Next Question/Ti abrasives

Ed Caffrey

Ed Caffrey

Joined
Jul 23, 1999
Messages
1,409
On to the next question, now that I have an idea of cutting Ti, any special abrasives that work better than others? Ceramic? Trizacs? I've already discovered that silicone carbide creates a better finish on Ti than AO, when hand sanding. This is going to be kinda fun to figure out!

http://www.mtn-webtech.com/~caffrey

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Ed Caffrey
"The Montana Bladesmith"


 
Ed,

What are you going to be cutting with this abrasive? If you are wondering what belt to use to profile your titanium liners use old semi worn out 3M ceramic 977 60 grit belts . I recomend them for almost everything eccept wood shaping,and only because there pricey and the cheapies work just as well. for shaping the titanium bolsters and the rest of the knife (radiusing etc...) I use a sharp 977 60 grit to rough out my knives and do all of my finer work with hermes superflex 120-400 grit I prefer the 3M 944 ceramics but havn't been able to find them
I wonder if any one out there in forum land knows were they went. ?
Hope I answered your question
Aloha Ken
 
Ed,
I agree with Ken. The 977 3M in 60/80 grit work great for shaping Ti. I converted the grinders to variable speed many years ago when i started working Ti. Heck of a lot less sparks.

For finer work I use the 707 3M thru 220 grit and use a Norton Beartex 1000 series wheel for "blending" out any grind lines.

Silicon carbide belts are the recommended way to grind Ti but I've just had better luck with the ceramic ones.

For surface grinding, I've had great luck with the Norton 39C silicon carbide wheel.

I bet the next question is gonna be on coloring Ti.
 
Your on the right track Kit, but I kinda started in the middle with this stuff. A close friend who is an electronics wiz has put together and anodizer for me. The only thing left there is to switch from an analog volt meter to a digital. Works good so far.


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Ed Caffrey
"The Montana Bladesmith"


 
Kit,
I must say this....... I saw two of your, folders at the Florida Knifemakers Show last weekend. They were at a dealers table. What ever you are doing with the Ti., It looks nice!! The finish in not highly polished but it's very smooth and gives the anodizing a sort of pastel look to it. One of the knives was that pink-magenta color and it was HOT! If you don't mind me asking, are you doing a fine bead blast to the Ti.???
Neil

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http://members.aol.com/blademakr/BlackwoodWP.html
 
Neil,
Thanks for the compliment.

It's a mixture of the finish i get with the Norton Beartex wheels and the ceramic bead blast. It's just a completely different texture than even the finest bead. Course you gotta go to a real fine finish on the Ti and blades to make it happen.

 
The ceramic belts work great on ti. There are several brands that work about the same ..
Make sure they have a heavy backing on them.
Slow your grinder down untill the sparks stop . If you see sparks you are just messing up the belt and the life will be short. If you slow it down the belt will last a while. The ti grinds like aluminum if you grind slow.
As for finish.. The yellow 220 and 320 klingspor work great for semi finishing. Kits
suggestion on the bear tex wheel is great they work fine. I have moved one step from that now. I was having some factet problems with the shape of the knife I was making..
So now I use a hard cotton buff and black 500 grit compound on the wheel at 1750. This is like a final finish that works on the rounding of corner ect well . It blends them well. Then it finished like a nice satin finish for other parted of the knife. Then on to bead blast or whatever finish I am doing as a final or just leave it like that.. It looks great after the buff and 500 grit

.....

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Web Site At www.infinet.com/~browzer/bldesmth.html
Take a look!!!




 
Ed,

I agree with Kit as far as the belts go.

For a simple finish try a wire wheel. The finish that the wheel puts on the Ti looks similar to beadblasting without the grayish color. The best part about the wire wheel
finish is, it only takes a minute to do it.
When I get my foder photo scanned I'll e-mail
it to you so you can see what the finish looks like.

BARRY JONES


--What are we going to do tonight, Brain?
The same thing we do every night, Pinky.
Try to take over the world!--
 
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