Advice on bending folder pocket clips

[Hitman104]

Hello there,

Looking for some expert advice on bending pocket clips on folders. Specifically titanium. I have played around with vices, pliers, hammering the hell out of them etc, but there has got to be a tried and proven technique. So far I have managed to nearly penetrate my face with high velocity shards of clip!

Thanks in advance....

 

[BossDog]

Ti doesn't like cold bending much past 60 degrees. You have to heat it to cherry red hot and then bend it if you want a 180degrees like a pocket clip.

 

[STR]

Heating it is easy enough. The trick is keeping it hot enough to bend without tearing. If you get it hot enough to where it stays hot for longer than three or four seconds you can manipulate it easy enough but if it is just a stove top about orange/red color is as hot as you'll get it which leaves about a three or so second window to make your bend. Miss that window and still keep bending it and it will tear. It will probably take you a few to figure out how far you can take it. In my experience ti cools incredibly fast compared to steel so its best to baby step taking small bends. If its a fold over I'd do that in three or four steps bending it some, heating it again, bending again and heating again and so on.

Just a couple pair of duck bill pliers is enough to bend some clips but if you are doing a lot you may want to make or have someone with the capability make you a brake to fold them over a pin via a long lever arm like the one Dave made at Great Lakes Waterjet.

Again though you have to keep them hot enough. Bending ti is like everything else about working with it. You have to basically throw out the book and specs and all you think you know to some extent.

If I am doing a whole batch of clips all the same in every way a brake works well but to do just one for someone that mails me a knife I use very common tools, a stove top and a pre cut template and simply heat it up and fold the thing no worries anymore. It took me quite a few wasted clips to get to that point though. Jewelers pliers with no teeth, or some body vice grips or other type duck bill pliers vice grip or not all work if you have them.

STR

 

[Curtiss Knives]

Like Tracy said, for small bends, cold is fine. Take your time. For more, use a bottle propane torch and heat it red. It will bend with little effort. The pics below are of a clip bending tool I make. Chuck it up in the vise and bend away. Tracy will have these in his store soon. The production model will not have the log and will be simplified. All stainless construction. cool 1