I have a question I've been wanting to ask for sometime now. I know that throughout the classical and medieval ages swords were made from copper, bronze, iron and steel. But, this might be a strange question, could you create an effective (usable) sword out a modern metal such as titanium for example. I believe that titanium (one of the types/grades) is ten times stronger and ten times lighter than steel (If I remember correctly) and could such a metal such as this hold a sharp edge and sharp point to have the characteristics/effectiveness of a sword?

yes you can....the swords i use at work are a titanium and aluminium alloy! there pretty light and strong and creat to bang together......but they dont hold a edge worth Sh#T. not a big problem, we dont want an sharp edge on them anyhow.

i still think even with these new alloys that Carbon "spring" steel (heat treated) is still much better for swords.

Why titanium doesn't hold a sharp edge? Maybe we think that titanium is some kind of hollywoodium,mithrill,katanium or other mythological undestrictable steels...and the truth is that it may be good for airplanes and armour in bulletproof vests and helmets and completely useless for sharp swords..Maybe one of the material specialists would explain ;)

Good evening.
Well, titanium is as a matter of fact not stronger than steel. While steel has a tensile strengh from arround 360 N/mm² to, in highly alloyed steel, 1000 N/mm² they all share the same density, 7.85 kg/dm³ and the same e- modulus, 210 kN/mm².
Pure titanium has a tensile strengh of ~350 N/mm² but in alloys a maximum of ~ 1000 N/mm², a density of 4.507 kg/dm³ and an e- modulus of 105 kN/mm².
Unfortunately I can't state anything about the hardness of titanium but I guess it ranges somewhere in the area of aluminum and so it is much softer than even the most basic steel alloy. Steele, enough carbon for perlitic structure implied, can be hardened up to ~60 HRC, which is more than most glasses are able to obtain and very brittle.
The e- modulus states how much the material deforms under a certain load. The tensile strengh states at which load a rod of this material and of defined cross sectional area fails. As you can see, in modern alloys both materials are approximately equally strong. But steel is the stiffer material. So titanium is not at all tougher or stronger than steel is. One of its advantages over steel is, besides its chemical properties, its lower density, and thereby the components weight.
It is an illusion that titanium is superior to any other material. It has its certain areas of application, as any other material, but I don't think that it is very suitable for swordblades.
I hope this helps. Good evening.

About the only area in which I can recall titanium being used in knives was the specialist tools made by such as Mission Knives out in California for the explosive ordinance people, those very brave guys who locate and disarm mines. THe advantage that titanium had was its lack of a magnetic signature, as I understood it. And that is why you will find it VERY difficult to find them on the general market today, for obvious reasons.

Titanium alloys have uses as surgical knifes. They can be treated cryogenically, and heated to high temperatures with "self annealing" or rather consistently mediocre heat treat that makes them useful as things that can be sterilized or used in conjunction with liquid nitrogen.

What would be the best type of steel to use in making a sword?

hey justin,
all current tool steels are good and will perform pretty close as long as you can get the temper right.
as long as you have a steel with at least 1% carbon or a complex steel in which some of the carbon is replaced with cromium or something else your ok. i like making blades with 1095 just because its inexpensive and easy to temper and work. i dont worry about burnoff in the forge as much with simple steel.

Leaf springs from cars can make good sword fodder. I don't know what alloy they are (anyone else?).

Pretty sure it's 5160

Well in the US armor has to take 6 hits with no penetrations and no backface deformation over 44mm in order to be NIJ rated. I know the UK and Germany have similar requirements. Sorry for going off topic...