Titanium Sword

Here is a link that dispels the idea that titanium would be a good material to make a sword out of.

swordforum.com/metallurgy/titanium.html

Sol

Titanium is stronger than steel in certain ways. One major problem it is will work harden past cutting tool's ability to cut and if not welded properly it is weaker than glass.

Titanium has the unique ability to flex and return to shape at a far greater strain level than typical steel.

It can be brittle if heat treated incorrectly and i'm not sure at which point it goes more brittle than is useful for sword use. I have seen some expensive milling bits grenade off of work hardened billet, not a pretty sight, never seen it do such a thing working with steel.

I have used it in the custom bicycle building trade and it works great for adding some flexibility to what is typically a stiff ride in steel and aluminum. Some people don't like the flexibility and prefer the stiffness of aluminum.

From flexible to stiff in order,

Ti, Fe, Al.

From light to heavy (similar sample dimensions).

Al, Ti, Fe.

Difficulty in fabrication (difficult to easy) typical alloys, non-heat treated.

Ti, Fe, Al.


A quote from... www.key-to-metals.com/Article126.htm

Impact Resistance. Knowledge of tensile strength and ductility of a metal is insufficient for many engineering applications without the knowledge of toughness. Titanium falls among the few metals capable of possessing good toughness along with high strength and ductility.

Hardness. Titanium is a much harder metal than aluminum and approaches the high hardness possessed by some of the heat-treated alloy steels. Iodide purity titanium has a hardness of 90 VHN (Vickers), unalloyed commercial titanium has a hardness of about 160 VHN and when alloyed and heat-treated, titanium can attain hardnesses in the range of 250 to 500 VHN. A typical commercial alloy of 130,000 psi yield strength might be expected to have a hardness of about 320 VHN or 34 Rockwell C.


Lifted from... www.efunda.com/materials/alloys/titanium/titanium.cfm

Titanium is a white metal, and has the best strength to weight ratio among the metals. Titanium is very reactive, and because of this it is often used for alloying and deoxidizing other metals. Titanium is a more powerful deoxidizer of steel than silicon or manganese. Titanium is 40% lighter than steel and 60% heavier than aluminum. This combination of high strength and low weight makes titanium a very useful structural metal. Titanium also features excellent corrosion resistance, which stems from a thin oxide surface film which protects it from atmospheric and ocean conditions as well as a wide variety of chemicals.


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Welded 9260 steel has a RC index of 58-61 or Vickers of about 653

When alloyed and heat-treated, titanium can attain hardnesses in the range of 250 to 500 VHN. (RC 22-49)



More good metal stuff for bladesmithing. www.feine-klingen.de/PDFs/verhoeven.pdf


I think you may see some rolled edges but few chips, but really hard to say without actually making one... I know a piece of steel plate stock against a piece of Ti plate stock the Ti comes out with the least dents. (no treating either material).

I would like to see a blade made from the space alloy of steel that is grown as a single crystal so the stress lines match the shape... Imorol, Itrol? Can't remember right now....

SOG make a knife out of a steel that will reach 64 HRC

If not heat treated correctly it can be very, very brittle, but if done right you may have quite an interesting blade, although until someone does it and we can destroy it there are too many variables to consider to give a good yea or nay...

Interesting thought, has anyone done it?

Nope. In order of increasing Young's Modulus (and therefore flexible to stiff) it is Aluminum, Cast Iron, Titanium, and Steel.

The sword was probably made from aluminum. Prop weapons generally are. Aluminum won't hold an edge well, but it is light, cheap, and easy to work. The disadvantage is that the aluminum swords tend to break a lot when you're doing action scenes. When doing the lightsaber combat in the latest Star Wars movies, they would fit aluminum blades into the light saber handles. I've heard that they went through a lot of them. Maybe they've switched to titanium, but I doubt it.

I don't know about the rest of Crowe's gear, but a bunch of the stuff used in the movie was actually plastic. I know that the masses of Roman troops in the opening battle scene are wearing injection molded plastic armor because it was cheap and easy to reproduce. There are probably multiple versions of each character's gear made out of different materials for different scenes. Typically a given weapon will have an aluminum version for scenes that need to show impact and rubber version for scenes that don't.

bottom line:

Titanium knives: Goood

Titanium jewelry: Passing fad already but still Gooood

Titanium swords: Get the F*ck Off!!!! terrible edge retention, will likely bend and deform into a unfixable way at best or snap like a twig at worst when having heavy cutting

One thing I don't think any one mentioned is taht the weight of the sword affects its performace aswell.
If you had a light weight sword you would loose alot of cutting power due to lack of mass. The weight of a sword is part of what does the damage. I have 2 short swords they are jus about identical except one is almost a pound lighter (thinner blade, same width, slightly lighter handle parts, balance very close to same). The heaver blade just cuts through any reasonable target no problem. Often the lighter one does not make it through.

Just thought I would through that out there.

Take Care Ya all
Mike

That kinda defeats the purpose of using any exotic alloys.

Average those two metals' densities and you've got something like .................................................. wait for it .............................. STEEL

Just pinging on Tsafa for his apparent dichotomy: Heavy or light?
Yep, I'll have to try out that new alloy, you call it steel?