Back in October 2014, Sam Taylor, (Mecha is his forum handle) dropped me a line to let me know that he was interested in collaborating on a design, and having the result of our collaboration brutally tested. This thread will document the build and testing of this piece.
I have a bit of a specialty going. I don't know of many other people who do what I do with blades in the field, finding usable corridors through the rainforest which will eventually become trails.
The use of large knives- how I use them- is very abusive, but not because I don't take care. Only because the stuff I have to cut requires a lot of force, precision and the plants out here bite back, and sometimes destroy steel tools. I spend hours at a time cutting brush of many various types and textures, often working myself to exhaustion. When coupled with this activity, my interest in design constantly evolves with my experience. Anything that makes it easier to cut, and minimizes maintenance is of great interest to me. Also, a lot of this work requires hiking in, sometimes up to an hour off trail just to get there, so weight is always a consideration. As a gnome sized person, reach is also important.
Many of these variable work at cross purposes and I'm convinced that I will never find the perfect blade for all considerations, but that's what makes the pursuit so endlessly fascinating.
Beta titanium- how the hell to design for such a material? So many unknown variables, but I knew one thing, and that is that the material is maybe 1/2- 2/3s the weight of what I'm used to using. Also, due to Sam's method, the limitations on the dimensions were fairly tight, and I designed to the outer realm of what he's able to forge from the bar stock he has. The other thing I didn't know was how the material would hold an edge, and in order to test that, I made sure the grind line was really high and the edge bevel acute.
Sam is intrigued by beta titanium, and he's invested so much into exploring this material. I am also enthralled by titanium, because I've been riding, (and crashing) a mountain bike made from the stuff since 2001. It's an incredibly resilient and strong material that is completely corrosion proof. I had always thought it questionable that knives made from the material would perform at a high level, and so you might imagine my excitement when Sam asked for my involvement in his pursuit.
Now, I had no idea that titanium could be forged into a blade. I've always known about ti being forged into various shapes via presses, molds, etc, but Sam forged this piece almost completely by hand. That in itself impressed the hell out of me. However, near the end, you can see how he forged it with that ingenious trip hammer he put together, (in my 2nd post).
The following pictures will show the progress;
The next stop is heat treatment, and I have to tell you that the pictures are pretty cool!