How To Tell If It's Really Titanium

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."

Comments

If it's important you can tell

[syousef]

If it's a decorative piece of jewelry or similar the properties won't matter too much at least in the short term. The jewelry wont magically change into something unwearable. The decorations won't suddenly turn to dust etc. If you're buying the metal for it's value in a piece of art, you're an idiot and have been ripped off whether or not it's titanium.

If it actually matters whether you're using titanium, you'll know about it. Not titanium in the skin of that shiny new SR-71. Well your plane will melt won't it.

Now what are people being taught in science class exactly? Yes testing the hardness of a metal is one (destructive) way to test if it's the real deal. Corrosion and reactivity are another way. But has no one ever heard of measuring the density and electrical conductivity of a metal? Honestly what do you people learn in science classes?