Question: Titanium

[unclejim1955]

I have no experience with titanium :thinking:and little with anything else. Today someone asked me if I could do some work in titanium and gave me a scrap piece to play with:hammer:. Of course it's hard, but I was surprised when it flaked like cast iron. So is there cast titanium and forged titanium? Does it all flake that way? Doesn't seem that hard to cut, but the flaking makes it difficult to control. Any thoughts?

 

[Ray Cover]

Hey Jim, What you probably got hold of was a piece of 6al4v aircraft titanium. I won't engrave that stuff for $10K per square inch. Its nasty and miserable. Unfortunately, that is what a lot of knifemakers use because it is common and easy to get.

Now there are guys who say, "Ya I engrave 6al4v with no problems". Well there's engraving and then there's engraving. Each person has their own definition of what is engravable and I'll leave that at that.

There are alloys of titanium that are very engravable. In fact I quite enjoy cutting them. The first is CP (commercially pure) titanium. i find this stuff cuts quite nicely. All grades of CP that I have engraved have cut nicely. I like it even more than the 416 ss which is what I cut most. The other titanium alloy I like is 3al1.5V. This stuff to me cuts almost identical to 416 ss.

I will cut either of these in a heartbeat but you can't pay me enough to waste my time trying to do good clean work on 6al4v.

 

[unclejim1955]

Thanks Ray, that must be it, I'll see if they can find out what it is.

 

[monk]

i've done thin guage stock in titanium, but was not aware of the particular alloy. worked ok for some jewelry trinkets, pendants, etc.

 

[Ray Cover]

Most ti jewelry stock and jewelery items that I have seen are CP titanium.

Ray

 

[SamW]

Where does one purchase small anounts of the CP stock??

 

[unclejim1955]

Sam, when I go back in to talk to him, I'll find out who his supplier is and what's available. The piece he gave me to try was some 1 1/4" round stock. I wouldn't mind having a few 3/16 or 1/8 discs that size.

 

[Jahn Baker]

You can order CP Titanium in small amounts from Reactive Metals in Cottonwood, AZ - http://www.reactivemetals.com/. They have been supplying the jewelry industry for many years and are wonderful folks. Hope this helps. Jahn

 

[Ray Cover]

Reactive metals has it and I think Alpha knife supply also has CP titanium.

I bought a life time supply of he sizes I need for fly rod hardware years ago befroe the Chinese drove the price through the roof. That's the one time in my life that I timed something right

 

[Tira]

unclejim, I've cut the 6al/4v but it took me quite a while to get used to it. Try a c-max carbide graver (available from GRS) with a 120 degree graver - mirror polished. I used the parallel heel, but the other would work well too. Turn your stroke speed up to about 3000 and be mindful of the graver following in the cut well and not twisting out or your graver will chip. Once I figured out how to do this I could get quite a way (over an hour) without sharpening the graver. In the beginning I sharpened ever 3 minutes. Good luck.

 

[unclejim1955]

Tira, thanks for the advice. You're exactly right. After working with it for a while it was getting easier, only to find that he gave me the wrong piece to try. The correct one, not sure of the grade, was much better and he was happy with my work. Titanium certainly has an interesting feel to it. I guess I better get used to it, looks like this may be a large volume job.