Mini sword-like knife 2.0: irl cartoon blade

[Mecha]

A while back I made a little knife for a friend that was meant to be like a tiny version of a sword. This is attempt #2, even more swordish, and I think it looks like a cartoon knife!

The guard and ornaments are pure silver, very soft, and should look decent when they tarnish over time. The thin blade is forged titanium alloy bar stock I normally use for swords: 89.5Ti 10Nb 0.5Fe.

Silver is one of my favorite metals, and I plan to start using thick sterling silver plate as guard and pommel material for my perfected ti alloy sword design in the near future, while it's still relatively cheap (a situation which I expect to be changing...).

Thanks for looking. :]

 

[mete]

Titanium letter opener , that's cool !
I had mentioned somewhere on the forum about Argentium . That's a sterling silver but has some germanium which makes it greatly reduce oxidation when forging and very resistant to tarnishing. But you like the tarnish ! That, is silver sulfide .

 

[skonkworks]

Nice! I like titanium. It has a great finish. Hard to grind though, at least on a bench grinder. I've never tried it on a belt grinder.

Just curious, could you recommend a place to get custom stamps?

 

[Lapedog]

Yes, I love the rainbow effect. Is that a finish from heat ano or just lighting?

 

[john april]

love it !

 

[Matthew Gregory]

Awesome,Sammy

 

[Lorien]

now that is just as cute as a button

 

[Dawkind]

You do such a FINE job my friend.....that's going to make someone VERY happy.

 

[Wilsonhome]

That is super cool.

 

[Mecha]

Thanks everyone.

Mete - Letter opener? it's over 9" oal! X] Yes I need some liver of sulphur to force the tarnish.

Skonworks - A stone wheel vs titanium alloy is a no-go. Belt grinder with ceramic belt is the best. I don't have a mark maker to recommend, but there are people on Etsy who do them.

Lapedog - The rainbow effect is more iridescent with this alloy than I can capture in a photo; I think of it as "trout-like" or "scarab-like." Normally the gray is deeper and darker as well, but this knife was heat-treated with a jumbo blow torch so it looks a bit more washed out than usual. The colors are left over from HT, and is not really anodized, it is an oxidized surface layer technically called the "alpha case" in torched titanium. It is a hard, slick surface layer that is much tougher and more scratch resistant than an anodized finish. I like to finish the blades almost completely before HT to try to preserve the colors, which are spontaneous and rather unpredictable, and help with the HT since this Ti-Nb alloy is shallow "hardening."

Lorien got a few nice photos of his machete that better capture the effect:

I took this one:

But the colors shift and gleam in the light so it's hard to photograph.