Wanted: HONEST review of Carbide and titanium knife blades.

Walking Man

Walking Man

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I'm considering getting a Warren Thomas knife, and I'd like to know what some thoughts are of these knives. Pluses and minuses. Especially the minuses.
How do they hold up over time? How can you sharpen them, etc. They don't have to be Warren Thomas knives, and I'd be very interested in the names of any other makers who makes these on a regular basis. Thanks.
Let me add that I generally despise flat ground blades. Does Warren even make any in this style that aren't flat ground? Do others?
Thanks.
 
From my understanding, Titanium is too soft to be a good blade steel. It holds an edge HORRIBLY. The edge is coated with carbide to help it cut/hold up, but I'm sure that stuff would come off fairly quickly. I know the SEALS supposedly used the Benchmade CQC-7 (Ti) for a antimagnetic knife that could hold up to salt water, but other than that, unless you want it expressly for being antimagnetic I'd go with ANYTHING else. Unless you're just collecting and won't really be using it. For an antimagnetic knife, I've heard steels like Talonite are better.

I've had a couple Benchmade ti blades and never used them. They both came dull from the factory. That's not like Benchmade at all, I assumed it was because it's hard to put a good edge on so soft a steel.
 
also had the 970st, titanium w/carbide edge. horrible edge, I sent it back to BM for sharpening & it came back barely able to scrape hair.

I have no idea how the Thomas blades are.
 
The mission folder in Beta Ti comes able to shave arm hairs ( mine did) but it doesn't hold an edge like even Aus 6, or 420j2 steel when cutting abrasives. It's better than the old Benchmade Ti with the pressed strip of carbides. That was more like a nail file in comparison to the Mission folder, though a fourth as cheap. I can't resharpen the Ti blade to factory levels though I can make it passable. ( BTW, it's better to keep a seperate hone for the non magnetics so as not to contaminate the blade by getting steel/iron powder grindings into the Ti blade). Joe
 
The Mastiff said:
The mission folder in Beta Ti comes able to shave arm hairs ( mine did) but it doesn't hold an edge like even Aus 6, or 420j2 steel when cutting abrasives. It's better than the old Benchmade Ti with the pressed strip of carbides. That was more like a nail file in comparison to the Mission folder, though a fourth as cheap. I can't resharpen the Ti blade to factory levels though I can make it passable. ( BTW, it's better to keep a seperate hone for the non magnetics so as not to contaminate the blade by getting steel/iron powder grindings into the Ti blade). Joe
Click to expand...

Second that recommendation, but for another reason.
Ti is bad for non-stainless steel. Causes corrosion. Best to keep a separate sharpening setup for Ti.
 
Bad edge holding ability huh? are we talking horrible compared to super steels? Or would a normal (non-knife knut) person really notice a huge difference?
 
Iv had 2 WT blades, there super light weight and look pretty cool but i sold them on faily quick. i just didnt see how they would hold up to any sort of hard use.
The lack of weight kind of makes them feel a bit flimsy i think. the carbide edge is a good idea for titanium though as Ti just will not take an edge.
I didnt get to the stage where i needed to sharpen them so i cant comment on how easy or hard it was to do. The blades were bothe flat chisel ground with a small bevel for the actual edge, it would probably not be too much of labour to get an edge back on since its not a zero bevel flat grind, the nature of the edge should mean you dont really need to sharpen it to often though.
If you want a knife for regular use i would get something ells but if you want a knife that is just a collection piece there a good buy. All my "technical" friends liked the WT knives allot.
I took some cool pics of the edge under a microscope at my friends metallergy lab, you can really see the saw teeth on the carbide cutting edge. il try and find them and post them up, im sure they will be of interest either way.

You can get the Warren Thomas blades with 154-cm rather than Titanium laminate, this would be a better choice for a knife you will be using, if you really must have a WT knife, but if you want your blade to have a low magnetic signature obviously this is not the option you want.
 
the CF/titanium/carbide blades aren't really for utility purposes. Unless you have a need for them, I'd suggest you go with normal steel.
 
I bought my wife a Ti HAK. She made the mistake of using it for utility purposes, cutting some hose and the like, then wanted me to resharpen it.

Hopeless!

I suggest you stick with regular knife steels for a knife that you intend to use.

Andy
 
ac1d0v3r1d3 said:
Bad edge holding ability huh? are we talking horrible compared to super steels? Or would a normal (non-knife knut) person really notice a huge difference?
Click to expand...

From my experiences, sharpening a couple Ti dive knives, the edgeholding is bad enough that anyone could tell the difference.
 
Does the non-magnetic feature have some sort of draw? I can see the Seals would want something non-corrosive but where does non-magnetic come in? Dealing with explosives and mines? ***shudder***
 
I believe non-magnetic property might come into play for disarming magnetic mines.

Dunno really, I don't disarm mines much.
 
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