Sharpening titanium blades

N

Nico Owlman

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Jun 6, 2017
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Does anyone have experience in sharpening blades of titanium or titanium alloy? What would be the hardness (HRC) of titanium blades? Could I use my Shaptons and/or Naniwas?
 
Ti is very strong & tough, but not very hard as used in knife blades. If I recall correctly, hardness tops out in roughly mid- or high-40s HRC. I think the bigger issue in trying to sharpen them is preventing severe clogging of the stones used. A friend of mine had a Ti kitchen knife years ago, and clogging was the main difficulty he & I had in trying to sharpen it with a dry hone; it clogged VERY fast. I assume waterstones should work OK (while admitting I haven't used them), as a wetted stone should help minimize clogging issues, I'd think. I'd make the same assumption for oilstones as well.

Edited to add:
Given the same opportunity to attempt sharpening a Ti blade again, I might even be inclined to try something like a file (mill bastard file), as relatively low in hardness as these blades seem to be. A file should cut it easily, though I might still lubricate it with oil first. The clogging issue I saw with a dry hone (I think it was a diamond hone) reminded me more of galling of metal, than of the typical loading of swarf seen in sharpening regular cutlery steel. Really makes a mess of the sharpening tool, necessitating a heavy scrubbing afterward.


David
 
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View attachment 801488 View attachment 801489 View attachment 801490 Some Titanium blades (Boker Cera-Titan) contain TiC which is much harder than 48HRC. So the inclusion of Carbides or diamonds in the blade may mess up your files. I have had no problem sharpening Mission Knives (“beta Titanium”) or Boker Cera-Titan Knives on a Norton Trihone in an oil bath. The coarse and medium stones are Silicon Carbide, and the fine stone is Aluminum Oxide. If swarf develops on the stone I am using, I loosen the crud with an auto parts cleaning brush and some oil from the bath. Then I squeegee the dirty oil into the bath with a rubber kitchen spatula. The solids drop to the bottom of the trough, and the oil is clean again.
 
Thanks, all.

I assumed titanium to be very hard and brittle. It seems to depend on what kind of alloy is used. Anyway, sharpening both titanium and alloys thereof on my waterstones wouldn't be a problem, I think.
 
I don't have a ton of experiences sharpening titanium. But here's a small data point. A couple nights ago, I grabbed all the scissors and shears around the house that we use regularly, several of those were the kind of general purpose scissors that cost around $10 and say they have titanium blades. I used my aluminum oxide Arctic Fox stone and freehand sharpened all the scissors edges. That aluminum oxide stone was able to get each of those titanium scissor blades screaming sharp, it only took like 5 light passes per blade and they were done. It was actually surprisingly easy to sharpen those.
 
It is likely that $10 scissors do not have Titanium blades but rather have steel blades that are coated with a Ti ceramic coat like Titanium Nitride which is Gold colored. Titanium ceramic coatings are found on drill bits, tool bits, knife blades, etc.
 
tiguy7 said:
It is likely that $10 scissors do not have Titanium blades but rather have steel blades that are coated with a Ti ceramic coat like Titanium Nitride which is Gold colored. Titanium ceramic coatings are found on drill bits, tool bits, knife blades, etc.
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I think you're right, these are fiskars and say titanium on them but when I look up the retail descriptions online, they say stuff like this: "Non-stick blade coating", and "Titanium-enhanced stainless-steel blades." So it's just a coating to reduce friction.
 
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