Would anyone be interested in this? I have a bunch of Ti laying around for a project that fell to the wayside. If anyone is interested, let me know dimensions, etc. There a plethora of different finishes that I can put on these. Rough estimate of cost would be $12 - $15. I have been making Ti money clips and guitar picks. I had a project worked out for the scraps, but after a while, the idea just got scrapped. I am a knifemaker and work at Graham Knives, so the facilities and equipment are available to me. At the moment I am working on a Ti snuffbox! Not sure how that is going to work out. Anyways, if anyone has any suggestions, please let me know.
What kind of stock do you have “access” to? I might buy some to make a spoon on my own at work. I am a maintenance machinist at a castings factory.
All we use is 6AL4V. It’s a b#tch to work. I have stock in .040 .100 and .187. Personally, i’m going to use the .040. Anything more is just overkill!
I would like something like that. Say 1 1/4in. long, bowl about 1/4in. in a shovel shape rater than just round.
I still have to work out the scoop shape. In all probability, it won’t have too much of a depression in it. With Ti that small, it is hard to get it to “dent” even under extreme heat. It could definitely have a “shovel” shape to it. I’m open to ideas. I’ll let you know if they are just unreasonable. These are not going to be extremely fancy. Just something to do when I have some spare time.
@ mroyse: I would certainly be interested if it wasn’t for my propensity to lose/mislay spoons every few months. I get mine from The Snuff Store (UK), they are inexpensive enough (£1.50) for me to not worry overmuch about losing one. But thinking about it, perhaps a spoon of 50mm length with a shovel bowl of 10mm length & 5mm in diameter would be nice to use in one of Patrick Collins’ new Tripletech boxes as a substitute for the bone one that comes with it?
Are snus tins a possibility?
@ midnightmosesuk: You know you can get snus tins from The Northerner, made by Icetool?
@ Toffeenose- Yes, I’ve seen them but they lack the style and beauty of a Patrick Collins. I want something with a bit of panache. I also hate labels. Why should I advertise Icetool products every time I take my snus tin out?
@ midnightmosesuk: Yes, I agree with you about the advertising. I think the boxes look great apart from that.
What do you use to cut the titanium? Carbide or Diamond?
i actually use cobalt most of the time. It has good heat handling ability without the propensity to shatter. It’s all about the speed and feed 
A snus box would be cool, but would cost a fortune made out of Ti. I may attempt one out of steel though.
They have some pretty nice snus tins here Slimcase and they engrave them too! But…no panache.
Man, you’ve got me curious now! What machine do you use and what feed-rates/speed? I am having a tough time believing this! At work I had to make a cap for the leg of a table for the heat treat ovens. I went outside with my saw to cut some 10in stock and it broke every tooth of my saw! It ended up being titanium and my boss still makes fun of me to this day. I was “green” back then, I think I was 17 or so.
If you have knowledge of machining processes, would it be easier to use a cobalt heavy tool steel to cut it? Or carbide? -on a lathe?
I think a cross hatch knurling effect in the bowl would be cool. Or like a mesh screen bowl idea, to have more air. The knurl though, if done really heavy, would create an almost “sticky” surface to grab snuffs almost sideways or vertically out of the can, by just dipping it straight down. I think that proves next to impossible with titanium. Cast or wrought iron would make a very rustic looking spoon I think. Also, a rod like snuffspoon with a straw like end, to just jam and hoot. Or make a universal handle with a threaded end, with interchangeable spoons to “customize” them. Ore even create a handle with a ballbearing spring lock , like ratchets have. Seems cool to me lol.
You may have something there with the knurled bowl, however it would be next to impossible with my knowledge to pull it off. I bet there is someone out there who could. Making a ting Ti spoon knurled inside would have to be done with CNC and even then a tiny little bowl would be impossible. Unless you started with square stock, made the bowl/knurl and then made the spoon around an already made bowl. Of course, with machining there is 13bilion ways to do one simple thing.
I am going to attempt to make some bullets on my spare time at work during Christmas. If anyone has any insights on what they like or would like added that would be great!
Yeah my basic idea to make it would be to start with flat stock, then to shape it, pass it through 2 cycinder rollers with a notch cut out to creaet a flare, around the edges of the bowl, hopefully not crushing the knurl…i’m no machinist though.
I’m going to just heat it to red hot and beat the hell out of it to shape the bowl. Then I’ll take it to the belt grinder for the final shape. I may take it to the mill and put a few tiny grooves in the bowl, but then again, that sounds like a pain. I think I’m just going to stick with the K.I.S.S. methodology.