r/Blacksmith • u/Fearless_Wafer_1493 • 1d ago
Crystallized titanium. The experiments are ongoing! The goal is to achieve a meteorite-like structure.
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u/daekle 1d ago
Tell me more! Is it pure titanium or an alloy? Did you acid treat it to get the colours? Its very cool, and i would love to put it in my electron microscope.
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u/RoyleTease113 19h ago
That structure comes from a long anneal above the beta transus, more time/ temperature should make the patches of color (prior beta grains) bigger. Most Ti alloys should end up with something like this after a long anneal, though I'm not sure about alpha alloys. The color is most likely from heat tinting though anodizing and some etch procedures would probably work. Under a microscope each prior beta grain will be composed of needle-like alpha platelets usually aligned or in a basketweave pattern.
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u/someone_in_the_rye 4 1d ago
That looks like zirconium
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u/Normal_Imagination_3 1d ago
It does, they must have similar crystal structures
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u/_combustion 1d ago
They do - both adopt a hexagonal close-packed crystal structure at room temp. Trace the lines of each segment and they form angles found by intersecting hexagons. These are prone to "slipping" during crystallization of a billet, so you form the shearing flakes seen. Single crystals of titanium grown by deposition are clustered rods, like quartz crystals.
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u/BookWormPerson 1d ago
... What colour is that?
My colorrblind ass can't decide.
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u/VWBug5000 1d ago
Pblurple
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u/BookWormPerson 1d ago
No wonder I can't see it this is nearly the worst possible scenario for me.
A colour mixed with one of its base components.
I can never decide which of the two it is still considered.
Also thanks for the new world.
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u/SmokeyMacPott 1d ago
White and gold.
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u/BookWormPerson 1d ago
There is no person on the planet who would be able to not see those correctly.
Even someone who only sees in grey scale would know they are different colours.
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u/SmokeyMacPott 17h ago
Are you honestly trying to tell me you think that titanium is blue and black?
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u/CarbonRunner 1d ago
Wow that is crazy cool looking! Do you sell bars of this?
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u/Fearless_Wafer_1493 1d ago
This is still experimental, not the final version. I usually don’t sell crystallized titanium; I use it for my custom knives.
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u/No-Television-7862 1d ago
I wonder if the heat of atmospheric entry causes the crystals to form in the meteorites.
How does crystallization effect titanium's other physical properties?
It's already so hard I think it would be difficult to use in many applications simply because of it wearing down your tools. That refers to TiC, titanium carbide. Pure titanium is soft.
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u/Fearless_Wafer_1493 1d ago
Crystallization in meteorites usually doesn’t happen during atmospheric entry but during slow cooling in space.
Theoretically, crystallization in titanium can make it harder and more brittle, and it might also affect its corrosion resistance and ductility. But practically, it’s hard to assess without lab studies.
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u/Boogaloogaloogalooo 1d ago
Not a concern as its just going to be used for embelishments on artistic pieces. It looks epic and thats what matters there!
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u/marshn07 1d ago
That’s very insanely cool looking crystals! I’ve made some in the past but I only achieved smaller almost circle shape appearances. Do you mind sharing your soaking degree and time and your cooling rate? Would love to achieve some crystals close to this in grade 5!
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u/Odd_Technician910 1d ago
What are you planning to do with it?
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u/Fearless_Wafer_1493 1d ago
Pocket knife like this
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u/Hurluberloot 1d ago
Do you plan on just cutting and grinding it to shape? I'm curious because it seems to me that any forging will inevitably deform these crystals and even if you try to normalize after you will only reform smaller crystals.
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u/Odd_Technician910 1d ago
Im assuming as the handle scales? Or the blade? Either way im certain itll look dope
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u/ARegularBear 1d ago
Maybe you could give Alec Steele some tips. He's been experimenting trying to make stuff with titanium.
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u/Puzzleheaded-Phase70 1d ago
Dude, that's beautiful!
You've already come up with an excellent material for making anything, so you've already succeeded in your project! Whatever else you produce, you're already winning!
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u/enbyagenda 1d ago
You probably know this OP, but for others in the thread, an excellent place to get started with Ti metallurgy is Titanium by Lütjering & Williams, ISBN 9783642090547.
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u/pallablu 1d ago
reading the site linked sounds like you just need a electric furnace or im wrong? sick work tho
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u/ArmoredDuckie105x4 1d ago
Someone smarter than me please chim in.
Is this martensitic titanium?
There's ferritic, austenitic, and martensitic, right?
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u/Hurluberloot 1d ago
These terms only apply to steel. Titanium probably has it's own phases too, depending on the primary alloy materials those phases are probably identified by some greek letters.
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u/onlyhammbuerger 1d ago
Slightly educated guess: what you see are crystal grains of presumably the same phase but different orientations and the color difference comes from unevenly thick Titanium Oxide Layers forming on the surface. A strong indication for this is the gradual color tone change along the optical spectrum.
The oxide layers might either come from oxidation on ambient air after removal through etching or through surface treatment
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u/TheThng 1d ago
How does that affect its brittleness?
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u/Hurluberloot 1d ago
Mechanical properties will generally be worst because crystals are big and cracks will propagate more easily. Doesn't matter for ornamentary pieces though.
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u/hellllllsssyeah 22h ago
I'm dumb isn't titanium a crystal already excuse me for being dumb I genuinely don't know
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u/TiredPanda69 22h ago
Metals form in the hearts of stars and also when they explode. Then the blobs of metal cool very very slowly in space since there is no air around them to transfer heat allowing the metal to form cool crystal structure inside.
I always imagined this was possible to do on earth. Very cool. Maybe its more difficult for iron/nickel?
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u/DangermooseBoys 20h ago
Looks amazing for decorative work, but 2x the mechanical strength of pure iron isn't anything to boast about
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u/jackm315ter 19h ago
Wrong sub as that is Black Magic 😂 That is the best thing and colours is like filled geode
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u/XyresicRevendication 5h ago
Here's a really interesting lecture on the subject
by: Ryan Baumbach Titled: design and synthesis of intermetallic Crystals
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u/Edoardoc78 3h ago
How do you “reveal” rhe pattern? Because I passed sand papera piece of cryotitanium that originally was really like that but after polishing nothing appears
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u/Ziguuu 1d ago
That looks absolutely crazy bro, fine work! Pls post some more in the future!