Titanium layering idea, comments?

[DOTTB]

Awhile back my friend got a Titanium alloy, I forget which one, and I had an idea to make a layered knife out of it. Usually this is done in forging, but Ti is almost impossible to do so, so I thought of using hard steel which can be forged as the layers inbetween the Ti layers. Thus welding the steel to the Ti, and enhancing its edge holding ability, giving its Ti strength, and Steels edge holding ability. So, is this possible, and if so, how??

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I can draw any knife I want, I just can't afford to make it, or buy it.....

 

[GrantP]

DOTTB,

Are you thinking of doing a three-layer sandwich, Ti on the outsides and a high carbon steel in the middle?

In principle it is quite possible to bond steel to Ti in the solid state. However this would likely be done by an exotic process like friction stir welding or explosive welding that can get *both* metals to deform. This ensures that the oxide layer at the interface is well broken up.

If you cannot get the titanium plates to deform then the oxide layer on them will not rupture and you will fail to get any bonding. Your only hope then is that the oxide layer will dissolve into the steel and/or the titanium. That is called diffusion bonding.

Grant

 

[Sumo]

If I remember right, there was a company called Tigrys(sp?) that did something similar a few years back, they used some sort of brazing technique to fuse the layers on their blades I believe.

Rich