Which Titanium Alloy?

No, love him as you love yourself. Offer him a Ti knife, at least to borrow, or at the very least give him a demonstration ~ kind of like what comes to mind with a ZT 0100 (beautiful work of art in 3V, imagine it in Ti!)

Show him the way, Lyc, SHOW HIM THE WAY!
 
estate4life said:
We here in USA supplies THE best TI from mill. However, sadly ever since 6-8 months ago, CHINA stolen our intellectual property, especially military Grade 5 6al4v Titanium alloy. Now China is offering Titanium for sale online. China is stealing everything.

Back to Titanium...most commonly use is Grade 5 (6al4v) with or w/o heat treatment. Pure Titanium property by itself is soft like grade 2 CP3. It's when formulate with alloy that is when the mechanical property strengthen. Raw materials of Titanium is now indeed not cheap. But when material with certificate, then price goes sky high. But wouldn't worry about that on knives...certs goes with aerospace application.
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Yes the production volume of titanium alloy and finished mill products has skyrocketed in China. Certainly the techniques and technology concerning ti alloys have been sold, or simply offshored, more than stolen. I'm sure the quality of stock is at least loosely tied to the price. Buyer beware! :)

I don't want to be bad-mouthing manufacturer's products, but the quality of titanium blades concerns me a lot. By way of example, here is a common "beta titanium" dive knife. This was brought over to my sword shop by Bladeforums member [Classified], to destruction test its quality. It IS a titanium alloy of some sort. When clamped into a vice, it was pretty easy to snap with a hammer blow. No properly treated ti alloy can snap like that. Look at the horrid, blown-out grain structure of this piece, probably created in attempt to jack up the Rockwell numbers to make it sound more marketable. This one tests at HRc 50, due partly because the surface has a rather thick oxide layer:

I0ut2M9.jpg


OY1tCOv.jpg


It's like titanium pot metal, and performs as such. It's barely even a butter knife, and is a virtually useless knife-like object. This sort of thing perpetuates the notion that titanium alloys can't make a good blade. The edge was very easy to deform, and was much weaker than even the HRc 32-35 edge of a plain 6al4v blade made of decent alloy as-milled.

It's a disgrace that the majority of the fine, exotic titanium alloy scrap in the USA is now sent in bulk overseas to be ruined in dirty remelts and turned into things like this, rather than being available to the public, as it once was, from aerospace companies like Boeing. Not to sound political, but originally it's mostly paid for straight-up by tax money, and it ain't cheap. It's like throwing away treasure.

Here is a video of two of my older swords (some of the first), with a heat-treatment significantly worse than what I do now. The blades at HRc 42-ish took no damage or warpage at all from the chopping, and are still going strong a few years later with fine, very sharp edges. Purity, quality, heat-treatment, and how the metal is processed are very important in ti alloys.

[video=youtube;rqrXu0fsR4g]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqrXu0fsR4g[/video]
 
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When you buy from China you NEVER know what you will get. Pet foods that kill dogs and cats, alloys that are not like any known alloy, etc,etc . In the long term poor quality from China hurts all other sources !
 
Yes. I've heard many times that China's industry can and does produce quality goods, but that things made for export are usually substandard just because it makes lots of money. I expect the situation will change when quality is held in higher esteem than quantity, by the countries importing the goods. All 'tis but a fleeting moment in time. :)
 
Rilner- What kills me about my friend is that he is one of the smartest people I know and then he makes a idiotic statement like this. But, he's not the only one. I mean, one can't talk about a book unless one has read it. I will show him the Mad Science video.
And Sam! Thanks for posting the above video. I truly love you. You are just like your Titanium.
rolf
 
Sometimes people's minds are made up a certain way because of experience, or a lack thereof in some cases. Maybe he doesn't believe it can hold an edge? Not on it's own as far as I know, it requires a little extra epicosity (real word, yes, yes it is) to make it bloom and for aaaaaall those pretty rewards to come a-FLOWIN' in.

You see - you can make a theory of evolution for it, just like with people.

Ti: When a mommy metal and a daddy metal love each other VERY MUCH - Ti blade (just don't tell the children about polyamory until they're ready for it).

People: When a mommy and a daddy love each other VERY MUCH - THE STORK.


Not buyin' it, huh? Me too ~ needs a little tweaking, but you get it.
 
Yep! ^ lol!
He also insists the WD40 is made from fish oil. So not true. I called the company.
Shud I hand him my Mission MPF?
 
By the read of that, no, I'm not sure I would, because of how much value you attach to it. If you have another one you don't care for so much, then maybe. Or buy him one if that workss for you and let him play with it, I guess.

Yay. When do you buy me one?

Bounds - OVERSTEPPED -
 
He can buy his own.
Back on... It took awhile for the air to clear but the Titanium blade is here to stay and we will see improvements made on this fantastic metal.
Check out the FAT Ti JSB Daniel Fairly is making in honor of Phill Hartsfield.
rolf
 
Hmmm, seeing the Kwaiken by Matt Gregory... over and over again. Gots a link, suh?
 
Here's a question for ya ~ how does Ti react with contact saline solutions as opposed to Stainless Steel?
 
Rilner- My friend has unlimited resources or I'd buy him a Ti knife. I don't.
Go the Daniel Fairly Knives, right here on Bladeforums.
A Mission Ti knife has been soaking in salt water for years with no sign of corrosion.
 
Alright, stayyyy calm. We're all friends here. I get it, it's fine. It's aaaaall fine.

A blade like that I can see, I was thinking more in terms of comparing electrodes (I know it should be the same thing, I was wondering how stainless would compare. That's not even fair right, what kind of stainless?)
 
LOL you guys are nuts. :D

I'mma just keep beating beta ti into the best swords I can make.
 
6al4v Ti with a 72 RC Tungsten Carbide Edge... check it out!

This is my favorite combo for EDC. I like the way the combo cuts so aggressively, the knives will never rust, the edge is very durable and I never notice the knife in my pocket.
 
Having owned 3 genuine Mission Knives and some FKMD knives in Beta Ti , I can say that old school Mission knives in Beta Ti are the best ones to get(if you can afford them, they are incredibly expensive). They can be spotted by looking at the logo on the ricasso. The new logo says Mission with a more stylish and italic font while the old one has more of a Mash-looking straight type of a font. The old ones supposedly had a better heat treatment, which I can tell might very well be true. If someone can confirm this, would have been great.
 
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