What the He&& is this stuff

peter nap · Jul 27, 2001

My partners wife is a nurse for a government hospital. They throw away lots of good end of the world stuff. She brought me some steel (sorry, hard shiny stuff) that I assume are splints. They are NON-ferrous and I ass umed they were aluminum. Well tonight I thought I'd melt a few and make some bolsters. WRONG

The little melter thing I use is a 2 inch steel pipe with a cap on one end and a rod welded for a handle. I've melted a lot of stuff in it. I put it in the brick forge. Got hot but no melt. OK I put in little Hell with the mini mongo burner. It got hot. So hot I could almost see through it. No melt. I increased the pressure and opened the air. My pipe started burning, still no melt.

Anyone have any ideas what it may be.

It bends like mild steel but is a little harder using the file. Big fat zero on the spark test.

Eric M Ericson · Jul 27, 2001

my best guess would be stainless

the pain in the butt kind that's not much good for our purposes.

anybody know for sure?

Guy Thomas · Jul 27, 2001

My guess would be titanium or stainless steel. What's ti's melting point anyway?

Guy Thomas

rdangerer · Jul 27, 2001

Some medical components are made of titanium, as it is "biocompatible"...if it is in your body (e.g. screws, new hips/joints, plates, etc), it is one of the few metals that your body will not react to, rust, reject, infect, etc.

Titanium has a melting point of 3034 F.

http://www.webelements.com/webelements/elements/text/Ti/heat.html

peter nap · Jul 27, 2001

That makes a little more sense. She is an operating room nurse in orthopedics.

I wonder if there is anything I can do with it. I sure can't melt it.

kevtan · Jul 27, 2001

Hi,
Remember reading that Reeves are making walking stick handles using these. Maybe can be forged into MPK type Ti knives??

peter nap · Jul 27, 2001

I don't know. It's too soft to use as is and I expect heat treating it is way beyond my little chamber of horrors. Anyone know how they harden it?

Peter Atwood · Jul 28, 2001

If it's titanium and you've already heated it and it's still soft then it will not harden. It would have to be alloyed with something else to harden. Sounds like it's either a garden sculpture or a doorstop.

Tracy Dotson · Jul 28, 2001

SOUNDS LIKE STAINLESS,TI SHOULD HAVE
HAD GOOD WHITE SPARKS IN THE SPARK TEST.

Bruce Evans · Jul 28, 2001

If nothing else it should work great for guards,bolsters,buttcaps or anything else like that...You don't want to just scrap it.

Try forging it and see how it works under the hammer.You might even be able to weld two pieces over a high carbon piece and thus have a nice san-mai blade (just a idea,don't know if you can weld it or not)
Anything is worth a try before just scrapping it.,Metal costs to much not to use what you can when you have it.
Bruce

peter nap · Jul 28, 2001

Bruce, as my wife will tell everyone who will listen, I never scrap anything. I even save water jugs and use them for sword practice. I think I will forge some this evening and see how it works and hardens.