different types of titanium....

jbmonkey

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I've been doing some reading and much is scattered in different threads. be really good stuff to have a titanium thread of different types.... what can be done.....what cant.....heat treatments etc etc. shiw some of the Chinese titanium flaws weve seen that folks dont know about. advantages and disadvantages to common similiar stainless or steel options. not so much to give away inside knowledge that isnt meant to be shared but just for hobbyists to understand and be somewhat educated on. what's your thoughts Sir?
 
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I've been doing some reading and much is scattered in different threads. be really good stuff to have a titanium thread of different types.... what can be done.....what cant.....heat treatments etc etc. shiw some of the Chinese titanium flaws weve seen that folks dont know about. advantages and disadvantages to common similiar stainless or steel options. not so much to give away inside knowledge that isnt meant to be shared but just for hobbyists to understand and be somewhat educated on. what's your thoughts Sir?

I've been wanting to do that, mulling over how to compress the info into something fairly short. Another problem is how to compare a knife made of it to a steel knife, which is hard to do. For example, in a titanium alloy that has what I think of as a good mix of alloying elements, worked in my specific way, a knife seems to act a lot like my very old and large Case XX carbon steel fixed blade that isn't especially hard (mid-to-highish 50s HRc?), easy to sharpen and tough, etc, but still different than the steel blade. Of course they really stand out and get good as they get to cane knife or machete sized and bigger, and ultimately, as a sword in which they become something that's in its own territory with many unique attributes that are especially suited to a heavy-use sword.

There's going to be a page added to my website soon that has the entire philosophy, the point of making these large ti blades, and the advantages and strengths of such a thing. Just gotta finish an advanced sword that's dragging on and get pics of it for the website, then the update will happen.
 
For now just avoid CP (Commercially Pure) grade as it's OK for plumbing and other less stressed loads. A lot of what comes out of China and Russia is that grade.
 
During this whole titanium sword pursuit, I've read a lot of thick scientific studies about titanium metallurgy, many of them like 80 pages long and dense just to glean a single piece of illuminating information about how ti alloys work, that can advance the blades or explain something that is occurring during the blade-making process. Other invaluable information was explained verbally during long conversations with some extremely knowledgeable and experienced metallurgists in the ti alloy field. I'm still always ready to be outright wrong, and learn new things. There are plans in the works to write The Titanium Bladesmith's Grimoire, and get all of this information in one reference, that will be added to as time goes on. Need to do this before I get hit by a bus or meteor.
 
gotcha. wish I could help.........but I know squat about titanium besides using the machete I have from you and how it compares to steel ones I have.

as I was scanning and reading this forum and reading links to other threads outside of here and whatnot it dawned on me....everything about titanium, not other brands just the metal itself and of course your creations, should be here. easier said than done I realize, but would be great. course not if it stops or slows ya down from making swords.:)
 
gotcha. wish I could help.........but I know squat about titanium besides using the machete I have from you and how it compares to steel ones I have.

as I was scanning and reading this forum and reading links to other threads outside of here and whatnot it dawned on me....everything about titanium, not other brands just the metal itself and of course your creations, should be here. easier said than done I realize, but would be great. course not if it stops or slows ya down from making swords.:)

Ha! It would be kinda neat to just copy and paste the statements and explanations in order to see how it all evolved. I didn't even know about the Alpha Prime "titanium martensite" crystal structure until a couple years into it. Just trying to keep the record as straight as possible, as there is a bunch of malarkey out there about titanium alloys in general, on both sides: the negative, and positive sides. To this day, if something about these ti swords gets posted somewhere other than Bladeforums (and Instagram, surprisingly), "experts" spewing credentials chime in with very strong statements about how the swords ARE too brittle and will shatter upon impact, and ALSO are too soft and weak to make a blade and will just bend over immediately upon use. Both of those statements are bafflingly false, and I don't understand the strong desire some Internet people have to demean them. Compound that with the gross misunderstanding about the nature of swords and large blades in general.

However, as Goldberg told me during Knife or Death filming, after my episode airs, "Those days are over." :D
 
Ha! It would be kinda neat to just copy and paste the statements and explanations in order to see how it all evolved. I didn't even know about the Alpha Prime "titanium martensite" crystal structure until a couple years into it. Just trying to keep the record as straight as possible, as there is a bunch of malarkey out there about titanium alloys in general, on both sides: the negative, and positive sides. To this day, if something about these ti swords gets posted somewhere other than Bladeforums (and Instagram, surprisingly), "experts" spewing credentials chime in with very strong statements about how the swords ARE too brittle and will shatter upon impact, and ALSO are too soft and weak to make a blade and will just bend over immediately upon use. Both of those statements are bafflingly false, and I don't understand the strong desire some Internet people have to demean them. Compound that with the gross misunderstanding about the nature of swords and large blades in general.

However, as Goldberg told me during Knife or Death filming, after my episode airs, "Those days are over." :D

Worth mentioning that with improper processing, either of those statements can be made to be true, but obviously aren't absolutes. One thing it ain't is super brittle aluminum, which is sort of how it often gets described.
 
Sounds like the years of work reading technical papers to find one sentence to describe what eta carbides are and how they work !:eek:
There's still lots of confusion and misinformation out there. No excuse as we have electron microscopes to at least 1,000,000 X we can see it !
 
Mecha Mecha Just stumbled on to your use of titanium alloys for blades. So interesting... the early testing videos that @Lorien posted for the TitaniLor from way back are now gone from YouTube

I wanted to check out your KOD episode. Has it aired yet? Which episode was it - I'll have go find it.

Kudos for your work with Ti. Interesting stuff.

...
However, as Goldberg told me during Knife or Death filming, after my episode airs, "Those days are over." :D
 
Mecha Mecha Just stumbled on to your use of titanium alloys for blades. So interesting... the early testing videos that @Lorien posted for the TitaniLor from way back are now gone from YouTube

I wanted to check out your KOD episode. Has it aired yet? Which episode was it - I'll have go find it.

Kudos for your work with Ti. Interesting stuff.

Thanks very much.

The episode hasn't aired. All I know is that the show hasn't been canceled, as of now. :D When I find out, it'll get spammed on Bladeforums for sure.
 
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