Recent Titanium Knives - Folders and Fixed (many pics)

BladeMan

Lhotak Knives
Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
Joined
Feb 12, 1999
Messages
663
Hello All,

wanting to share my recent finished Titanium knives, #12 to #18. As the other 11, those were made entirely by hand with no power tools. All parts, execpt handle scales, are made from Titanium. All blades are made from ATI425 and were HT by Mecha! :)

#12 Neck Knife
OAL: 140 mm / 5.5"
Blade: 70 mm / 2.75" long, 3 mm / 1.18"
Weight: 28 gr / 0.99 oz
Handle: Black Linen Micarta

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#13 Slim Utility
OAL: 220 mm / 8.7"
Blade: 110 mm / 4.3" long, 3.1 mm / 1.22" thick
Weight: 75 gr / 2.65 oz
Handle: Black G10. Owner wanted a slim/thin handle.

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#14 EDC
OAL: 165 mm / 6.5"
Blade: 80 mm / 3.15" long, 3.1 mm / 1.22" thick
Weight: 43 gr / 1.52 oz
Handle: Black Linen Micarta.

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#15 EDC
OAL: 165 mm / 6.5"
Blade: 80 mm / 3.15" long, 3.1 mm / 1.22" thick
Weight: 40 gr / 1.41 oz
Handle: Blue Jute Micarta.

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#16 Backlock Folder
OAL: 200 mm / 7.9"
Blade: 80 mm / 3.15" long, 2.7 mm / 1.06" thick
Weight: 65 gr / 2.29 oz
Handle: Plum Jute Micarta.

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#17 Backlock Folder
OAL: 200 mm / 7.9"
Blade: 80 mm / 3.15" long, 2.7 mm / 1.06" thick
Weight: 70 gr / 2.47 oz
Handle: Black/Red Linen Micarta.

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#18 Backlock Folder
OAL: 200 mm / 7.9"
Blade: 80 mm / 3.15" long, 2.7 mm / 1.06" thick
Weight: 67 gr / 2.36 oz
Handle: Green/Grey/Black Linen Micarta.

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Looking great!:thumbsup::cool: I'm definitely going to need one of those folders in the future...maybe one with bolsters I could "scratch up";)
 
My favorite model is the "Slim Utility" fixed blade. It looks like an all-around perfect fixed blade knife.

That green folding knife, #18, that's mine. It's just as nice in person as in the photos. Here are my phone pics of it:

https://www.instagram.com/p/CD7oEq4jMK5/

Problem is, I don't want to ugly it up with casual use. Guess I just started a knife collection, HA!
 
Where have you been? Why aren't you selling some of this great work in the Exchange?
Extremely impressive..and without power tools? Oh My!
 
How hard are the blades? Great looking work

Yes, back when I was testing them and zeroing in the HT, most were low 50s and some a bit higher. I can go harder at the expense of fracture toughness. There are a couple of steps to the HT and the blades are tested mechanically each step to ensure the phase changes happened properly. This HT was made for swords and long blades, and errs on the side of fine grain. Grain growth in titanium alloys can be crazy and get out of control fast. Hardness can get much higher but at the expense of toughness and fine grain. Some ti alloys can get well over HRc 60 but then it's possible to break it if you put it in a vice and beat it with a hammer, and that simply won't do.

The hardness values in ti alloys always vary by several points, even if a computer is doing the HT. It's the crystalline phase that is most important, with the final outcome normally controlled through alloying and not by varying the HT. In the titanium industry, batches are tested for actual strength properties, with HRc being of low value in determining strengths...it doesn't tell you much about how the alloy is going to act. However in the world of blades, hardness is important, and they need to be hard and resilient enough to be a good blade. This is the task with ti alloys - to get them to a point where the do a good job as a cutting tool, and that takes reasonable hardness. The way I make them, thin is in because the resilience of ti allows for being thin while staying really tough.

I started probing people about how to compare the blades, since that question gets asked a lot. Almost everyone says they act like a well-tempered high carbon steel blade like 1084...but sort of different in a titanium way.

The alloys all differ, though. The Ti 8mn submarine alloy I've been messing with is clearly harder than others, and accepts a different sort of HT...
The Japanese golf club face alloy SP700 has the most ridiculously fine grain I've ever seen. Looks like clay.

The alloys Blade Man is using are the two overall best and most predictable alloys I've found for a knife so far. Swords are a different matter.



Where have you been? Why aren't you selling some of this great work in the Exchange?
Extremely impressive..and without power tools? Oh My!

Why, he's been in the dungeon filing titanium, of course!
 
I'm going to add something here, since Bladeforums people are more savvy than others when it comes to blade materials, and will understand: Titanium is more like like bronze than steel. It's like extremely hard, stiff, flexible, springy, tough lightweight bronze, taken to an absolutely absurd level. Like bronze, as it gets used it gets better and better, and it's not just "work hardening." One perceptive customer of mine said it's like the ti is alive and reacting to what's happening to it. Using it on materials like leather often seems to make it even sharper, strangely.

A lot of people want to know how titanium compares to steel. Of course all the ti alloys are different, just like among steels, and heat treatment matters just like steel also. Steels are all different yet, ultimately, are all like steel. Now try to compare something like Stellite 6k to steel. Or bronze to steel. They are so different that it's difficult to compare. The question is if they make a good blade. I think steel is one of the most unique metals, and if anything, the question is how steel compares to...?

Iron, the base element of steel, is really special. It resides exactly in the middle of the periodic table of the elements between fission and fusion. Elements heavier than iron release energy when split...fission. Elements lighter than iron release energy when fused together - fusion. Iron is right smack dab in the middle. That's how mysterious and base iron is in the universe's spread of elements. It's an anchor, no pun intended. There are mysterious and amazing things happening within steel when it's heated and forged and cooled, alloyed with other elements, etc.

I'm just going to stick with titanium alloys, as they make more sense to me and seem more simple. :D I can tell what's happening to ti in a way I can't with heavily-alloyed steel.
 
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