The amazing properties of titanium!

[Lorien]

I damaged my Mad Science Forge titanium bush sword while working on a trail last week. It was a four hour cutting session, and I got most of the nasty bits at least travelable, but I was getting tired and sloppy near the end. It's a testament to this tool that I was able to thwart damage for so long, mostly due to the light weight of this cutter, but also to the design which enables wicked accuracy.

Cutting ferns is a little scary, because you'll often find rocks hidden beneath the leaves, and found a rock I did. Now, I've damaged a good number of very high end knives, all of which are steel. I guarantee you that if this happened to a steel knife, there'd be chunks missing. This ductile titanium not only work hardens, enabling a long living working edge, it is maleable enough to give way under heavy load without chipping out.

Sandwiched between some soft aluminum and squished flat in the vice;

The ripple flattened enough for hammer time;

Hit er up on the grinder, and we're back in business!

I'm in love with this, my most useful cutter, and I'm blown away by how easy this was to repair. Thanks Sammy for helping me see the light

 

[Mecha]

Slick repair job, Lorien. I see some of the heavy oxide surface was busted off during the rock strike, revealing the bronzy color of the ti beneath, which is more like its real color after being subjected to all the heat. That shows how hard it hit the rock, because that slippery gray oxide doesn't come off easily.

Your blade there was subjected to an altered heat treatment, along with two or so other ones that had similar character. I believe the results yielded blades that are hard to chip out, but the trade-off is that they don't take quite a razor edge. Yet they keep a good sharp working edge for machete use, as you mentioned before, and probably absorb impact even better than normal.

The majority of my blades have a slightly different HT than yours, and would likely have been missing some of that fine edge after smacking a rock that hard.

 

[Insipid Moniker]

Mecha is a boss. I need to get some kydex made for my Angry Inch knife at which point it will become part of a set of personal eating utensils. After all, ti has antimicrobial properties, too!

 

[BladeMan]

"they don't take quite a razor edge"

Not true, just depends if you are going the extra mile when sharpening

 

[Mecha]

"they don't take quite a razor edge"

Not true, just depends if you are going the extra mile when sharpening

I'm positive it's due to the heat treatment of Lorien's blade, because a couple of other ones have been treated the same and on those I also had difficulty getting a razor edge, and they had the same sort of "plastic" feel and sound. His TitaniLor had the normal "metallic" feel and got very sharp, but also would have probably lost some edge material on that rock.

This one was a similar HT as Lorien's, had the same feel, and was also damn near my personal favorite ever! X]

 

[Lorien]

I like that handle on that one! Nice job, Oye

this cutter of mine will take a shaving edge, it just doesn't keep it for long and takes some fiddling to get the wire off as it just doesn't seem to enjoy shedding material. Ironically, it keeps a working edge at least as long as anything else I've used

 

[TRog]

Lorien thats one hell of a ding you put on that edge but im even more impressed with the work you put into fixing it. Awesome.

 

[TRog]

I'm positive it's due to the heat treatment of Lorien's blade, because a couple of other ones have been treated the same and on those I also had difficulty getting a razor edge, and they had the same sort of "plastic" feel and sound. His TitaniLor had the normal "metallic" feel and got very sharp, but also would have probably lost some edge material on that rock.

This one was a similar HT as Lorien's, had the same feel, and was also damn near my personal favorite ever! X]

Mecha is the bush sword pictured in front of Captain Jean-Luc Picard for sale? I havnt seen you post up anything in the fixed blade knife makers area in a while. But i was hoping you were cause id love to get one of those bush swords for backpacking at some point. Thanks

-Tony

 

[Mecha]

Mecha is the bush sword pictured in front of Captain Jean-Luc Picard for sale? I havnt seen you post up anything in the fixed blade knife makers area in a while. But i was hoping you were cause id love to get one of those bush swords for backpacking at some point. Thanks

-Tony

Hi TRog, that one's long gone. A handful of very cool private blade fanatics have kept me busy, and the big blades take a good bit of time to make, so I haven't been able to post anything for a while. However, I'm working on a batch of "Siberian Slasher" machetes made from some nice Russian ti, which will be posted for sale when they're finished. They should be a lot more affordable than something that's sculpted into shape like a forged sword blade. Like these, except shaped differently:

https://www.madscienceforge.com/laboratory/pages/en/oddities/ultralight-hiking-machetes.php

 

[TRog]

Right up my ally! Keep me posted. "Siberian Slasher" i can dig it. Thanks