I was told that grade 23 titanium was useful for applications where strength as well as relative hardness was needed. I have not been able to find much information on this grade online and was hoping the professionals on this group could assist. I am looking its realtive hardness in HRC scale, as well as its composition. I am hoping to use it in my knifemaking for handle scales and possibly depending on properties for knife blades.
On a different note I was wondering if titanium can be combined with carbon like Iron is to make steel to yield a hard as well as strong alloy.
I would appreciate any help you can render and thanks so much in advance! :-)
6AL4V EL1* F-136 Titanium is ?implant? grade (23) Titanium. Titanium is quickly becoming the preferred metal, challenging 316LVM Stainless Steel, for body piercing jewelry world-wide.
NOT ALL TITANIUM IS SUITABLE FOR BODY PIERCING JEWELRY! There are 29 different grades of Titanium- many of which ARE NOT SUITABLE. Grade 23 (specification Ti6AL4V EL1) is recognized by standard societies world wide, including the ASTM (USA) and the International Standards Organization (Switzerland), for use in medical devices. Replacement body parts are commonly made of Grade 23 Titanium and are implanted with successful results worldwide every day and millions of people are living with these parts! Grade 23 Titanium has been designated an ?F? prefix by the ASTM. This ?F-136? designation means that Grade 23 Titanium is an approved medical grade material. As a result, the FDA has approved its use in medical devices. You can?t ask for a better recommendation.
Thank you but I am not concerned with the compatibility of the titanium with human tissues. It will be used in knife production, not body art so I need something strong AND hard. Thank you for your contribution though, I read the same article.
Titanium comes in a great many grades, the numbers of which are obscure (you can't tell what it is without looking it up in a book). For non-aerospace and "hobby" uses though, there are just four broad "types"; pure, 6/4, 3/2.5, Zr.
Pure titanium (aka CP (commercial pure) or grade 4). This is used where chemical resistance is important. Reasonably soft to work. Can be worked by hand smithing - needs to be very hot, but works beautifully. If you find this as scrap, it's likely to be as plumbing.
6/4 (inc grade 23) This has 6% aluminium / 4% vanadium. This is the usual aerospace grade. Very hard, if you're trying to work it. Hard going; your tools need to be sharp and probably ground with more acute angles than for steel. Difficult to forge, especially by hand smithing
- but it does develop an atttractive surface texture. Scrap aircraft parts are likely to be this grade.
3/2.5 Similar to the 6/4, but less so. Not that much less strong, but a lot easier to work. Can be drawn into seamless tube, which 6/4 can't
- so high-end titanium pushbikes are often of this grade. IMHE, it's rarely encountered except as seamless tube.
Zirconium alloys (Zr) These are weird, and it was largely the Soviets who used them. I know nothing of them.
Read rec.knives too
You can make scales from any of these grades, depending on what you can get - this will probably be 6/4, just because that's the easiest to find in the offcuts trade. CP would be easier to work though.
Ti knife .blades are a disappointment . They're possibly useful for salt water diving, but it's a big compromise in edge performance.
It's very like steel in some ways - big complex phase diagram and the purpose of the alloy elements is to make the phase you want stable at your usage temperature. It's not carbon that it uses though.
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