The niobium test got me thinking. It bonded very well to the titanium as your theory about the similar thermal expansion properties stated it might. So why not continue down the periodic table, find a compatible metal that is closer to steel and niobium than titanium and niobium, wash, rinse, repeat until you have a billet with the properties you want?
When testing the delaminating in the vice, I’d love to see you bend them back to the centre. That will open up the delaminations and possibly reveal any that weren’t initially visible
As a scientist, I'm damn proud of you, Alec. Forming, testing, and reevaluating hypotheses is the heart of the scientific method. Human civilization is based on it. Your enthusiasm and demostrations are contagious. Stay curious, stay humble. And remember...the only difference between doing science and screwing around is writing down observatios.
@@benjaminboyle7329 I think to publish his findings he would have to be a lot more professional in his methods of testing, I think he's more than happy sharing his findings with hobbyists on yt.
I mean just a white paper would be awesome, but I think Alec would need some qualified help to accomplish that, and I don't think it would be of much benefit. I think someone picking up his experiments and doing a proper study would be great. Alec could even be the main author, but he'd need guidance, just because papers are written in a certain way. Nothing against Alec, I'm not trying to insult his intelligence at all. It's just writing these papers is a skill all in itself. As a software engineer I very much don't write scientific papers. If I come up with something that's novel it's either the patent lawyers, the scientist(s) on staff, or both who help me shape my ideas into a recognizable format. The ideas and findings are still mine, but wouldn't be caught dead writing a scientific paper. I dread writing simple white papers, even though I'm pretty good at it. I'd rather just do what I do best and leave the rest to other professionals.
If you're no longer working under the suposition that the interlayers are strictly necessary; you might want to consider whether the titanium alloys being used are optimized for the application, when used directly with the steel. Amazing to see someone find academia by sheer curiosity. Really speaks to the essence of what higher education is all about.
that last sentence is exactly what I was trying to figure out. As a recent graduate, it sometimes seems aimed against people who are legitimately curious, and is more focused on the students that are trying to make the most money. I guess that's how the wheels turn, but I'm glad Alec is experiencing the best parts of university without having to deal with much else
All this from a man who didn't go to college or finish high school, obviously you could have easily done both but school isn't for everyone. The intelligence you have though is amazing. Watching your videos is always a joy, keep up the excellent work young man.
Hi, I'm an aerospace engineer studying just this! Titanium kinda sucks at conducting heat and also has a stronger specific heat capacity than the steel! This means that given the same mass it takes longer to cool it than the steel and it also doesn't take away heat fast enough from the steel, I suggest quenching in water to try and solve that issue, or try water and some other intermediate solution. Additionally for all these reasons the steel might not be reaching the 850 temp, or maybe it might not be stable at it, and since you can't keep it in there longer, else it'll create intermetallic compounds, maybe try an electromagnetic coil heater? It might take some time to set it up though as titanium and steel do not have the same condictivity or magnetic properties! If this is not an option maybe try a temp of 900, as with that the steel is already austenite and will cool into martensite if you cool it fast enough. You should be looking at 50 to 140 C°/sec of cooling; I bekieve water can achieve that. Good luck from Amelia from Italy! Loving this series!
What about a combination of the 2...... using the gas forge to bring it up to 700°C (to get the heat into the titanium) and finish it off in an induction forge?
@@Zogg1281 There's really no need to use a forge first, induction coils bring steel up to eutectoid temp in a couple of seconds, titanium is somewhat slower to heat but still under 10 seconds before it glows orange. There's several videos on here of titanium being coloured through the use of induction coils. The main issue with induction heating is that you are limited on the area being heated, unless you pay a lot of money for a large coil and system that can power it.
@26:00 Alec, Also keep in mind that 10th sample had Argon flowing through the jacket during the quench. That Argon must have been flowing around the entire sample potentially acting as an air buffer insulating the inner sample from the outer steel and thus the quenching oil. Might need Yogo to turn off that argon tank at the last second when you quench
@@AlecSteelein the same vain of thinking, I wonder if you could fashion a gas-oil/water manifold that once finished with the bonding you could immediately switch off argon and to a flow of oil to circumvent the outer box and “internally” quench?
@@AlecSteeletry putting a simple gas shut off valve in your line where it connects to the purge tube on the box. Do the same process as before but shut off the gas the instant you hit the quench oil/water.
Reading through the comments, everyone has the same sentiment. Videos like this are awesome. Learning the numbers, the math, then learning what you did wrong from an expert. Next video we can usually expect more answers to things that might have went wrong here, or more experiments.
Yes, doing cool and unique things, not shying away from the technical discussions, being funny and goofily humble, and NOT being loud, abnoxious, and annoying like all the other channels. Good job, def becomming a solid favorite.
Congrats on the Xtreme plasma table. I got mine back in 2017 and it's by far the best thing I have ever bought! you won't find a nicer guy than Rob who owns the company aswell, he's helped me out massively over the years!!
Metallurgist here, a couple factors to consider with the stresses of heat treat. First, the quench to martensite causes a volumetric expansion, because martensite has a slightly larger crystal size than ferrite or pearlite. This phenomenon can cause cracking in even purely homogenous steel parts if the shapes are problematic. This would cause the steel to try and "stretch" the zirconium/niobium and cause your pringle shapes (maybe, just a theory). Second, you definitely weren't wrong about the different expansions having a role to play. But it took the heat treatment and rapid expansion of martensite COMBINED with the already built in stresses from forging. Hopefully this helps. Great video, looking forward to the next one
The fact Alec just goes and asks people how to do things he's trying to do, and then gets it done... I love that about this channel. Don't have a part? Make it. Don't have the knowledge? Seek it out.
Titanium is a poor conductor of heat, when quenching the direct bonded titanium, maybe use water to increase the quench speed. Usually to fast for direct contact with steel, but could the right speed for steel when it is being insulated by the titanium. Also if a short time at temperature is the right answer for direct bonding, one of those electromagnetic forges might be another lever to pull to heat the billet quickly. In gas forges, you are waiting for convection heating. With the electromagnetic ones, you heating the material from the inside out and directly. Regardless, I feel your excitement here. I would be very interested in purchasing a finished knife in this style. I love titanium. Its such a cool material.
Im not sure he needs to heat much faster it bonded well, an induction forge would be the way to go if he does need to heat faster. Quenching in water might be the move to cool the steel quicker. It could cause the jacket to break but at that point who cares
@@excitedbox5705 I do mean induction forge… but at the same time… steel is 100% magnetic. Titanium is not, but Eddie currents will work because it’s conductive.
@@excitedbox5705 You don't need magnetism for induction heating, just a conductive material. You're correct in that it needs to produce eddy currents, but that will occur for any metal. Couple spin-off thoughts this gave me that I looked up: wrapping an aluminum rod with wire and using it as an electromagnet core gives does not significantly increase the magnetic field versus having no aluminum rod (owing to the fact aluminum is paramagnetic). However, since it is a good electric conductor, wrapping aluminum around a rod will also produce an effective electromagnet. Fun stuff!
this video really reminds you that there is this vast, DEEP wealth of knowledge in some areas that only a couple dozen people have, and it's their knowledge that keeps everything running.
Couple of wierd ideas: Welding hygine- alot of your failures look to happen around the edges where you welded your canister, try running either purge or make a glove box to do your welding in. Preweld your titanium layers,If you want to make some timascus skins do it before welding to steel, you may find the ti-ti conditions are diferent from ti-steel. Maybe try pre heat treating the steel, you may end up with enough retained martensite to get the desired edge, or instead of 1080 try hss, which will retain hardness at that temperature. This is an awsome series, keep it going
Not to throw another layer of complexity on this project, but you could also consider laser hardening of the steel edges. It would leave a very hard edge without thermally affecting the rest of the billet. Laser hardening is used all the time in industry to selectively harden bearing journals and gear teeth without hardening the entire component. Loving the content so far. Keep it up!
@@Eoraph Laser hardening can go anywhere from 0.5mm to 3mm deep. Depends a lot on laser spot size and power output. But in this case I would think laser hardening would occur when the knife is nearly finished and close to final shape. The hardening would definitely get deep enough to still be hard after final grinding.
I'm a metal polisher making knee implants. They're made from cobalt chrome as they're easier to get a mirror finish on the bearing surfaces. If a patient has an allergy to cobalt chrome and a titanium implant isn't an option, the cobalt implant is coated with a titanium niobium nitrate alloy to prevent a reaction from within the body. Makes the chrome mirrored finish gold all over. Like if c3po needed a knee. Wonderful video Alec. Happy new year to you!
@andrewb378 so that there's as little friction as possible with the bearing. Any imperfections can cause unnecessary wear on the parts. The smoother they are, the longer they last for the recipient/patient.
pre-loading the materials to create residual stresses could also be a cool experiment. If done right could might be able to eliminate stresses due to different thermal expansions. Might also be able to create some cool properties as well.
This is so cool! I think you’re totally right that the direct bonded sample didn’t heat treat as well because it was inside the block. Doing a second heat treat after you’ve formed the blade will probably give you a fine cutting edge! Regarding the anodizing, it’s definitely an art. I used to do it as a side gig, and the line between ho-hum and holy smokes is frustratingly thin. My main lesson: surface prep and etching process are everything. A sanded vs polished surface will turn out very different, and any surface oils or machining artifacts will show up very visibly. For etching, I always have best results with freshly mixed etchant heated to at least 70C, and 75 or 80 will usually be more consistent. Etch with agitation for 10-15 seconds, rinse in DI water, then straight to anodizing.
FYI - I love the short recap at the beginning. Especially since you did it soft spoken and clear, it's just the right length and with your great editing reminded me of the last few episodes within the first 50 seconds of the video.
I am a scientist working in genetic medicine and it has been very exciting watching you theorize and test your hypotheses. I can say we in the research field are well acquainted with the feeling of an awesome discovery one-day only to have it crushed by some other finding on the next day. As they say, "if it were easy, someone else would've already done it." Can't wait to see more.
I really love how the shop just feels like home, the lighting, the layout as things have developed is so pleasing to watch as a viewer. The Giant Lamp you made really is a big highlight of it all.
You were on the right track there on the termal expansion tention. The zirconium is in compression but at the same time te steel and titanium are in tension. So the steel and titanium are trying to shrink but cant. Normally the part would just warp/bent to the material trying to shrink but here both of the metals are pulling in opposite directions canceling the warping... Until the bond failed basically pulling the zirconium apart. Naobium has the same stress but less of it course the best thing would probably be a gradient across low expansion mid, high, mid, low. Also the titanium warps more after failure because the steel is still fighting the titanium on the other side. The steel would bend even more as the titanium if there was nothing on the other side.
Alec, I've been a huge fan for a very long time. Let me start with a simple, "well done". I've done a great deal of work electrochemically with titanium, it's alloys and 'cousins' as well as a variety of other metals. My initial work was centered on anodizing titanium, which you've demonstrated and worked through. The key to what you're trying to accomplish ( from strictly the anodize perspective) is understanding what essentially boils down to Ohm's law. The oxidation you're looking for is occurring at different rates and thoroughness based on the electrical conductivity of each metal/alloy in the electrolyte. Metals that are more conductive will 'steal ' the electrons you want from other metals submerged coincidentally. And those metals, when they form oxides, we'll have different oxide thickness and resulting visual appearance. The easy answer here is to electrically 'mask' the steel before you immerse in the electrolyte. Best Regards, and keep up the good work! JimC
On the ti and steel one, you could try re-hardening just the edge of the blade with the steel part exposed only. That way, you'll get a really hard edge like an axe. Kind of like a katana in a way.
would be a good application for induction hardening, not putting the whole blade through the induction coil. Just moving the edge past it and quenching immediately. Like put the coil above the quench bath and as you lower it quenches. Hell you could probably have the coil in the bath if you got enough power into it.
Alec you have created some truly epic videos this year, but the Titanium ones have taken the entire factory of biscuits with them, your experiments with Titanium after you found that patent, have been incredible, all the best for 2025!
As an engineer, I’m really impressed to see you bridge laboratory science and industrial process at a small scale. You have just advanced technology. Your testing process is on point. Presentation is excellent.
Option 1: make a cooling jacket in order to differentially heat the edge with induction or a torch, then quench the edge. Option 2: Use air hardening steel with titanium to see what happens.
Im a glassblower and it's wild sometimes how close metal methodologies are to glass work. If you want to heat metal QUICKLY, you should look into GTT glass torches. They're oxy/fuel torches we use in glassblowing, but I recently toured their facility and the owner talked about them starting to get used in big metal forging for heating bit masses of metal effociently. Glass is an insulator, so our torches have to be really powerful, and their secondary use in metal might be useful to you. Also, youre able to adjust flame chemistry with a GTT/any glass torch, which adjusts not only temperature, but oxygen/fuel ratios for additional testing params.
The cleanliness of the surface of the titanium and the etchant you use will make a huge difference in the quality and depth of colors you can get when anodizing. I recommend a degrease and a sonic cleaner if possible. Etch (Multi-Etch is the most consistent/brightest I found), rinse, and while the titanium is still wet from the rinse, go straight into your electrolyte bath for the anodization. I think I was pulling 200-400mA for things about the size of a knife blade.
so for the bimetal bending, i the reason it curves towards the titanium is because the titanium is now at room temperature, so it wants to shrink more than the niobium, you'd be right in assuming that it'd curve inwards if it was bonded at room temperature and then expands, but this expanded first, then cooled to room temperature, the fact that the steel expanded even more is likely also why it's sheared off there, cause that's where the largest force was being applied, you would perhaps expect a little bit of inward curve off of the triple layer, though perhaps that's being stabilized by the interlayer
More fun fact, is that those kinds of stress differences at different layers are what make things like gorilla or tempered glass stronger but more brittle then regular glass. Or how they pretension steel cables in concrete before it cures for things like bridge spans so that it’s always being compressed internally and holds more that way (since concrete is far stronger under compression then tension). There are a lot of cool things in materials science with different materials where you stress them in different ways as they are combined to do very unique but useful stuff that alone those materials can’t do.
Yeah i agree, it curves toward the titanium because the bond with the titanium is still holding, so the titanium is still compressing the joint. If it failed at the titanium bond then you'd see it curve towards the steel bond
@@paulkirschner4378 And I would guess that the fact that both sides are trying to curve _away_ from the interlayer is part of why the joints fail much more easily. The titanium is basically trying to rip the interlayer off the steel, and vice-versa.
This not only science but science done right: No access barriers. International. Interdisciplinary. Good methodology. No hiding of errors. Good presentation.
As I haven't seen a post on this, and it's a slightly wild idea... You need a thin interface layer with a high surface area to bond to the outer layers. Have you thought of electroplating the titanium? With the right electrolyte you should induce a very strong bonded surface with low oxides that prevents additional oxidation and eliminating the need for argon when you smash the layers together. ie. plate the steel and the titanium, mirror polish and then weld them.
Hi Alec, I am a metallurgist. This was a really interesting video. What you really need is a mounting press and a microscope, to see what is going on in the structure. Just a hardness tester isn't always giving you the best picture. If you do buy a hardness tester, make it a Vickers Armstrong pedestal tester. Much more flexible than a Rockwell (you get to see the shape of the indent down the microscope) and its a good old piece of British manufacturing history.
Test equipment is in order. As a tool and die maker, rockwell hardness testing is a crucial bit of information in almost everything we do. My concern with sample 10 would be that the can wasn't bonded to the titanium, and the heat transfer was minimal at best during the quench. I can't imagine why else the steel wouldn't have hardened in the quench. On the subject of sample 10, I wouldn't base much other than the bond between the titanium and the steel because you wouldn't be able to heat treat the raw billet before further processing without tempering the sample first to stack and bond the layers that will result in you damascus paters. My hunch is the temperature and pressure bonded the titanium and your heat treatable steel. Bravo young man. This is an exceptional, interesting endeavor.
I love that you’re stepping out into the world of scientific analysis. There’s people who would have done less thorough testing and gone straight to making a knife with sample 10 only to (maybe) find the edge can roll after they put days of work into it.
as a non scientist in fact ship mechanic i love this series and i love all the input from actual scientists and researches, material science and metalurgy is the foundations on how we as a speicies can make magnificant machines to take us anywhere we would want to or need to go. keep it up alec and this comment section, blimming brilliant!
Aww our guy is growing up. No seriously the maturity in how Alec's content has evolved over time to be more scientific, involved and the passion to learn is impressive and I hope to match that when I grow up. (I'm 40 ha)
this series has been one of the most fun experiments i have watched. i am a mech eng student and been learning alot in material science and bonding, honestly very rewarding now that i understand everything here very well when you explain it. keep this series going
stop Alec is great and hardworking and wonderful. But pretending all you need to be a professor is a British accent? Stop it Bro said he didn't even finish high school....
So to compile what a lot of other comments are saying about the Ti-Steel direct fusion: 1.) Try induction heating, and/or test at 900° C. 2.) Have Yogo turn off the argon compressor as soon as you're finished hammering (or even while hammering?) 3.) Maybe test other versions of Ti and Steel to see which are best suited for direct fusion as opposed to working with interlayers. 4.) Quench in liquid that can cool the billet faster. I see recommendation for ice water or potentially even salted ice water, which may just work due to heating at much lower temps than usual. 5.) Laser hardening the steel edge in isolation would harden the steel without affecting the rest of the piece with high temperatures. I'm curious if all of these things could be combined to seriously refine the product at the end, or if any of the changes suggested would unnecessary and/or redundant. Anyways, I've really been enjoying your journey on this so far! Always excited to see new stuff from you, especially this since I've been fascinated by the idea of fusing steel and titanium for blades since I was in middle school lol. Happy New Year!
A potential issue of laser hardening is that it would be very shallow, meaning that in a knife application where resharpening would occur you'd be very likely to end up sharpening back past the hardened region.
Engineer here. The sample will expand during heating, and then fuse weld while expanded. The longest sample while heated will want to be long, but will be pulled shorter and thus compressed. If it is an intermetallic cohesive failure then [I believe] the material's ultimate shear stress was exceeded. This, however, assumes no phase transformations in the steel/Ti, which I dont think is happening at these temps. (For the steel, I dont know enough about Ti and others to comment there).
Alec, you SHOULD absolutely be ecstatic!! You accomplished what you set out to do which is the first ever as far as I'm aware. The hardness issue can be dealt with and dialed in, I'm confident of that. As long as the ti and steel was fully forge welded. Excellent job brother, kudos. And thanks for sharing all your progress with us, many people would keep it to themselves.
I've been watching since Alec was just a young man, even an old boy ☺️. Proud of the growth you and your company have made. Your a good guy Alec. I hope 2025 brings more of the same for you and your family ✌️
Brother, I repair arcade games all day, and watching you explain science I will never touch makes my day. Your content is great, keep doing your thing!
"As niche as this" = youtube gold. (After remembering my experiences 35 years ago I mentioned at the end of the post) I thought this might be worth adding ... maybe a microscope might be handy at this point in testing, to see the different grain structures across the bonded layer. Another man toy for the workshop :D :D :D I watch more niche videos of areas I will never work in or will never affect my life than I do normal common mainstream topics. For myself there are only a few reason I watch videos 1) Something to help me understand something I'm working on or want to work on. 2) Education fun. Something I will never experience personally just for the fun of understanding some other part of life. 3) Things I funny/fun stuff 4) Vicarious living (aka something I could do if I wasn't too lazy/cheap/time limited to be able to do myself). This video fits into 2) perfectly, although being an ex machine engineer with some college/bespoke training courses under my belt it could also be a reversed 1) I guess. I still feel the dread of exams where you were given microscopic cross section images and had to identify the material/hardening process of them.
Great to see an update on this riveting (though not literally) series! I was surprised you didn’t try a Vanadium inter layer after all the folks yapping about it in the comments on the last video. The obvious thing to try is a re-quench on the direct bond and see how that goes; hopefully it doesn’t just make some TiFe and wreck it. I do titanium anodizing at home; I use “phosphate free” tri sodium phosphate as my electrolyte from the hardware store, might try that instead. Hooking the electrode directly to the part and partial-dunking will get your color much faster in my experience; having a hand on the sample also facilitates exposure-time-based gradients that can be pretty cool.
This is by far the coolest blacksmithing project on the internet right now. I would love to be proved wrong and find even more awesome content though haha.
I'm sure someone has said it by now.. but the thermal expansion question at 16 minutes in is I believe due to the martensitic transformation in the steel. The thermal expansion data you have doesn't account for a state transformation. Steel actually expands when it hardens, that's why a lot of dissimilar laminates pull the core apart in heat treat. Good luck! Excited to see where these tests are going
16:01 Hi Alec It is possible that your niobium piece bend because quenched steel expand. Martensite take more space. It is the reason why katanas are taking a curve with differential hardening. The blade is straight when quenched but the clay prevent back of the blade to become martensite. The edge become martensite and take more space so it curve the blade. Happy new year from French Alps !
Alec, excellent!! I've been wondering for years why no one has made a titanium san mai blade. Imagine a katana with a magnacut core and titanium sides, now that would be something. Probably a $50,000 katana.
Hi Alec, I don't remember first seeing your content. It is amazing what your curiosity led you to. The main compliment I want to give you is actually this: As a UA-camr, you got better and better. As a Trial-and-Error Scientist by your own, you evolved and can be proud of yourself. Me for myself, I am proud to see your path. Hopefully it is not too odd hearing this from a stranger. On top of that, I can totally connect to your curiosity. My brain starts humming and buzzing with every new step you make. All the best for you!
Alec, pehaps you can harden the steel core prior to the direct bond, then during the bonding proces it will be more of an annealing process than hardening.
Oh, that's an interesting idea. My guess is that heating the steel back up to temperature will undo the hardening, but given the limited temperatures and time-at-temperature in this process, it well might not undo it completely.
For the "secret recipe #10" you might want to consider softening and re-hardening after cutting off the box. That way you get the benefit of the high-pressure/low-time bonding while still confirming that the final hardening process matches rest of the samples.
@@laslo67 The welds are complete, but atoms can still diffuse across the weld to make more bimetallic compound. On the other hand, if the temperature needed for hardening is lower than the welding temperature, it could work -- the diffusion rates go up very quickly with temperature, which means just a little cooler makes a big difference.
For the anodize, in our shop we use sodium bicarbonate for the electrolyte. Titanium has a crazy range of colors you can get by varying the voltage. Play with the voltage. The neatest colors I’ve gotten were from hooking up the tig welder to the workpiece and using that as the power supply. Crazy rainbows. In my experience the higher the electrolyte concentration, the more amperage it will push and the deeper the anodize will be.
This series is getting more and more fascinating! I love the systematic trails.... And I love the raw THUMP of the steam hammer. Titanium is a crap heat conductor, so you may have to get aggressive with the quench. My first thought was pumping liquid nitrogen though the purge line WHILE it is in the quenching liquid.. which should probably be ice water instead of oil. Maybe even crushed ice and salt in water. That gets to -17C.
I appreciate you going to a university for a conversation to understand more. I feel like this will go full circle & you could potentially be the lecturer with the theoretical knowledge you've been adding to videos recently. These informative videos + the factory visits are a cool addition & I feel like are/could be a core staple to the channel
As someone who deals with science everyday, this is every science research project. Loads of failures, lots of data, small glimmers of hope. You're doing great and keep up the good work.
One of the most interesting things about this guy, he looks like a goofy young kid, but jeez Louise does he have MAN HANDS. i bet this guy has hand crushing grip strength. And love the genuine enthusiasm he has for his content. You can tell he loves what he does
Reminds me of a master of some kind of unarmed combat that I saw on TV. I can't remember what martial art he practiced but I do remember his hands and arms. He was a Asian man in his seventies, and yet his hands looked incredibly strong. And when he made a fist his wrist was almost exactly thick enough to form a straight line from his arm and over his fist. That was hands shaped by a life of training. Another man with hands and arms that was impressive to see was Jamie Oliver. It might not sound that impressive as we are talking about a chef, but he has worked a lot in kitchens over the years and handles cast iron pans making it look like they are aluminium. And again it's really obvious when you look at his vrists. Those arms are way stronger than you would guess. It's probably the same for a lot of chefs. Working in a professional kitchen is nothing like cooking dinner for your family. Everything is on time and you don't have much in the way of chances to rest. If you want to really feel this kind of load on your arms and hands try hammering nail, a few hundred of them as a time. If you are not used to it that will be painful and you will find muscles in your hands you had no idea existed.
One thing I think you might consider looking into for these experiments is maybe doing a dye penetrant test, also called PT. As a boilermaker and overlay welder we often have to have our welds tested with PT and it’s a very simple test. All you need is three aerosol spray cans, first is the cleaner, next is the dye and the third is the developer. You spray the test area withe the cleaner, then with the dye penetrant and wait 10-15 minutes for it so “soak in” to any cracks or delaminations/lack of fusion areas. Then you clean it again and spray it with the developer. If you have a delamination that you can’t see the dye will have soaked in, then the developer will cause it to “bleed” so you can see the delamination. You can look up how to do it here on UA-cam and it will probably save you time and a lot of effort testing pieces that are not bonded to begin with. I would assume you can also use it to look for imperfections in any other Damascus you’ve made.
It's such a breath of fresh air seeing a series about a blacksmith doing true, UNDENIABLE science. Its so intriguing watching you test a single variable at a time as you perform the time honored tradition of making the coolest cutting tool possible.
Really cool to hear you are a high school drop out. Love seeing people be honest about that kind of stuff, you didn't finish basic education and have no higher education yet you have done SO MUCH in your life so far. Just such a great message to show people, love the vids Alec!
As a long time fan and materials scientist that worked on diffusion bonding of metals and ceramics I am so impressed you are engaged in a scientific study of bonding. Particularly one with such a useful objective. I always tell people that Alec Steel has the ability to quickly acquire expertise in any area that takes his interest. If you need another collaborator, I am here.
This brings back memories of the time in the early 90's when I was briefly workin at a shipyard making LNG tankers. The nature of the cargo (extremely cold) set some interesting demands for the materials and construction of the tanks. The spherical tanks (diameter about 40 meters, wall thickness ranging from 5 to 7 centimeters depending on the part of the tank) were made of aluminium and were "hung" in the ship's hull by a ring at their equtor which rested on another ring welded to the ship's structure. To prevent problems caused by dissimilar materials the upper part of this ring was made of aluminium like the tanks while the lower part was stainless steel so it could be welded to the steel hull of the ship. To join the upper and lower parts (as aluminium obciously can't be welded directly to stainless steel) there was a (relatively) thin strip consisting of four different metals that had been explosion welded together. I don't remember what were the materials used but the two in-between layers were needed to make the tarnsition from aluminium to steel possible and still they could only be joined by explosion welding.
I have been watching your channel religiously since your first titanium video. It is so cool to see how you are combining your passion for metalwork and bladesmithing with science, and quite unique from what I’ve seen. While this particular set of experiments does require a healthy bank account or some sponsors, it is really cool to see just a normal dude who didn’t finish school fall in love with the kind of science that I fell in love with in school. You are a true scientist despite your unconventional journey! You are creating theories (or hypotheses) and designing tests to determine if your hypotheses are true. I can’t wait for more videos!!
15:40 I believe what happened is the compression from the steel and titanium are both acting on the zirconium/niobium but maybe the bond between those is strong with the titanium so the titanium compresses it on the outer layer and bends the zirconium/niobium outward from the steel. btw i've been following this whole series and its been awesome watching u build ur workshop up and expanding your tool selection, great vids!
Honestly something as niche as this is one of the greatest videos you have EVER put out. This is discovery at its finest! Cant wait to see further testing
I studied mechanical engineering many years ago. Life took me down a different path but this has got to be the most interesting video I have watched on this channel. Thank you Alec and team for making such amazing content. Thank you even more for your amazing attitude and joy you bring to making. I hope you have a wonderful 2025, full of happy times with your all your loved ones.
Great video Alec. That's awesome the university prof spent that time with you to help out. Looking forward to seeing your work flow with both a CNC waterjet and CNC plasma cutter tables. You were doing so well on 'scienceing it' until orders of magnitude colder, that would be at a temperature you would decide to put on a coat and hat.
it kind of seems comedic that Alec went on this whole adventure to only come back to the original sample of just titanium and steel. Kudos to you Alecc love your content
I found your channel like a week ago and I am absolutely obsessed. Happy New Year my friend, thanks a ton for the free entertainment & wisdom. God Bless you, your family, and your incredible drive, intelligence, and eagerness to be. Thank you, seriously!
22:30 you took the words right out of my mouth. Some of the other experiments (copper) looked good, but direct forging of titanium to steel seems like a winner!
Thanks for watching guys. Always keen to hear your input on what I missed. Please be sure to check out our Sponsor, Nord VPN: NordVPN.com/forge
will vs alec footrace when?
I'd love to see some combinations of 3d printing, diffusion bonding and forging. Happy NY from NZ.
The niobium test got me thinking. It bonded very well to the titanium as your theory about the similar thermal expansion properties stated it might. So why not continue down the periodic table, find a compatible metal that is closer to steel and niobium than titanium and niobium, wash, rinse, repeat until you have a billet with the properties you want?
When testing the delaminating in the vice, I’d love to see you bend them back to the centre. That will open up the delaminations and possibly reveal any that weren’t initially visible
so did I mess something are you done being in America?
As a scientist, I'm damn proud of you, Alec. Forming, testing, and reevaluating hypotheses is the heart of the scientific method. Human civilization is based on it. Your enthusiasm and demostrations are contagious. Stay curious, stay humble. And remember...the only difference between doing science and screwing around is writing down observatios.
word!
@@andreibale89 Any chance he could publish at the end of this?
@@benjaminboyle7329 I think to publish his findings he would have to be a lot more professional in his methods of testing, I think he's more than happy sharing his findings with hobbyists on yt.
I mean just a white paper would be awesome, but I think Alec would need some qualified help to accomplish that, and I don't think it would be of much benefit. I think someone picking up his experiments and doing a proper study would be great. Alec could even be the main author, but he'd need guidance, just because papers are written in a certain way.
Nothing against Alec, I'm not trying to insult his intelligence at all. It's just writing these papers is a skill all in itself. As a software engineer I very much don't write scientific papers. If I come up with something that's novel it's either the patent lawyers, the scientist(s) on staff, or both who help me shape my ideas into a recognizable format. The ideas and findings are still mine, but wouldn't be caught dead writing a scientific paper. I dread writing simple white papers, even though I'm pretty good at it. I'd rather just do what I do best and leave the rest to other professionals.
I'm going to steal that last sentiment, I love the bluntness of it in regards to the scientific method.
If you're no longer working under the suposition that the interlayers are strictly necessary; you might want to consider whether the titanium alloys being used are optimized for the application, when used directly with the steel.
Amazing to see someone find academia by sheer curiosity. Really speaks to the essence of what higher education is all about.
should be
Should* be all about
@@nelsoncam123 is
@@john.hunter is"
that last sentence is exactly what I was trying to figure out. As a recent graduate, it sometimes seems aimed against people who are legitimately curious, and is more focused on the students that are trying to make the most money. I guess that's how the wheels turn, but I'm glad Alec is experiencing the best parts of university without having to deal with much else
Easily one of the most humble, genuine, and quality content creators in the game.
there are no ''genuine'' people on the internet bro..
Okay
And the time and effort spent in research is under appreciated.
@@Mikael-jt1hk that's just no true. just because you've never seen them, doesn't mean they don't exist
@@Mikael-jt1hk thats just wrong
The fact that you took the time and expense to redo this based on Feedback and expert input is great! This is R&D as it should be. Bravo.
Also a great example of why R&D can be very expensive
All this from a man who didn't go to college or finish high school, obviously you could have easily done both but school isn't for everyone. The intelligence you have though is amazing. Watching your videos is always a joy, keep up the excellent work young man.
Imagine if he went back to school and got a degree in metallurgy. Alec would be unstoppable.
Hi, I'm an aerospace engineer studying just this! Titanium kinda sucks at conducting heat and also has a stronger specific heat capacity than the steel! This means that given the same mass it takes longer to cool it than the steel and it also doesn't take away heat fast enough from the steel, I suggest quenching in water to try and solve that issue, or try water and some other intermediate solution.
Additionally for all these reasons the steel might not be reaching the 850 temp, or maybe it might not be stable at it, and since you can't keep it in there longer, else it'll create intermetallic compounds, maybe try an electromagnetic coil heater?
It might take some time to set it up though as titanium and steel do not have the same condictivity or magnetic properties!
If this is not an option maybe try a temp of 900, as with that the steel is already austenite and will cool into martensite if you cool it fast enough. You should be looking at 50 to 140 C°/sec of cooling; I bekieve water can achieve that.
Good luck from Amelia from Italy! Loving this series!
An induction forge is a good shout.
What about a combination of the 2...... using the gas forge to bring it up to 700°C (to get the heat into the titanium) and finish it off in an induction forge?
@@Zogg1281 I believe an induction forge is faster than a traditional forge? IDK.
Good shout. Induction heating should heat up the billet uniformly
@@Zogg1281 There's really no need to use a forge first, induction coils bring steel up to eutectoid temp in a couple of seconds, titanium is somewhat slower to heat but still under 10 seconds before it glows orange. There's several videos on here of titanium being coloured through the use of induction coils. The main issue with induction heating is that you are limited on the area being heated, unless you pay a lot of money for a large coil and system that can power it.
@26:00 Alec, Also keep in mind that 10th sample had Argon flowing through the jacket during the quench. That Argon must have been flowing around the entire sample potentially acting as an air buffer insulating the inner sample from the outer steel and thus the quenching oil. Might need Yogo to turn off that argon tank at the last second when you quench
Good shout!! YOGO COME HERE!
@@AlecSteele Maybe try other Steel variants. Air hardening Steel might be a posibility?!
@@AlecSteelein the same vain of thinking, I wonder if you could fashion a gas-oil/water manifold that once finished with the bonding you could immediately switch off argon and to a flow of oil to circumvent the outer box and “internally” quench?
@@AlecSteeletry putting a simple gas shut off valve in your line where it connects to the purge tube on the box. Do the same process as before but shut off the gas the instant you hit the quench oil/water.
@@2redrovers I was just thinking stomp on the gas line. I think your solution is a bit more elegant.
Reading through the comments, everyone has the same sentiment. Videos like this are awesome. Learning the numbers, the math, then learning what you did wrong from an expert. Next video we can usually expect more answers to things that might have went wrong here, or more experiments.
Yes, doing cool and unique things, not shying away from the technical discussions, being funny and goofily humble, and NOT being loud, abnoxious, and annoying like all the other channels. Good job, def becomming a solid favorite.
right? what a positive community, trying to learn and experiment and work together. least toxic comment section ever.
Congrats on the Xtreme plasma table. I got mine back in 2017 and it's by far the best thing I have ever bought! you won't find a nicer guy than Rob who owns the company aswell, he's helped me out massively over the years!!
Metallurgist here, a couple factors to consider with the stresses of heat treat. First, the quench to martensite causes a volumetric expansion, because martensite has a slightly larger crystal size than ferrite or pearlite. This phenomenon can cause cracking in even purely homogenous steel parts if the shapes are problematic. This would cause the steel to try and "stretch" the zirconium/niobium and cause your pringle shapes (maybe, just a theory). Second, you definitely weren't wrong about the different expansions having a role to play. But it took the heat treatment and rapid expansion of martensite COMBINED with the already built in stresses from forging. Hopefully this helps. Great video, looking forward to the next one
The fact Alec just goes and asks people how to do things he's trying to do, and then gets it done... I love that about this channel. Don't have a part? Make it. Don't have the knowledge? Seek it out.
Titanium is a poor conductor of heat, when quenching the direct bonded titanium, maybe use water to increase the quench speed. Usually to fast for direct contact with steel, but could the right speed for steel when it is being insulated by the titanium.
Also if a short time at temperature is the right answer for direct bonding, one of those electromagnetic forges might be another lever to pull to heat the billet quickly. In gas forges, you are waiting for convection heating. With the electromagnetic ones, you heating the material from the inside out and directly.
Regardless, I feel your excitement here. I would be very interested in purchasing a finished knife in this style. I love titanium. Its such a cool material.
Im not sure he needs to heat much faster it bonded well, an induction forge would be the way to go if he does need to heat faster. Quenching in water might be the move to cool the steel quicker. It could cause the jacket to break but at that point who cares
You mean induction forge? Steel is not magnetic. Induction works by creating eddy currents.
@@excitedbox5705 What do you mean "steel is not magnetic"?
@@excitedbox5705 I do mean induction forge… but at the same time… steel is 100% magnetic. Titanium is not, but Eddie currents will work because it’s conductive.
@@excitedbox5705 You don't need magnetism for induction heating, just a conductive material. You're correct in that it needs to produce eddy currents, but that will occur for any metal.
Couple spin-off thoughts this gave me that I looked up: wrapping an aluminum rod with wire and using it as an electromagnet core gives does not significantly increase the magnetic field versus having no aluminum rod (owing to the fact aluminum is paramagnetic). However, since it is a good electric conductor, wrapping aluminum around a rod will also produce an effective electromagnet. Fun stuff!
this video really reminds you that there is this vast, DEEP wealth of knowledge in some areas that only a couple dozen people have, and it's their knowledge that keeps everything running.
22:40 "Maths will hunt you down" - Matt Parker
Couple of wierd ideas:
Welding hygine- alot of your failures look to happen around the edges where you welded your canister, try running either purge or make a glove box to do your welding in.
Preweld your titanium layers,If you want to make some timascus skins do it before welding to steel, you may find the ti-ti conditions are diferent from ti-steel.
Maybe try pre heat treating the steel, you may end up with enough retained martensite to get the desired edge, or instead of 1080 try hss, which will retain hardness at that temperature.
This is an awsome series, keep it going
Not to throw another layer of complexity on this project, but you could also consider laser hardening of the steel edges. It would leave a very hard edge without thermally affecting the rest of the billet. Laser hardening is used all the time in industry to selectively harden bearing journals and gear teeth without hardening the entire component. Loving the content so far. Keep it up!
Wouldn't the initial weld anneal the steel though? Even if it's a lower temperature it wouldn't be out of the realm of possiblity
It's fine, it just depends how expensive you want your knife to be.
How deep does that type of hardening penetrate the steel?
Is it possible to sharpen the knife afterwards or would that remove tje hardened zone?
@@Eoraph Laser hardening can go anywhere from 0.5mm to 3mm deep. Depends a lot on laser spot size and power output. But in this case I would think laser hardening would occur when the knife is nearly finished and close to final shape. The hardening would definitely get deep enough to still be hard after final grinding.
@@tylercosgrave713 induction hardening might be better for a knife gets in a bit deeper and also cheaper to buy.
@AlecSteele your workshop is no more a forge... Its a laboratory!!! You became a scientist. Respect.
I was gonna say something similar, but i thought naaaaaa, I'm too stoned, better not say something silly. Thanks. :-)
I'm a metal polisher making knee implants. They're made from cobalt chrome as they're easier to get a mirror finish on the bearing surfaces. If a patient has an allergy to cobalt chrome and a titanium implant isn't an option, the cobalt implant is coated with a titanium niobium nitrate alloy to prevent a reaction from within the body. Makes the chrome mirrored finish gold all over. Like if c3po needed a knee. Wonderful video Alec. Happy new year to you!
What's the point of a mirror finish on a knee joint that will be covered back up with meat?
@@andrewb378guessing you want as little friction as possible in the moving parts as it decreases the irritation the non smooth metal would create
@@andrewb378 I assume to have the lowest possible friction for the joint operation. Don't want a grindy replacement knee that degrades quickly.
@andrewb378 so that there's as little friction as possible with the bearing. Any imperfections can cause unnecessary wear on the parts. The smoother they are, the longer they last for the recipient/patient.
Oh id love to see a video about all this building and putting it into a patient as well. Sounds like a very interesting proces!❤
pre-loading the materials to create residual stresses could also be a cool experiment. If done right could might be able to eliminate stresses due to different thermal expansions. Might also be able to create some cool properties as well.
Also love the r&d videos!
This is so cool! I think you’re totally right that the direct bonded sample didn’t heat treat as well because it was inside the block. Doing a second heat treat after you’ve formed the blade will probably give you a fine cutting edge!
Regarding the anodizing, it’s definitely an art. I used to do it as a side gig, and the line between ho-hum and holy smokes is frustratingly thin.
My main lesson: surface prep and etching process are everything. A sanded vs polished surface will turn out very different, and any surface oils or machining artifacts will show up very visibly. For etching, I always have best results with freshly mixed etchant heated to at least 70C, and 75 or 80 will usually be more consistent. Etch with agitation for 10-15 seconds, rinse in DI water, then straight to anodizing.
FYI - I love the short recap at the beginning. Especially since you did it soft spoken and clear, it's just the right length and with your great editing reminded me of the last few episodes within the first 50 seconds of the video.
I second that!
I am a scientist working in genetic medicine and it has been very exciting watching you theorize and test your hypotheses. I can say we in the research field are well acquainted with the feeling of an awesome discovery one-day only to have it crushed by some other finding on the next day. As they say, "if it were easy, someone else would've already done it." Can't wait to see more.
I really love how the shop just feels like home, the lighting, the layout as things have developed is so pleasing to watch as a viewer. The Giant Lamp you made really is a big highlight of it all.
Also Happy New Years!
It's quite literally a big highlight
You were on the right track there on the termal expansion tention. The zirconium is in compression but at the same time te steel and titanium are in tension. So the steel and titanium are trying to shrink but cant. Normally the part would just warp/bent to the material trying to shrink but here both of the metals are pulling in opposite directions canceling the warping... Until the bond failed basically pulling the zirconium apart.
Naobium has the same stress but less of it course the best thing would probably be a gradient across low expansion mid, high, mid, low.
Also the titanium warps more after failure because the steel is still fighting the titanium on the other side. The steel would bend even more as the titanium if there was nothing on the other side.
Alec, I've been a huge fan for a very long time. Let me start with a simple, "well done".
I've done a great deal of work electrochemically with titanium, it's alloys and 'cousins' as well as a variety of other metals.
My initial work was centered on anodizing titanium, which you've demonstrated and worked through.
The key to what you're trying to accomplish ( from strictly the anodize perspective) is understanding what essentially boils down to Ohm's law. The oxidation you're looking for is occurring at different rates and thoroughness based on the electrical conductivity of each metal/alloy in the electrolyte. Metals that are more conductive will 'steal ' the electrons you want from other metals submerged coincidentally. And those metals, when they form oxides, we'll have different oxide thickness and resulting visual appearance.
The easy answer here is to electrically 'mask' the steel before you immerse in the electrolyte.
Best Regards, and keep up the good work!
JimC
On the ti and steel one, you could try re-hardening just the edge of the blade with the steel part exposed only. That way, you'll get a really hard edge like an axe. Kind of like a katana in a way.
That’s what I was thinking. If this doesn’t work, he could try a sub zero brine solution for quenching or even cryogenic argon
@@Veritas-inveniturliquid nitrogen if you want a cryo-quench, readily available at your local dermatologist…
would be a good application for induction hardening, not putting the whole blade through the induction coil. Just moving the edge past it and quenching immediately. Like put the coil above the quench bath and as you lower it quenches. Hell you could probably have the coil in the bath if you got enough power into it.
@@zyeborm Colin Furze made a knife heater that might actually be useful here.
@@The18107j haven't really watched the video but pretty sure that heats the entire knife not just the edge.
Alec you have created some truly epic videos this year, but the Titanium ones have taken the entire factory of biscuits with them, your experiments with Titanium after you found that patent, have been incredible, all the best for 2025!
I'm definitely addicted to this channel
He's like B. Dylan Hollis' blacksmith nephew.
Been watching it all xmas
Been watching the last 5 years
As an engineer, I’m really impressed to see you bridge laboratory science and industrial process at a small scale. You have just advanced technology. Your testing process is on point. Presentation is excellent.
Option 1: make a cooling jacket in order to differentially heat the edge with induction or a torch, then quench the edge.
Option 2: Use air hardening steel with titanium to see what happens.
Im a glassblower and it's wild sometimes how close metal methodologies are to glass work. If you want to heat metal QUICKLY, you should look into GTT glass torches. They're oxy/fuel torches we use in glassblowing, but I recently toured their facility and the owner talked about them starting to get used in big metal forging for heating bit masses of metal effociently. Glass is an insulator, so our torches have to be really powerful, and their secondary use in metal might be useful to you. Also, youre able to adjust flame chemistry with a GTT/any glass torch, which adjusts not only temperature, but oxygen/fuel ratios for additional testing params.
The cleanliness of the surface of the titanium and the etchant you use will make a huge difference in the quality and depth of colors you can get when anodizing. I recommend a degrease and a sonic cleaner if possible. Etch (Multi-Etch is the most consistent/brightest I found), rinse, and while the titanium is still wet from the rinse, go straight into your electrolyte bath for the anodization. I think I was pulling 200-400mA for things about the size of a knife blade.
Ultrasonic cleaners are dirt cheap (relative to the toys already in the shop).
so for the bimetal bending, i the reason it curves towards the titanium is because the titanium is now at room temperature, so it wants to shrink more than the niobium, you'd be right in assuming that it'd curve inwards if it was bonded at room temperature and then expands, but this expanded first, then cooled to room temperature, the fact that the steel expanded even more is likely also why it's sheared off there, cause that's where the largest force was being applied, you would perhaps expect a little bit of inward curve off of the triple layer, though perhaps that's being stabilized by the interlayer
More fun fact, is that those kinds of stress differences at different layers are what make things like gorilla or tempered glass stronger but more brittle then regular glass. Or how they pretension steel cables in concrete before it cures for things like bridge spans so that it’s always being compressed internally and holds more that way (since concrete is far stronger under compression then tension). There are a lot of cool things in materials science with different materials where you stress them in different ways as they are combined to do very unique but useful stuff that alone those materials can’t do.
Yeah i agree, it curves toward the titanium because the bond with the titanium is still holding, so the titanium is still compressing the joint. If it failed at the titanium bond then you'd see it curve towards the steel bond
@@paulkirschner4378 And I would guess that the fact that both sides are trying to curve _away_ from the interlayer is part of why the joints fail much more easily. The titanium is basically trying to rip the interlayer off the steel, and vice-versa.
This not only science but science done right:
No access barriers. International. Interdisciplinary. Good methodology. No hiding of errors. Good presentation.
As I haven't seen a post on this, and it's a slightly wild idea...
You need a thin interface layer with a high surface area to bond to the outer layers.
Have you thought of electroplating the titanium? With the right electrolyte you should induce a very strong bonded surface with low oxides that prevents additional oxidation and eliminating the need for argon when you smash the layers together. ie. plate the steel and the titanium, mirror polish and then weld them.
Best rabbit hole content on UA-cam currently. Cheers, mate.
I honestly think you should publish when you are done. This is grand work.
5:52 “Hopefully you have some time off work” me sitting on the toilet at work🫨😭
"If you have time to poo, you have time to view" 😅
Lol im working from home sitting on the toilet 😂
Hi Alec, I am a metallurgist. This was a really interesting video. What you really need is a mounting press and a microscope, to see what is going on in the structure. Just a hardness tester isn't always giving you the best picture.
If you do buy a hardness tester, make it a Vickers Armstrong pedestal tester. Much more flexible than a Rockwell (you get to see the shape of the indent down the microscope) and its a good old piece of British manufacturing history.
Test equipment is in order. As a tool and die maker, rockwell hardness testing is a crucial bit of information in almost everything we do. My concern with sample 10 would be that the can wasn't bonded to the titanium, and the heat transfer was minimal at best during the quench. I can't imagine why else the steel wouldn't have hardened in the quench. On the subject of sample 10, I wouldn't base much other than the bond between the titanium and the steel because you wouldn't be able to heat treat the raw billet before further processing without tempering the sample first to stack and bond the layers that will result in you damascus paters. My hunch is the temperature and pressure bonded the titanium and your heat treatable steel. Bravo young man. This is an exceptional, interesting endeavor.
I love that you’re stepping out into the world of scientific analysis. There’s people who would have done less thorough testing and gone straight to making a knife with sample 10 only to (maybe) find the edge can roll after they put days of work into it.
Happy new year
as a non scientist in fact ship mechanic i love this series and i love all the input from actual scientists and researches, material science and metalurgy is the foundations on how we as a speicies can make magnificant machines to take us anywhere we would want to or need to go. keep it up alec and this comment section, blimming brilliant!
Aww our guy is growing up. No seriously the maturity in how Alec's content has evolved over time to be more scientific, involved and the passion to learn is impressive and I hope to match that when I grow up. (I'm 40 ha)
this series has been one of the most fun experiments i have watched. i am a mech eng student and been learning alot in material science and bonding, honestly very rewarding now that i understand everything here very well when you explain it. keep this series going
Yup. This is research that's right at the edge of what's possible, and it's absolutely fascinating.
Alec could’ve been a successful professor. Very bright and talented. He’s always been able to properly articulate.
well he aint dead yet
He's still young enough to be a master at almost any profession he chooses.
I'm pretty sure he taught blacksmith classes so he has experience
@ Yup. I remember when he was at his first shop teaching guys on livestreams. He’s learned from the best around the world.
stop
Alec is great and hardworking and wonderful. But pretending all you need to be a professor is a British accent?
Stop it
Bro said he didn't even finish high school....
So to compile what a lot of other comments are saying about the Ti-Steel direct fusion:
1.) Try induction heating, and/or test at 900° C.
2.) Have Yogo turn off the argon compressor as soon as you're finished hammering (or even while hammering?)
3.) Maybe test other versions of Ti and Steel to see which are best suited for direct fusion as opposed to working with interlayers.
4.) Quench in liquid that can cool the billet faster. I see recommendation for ice water or potentially even salted ice water, which may just work due to heating at much lower temps than usual.
5.) Laser hardening the steel edge in isolation would harden the steel without affecting the rest of the piece with high temperatures.
I'm curious if all of these things could be combined to seriously refine the product at the end, or if any of the changes suggested would unnecessary and/or redundant. Anyways, I've really been enjoying your journey on this so far! Always excited to see new stuff from you, especially this since I've been fascinated by the idea of fusing steel and titanium for blades since I was in middle school lol. Happy New Year!
A potential issue of laser hardening is that it would be very shallow, meaning that in a knife application where resharpening would occur you'd be very likely to end up sharpening back past the hardened region.
@FortyTwoBlades That's good to know, I had no idea!
Engineer here.
The sample will expand during heating, and then fuse weld while expanded.
The longest sample while heated will want to be long, but will be pulled shorter and thus compressed. If it is an intermetallic cohesive failure then [I believe] the material's ultimate shear stress was exceeded.
This, however, assumes no phase transformations in the steel/Ti, which I dont think is happening at these temps. (For the steel, I dont know enough about Ti and others to comment there).
i love seeing your attention to detail evolve over the years! you just keep getting smarter and smarter and keep taking on more difficult tasks
Man I love this series. Science paired with steam hammers and Alec is awesome. It's like the best crossover episode ever
Alec, you SHOULD absolutely be ecstatic!! You accomplished what you set out to do which is the first ever as far as I'm aware. The hardness issue can be dealt with and dialed in, I'm confident of that. As long as the ti and steel was fully forge welded. Excellent job brother, kudos. And thanks for sharing all your progress with us, many people would keep it to themselves.
I've been watching since Alec was just a young man, even an old boy ☺️. Proud of the growth you and your company have made. Your a good guy Alec. I hope 2025 brings more of the same for you and your family ✌️
Brother, I repair arcade games all day, and watching you explain science I will never touch makes my day. Your content is great, keep doing your thing!
"As niche as this" = youtube gold.
(After remembering my experiences 35 years ago I mentioned at the end of the post) I thought this might be worth adding ... maybe a microscope might be handy at this point in testing, to see the different grain structures across the bonded layer. Another man toy for the workshop :D :D :D
I watch more niche videos of areas I will never work in or will never affect my life than I do normal common mainstream topics. For myself there are only a few reason I watch videos
1) Something to help me understand something I'm working on or want to work on.
2) Education fun. Something I will never experience personally just for the fun of understanding some other part of life.
3) Things I funny/fun stuff
4) Vicarious living (aka something I could do if I wasn't too lazy/cheap/time limited to be able to do myself).
This video fits into 2) perfectly, although being an ex machine engineer with some college/bespoke training courses under my belt it could also be a reversed 1) I guess. I still feel the dread of exams where you were given microscopic cross section images and had to identify the material/hardening process of them.
Great to see an update on this riveting (though not literally) series!
I was surprised you didn’t try a Vanadium inter layer after all the folks yapping about it in the comments on the last video.
The obvious thing to try is a re-quench on the direct bond and see how that goes; hopefully it doesn’t just make some TiFe and wreck it.
I do titanium anodizing at home; I use “phosphate free” tri sodium phosphate as my electrolyte from the hardware store, might try that instead. Hooking the electrode directly to the part and partial-dunking will get your color much faster in my experience; having a hand on the sample also facilitates exposure-time-based gradients that can be pretty cool.
This is by far the coolest blacksmithing project on the internet right now. I would love to be proved wrong and find even more awesome content though haha.
I'm sure someone has said it by now.. but the thermal expansion question at 16 minutes in is I believe due to the martensitic transformation in the steel. The thermal expansion data you have doesn't account for a state transformation. Steel actually expands when it hardens, that's why a lot of dissimilar laminates pull the core apart in heat treat.
Good luck! Excited to see where these tests are going
16:01 Hi Alec
It is possible that your niobium piece bend because quenched steel expand. Martensite take more space. It is the reason why katanas are taking a curve with differential hardening. The blade is straight when quenched but the clay prevent back of the blade to become martensite. The edge become martensite and take more space so it curve the blade.
Happy new year from French Alps !
Love that you shop is building out and becoming more then just forging
Alec, excellent!! I've been wondering for years why no one has made a titanium san mai blade. Imagine a katana with a magnacut core and titanium sides, now that would be something. Probably a $50,000 katana.
i actually appreciate how consistent you are with uploads thank you
A round of applause for that Bahco adjustable. The true hero of all those tests :-)
Hi Alec, I don't remember first seeing your content. It is amazing what your curiosity led you to. The main compliment I want to give you is actually this: As a UA-camr, you got better and better. As a Trial-and-Error Scientist by your own, you evolved and can be proud of yourself. Me for myself, I am proud to see your path. Hopefully it is not too odd hearing this from a stranger. On top of that, I can totally connect to your curiosity. My brain starts humming and buzzing with every new step you make.
All the best for you!
the best thing is to make the knife and gift it to the professor 🤗
Absolutely!
100%.
That would be a showpiece to his students for the rest of his career.
Alec, pehaps you can harden the steel core prior to the direct bond, then during the bonding proces it will be more of an annealing process than hardening.
Oh, that's an interesting idea. My guess is that heating the steel back up to temperature will undo the hardening, but given the limited temperatures and time-at-temperature in this process, it well might not undo it completely.
For the "secret recipe #10" you might want to consider softening and re-hardening after cutting off the box. That way you get the benefit of the high-pressure/low-time bonding while still confirming that the final hardening process matches rest of the samples.
But every time he reheats it he risks forming the bimetallic compound, right?
But by then the important welds are theoretically complete, right? Not an expert. Just a thought.
@@laslo67 The welds are complete, but atoms can still diffuse across the weld to make more bimetallic compound. On the other hand, if the temperature needed for hardening is lower than the welding temperature, it could work -- the diffusion rates go up very quickly with temperature, which means just a little cooler makes a big difference.
For the anodize, in our shop we use sodium bicarbonate for the electrolyte. Titanium has a crazy range of colors you can get by varying the voltage. Play with the voltage. The neatest colors I’ve gotten were from hooking up the tig welder to the workpiece and using that as the power supply. Crazy rainbows.
In my experience the higher the electrolyte concentration, the more amperage it will push and the deeper the anodize will be.
A shining example of what it means to create with heart, humility, and excellence - this creator is one of the best.
This series is getting more and more fascinating! I love the systematic trails.... And I love the raw THUMP of the steam hammer.
Titanium is a crap heat conductor, so you may have to get aggressive with the quench. My first thought was pumping liquid nitrogen though the purge line WHILE it is in the quenching liquid.. which should probably be ice water instead of oil. Maybe even crushed ice and salt in water. That gets to -17C.
I'm wondering about doing steel-titanium-steel instead of titanium-steel-titanium as part of dealing with the heat conduction issues.
@@KAClown It will probably be useful for some things, but knives.. not so much.
I appreciate you going to a university for a conversation to understand more. I feel like this will go full circle & you could potentially be the lecturer with the theoretical knowledge you've been adding to videos recently. These informative videos + the factory visits are a cool addition & I feel like are/could be a core staple to the channel
0:10 the mythical "mince pies" drawer
Had to go back and peek, sure enough
It's a little early for Easter, though..
Good catch 😂
As someone who deals with science everyday, this is every science research project.
Loads of failures, lots of data, small glimmers of hope. You're doing great and keep up the good work.
Do 2 heat treat samples on the direct bond billet, one in the jacket and one when it’s to dimension
One of the most interesting things about this guy, he looks like a goofy young kid, but jeez Louise does he have MAN HANDS. i bet this guy has hand crushing grip strength. And love the genuine enthusiasm he has for his content. You can tell he loves what he does
Reminds me of a master of some kind of unarmed combat that I saw on TV. I can't remember what martial art he practiced but I do remember his hands and arms. He was a Asian man in his seventies, and yet his hands looked incredibly strong. And when he made a fist his wrist was almost exactly thick enough to form a straight line from his arm and over his fist. That was hands shaped by a life of training.
Another man with hands and arms that was impressive to see was Jamie Oliver. It might not sound that impressive as we are talking about a chef, but he has worked a lot in kitchens over the years and handles cast iron pans making it look like they are aluminium. And again it's really obvious when you look at his vrists. Those arms are way stronger than you would guess. It's probably the same for a lot of chefs. Working in a professional kitchen is nothing like cooking dinner for your family. Everything is on time and you don't have much in the way of chances to rest.
If you want to really feel this kind of load on your arms and hands try hammering nail, a few hundred of them as a time. If you are not used to it that will be painful and you will find muscles in your hands you had no idea existed.
Happy New Year their Lad 👍
1:45 Pizza is an essential fabrication shop supply
One thing I think you might consider looking into for these experiments is maybe doing a dye penetrant test, also called PT. As a boilermaker and overlay welder we often have to have our welds tested with PT and it’s a very simple test. All you need is three aerosol spray cans, first is the cleaner, next is the dye and the third is the developer. You spray the test area withe the cleaner, then with the dye penetrant and wait 10-15 minutes for it so “soak in” to any cracks or delaminations/lack of fusion areas. Then you clean it again and spray it with the developer. If you have a delamination that you can’t see the dye will have soaked in, then the developer will cause it to “bleed” so you can see the delamination. You can look up how to do it here on UA-cam and it will probably save you time and a lot of effort testing pieces that are not bonded to begin with. I would assume you can also use it to look for imperfections in any other Damascus you’ve made.
that layer between the two extends to every bit of existence, from the smallest to the largest. Love the content man, been watching you for years
it feels like 100 years between videos lol. i need like 5 a day. much love. love you are doing these.
20:09 Aleek being a goblin addicted to metals
15:56 I want to know.
Same
It's such a breath of fresh air seeing a series about a blacksmith doing true, UNDENIABLE science. Its so intriguing watching you test a single variable at a time as you perform the time honored tradition of making the coolest cutting tool possible.
Really cool to hear you are a high school drop out. Love seeing people be honest about that kind of stuff, you didn't finish basic education and have no higher education yet you have done SO MUCH in your life so far. Just such a great message to show people, love the vids Alec!
As a long time fan and materials scientist that worked on diffusion bonding of metals and ceramics I am so impressed you are engaged in a scientific study of bonding. Particularly one with such a useful objective. I always tell people that Alec Steel has the ability to quickly acquire expertise in any area that takes his interest. If you need another collaborator, I am here.
That’s so lovely of you! Thank you!
Hey Mr Steele, at 16:49 you mention you wish you could share the conversation with the professor. Next time film an interview, I would watch it.
I think what Alec is saying is that the professor did not wish to be filmed.
It’s amazing watching the same processes that are described in my university materials course!
bro is crafting adamantium😭😭💀💀
This brings back memories of the time in the early 90's when I was briefly workin at a shipyard making LNG tankers. The nature of the cargo (extremely cold) set some interesting demands for the materials and construction of the tanks. The spherical tanks (diameter about 40 meters, wall thickness ranging from 5 to 7 centimeters depending on the part of the tank) were made of aluminium and were "hung" in the ship's hull by a ring at their equtor which rested on another ring welded to the ship's structure. To prevent problems caused by dissimilar materials the upper part of this ring was made of aluminium like the tanks while the lower part was stainless steel so it could be welded to the steel hull of the ship. To join the upper and lower parts (as aluminium obciously can't be welded directly to stainless steel) there was a (relatively) thin strip consisting of four different metals that had been explosion welded together. I don't remember what were the materials used but the two in-between layers were needed to make the tarnsition from aluminium to steel possible and still they could only be joined by explosion welding.
with this series you’ve reached a completely new level of quality of the content. also it’s amazing to see you enjoy the science of your craft
It's so rare to see channels like this get better with time. Very very well made video, keep it up.
I have been watching your channel religiously since your first titanium video. It is so cool to see how you are combining your passion for metalwork and bladesmithing with science, and quite unique from what I’ve seen. While this particular set of experiments does require a healthy bank account or some sponsors, it is really cool to see just a normal dude who didn’t finish school fall in love with the kind of science that I fell in love with in school. You are a true scientist despite your unconventional journey! You are creating theories (or hypotheses) and designing tests to determine if your hypotheses are true. I can’t wait for more videos!!
15:40 I believe what happened is the compression from the steel and titanium are both acting on the zirconium/niobium but maybe the bond between those is strong with the titanium so the titanium compresses it on the outer layer and bends the zirconium/niobium outward from the steel. btw i've been following this whole series and its been awesome watching u build ur workshop up and expanding your tool selection, great vids!
Honestly something as niche as this is one of the greatest videos you have EVER put out. This is discovery at its finest! Cant wait to see further testing
I studied mechanical engineering many years ago. Life took me down a different path but this has got to be the most interesting video I have watched on this channel. Thank you Alec and team for making such amazing content. Thank you even more for your amazing attitude and joy you bring to making. I hope you have a wonderful 2025, full of happy times with your all your loved ones.
You are absolutely no doubt, the best youtuber and content creator on the planet. So so inspiring and always a pleasure to watch. Thank you!
You're breaking new boundaries dude, discovering new bonding techniques for metals like that is insanely awesome! Stoked to see how things come along
Great video Alec. That's awesome the university prof spent that time with you to help out. Looking forward to seeing your work flow with both a CNC waterjet and CNC plasma cutter tables.
You were doing so well on 'scienceing it' until orders of magnitude colder, that would be at a temperature you would decide to put on a coat and hat.
it kind of seems comedic that Alec went on this whole adventure to only come back to the original sample of just titanium and steel. Kudos to you Alecc love your content
I found your channel like a week ago and I am absolutely obsessed. Happy New Year my friend, thanks a ton for the free entertainment & wisdom. God Bless you, your family, and your incredible drive, intelligence, and eagerness to be. Thank you, seriously!
22:30 you took the words right out of my mouth. Some of the other experiments (copper) looked good, but direct forging of titanium to steel seems like a winner!