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- Dec 27, 2013
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Yep I think it was unalloyed, pure ti on that episode. If I'd been there and the piece was big enough, and the alloy was crazy enough, I would have tried to make it into a full integral dagger, out of left field. That would have been nuts but would've probably lead to disqualification.
When host Ben Abbott said it will never make a knife or be hardenable, it's because it was unalloyed or "low alloy" ti. At any rate, this thing of using select ti alloys and applying normal but modified bladesmithing work to make a knife is still, and probably always will be, a strange off-shoot in the world of blades.
Speaking of which, I always ask for feedback from people who use the blades, particularly knives, because I have a difficult time evaluating knives, unlike swords and long blades of which I have a good grasp. Over time, I decided that the ti knives made with my techniques remind me most of an old, basic high-carbon steel knife. Specifically, a quite old Case XX double-edge knife I have. That's the best way I can describe their "performance." Like a normal knife (non-stainless). Feedback increasingly supports this description, as people with a lot of knives who try out mine agree that it seems to act pretty much like basic high carbon steel with a decent heat treatment. A knifemaker friend asked me recently, "So you're not trying to push this as some sort of 'super material' for knives?" And I said, "No! I'm pushing it as a super material for swords (and long blades)." However, it does make a serviceable knife that does a good job as such.
When host Ben Abbott said it will never make a knife or be hardenable, it's because it was unalloyed or "low alloy" ti. At any rate, this thing of using select ti alloys and applying normal but modified bladesmithing work to make a knife is still, and probably always will be, a strange off-shoot in the world of blades.
Speaking of which, I always ask for feedback from people who use the blades, particularly knives, because I have a difficult time evaluating knives, unlike swords and long blades of which I have a good grasp. Over time, I decided that the ti knives made with my techniques remind me most of an old, basic high-carbon steel knife. Specifically, a quite old Case XX double-edge knife I have. That's the best way I can describe their "performance." Like a normal knife (non-stainless). Feedback increasingly supports this description, as people with a lot of knives who try out mine agree that it seems to act pretty much like basic high carbon steel with a decent heat treatment. A knifemaker friend asked me recently, "So you're not trying to push this as some sort of 'super material' for knives?" And I said, "No! I'm pushing it as a super material for swords (and long blades)." However, it does make a serviceable knife that does a good job as such.
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