Tiny sword-like knife

Mecha

Mecha

Titanium Bladesmith
Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
Joined
Dec 27, 2013
Messages
10,020
Hello all,

This small, slim fixed blade is supposed to be an all-around sort of everyday cutting tool. I have a problem: everything keeps trying to be a sword, and this one is no exception. It's like a tiny sword, complete with bronze guard! :D

The forged beta titanium blade's profile is traced on the tabletop. It's 7 3/4" oal, with a blade of about 4", and exhibits a steep, needle-like distal taper in blade thickness. It shreds right through thick leather as if it was paper. The bison hide sheath was made by leather construction droid Øye.

Sorry for the crude photos, and thanks for looking.

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Crude makers take crude photos.
Goodgawd I love this knife!!!!!
rolf
 
I'll stick to my mini-gladius, which really looks like a sword !
 
Lovely :)
Really like how it tapers.
 
Love it! What's the weight?

~Chip
 
Thanks guys~ :]

Sorry, I didn't weigh it before it was in the mail and gone.
 
I just love the Tayloresque title for this thread. Knife is pretty impressive, too :)
 
Lycosa said:
I bet that bronze guard made it heavy.
:]
:D
Click to expand...

The bronze gave it a reassuring sense of being there at all. :D

Thanks guys.

I like my blades thin, and that includes the big ones. One of the myths of using titanium alloys as a big blade, is that it must be extra thick to hold together. On the contrary, thinner ones perform much better than thick. With the weight of the 89.5Ti 10Nb 0.5Fe beta ti alloy being about 70% of the weight of basic steel, combined with a thin distal taper and balanced by the hilt, the result is a sword that is easy to use even just using the fingers and a flick of the wrist. It's like a huge razor blade that pretty much teleports to wherever you want, and can take a strong, hard impact without deforming the edge. Once you get used to it, it's kind of otherworldly, and the blade just does what you want and is naturally quite easy to control - it doesn't just keep going after a cut and plow into anything else (like yourself!).

For example, this sword with a blade about 2 feet long was around 3/16" thick at the guard, and tapered down to about 1/8" spine thickness where the metal meets the meat.

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Here is the blade in a testing video, which is really testing the blade's thin edge to ensure it won't deform upon impact:

[video=youtube;e4FQkZBuF_0]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4FQkZBuF_0[/video]


The gentleman who ended up with this sword was happy that he could use it to split wood, but I'm pretty sure his lady decided it was hers instead! :D
 
Last edited:
Sam- If I may, your description on how a Ti sword feels in the hand, is on the mark. And, the way it cuts.
Holding a traditional katana is like holding an angel, a deadly angel. The only other time I experienced this, is with my William Nease TiKat. Trancendental.
rolf
 
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