Aquatec Solid Titanium Scuba/Kayaking Knife

[Lapedog]

I haven't done river rescue. But, as I said, I've spent some time in a kayak. It's not a bad idea to lanyard everything. My paddle and my fishing rod both cost more than my knife. Losing a paddle really sucks. But the lanyards get tangled and are at best a PITA. At worst, a real entanglement hazard.

Could you maybe use a ball chain as the lanyard, so that way if need be it could easily be broken?

 

[DeadboxHero]

Couldn’t you lanyard the knife to yourself, so that way if you drop it or it falls out the sheath you just pull it back up?

Think about that, moving water, with snags and with a knife attached to you with cord?
Hahaha sounds like a bad idea.

Everything we had attached to us was designed to break away if we got hung up on something.

 

[Mecha]

And one more thing, without a layer of carbides deposited on the Ti it's low hardness will have edge rolling and poor wear resistance.

Tungsten Carbide certainly works well on softer ti like raw 6al4v bar stock. With the right elements, work and HT, some ti alloys can have a nice thin stable edge and work as a good knife without the carbide layer.

 

[shinyedges]

Tungsten Carbide certainly works well on softer ti like raw 6al4v bar stock. With the right elements, work and HT, some ti alloys can have a nice thin stable edge and work as a good knife without the carbide layer.

I didn't know that, cool! Quite a few different types of titanium. My current favorite knife has grade 38 titanium handles, know anything about grade 38 in comparison to grade 5?

 

[Mecha]

I didn't know that, cool! Quite a few different types of titanium. My current favorite knife has grade 38 titanium handles, know anything about grade 38 in comparison to grade 5?

Grade 38 is awesome. I think it will start to overtake grade 5 as the basic go-to ti alloy for general stuff. It has a more wide range of applications and is very heat treatable. It's the most "steel-like" ti alloy I've found yet, and makes the best slicey knife edge so far. It's quite new as an alloy.

Compared to grade 5, grade 38 has a little bit less aluminum-to-vanadium ratio. Aluminum keeps the ti more springy and soft, vanadium makes it more hardenable and stiff. The main difference though, is that grade 38 has 1-1.5% iron as an alloying element. The iron is very potent and drastically affects the alloy. In ti, you could think of iron as the alloying element equivalent of carbon in iron. It has a similar effect, and one could think of grade 5 as a "low carbon springy steel" of ti, and grade 38 as a "high carbon steel" of ti. Hence why raw grade 5 bar stock likes a tungsten carbide edge, and grade 38 doesn't need it because it can be hardened.

 

[shinyedges]

Grade 38 is awesome. I think it will start to overtake grade 5 as the basic go-to ti alloy for general stuff. It has a more wide range of applications and is very heat treatable. It's the most "steel-like" ti alloy I've found yet, and makes the best slicey knife edge so far. It's quite new as an alloy.

Compared to grade 5, grade 38 has a little bit less aluminum-to-vanadium ratio. Aluminum keeps the ti more springy and soft, vanadium makes it more hardenable and stiff. The main difference though, is that grade 38 has 1-1.5% iron as an alloying element. The iron is very potent and drastically affects the alloy. In ti, you could think of iron as the alloying element equivalent of carbon in iron. It has a similar effect, and one could think of grade 5 as a "low carbon springy steel" of ti, and grade 38 as a "high carbon steel" of ti. Hence why raw grade 5 bar stock likes a tungsten carbide edge, and grade 38 doesn't need it because it can be hardened.

Damn mecha! Took me to school lol Thanks for the info I enjoy learning more about Ti and steels.

I wonder if the grade 38 lock bar life would be slightly less than grade 5 due to the reduction in springyness. Probably not significant enough to be relevant.

 

[Jack_Burton]

All I know about diver's knives is, I thought it was cool when James Bond used them to dispatch bad guys.

I want James Bond's diving knives

 

[Mecha]

Damn mecha! Took me to school lol Thanks for the info I enjoy learning more about Ti and steels.

I wonder if the grade 38 lock bar life would be slightly less than grade 5 due to the reduction in springyness. Probably not significant enough to be relevant.

Maybe even better! Does the springyness of a ti lockbar wear out over time? I would have thought the springyness would last forever, but maybe not.

 

[Velitrius]

I dig Mecha's posts on this subject too. Always learn something when I read them. I'd like a Grade 38 machete that looks like a wakizashi when you get time, please.

I don't like a pointy tip on my aquatic sports knives. I'll pop my BC or disembowel myself before I ever use the tip for something uselful. A blunt tipped tool like TUSA's mini-knife or Gerber's River Shorty suits my needs well. Neither of those is made of a steel that's worth a crap, but they don't rust when you decide to start drinking after your dive instead of wiping down your gear.

That's a cool looking little piece, if nothing else. And if you are happy with it, then that's all that matters.

 

[Lapedog]

Think about that, moving water, with snags and with a knife attached to you with cord?
Hahaha sounds like a bad idea.

Everything we had attached to us was designed to break away if we got hung up on something.

Yeah, sorry I should have been more specific.

Can you use a ball chain as a lanyard, so that way it can be broken if need be.

 

[shinyedges]

Maybe even better! Does the springyness of a ti lockbar wear out over time? I would have thought the springyness would last forever, but maybe not.

Interesting, I just assumed anything that flexes back and forth will eventually wear out. But who knows it could be an unbelievably long time before that occurs in ti. I over think think crap sometimes, but being detailed oriented is part of my job.

 

[DeadboxHero]

Lapedog,

Nah, the risk to a patient wouldn't be worth a silly little knife. How embarrassing would that be to fumble the knife in a stressful situation and have the chain wrap up on a patient and injury them hahha no way.

No knives on strings or chains in swift water.

That's what I learned from 2011-2016 when I did that for work.

But maybe your experience will be different haha I'm not the Safety police here. Do what you like.
Just message me if you like about the topic so we don't derail the Titanium subject haha

 

[Danke42]

Maybe even better! Does the springyness of a ti lockbar wear out over time? I would have thought the springyness would last forever, but maybe not.

It will never wear out as long as you don't over load it. You can put a Ti bar on a fatigue machine and run it forever without failure. Same for steel. Aluminum will fail no mater how low the cycle. It could take 30 years of cycles but it will eventually fail like a paperclip compared to a sample of Ti or steel.

 

[Mecha]

It will never wear out as long as you don't over load it. You can put a Ti bar on a fatigue machine and run it forever without failure. Same for steel. Aluminum will fail no mater how low the cycle. It could take 30 years of cycles but it will eventually fail like a paperclip compared to a sample of Ti or steel.

That's what I thought, that the fatigue life of flexing ti alloys was pretty much limitless.

 

[shinyedges]

It will never wear out as long as you don't over load it. You can put a Ti bar on a fatigue machine and run it forever without failure. Same for steel. Aluminum will fail no mater how low the cycle. It could take 30 years of cycles but it will eventually fail like a paperclip compared to a sample of Ti or steel.

Where'd you find this info? Any links? I always like checking out more interesting (read boring to others) stuff.

 

[Danke42]

Where'd you find this info? Any links? I always like checking out more interesting (read boring to others) stuff.

It's like black letter material science. Look at Fatigue Limit, Endurance Limit, Fatigue Life, or Fatigue Strength in your preferred reference.

I first came into by way of Sandvik Special Metals which became Titanium Sports Technologies and getting to shoot the breeze with the guys there who were older than dirt. They made some super cool stuff there for sure; they've totally narrowed their focus down to building wheelchairs now which is still cool but I don't have any reason to call them these days.

 

[shinyedges]

It's like black letter material science. Look at Fatigue Limit, Endurance Limit, Fatigue Life, or Fatigue Strength in your preferred reference.

I first came into by way of Sandvik Special Metals which became Titanium Sports Technologies and getting to shoot the breeze with the guys there who were older than dirt. They made some super cool stuff there for sure; they've totally narrowed their focus down to building wheelchairs now which is still cool but I don't have any reason to call them these days.

I know Ti has significantly more cycles before it fatigues but I wasn't aware of any material that ran for ever without fatiguing. Everything fails, how it fails and how long it lasts changes. It may very well be ti framelocks won't fatigue in our lifetimes though. I wish manufacturers did this kind of testing and made it public.

TI springs in other applications have fatigue points but the mechanical stresses are completely different.

I nerd out sometimes.

 

[Danke42]

I know Ti has significantly more cycles before it fatigues but I wasn't aware of any material that ran for ever without fatiguing. Everything fails, how it fails and how long it lasts changes. It may very well be ti framelocks won't fatigue in our lifetimes though. I wish manufacturers did this kind of testing and made it public.

TI springs in other applications have fatigue points but the mechanical stresses are completely different.

I nerd out sometimes.

It lasts forever, just like steel can. The catch of course is for steel it's heavy so maybe it gets under built so chances of fatigue failure can be higher. Ti is cool that along with it's strength it's nearly corrosion proof and light. It's uncool in it's price.

 

[shinyedges]

It lasts forever, just like steel can. The catch of course is for steel it's heavy so maybe it gets under built so chances of fatigue failure can be higher. Ti is cool that along with it's strength it's nearly corrosion proof and light. It's uncool in it's price.

My interests have been peaked, I must know more. Thanks for the info.

Mecha I'll have to hit you up, I have bars of ti from work I want to do something with but haven't decided what!

 

[Mecha]

My interests have been peaked, I must know more. Thanks for the info.

Mecha I'll have to hit you up, I have bars of ti from work I want to do something with but haven't decided what!

Do you know which alloy? There's some weird ones out there.