Can Titanium be forge welded to steel?

wolf5391

wolf5391

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Sep 23, 2010
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Like the title states, I was looking up san-mai steel and was curious if it is possible to forge weld steel and titanium.

Ive never seen it done so I assuming its cant but I figured Id ask.:thumbup:


Thanks in advance.
 
Pardon my brevity with that, I hope that didn't come off as rude.

If you look, there are some dissimilar metals that can be fused with 'explosive welding' and the like. I'm not sure if titanium and steel can be done that way. They literally take the two metals, bare sides together and pack explosives on top. The force bonds the two metals whether they like it or not.

Now, I happen to have seen a knife somewhere that has a mechanically attached steel edge on a titanium body. The connection between the two resembles the brazing joint and keyholes on the Kershaw bi-metal stuff. I say mechanically as it was most likely heated/cooled, placed and held together by the resulting friction.
 
LucyCustomKnives said:
Pardon my brevity with that, I hope that didn't come off as rude.

If you look, there are some dissimilar metals that can be fused with 'explosive welding' and the like. I'm not sure if titanium and steel can be done that way. They literally take the two metals, bare sides together and pack explosives on top. The force bonds the two metals whether they like it or not.

Now, I happen to have seen a knife somewhere that has a mechanically attached steel edge on a titanium body. The connection between the two resembles the brazing joint and keyholes on the Kershaw bi-metal stuff. I say mechanically as it was most likely heated/cooled, placed and held together by the resulting friction.
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Not rude at all, I just needed an answer to my some of the crazy Ideas I have in my head.

I wanted a san mai billet of titanium and a high carbon steel such as 1095 or 1080.

The corrosion resistance of ti with the cutting ability of steel.

I have the answer I thought I was going to get and I'm fine with that :)

Off to the next idea.

Thanks again for the reply.
 
Could some kind of damascus be achieved by folding the 2 metals repeatedly or would one end up with many very thin foils which don't stick together?
 
Several makers are doing stainless sanmai and stainless damascus laminates. 416 over a W2 core and the like. Mike Norris sells billets of stainless damascus over D2. It is pricey stuff but nice. Covers the corrosion resistance but is obviously heavier.
 
At least I'm not the only one that's had that thought cross my mind. Though if it were possible without explosives that would make for some beautiful blades with a dark high carbon and the blueish titanium. Stupid science ruining my dreams.
 
LeaderofthePack said:
At least I'm not the only one that's had that thought cross my mind. Though if it were possible without explosives that would make for some beautiful blades with a dark high carbon and the blueish titanium. Stupid science ruining my dreams.
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My thoughts exactly :D

so many cool things could happen if we could just the two materials to bond
 
Even if you could figure a way to laminate Carbon steel between Titanium slabs, all the corrosion would be going on at the micro edge.
 
A company did sell some explosion welded knives with Ti outer layer and 1095 core. Can't remember the name of the co right now. Anyhow they stopped producing due to problems with delam and the corrosion issue. The 1095 would rust and travel up between the layers causing the blade to delaminate.
 
Explosive welding of steel to titanium has been done for 40 + years. Heat exchangers for example.
 
I mentioned explosive welding but I would think the cost and size would be prohibitive for us.

Of course I have connections with guys certified in explosive entry. I wonder if I could do a single bar with a little ANFO or something... :)
 
If anyone could do it, it'd probably be Mardi Mashejian. He does some impressive and funky stuff with non-ferrous alloys as well as steel, and has done a lot of hot work with titanium.
 
That's interesting. I wonder if he had it explosively bonded or copied the s-bond technique. I had seen the s-bond method and figured it could probably be done in a home shop, however the bonds delivered through that method didn't seem viable for a knife that would see any type of real use. Meant more for large surfaces that don't see the lateral force or flexing of a thin blade.

Cool blade. I'd own it even if it is a wall hanger.

-Eric
 
Carcara said:
People making timascus do it in a forge with a variant of a canister technique.
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I am familiar with the timascus technique actually. I am also aware of a shop being set on fire while playing with making timascus a while back....
I was referring (as was the OP) to the titanium to steel bond. The two do not weld under normal atmospheric conditions and with the equipment present in most shops. It takes special equipment or techniques that the normal shop cannot duplicate... like the use of explosives...
 
Heavier? How does making San Mai make anything heavier?

LucyCustomKnives said:
Several makers are doing stainless sanmai and stainless damascus laminates. 416 over a W2 core and the like. Mike Norris sells billets of stainless damascus over D2. It is pricey stuff but nice. Covers the corrosion resistance but is obviously heavier.
Click to expand...
 
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