I forged a titanium knife

On a crafts fair ages ago I had forged a knife from titanium, an old piece of material from a  prothetics corporation, 6AL4,5V.  Fact is, I had heard it were impossible to forge a knife from it with an open coal forge, so I did. Fact is, there is a reason why we use steel for blades. Titanium is of course a finicky bstd to work with and to forge.  I would not make something that really needs to hold up repeated flex stress from it with an open coal forge. I used borax to minimize contamination, but it is of course suboptimal.  On the other hand, what you want to prevent in a setting where you deliver constant flexibility stress to the workpiece, might actually be a good thing for edge retention. Hydrogen buildup and oxide buildup make it brittle, but also harder. So I tried to keep that out during most of the forging process, cold- forged the edge and then slammed it full- tilt into the Ventilation stream of the forge, cold forged some more, put it back in and forged it far too hot on a wet anvil, but only the outer edge.  

 It actually gets a lousy edge, but keeps it forever. It is surprisingly well suited for feathersticking, though, and cuts surprisingly well. Getting it up to shaving sharpness is a bit tricky, but possible. It loses that hair-popping sharpness quite fast, to a point where it actually does shave, but only with some effort, but stays that way for a long time.  

As for lateral strength, in spite of the somewhat crazy forging method, it maintained well enough strength to stand up to some equally crazy stress tests.  

So, is Titanium actually suited for a bushcraft knife? 

Well, there is still a reason we use steel.  For carving, you know my stance on Moras, and that hasn't changed a bit. I would use the knife for digging up roots or breaking apart stuff, like in the video, harvesting herbs and mushrooms.  To be honest, a Mora or similar knife can do all this, too.  But remember, that thing was forged with an utterly punk method, in next to no time, on an event, between forging with kids. There could be more potential to the material with a bit more effort and a more controlled environment.  But that would actually no longer be anything resource- efficient. With high tech equipment, you could get a better result. 

The advantages of Titanium might be lighter weight, extreme corrosion resistance, tensile strength and antimagnetic properties.  If you want to pokeydeepoke at a landmine, a Titanium knife might be the way to go. But then I do not want to poke at landmines at all. 

It looks cool, though, and maybe I will make myself a golden sickle from it. Its edge holding capabilities are a bit comparable to good cutlery bronze. So, maybe that will be a thing in the future.  

Thanks for looking, and take care!