6807424161_60a519f502 by Bill Abbott (Flickr)

The Element Titanium Compared to Other Metals

Hello everybody! I'm back to once again talk to you about titanium! Shiny! You may remember the blog post I did about titanium rings a few weeks back where I explained why titanium men's rings are such a great option. Well, I'm back with even MORE information about the metal. I'm not necessarily just going to talk about rings today and am going to provide a bit more information on the metal itself, because if you ask me, it is pretty darn cool.

Okay so the first thing to mention is that I am going to compare titanium to silver and tungsten since those are two very popular shiny silvery colored metals that jewelry is frequently made from. We'll start with the silver, then tungsten, and finish with titanium.

Silver

  • A lustrous white metal with the chemical symbol Ag and an atomic number of 47.
  • Silver is considered a transition metal, which means, among other things, that it is a conductor of electricity. It actually has the highest conductivity of any element.
  • Produced as a byproduct of lead, zinc, gold, and copper refining.
  • Considered a precious metal, it's used in a lot of valuable items such as jewelry, currency, and table ware (silverware… get it? ;P).
  • Silver is very soft, just slightly harder than gold, so while it can accept a high degree of polish; it can also be bent and damaged easily.
  • Stable in water and pure air, but tarnishes in water or air containing hydrogen sulfide or ozone. The tarnish caused by the hydrogen sulfide can be cleaned with hydrochloric acid.
  • When used in jewelry, it is usually an alloy of silver and copper. The copper makes it a bit harder than it is in its pure silver form. Sterling silver is 92.5% silver and 7.5% copper and is usually plated with fine silver to make it as shiny as possible.
  • As of August 2013 silver is worth $773 per kilogram.

Tungsten a.k.a. Wolfram

  • A grayish white lustrous metal with a chemical symbol of W and an atomic number of 74.
  • Tungsten has the highest melting point of all elements.
  • The element is very hard , and when not in its pure form is very difficult to work with because of how brittle it is. In its pure form it is somewhat more ductile but still very hard.
  • Used a lot in x-ray tubes and light bulb filaments.
  • Jewelers make rings from sintered tungsten carbide, metallic tungsten using nickel, and tungsten carbide / metal composites. Tungsten carbide is very resistant to abrasions because of how hard it is. They are however brittle and if hit hard enough can crack.
  • It can be used as an alternative to platinum or gold in jewelry. Metallic tungsten is not as hard as tungsten carbide but harder than gold alloys.
  • Tungsten is also hypoallergenic.
  • The metal is scratch resistant.

And last but not least…. Titanium!!!!

Titanium

  • A silver-grey white metallic with a chemical symbol of Ti and an atomic number of 22.
  • Like silver, titanium is a transition metal.
  • Nontoxic even in large doses. It may, if you eat a lot of it (you do eat about .8 milligrams of it a day) cause yellow nail syndrome... but the jury is still out on that one .
  • It can be alloyed with iron, vanadium, molybdenum, and aluminum, among other elements, to create lightweight yet strong alloys that can be used in a lot of things, from jet engines to orthopedic implants and jewelry.
  • Titanium is more resistant to cracking than tungsten carbide. For this reason, titanium men's rings are great for men who work a lot with their hands.

So there you have it! A handful of interesting facts about these very popular metals. Let me know if you have any other fun, interesting, or just completely random facts about any of them!

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