Vanadium titanium magnetite (V-Ti) ore is one kind of important polymetallic minerals in China and the mainstream route of comprehensive utilization process is blast furnace (BF) -> basic oxygen furnace (BOF). V-Ti sinter is one of the main burdens employed for BF and poor tumbler strength (TI) limits its efficiency. In order to optimize the V-Ti blends for sinter TI, the basic sintering characteristics (BSCs) of 5 kinds of V-Ti ores, 2 ordinary ores and 3 groups of optimization V-Ti blends were studied. In addition, the sinter pot tests were conducted to obtain the TI of the produced sinter. The influencing factors on assimilation temperature (AT), the relations between the 4 characteristics of BSCs, and the factors influencing the V-Ti sinter TI were analyzed. The results showed that the BSCs of 5 kinds of V-Ti ores DB, HW,YT,JL and FH were good except liquid phase fluidity characteristic index (LF). The key reason why V-Ti sinter had a poor TI was the low LF, which caused the sinter with a large-pore structure. Therefore, the matching ores for optimization V-Ti blends should have a high LF. In addition, self-strength of the bonding phase (BS) and crystal intensity (CI) had an important impact on TI when the melt formed was sufficient and meanwhile the melt had a high LF. Moreover, the proper AT was the prior factor for the melt generation. In addition, the optimization V-Ti blends had good BSCs. The sinter TI with 7% NF ore addition could meet the production requirements for its TI was higher than 65%. Totally, the method of V-Ti magnetite ore blend optimization for sinter strength based on iron ore basic sintering characteristics was useful. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.