heat treatment of titanium

[pbboyd]

Does any one know how I can heat treat titanium. I want to make a knife but I would like harden it so it can hold a good cutting edge. thanks

 

[unclesyd]

Titanium will not make a good knife.
There are surface treatments that will impart sufficient hardness for an edge but will not take any sharpening. At maximum hardness of Ti6Al-4V will not hold an edge. Some of the new alloys will get to the mid 40's on the Rc scale which still will not make a good edge. There are several new stainless alloys that will make a good knife and hold an edge. I made a 440C knife with a hardness of Rc 63 and have used it for salt water fishing for over 30 yrs. Most of the Titanium knives you see are actually SS with a coating of Titanium Nitride. I also have heard of a powder metallurgy knife of Titanium Carbide, good but big bucks.

My coworker bought a Titanium Dive Knife from Italy and it broke on the first use. The replacement came with a caution stating that this was a backup knife and not to be consider as a primary.

Unless they have something new in the last two years I would stay away from an all Titanium blade.

 

[pbboyd]

Thanks!

 

[unclesyd]

Check out this site if you want an exotic knife blade. I have a piece of Talonite but haven’t done any work on it as yet. Waiting on a new furnace for HT my 440C blades.

http://www.carbideprocessors.com/Knives/Talonite_home.htm

 

[sreid]

You also might want to look at Hitachi ATS34.