[TheForge] Titanium

[Andrew Vida]

debmiller at fuse.net wrote:
> Hey Guys,
> I must admit to forgetting whether or not I asked this question.
> I have a welding class with a student interested in forging a 
> blade out of titanium. 

	Just this side of useless as a cutting utensil.
> 
> I mentioned that on this lost some people have 
> recommended against titanium several times. I cannot 
> remember why.

	Far too soft. 6-4 alloy used to be the hardest of them (may no longer 
be the case... been a few years since I dealt with it).

	It makes a miserable knife compared to a good steel.
> 
> If titanium is a potential blade material does anyone have a 
> chunk roughly 2" x 8" x 1 1/2" or so that you would sell him?

	You also have to be a bit careful with forging the alloys.  First you 
have the issues of safety WRT fumes of vanadium, which may not kill you, 
but they won't help you much either.  Hot forging 6-4 is, as I recall, 
best accomplished with a hydraulic press.  This can all be looked up in 
a Mark's Handbook.  These alloys are not easy to forge the way CP is. 
In grinding, they glaze wheels heavily.  And in the end you may have a 
really nice looking, but functionally useless knife.  As I recall, 
SEAL/UDT has a Ti alloy knife that they use for certain types of 
operation.  I have heard that their usefulness is exceptionally limited.