Sharpening Ti?

[ohen cepel]

So does one sharpen Ti the same way as steel?
Wet stone and go, or is there a better way?

Just afraid I may be there all night and not much has happened

Thanks!

 

[Esav Benyamin]

You can sharpen Ti the same way you would sharpen steel. Mission Knives makes a small portable diamond rod sharpener that wont disturb the non-magnetic signature of the Ti.

 

[Klesk]

Just keep in mind that Ti is softer than blade steel. I had a Ti knife, and I went at it like I would with a regular steel-bladed knife. Being that aggressive only made a wire edge that flopped back and forth. I e-mailed the maker, and he told me to take it easy on the blade, as Ti is relatively soft. So I sharpened it very gently on a ultra-fine ceramic, and I got it rough shaving sharp. Since the blade is pretty soft, I don't think you can get or want the knife any sharper. If you were able to get it wicked sharp, I would think that it would dull pretty quickly.

 

[Jeff Clark]

Titanium is elastic. Think of what would happen if you tried to abrade a rubber band with a whetstone. It would do very little with a fine hone. You need a sharp abrasive with comparitively tall grit to exceed the elastic limits of the titanium and remove significant amounts of material. With a smooth hone you are essentially steeling the edge and pushing material around. For a significantly dull titanium knife I like to use a fine diamond hone or water stone.

And yet titanium is softer than steel and a coarse or agressive hone will remove material fast. When you remove more material from a blade than the bare minimum to reach the edge you start to form a burr. The more elastic or ductile the material (the less brittle) the more that the excess material at the edge will fold over rather than be cut off by your hone. Titanium is anything but brittle and will form a burr. The size is not a function of the coarseness of your hone, it is a function of how much excess material you removed from the edge of your blade. It is simply easier to go overboard with a fast cutting hone. Once you get a burr the best way to remove it is to take a sharp reasonably fine hone and elevate your honing angle to 45-degrees and do about 10 light edge forwards honing strokes alternating sides. This should cut off your burr. Then do a similar number of light edge-forwards honing strokes on the same hone at your normal honing angle.

You can finish the edge with ceramic rods if you like or you can leave the edge a little rough. I tend to leave titanium a little rough so I finish with a very-fine diamond hone. I have a titanium kitchen knife that works well with that edge finish.

 

[Cliff Stamp]

You can get Ti very sharp, I have seen it sharp enough to push shave, push right down into newsprint, etc. . Just like with steels it has better edge retention the sharper you get it, though as Jeff noted pick the right finish, which may be a bit coarse depending on what you want.

The only thing that I would take care of, is that I have found Ti to stick to ceramic hones readily, and it is difficult to clean. I have a few ceramic rods which have Ti streaks on them which have refused to come off, even though steel loadings have come on gone with frequent use and cleanings.

-Cliff