impressive thing i seen on titanium is a guy on you tube that made a knife with it. Right after he forged it and let it air cool he put it in a vise with the blade portion sticking out, Took a six pound sledge and and hit the blade with all his might and you could tell the force he was puting in it and it never broke or bent!!YouTube - Forged Titanium Knife Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
element Posted February 1, 2009 Share Posted February 1, 2009 yep thats the one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
plain ol Bill Posted February 1, 2009 Share Posted February 1, 2009 Steve you are right that Timascus shows that titanium can be forge welded. We have made a lot of it and it is a really interesting material to work with. It requires close monitoring of heat since ti will burn and that can cause a fire in excess of 4000 f. Makes for a really exciting time when that happens! Titanium works well under a hammer, either manual or power. Keep the heat in the 1800 - 1950 range and it really moves well. There is a point it will be moving well and the next blow just bounces off. At that point temp has dropped off to 16-17 hundred and it just flat refuses to move any more. Titanium will NOT make an acceptable blade folks. It just will not get hard enough. I, and a lot of other knife makers use it for knife furniture, liners, locks, handles etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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