Sword build: forged titanium gladius

[Mecha]

The sword side of the forum is too sleepy. Must be time for a public spectacle.

Presented for your viewing entertainment, the making of a beta titanium gladius, Mad Science Forge style!

Grab a goblet of wine, take a seat in the colosseum, ready your cheers and jeers, and let the games begin!

Entering the arena, 18 inches of very rare 89.5Ti 10Nb 0.5Fe titanium alloy, made in the U.S.A. Will it survive its first brutal challenge by fire and hydraulic forging press?

-mecha

 

[The Zieg]

Beautiful start, even if it is just a hunk of (albeit rare and expensive) metal! Can't wait to see the next posts!

Zieg

 

[Mecha]

The bar has triumphed over the forging press this round! Not bad, but now let's see how this scrappy contender can hold out when faced with an onslaught of hammer and anvil!

 

[D-R0CK]

Subscribed! Can't wait to see where this goes...

Mad Kudos! :thumbup:

 

[D-R0CK]

duplicate post

 

[Chris Larrikin]

Okay this is the funnest beginning to a WIP I've seen I am very interested to see how it goes. Subscribed.

 

[Mecha]

Under duress of hammer and anvil, the bar has earned itself the title of billet. Yet before it may compete for gladius status, it needs to get a grip! Throw its tang to the forges!

 

[bleedingfinger]

This is sweet! This things going to be awesome I have a feeling!

 

[Lycosa]

You are using Ti for a blade?
Are you nutz???

 

[MrFixIt]

Sitting on the edge of my seat...

 

[crimsonfalcon07]

Beta Ti gladius is going to be sweet. Will be a very fast blade.

 

[Mecha]

The bar has triumphed in the tang trials, proving its true desire to be a sword! We shall test this metal's mettle yet. RELEASE THE GRINDER!

 

[jmclfrsh]

Awesome thread, like reading a good book. What happened next?

 

[oXObsidianXo]

Subscribed. Just what's so special about the Niobium in this Titanium??

 

[Dave from State Farm]

Amazing work! Subscribed.

 

[Lycosa]

This. ^

 

[kaotikross]

Just awesome. Too bad the bar can't air it's side of the story..

"I was just sitting around, sure, I've been called square but that's never barred me from anything. How was I to know the day would come when I'd be hard-pressed to make such a life-altering transformation? Of course, I resisted..I can roll with the punches, I can take a pounding..."

 

[Mecha]

While our hopeful billet struggles with the fierce grinder, we shall hear of what makes it a worthy contender in this arena.

The bar is formed with the element of the Titans, well-known for their God-like strength, eternal as the mountains. When infused with the powers of Niobe, daughter of Tantalus, this Titanic strength changes form and becomes as firm as were her convictions, and hard like the stone skin she now wears.* It's no wonder this gladiator of a bar wishes to be a gladius!


*Niobium is a beta-stabilizing element. It makes the bar readily hardenable and heat-treatable. Niobium is also heavy, giving the the alloy a bit of extra weight. The element also "shields" the alloy from atmospheric contamination and pitting during forging, by limiting most of it to the depth of thermal expansion. This is important because titanium is very reactive when it's at high temperatures.

 

[Nobody]

All in on this thread. Been waiting for you to make a gladius... and a long spear blade......

 

[Mecha]

The billet has survived Death by Grinder! Still, all of its efforts could be in vain, for the metal's greatest single challenge looms before it. Hades may yet come in a flash to take it to the sword underworld, for now it must survive... THE QUENCH. Bring forth THE FIRE!