Why not more titanium?

[jonnythan]

$13.50 for a D-ring. I suppose there are people who buy them..

I don't dive in saltwater often. Do D-rings really rust on people?

 

[crpntr133]

Never seen one rust but I haven't been around that long either.

My reference to Ti being somewhat brittle came from many years of racing remote control cars. We used Ti rear axles but they were prone to break. Yes it took a good hit from another car to break it.

 

[archman]

titanium D rings

not that expensive... I couldnt find any Ti boltsnaps though.

Don't tease me.

 

[deadend]

Ti knives IMO are far superior to SS knives for saltwater use. To hold an edge the stainless alloy must have a certain amount of carbon in it's structure. The carbon is what causes corrosion to form on the knife relatively quickly if not properly rinsed and oiled. Ti does not corrode. I have purposely not rinsed my Wenoka ti knife to test this and it looks the same as it did the first time I used it. Why would brass be a problem? I have all sorts of cheap hardware store brass snaps as well as more expensive dive-shop variety snaps and I cannot tell a diff. in corrosion.

 

[archman]

I'm not so sure about the claims that titanium knives don't rust. They're alloys too, you know. I believe the "beta grades" in particular aren't totally corrosion free. Oceanmaster was hyping that a few years back when selling one of their knives.

 

[deadend]

I'm not so sure about the claims that titanium knives don't rust. They're alloys too, you know. I believe the "beta grades" in particular aren't totally corrosion free. Oceanmaster was hyping that a few years back when selling one of their knives.

Go buy one, leave it on bottom of ocean for a week then look at it. It will be untouched by corrosion. Mine is 2 years old and has never been rinsed in freshwater. It looks brand new. All of my stainless knives have some form of corrosion on them.

 

[jagfish]

When we used to observe orthopedic implants being removed from patients after a year or more, the stainless pieces were typically blackened from oxidation, while titanium plates (once cleaned of flesh) looked like you could implant them again.

 

[archman]

There are lots of types of titanium on the market... very few are pure grade. Pure grade is I believe the only one considered truly corrosion-free. Most other types and alloys may still have outstanding resistance in reference to stainless steel, but they'll break down eventually. Surgical applications were originally pure grade, but that was because of "formability" or something.

I am merely arguing that not all titanium is the same, mind you. I think just about every known variety will still beat the pants off of SS any day of the week.

 

[jagfish]

Good points...

 

[captain]

Other than rockets, aircraft and some highly corrosive chemical processing equiptment Ti is overkill and overly expensive. In diving equiptment it's just sales hype.

Captain