Fairly Knives Chat Thread!!!

Is this where the cool people hang out? :D
 
^ apparently! :D

Hi Mecha! I've been enjoying your subforum here, good to see. I just got some grade 38 Ti in on Saturday btw.

IMWILSON, doing well, kind of a pain but I am just so glad to be able to see again! I don't think I was going to make it as a blues guitar player! :D

Woodysone I should finish up something new today so look out!


I am grinding a big piece of Beta Titanium today, first piece ever!
 
Daniel Fairly Knives said:
^ apparently! :D

Hi Mecha! I've been enjoying your subforum here, good to see. I just got some grade 38 Ti in on Saturday btw.

IMWILSON, doing well, kind of a pain but I am just so glad to be able to see again! I don't think I was going to make it as a blues guitar player! :D

Woodysone I should finish up something new today so look out!


I am grinding a big piece of Beta Titanium today, first piece ever!
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Glad you like the subforum.

Grade 38 is interesting stuff. I think it's easier to work than grade 5 because the 38 is crisp and doesn't want to gall as much. I think 38 will start to displace grade 5 as the general use ti alloy for stuff and things.

Big piece of beta ti! :eek: What alloy? You making a big machete? :D
 
Interesting on the gr 38, it did grind almost like hardened steel. Tough to grind like 3V... It was really slow grinding and seemed to grind away with little pressure almost better than with a lot. I almost always grind Ti slowly. Only 2 pieces of this alloy ground so far so that barely counts!

I know a guy who makes the very best Ti machetes :D so I'm sticking with somewhat smaller stuff! It is the grade 38, (it is Beta from what I have read but is it properly called that?) I'm making Kwaikens, Prybars and KCT's.

I found some heat treat info on the material spec page, I might try it to see what I can get. https://www.atimetals.com/Products/Documents/datasheets/titanium/alloyed/ati_38-644_tds_en_v1.pdf



5 knives bevels ground yesterday... some are pretty close like the Kwaiken I posted here. I'll see what else I can get done!
 
Daniel Fairly Knives said:
Interesting on the gr 38, it did grind almost like hardened steel. Tough to grind like 3V... It was really slow grinding and seemed to grind away with little pressure almost better than with a lot. I almost always grind Ti slowly. Only 2 pieces of this alloy ground so far so that barely counts!

I know a guy who makes the very best Ti machetes :D so I'm sticking with somewhat smaller stuff! It is the grade 38, (it is Beta from what I have read but is it properly called that?) I'm making Kwaikens, Prybars and KCT's.

I found some heat treat info on the material spec page, I might try it to see what I can get. https://www.atimetals.com/Products/Documents/datasheets/titanium/alloyed/ati_38-644_tds_en_v1.pdf



5 knives bevels ground yesterday... some are pretty close like the Kwaiken I posted here. I'll see what else I can get done!
Click to expand...

That other stuff your kwaiken is made from is beta alloy.

38 isn't what you would call a "proper" beta metastable ti alloy, but it ACTS like one due to the very high iron content, but it also acts differently than anything else I've encountered. Iron is so potent as a beta stabilizer that it sort of makes 38 act like it's very own ti alloy, and also counteracts the high level of impurities, particularly oxygen. So you get the crisp, hard effects of oxygen without the embrittlement, because it is neutralized by the high level of iron somehow. It's like getting the effects of high atmospheric impurity and the strong beta phase effects of the iron all in one.

The thing is, grade 5 was originally an aerospace all purpose alloy, one of the reasons there were so many different grades of it based on minute differences in oxygen content. It is extremely resistant to cracking, light weight, and can do pretty much anything. But it's kind of soft, which makes it work very well with tungsten carbide edge treatment (which I found did NOT work well at all with hardened ti alloys). Because grade 5 was the most abundant, over time it was coopted into use in everything else ti. 6al4v (usually grade 5) is not necessary for various titanium things that are made from it, it's just the one that was around. Grade 38 is new, and is better for most normal non-airplane titanium things in my opinion, which do not require the same purity and general characteristics as aerospace parts, imo. Grade 38 is great stuff, and the alloying elements and impurities make it as good or better for many tasks that grade 5 has been used for up until now. You see Grade 38 being used more and more, for good reason. It was made to be ballistic armor and thus so far I've only seen it in plate and some thick sheet, but I bet that will change if it hasn't already. Grade 38 is a lot more efficient to make than grade 5, and will allow ti alloy to be used more commonly, for non-aerospace type things that are normally seen in steel or aluminum.
 
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The best blade ti alloys I have found for hardening into a huge blade are "near beta" alloys that are not fully beta phase metastable. 38 is like one of those, but with its own unique twist. At any rate, when used as a blade or anything else, the ti is not in beta phase.

The shop knife I use all day is a beat up grade 5 with tungsten carbide. :D
 
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