Advanced titanium machete design with build video

Mecha

Mecha

Titanium Bladesmith
Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
Joined
Dec 27, 2013
Messages
9,887
Hello all,

Here is a machete design that could be considered pretty refined for use with titanium alloys. This is the largest one so far using the snub-nosed shape, which will be made even larger and fully-hilted as an advanced titanium alloy sword that makes acute use of ti's character. :D

Here is a video of the making of this machete:


[video=youtube;FbyKcA2VeCw]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbyKcA2VeCw&feature=youtu.be[/video]


Thanks for looking! :)

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Next to an older blade:

SnF35Vr.jpg


The older chopper (bottom) weighs 12 ounces, while the new one weighs 9 ounces and easily cuts much deeper. OAL of the new one pictured on top is about 24"
 
That's awesome Sam, just the ticket for clearing an unruly backyard jungle:D

~Chip
 
That's right! Every unruly shrub an enemy ninja. :D
 
A machete is a tool. And, one never has to worry about these tools rusting or getting blood stained. Zombie blood.
rolf
 
Incredible work !


Sent via telegraph by the same fingers I use to sip whiskey
 
Lycosa said:
A machete is a tool. And, one never has to worry about these tools rusting or getting blood stained. Zombie blood.
rolf
Click to expand...

Or Aliens! They got the acid blood ya know ;)

~Chip
 
This fact just can't be stressed enough, in my book... this stuff doesn't weigh anything. To place this in context, a Spyderco Paramilitary 2 has a blade length of 3.42", and weighs 3.9 ounces, or put differently, it weighs about 43% as much as the Mecha Machete.

:eek:
 
That's why it's so much fun once you get up around the 2-foot mark or bigger; just an easy flick of the wrist gives it the speed to bite nicely. The strange shock-absorbing aspect of the alloy then comes into play, making it "thud" with a dead, shock-absorbing weight that feels heavier than it should. This TiNb alloy is a bit heavier than the common 6al4v. It's weight about midway between aluminum and iron.
 
Lycosa said:
A machete is a tool. And, one never has to worry about these tools rusting or getting blood stained. Zombie blood.
rolf
Click to expand...

Wisdom.

Nice work Sam. Out of curiosity, why do you prefer the snub nose on your knives and machetes?
 
Why, thank you, Chris.^
I hope to acquire a knife from Sam asaic.
rolf
 
I like the shape a lot, and can attest to the performance of the material brought out by Sam's madscience manipulations of it
 
Slick work Sam! Been wondering when you'd post more action videos. Liking the snub nosed profile.
 
Beautiful work Sam!
And lovely hammer :)
 
Another Otherworldly Mecha Creation....[emoji102][emoji106]


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Sam- If you grew a thumbnail and ground it to a point, that'd be a weapon. :)
rolf
 
That would be a fascinating dha, if you stretched the hilt and blade a bit. Nice work as always.
 
Thanks everyone, I'm glad you like the video. I thought it was funny how exciting music can jazz up something as mundane as grinding on a bar of metal. :D

J W, that's going to happen all right...it will be a one-sword whirlwind with that form!

Chris Larrikin: it's hard to explain the blunt nose. The tip of the blade above was inspired by an old Chinese jian double-edged sword with a rather blunt, triangular tip...it's like half of that jian, but curved and single-edged, and with a flared tip. Think of the Katzbalger sword, with its rounded tip for close-quarter combat in a time when many layers of loose clothing were the style of the day.

I think that altogether the thick point at the upswept tip, the front sharpened edge, and the thin point where the front edge and the main edge meet are more useful than a longer, more pointy tip that can run something through. Because of the weight and feel of this big blade, you're likely to be whipping it all over the place, pushing things with it, hacking them to bits. A thin, skinny blade tip would limit this sort of cavalier use, and that's just simply no fun. A skinny blade tip is more easy to overwhelm and damage.

The ti is lightweight, so a flared tip adds a lot of cutting power back that can be lost with a narrowing point on such light material, and without throwing the balance off or making the end too thin. The wide tip can be used to jab at something, cut it, and not get stuck or caught up in the thing being jabbed. (If this material is shaped into a dagger, dirk or pointier blade, the weight just seems to disappear altogether, good for other reasons.)

With this blade style, the above applies to both using it as a machete, or as a weaponly sword. The flared tip gives the blade the inertial feel and function of weight without actually adding significant weight. It's also a tough point by design.

I also like the way they look. Somewhat SE Asian in style, like J W Bensinger was saying. Sort of a combination of a refined sword/weapon and a machete/plant tool. It's a design that functions very smoothly and well using ti alloy as a material.

The knives are just tiny versions of the big blades. I think they're useful for push cutting and scraping, useful in general, and also because once again you can be more "loose" with the knife as a tool without jabbing yourself or something else that isn't supposed to get jabbed. :D

Thanks for asking Chris, and thanks for the comments, everyone. :]
 
It was a hoot getting to see you make it, and I love seeing the tap-hammer at work. The music is oddly appropriate. :D

Love to see some cutting video with it.
 
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