They were awesome, unbelievably light, but very durable. They also made nice sparks when dragged across concrete pavement.
I've always wondered what a titanium one would be like.
I remember reading elsewhere that the CIA set up a bunch of front operations across the world to buy titanium (or maybe titanium ore) from the USSR without them finding out what it was being used for. They didn't want the "Ship to:" part of the order form reading "Lockheed Skunkworks, Burbank Califoria". Heh.
Highly reccomended and goes into further engineering and design challenges of the RS-71 Blackbird and its titanium construction.
If only we could find a cheap way to get the metal out of titanium dioxide. Like a Haber process-level breakthrough.
Then we could start replacing steel with titanium in many applications. Think entire freight trains, cargo ships, containers, cars, trucks, tractors -- all that heavy steel replaced by titanium alloys.
Enormous quantities of fuel and energy saved by lower density and higher strength. In many applications, it would likely make stainless steel obsolete.
Trillions of dollars of value may be locked up in such a breakthrough.
Titanium always looks really hard to work with, just from the few times I've seen youtube types get some into their lathe chucks.
Would the added (in some ways just different) performance make up the difference? No idea. I mean, would people use so much aluminium if it wasn't straightforward to extrude it into interesting shapes? I don't think I would.
The straight characteristics of a material are one thing: what you can actually do with it are another.
Looks like alloys are much more mallable, while losing almost none of the qualities of pure titanium.
Also: Go nukkular, high-temperature to be specific.
However, when it comes to fatigue (which I assume, you are referring to fracture strain) titanium has a significant edge. The fracture strain for steel is roughly 15%, but for titanium alloys, it often reaches and exceeds 50%.
I don't say this to contradict you, but to point out that as with most things in life, "it depends".
Source: https://www.ulbrich.com/blog/titanium-versus-steel-a-battle-....
Based on this tech: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/FFC_Cambridge_process
Still waiting for my titanium girders though...
In my mind, this is what real technology entrepreneurship looks like. As opposed to the latest crypto or social media thing.
The world's production of stainless steel is growing almost exponentially and we are replacing many applications or ordinary steel with stainless. Every year millions of tons of steel are lost to rust.
Its a gigsntic shift noone is noticing
On my finger is a tungsten carbide ring, it's extremely dense (that of gold, slightly heavier than uranium), and has a lot of interesting properties. It's warmed quickly by my fingers, and rings the most beautiful tone when I strike it with some bar stock of AI.
Wolfram has been a very nice metal in my life, I wish it was more common, and would love to try to add some knurling to it.
I also have a titanium pocketknife (James Brand), carabiner, keyrings, pens, camera (fujifilm makes a few), and some beloved snow peak dishes. And the silly titanium iPhone. It’s such a great metal to make things to carry with.
I've been searching forever for decent keyrings. There's a few carabiners (though the titanium ones are hard to find there too, and usually covered in obnoxious branding). But keyrings especially seem to be an under-served market. There's either (1) the usual mass-produced, flimsy, cheap garbage, or (2) something tougher and more expensive, but covered in branding.
I've settled with (2) for now (though it's not even titanium), but it'd be nice to not have to look at a giant billboard every time I pull out my keys.
Source - my wife breaks out from nickel in jean rivets but niobium is good enough for piercings
> "Titanium! It's made out of titanium! Like the spy planes! This is an incredible material, it's stronger than steel yet lighter than aluminium."
There was a blog called "Atomic Delights" that would explain the manufacturing processes featured in the videos. Found it super interesting, especially considering the challenge of shipping products at Apple level volumes.
A MBP with the natural titanium finish as seen in the iPhone 15 Pro would be fantastic.
I don't get it. I was issued a metal macbook once. I had to buy a plastic case for it, because the bare metal scratched my fingernails.
Why would we want a hard metal case instead of a soft plastic one?
Take this paragraph, for instance:
> But despite its abundance, it's only recently that civilization has been able to use titanium as a metal (titanium dioxide has been in use somewhat longer as a paint pigment). Because titanium so readily bonds with oxygen and other elements, it doesn’t occur at all in metallic form in nature. One engineer described titanium as a “streetwalker," because it will pick up anything and everything. While copper has been used by civilization since 7000 BC, and iron since around 3000 BC, titanium wasn’t discovered until the late 1700s, and wasn’t produced in metallic form until the late 19th century.
As this is basically a bunch of bullet points in paragraph form, it'll be easier to handle if we break it down:
> But despite its abundance, it's only recently that civilization has been able to use titanium as a metal (titanium dioxide has been in use somewhat longer as a paint pigment).
The same also applies to aluminum, magnesium, nickel, etc.
> Because titanium so readily bonds with oxygen and other elements, it doesn’t occur at all in metallic form in nature.
The same also applies to aluminum, magnesium, and even iron. (I mean, there's some meteoric iron, but it's very rare.) Pure metals are very rare in nature. What distinguishes iron and copper from aluminum and titanium is the energy required to split the oxide into metal.
> One engineer described titanium as a “streetwalker," because it will pick up anything and everything.
Titanium is not more reactive than aluminum and it's far less reactive than magnesium. In fact, it's slightly less reactive than iron overall. (i.e., more chemically stable under normal conditions and in contact with common acids.)
> While copper has been used by civilization since 7000 BC, and iron since around 3000 BC, titanium wasn’t discovered until the late 1700s, and wasn’t produced in metallic form until the late 19th century.
This has everything to do with the temperature required to separate the metal from the oxygen atoms binding it, and nothing to do with anything else. What's more, it applies even more strongly to aluminum, which was discovered in 1825 -- three decades after the discovery of titanium. (1791.) So there's absolutely nothing unique about titanium in this regard.
I could go on. But basically this is an "I hecking love science" article that barely scratches the surface of the subject -- and still manages to be subtly misleading.
the oxides of aluminum, magnesium, and nickel were not in use as paint pigments
> What distinguishes iron and copper from aluminum and titanium is the energy required to split the oxide into metal. (...) Titanium is not more reactive than aluminum
the particularly relevant issue here, as i understand it, is that titanium has a stable carbide, which prevents you from reducing it carbothermically; you end up with titanium carbide instead of titanium metal. aluminum's carbide is unstable even in water, while iron's carbide is mechanically strong but still easy to reduce to iron with air. copper's carbide is poorly characterized and even more unstable, and it even occurs native
there are other things that titanium reacts more strongly with than aluminum does. titanium tetrachloride, for example, which is mentioned in the article, isn't a mere salt like normal chlorides; it's a volatile fuming liquid, because titanium forms covalent bonds with the chlorine like a motherfucking nonmetal. you can argue about whether this makes it more or less reactive than aluminum in this context; the reaction produces more energy per metal atom but less energy per chlorine atom
this kind of dirty trick is why titanium wasn't isolated until decades after the creation of metallic calcium, sodium, potassium, aluminum, and even the isolation of some of the rare earths
so i think the characterization in the article is fair
Aluminum oxides were used as a pigment, predominantly in blue (cobalt aluminum oxide) but also in white.
In any case, the dominant white dyes of the Early Modern period -- and prior periods -- were lead based. The presence of TiO2-based pigments is actually one good way to identify a modern forgery.
> the particularly relevant issue here, as i understand it, is that titanium has a stable carbide
This turned out to be solvable via calciothermic or magnesiothermic reduction -- which is now effectively the go-to method for just about everything that can't be reduced with carbon. All titanium dioxide reduction processes demand quite a lot of energy, though; more than aluminum and far more than iron.
For instance, if you have pure Titanium, pure Magnesium, pure aluminum in a vacuum at room temperature and proceed to introduce oxygen, you get the following reactions (simplified elemental chemical reactions, the Enthalpy of formation is what is important here):
Ti + O2 -> TiO2 (Std. Enthalpy of formation is -945kJ/mol)
Mg + O -> MgO (Std. Enthalpy of formation is -601kJ/mol)
4Al + 3O2 -> 2 Al2O3 (Std. Enthalpy of formation is -1675kJ/mol)
As a result, aluminum is most reactive, followed by titanium, then magnesium.
This is the reason why aluminum is used in solid rocket motors and various other explosive devices.
Under different conditions, these numbers may change: for instance a reaction with water instead of air may yield different enthalpies. At quick glance in water, titanium is actually least reactive when compared to aluminum and magnesium.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reactivity_series
So from a high enough vantage point, Ti is very slightly less reactive than Al, less reactive than Mg, and not too far from Fe. A far cry from being "a streetwalker" of a metal.
Maybe anodized titanium would work better? I don’t know what the chemistry behind the problem is, but even stainless steel kills green tea after a while.
Though it's heavier than an insulated plastic mug, and _way_ more expensive.
It weighs just 6.6 lbs. (the page says 6.5 but I had to have him add a bit cause I got too swole in the lats a couple of years ago.)
It's fun to have someone try it on then watch them struggle as they can't figure out how to get it off lol
If you bend over and stick your arms down it basically slide off on its own.
What's really interesting is the ringing sound it makes when you play with it or move around wearing it, it's a noticibly higher pitch than steel is.
I also have a necklace/spacepen lanyard, wallet chain, and coif made of titanium by Bim also. My keyrings and bottle opener are also titanium. It's such a cool metal. Kind of a pity it makes a very poor knife blade. Speaking of: I also replaced the screws and hinges of my bespoke Benchmade knife with titanium ones, because why not?
A bit obsessed as you can tell.
tl;dr I have a mithril shirt
Welded or rivited rings would be much more robust. Especially vs piercing weapons, like arrows or fighting knives.
But much more expensive.
https://history.stackexchange.com/questions/28152/when-and-h...
study ref: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3176400/
Tales About Metals
https://archive.org/details/VenetskyTalesAboutMetals
On Rare and Scattered Metals
https://archive.org/details/OnRareAndScatteredMetalsTalesAbo...
>"The earth contains a lot of titanium - it’s the ninth most abundant element in the earth’s crust. By mass, there’s more titanium in the earth’s crust than carbon by a factor of nearly 30, and more titanium than copper by a factor of nearly 100."
>"Titanium was nearly as strong as stainless steel, but weighed 40% less."
Consider Steel I-Beams, used in construction:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I-beam
Observation: If the workability difficulties of Titanium could be solved, at scale -- then not Steel, but Titanium I-Beams -- could be produced, en masse...
If this could be done cheaply enough, then, in the future, Titanium I-Beams -- produced in the U.S.A. -- could retake the worldwide market for construction I-Beams that was historically lost when other countries started producing Steel I-Beams cheaper than the U.S. did...
Anyway, an excellent article!
Now this is just showing off.[1] Daishin and Open Mind started with a 60 kilogram cylinder of titanium and milled a very detailed crown out of it. 300 hours of CNC machining time on a very good 5-axis mill. Most of the metal ends up as scrap.
The software for this is called HyperMill. If you have to ask how much it costs, you can't afford it.
https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/crazy-story-how-russi...
This thread is a ton of people talking about things they think they understand but haven’t actually directly worked with. Just making things up or repeating things they heard once.
Anyone who actually uses it will know Grade 2, 5, 12, 23 etc.
I don’t mind particularly, there are some clearly educated people talking about chemistry, but it is important to note how many people here are talking out their asses.
The top current comment is about being unable to dent 4mm Ti plate with hammers - complete BS.
It is about children with hammers.
I'm going to be pedantic here, but I feel like it needs to be said: no, it was not the "literal" backbone aerospace technology. It was the "figurative" backbone. There, I said it.
The use of literally as an intensifier goes back centuries, and is well-accepted. Move on.
Why choose this hill to die on when there are far more interesting things to discuss?
The article so far can be summarized as "people played around with titanium, but had no idea what to use it for" so why is the bureau suddenly trying to scale up production, or even mass producing it in the first place? It wasn't until 1948 that they identified engineering applications.
Also, this time seems to be going a bit differently... Perhaps timing is everything (see: bored people with their Thanksgiving families today...)
Time of day, time of week, other prominent distractions, etc have an increasingly outsized influence.
