Titanium Dao-Updated

David Stifle

David Stifle

Joined
Nov 20, 2008
Messages
10,188
Hi Folks, this is a 21" long Beta Metastable Titanium blade, the billet was forged by the Titanium Master himself, Mecha, and ground and finished by yours truly. It weighs 1 pound, 4 ounces, and is as fast as lightening, holds an edge as fine as a hunting knife without rolling or chipping, even against the very hardest of wood. The OAL is 29", and it is just plain old fun to use this sweet little honey.
 
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That is pretty damn cool! :thumbup:
 
Pretty friggin' sweet! I bet that thing is indeed FAST!!! :cool: What kind of hardness does this type of Ti achieve along the edge?
 
SpyderPhreak said:
Pretty friggin' sweet! I bet that thing is indeed FAST!!! :cool: What kind of hardness does this type of Ti achieve along the edge?
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Thank you! That's a question for Mecha, since he Ht'ed it. All I can say is I sharpened it close to a hunting knife, it is very sharp! It did not dull even when I chopped hard oak. However, it does sharpen on a diamond hone.
 
I'd probably lose a limb very quickly if I had some time with that but I'd be smiling when I did it.
 
That is really nice..!:thumbup: and nice work on the pics Dave..
 
Most excellent work guys. A welcome change from the mill. Sam, I swear if I ever get in the black. I need a beta ti from you. I thinking full tang 7-9" Bowie.
 
Awsome blade Dave, that turned out really nice.:thumbup:
 
Dang David Stifle, that looks like a fine sword, and it's unmistakably your style! I knew you'd make something great with that billet, and I'm really happy that you took on the challenge, as if there was ever a doubt. :) These lightweight big blades really are fun to use, and so easy to control because of the lack of inertia. They don't just keep going after a cut and plow right into your kneecap, you can stop them easily at any point.

You polished that thing more into more of a mirror than any I've ever made. Did you confirm any hamon action?

After the main grinding, this was sent back to me for heat-treatment, and sent back to Dave so he could finish it. Here are the three photos of it directly after HT:

wEkPEce.jpg


3Md780B.jpg


eSBdWYY.jpg
 
SpyderPhreak said:
Pretty friggin' sweet! I bet that thing is indeed FAST!!! :cool: What kind of hardness does this type of Ti achieve along the edge?
Click to expand...

Good question. The best direct answer I can give you with a straight face is, "around HRc 50." That said, hardness in beta ti doesn't directly correlate to the same thing you see in steels, because of the titanium's oddball resistances and properties, sort of like what you see in talonite. I quit trying to test them a while back and focused instead on making the metal perform better instead of just trying to make it harder. Being fixated on hardness tests was dragging the process down.

The blade should be harder along the edge than the spine, as heat-treating times and temps for beta ti is dependent upon thickness, so the HT is sort of an analog process. I do it by eyeball, watching for decalescence (which is blatant in this alloy) and then holding the temperature for a length of time determined by the size, thickness and geometry of the blade, followed by quenching (solution treating) and aging. Every blade is different, but all of them should show a gradient in crystalline structure and "hardness" from the blade edge to the spine, with the edges stacked with an insane HCP "titanium martensite," called Alpha Prime. The spine will be more BCC beta phase and normal alpha phase. The big mystery is what's in between. It could be beta prime or even a rhomboidal crystal matrix. Dave said he thought he could see some hamon action after polishing the blade. If I can get a REAL hamon in beta titanium swords, by which I mean an actual "tempering line" that is a real, visible and useful shift in crystal phases, it will be one of the ultimate aesthetic advancements for these swords.
 
Sam, it was a pleasure working with you on this sweet little blade. Thanks for giving me the chance to learn something about this cool steel. As far as a hamon, yes, there was one, but as I polished the blade it vanished. I didn't try FC simply because I didn't think it would work, but now I wish I'd tried it anyway. I might still wipe the blade down with it, just to see if there is any effect at all. I doubt it, but one never knows. I'm not as young as Lorien is in the tree cutting video, and I don't want to cut down huge trees like he did, but my own tests with the sword shows it can cut seasoned dry oak firewood with ease, and it still retains a shaving sharp edge. I honestly think you are onto something great, and will always support your efforts to spread the word about beta-ti.
 
Very cool! The single element that stands out the most to me is the guard with the Turk's head knot sandwiched between the two metal pieces. Never seen that kind of approach before.
 
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