Titanium Advice

[tdelewis]

I've never worked with titanium and thinking of making a belt buckle out of it. What grade? I see there are many different grades. Where Should I go to purchase it? Lastly, how would you attach hook and loop to the back of the buckle? My experience in buckle making is with silver only. Would it be much the same using silver solder.

 

[Dave London]

I have only engraved the stuff knife makers use, it cuts ok kind of crumbles like cast iron in front of the graver. Not much fun to shape , tuff to grind. MTC YMMV

 

[Sinterklaas]

You cant solder Titanium. Need to weld/laser it under Argon gas. Or else you will have an oxidised weld which is very weak.

You can rivet it or maybe fold some parts over to clamp.

Titanium grades, I think I have used grade 2 in the past. Grade 1 is the most ductile. But maybe not so nice to engrave.
Maybe you can get some small pieces of different grades. Then you can test what engraves the best.

Alternatively if you have experience making silver buckles. You can make a silver buckle and rivet a Titanium plate to it.

 

[tsterling]

Depends, which alloy do you have in mind? There are lots, and I mean lots. I’ve engraved Grade 1 titanium, Grade 2, Grade 5 (aka 6Al4V Ti), and Grade 38. Anything other than Grade 1 or 2 is probably fairly hard, but clean cutting. If you’re going to cut a titanium scale on a knife, it’s a 99% chance it is Grade 5, may a curse be on all knifemakers who don’t use Grade 2. Grade 1 or 2 are “soft” for titanium, but not for beginners. Titanium tends to be tough, rather than incredibly hard. My rule of thumb is the higher the Grade number, the tougher the titanium. Best to get a sample and do a little exploratory practice.

Online Metals is a good source for small quantities of sheet. You might try CNC machinists in your area for small scraps.

 

[Sinterklaas]

Yesterday I came a cross this article about working with Titanium:

https://www.ganoksin.com/article/understanding-the-working-titanium/

 

[monk]

it is fun stuff to annodize. you can get some very cool colors.