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How To Tell If It's Really Titanium

Posted by Zonk on from the hold-your-credit-card-to-a-grinder dept.

With the growing popularity of titanium, some disreputable merchandisers are passing off other materials as the more expensive metal. Popular Science looks at a surefire way to prove what that credit card/crowbar/ring is really made of. "Hold any genuine titanium metal object to a grinding wheel (even a little grindstone on a Dremel tool will do), and it gives off a shower of brilliant white sparks unlike any softer common metal. The sparks are tiny pieces of cut titanium--the friction of the grinder heats them till they burn white-hot. Hold a grindstone to the shackle of a "titanium" padlock from Master Lock, however, and you'll instead see the telltale fine, long, yellow sparks of high-carbon steel."

7 of 280 comments (clear)

  1. color, texture, weight by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    here is a sure fire way to detect a type of metal

    1. Re:color, texture, weight by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

      the worth of your comment

  2. titanium by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    here is a seller with a good rep if you are looking to buy titanium

  3. Re:is there a better way? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    YES there is

  4. Re:Oh great... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    alternative safe methods for testing metals.

  5. Re:Or use a cutting torch by twentynine · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    I thumbed your mom's oxygen level last night

  6. Re:wow by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    I don't know why any mod would waste their mod points to mod this down. Re-posted, for your point-wasting pleasure you fuckers. My point stands. If you don't like it, post a reply telling me why you disagree instead of being a pussy and hiding behind your disposable mod points. It's simple - if his spammy sig isn't "off-topic" then neither is my objection to it.

    I'm glad you took the opportunity of having a sig to introduce FUCKING SPAM into every discussion in which you participate. If I need your product, don't worry, I already know about it and have compared it with others' offerings to make my own decision. If I don't know about your product, it's because I don't need it and you're a fucking spammer. If anything, if I were thinking about doing business with "1 and 1" before, I would make it a point to NEVER give them any of my money after seeing your SPAM sig. Congratulations.