Nice looking knife! 
I love my Striker titanium:
I bought an overpriced “Porsche Design” Titanium knife years back that had won some award. Total POS, hard to sharpen and dulled immediately. It was a nice shade of blue and pretty. Any cheap Chinisum material blade would have outperformed it. It was impervious to saltwater rusting, it’s only bright spot worth mentioning. It’s no longer available on what appears to be their current collection of overpriced overly poorly designed crap. https://www.porsche-design.com/us/en/porsche-design-shop/shop/accessories/kitchen-knives/
Since that time I’ve learned about Spyderco’s H1 material and also HC200N for saltwater. Well worth the money. Boye also makes a nice saltwater proof knife of cobalt material, however, it doesn’t measure up to those 2 up there.
God’s metal, once refined it will not corrode. Weighs less than steel but at least as strong. heavier than aluminum.
I love all things Titanium, espacially tools and hiking stuff.
One of my prize possesions is a Titanium crowbar, it’s supposed to be from a Russian tank. Another is the 3D Jeff Hanko masterpiece as my avatar.
An SR71 is mostly Titanium, enough said!
I don’t have a titanium light. I likely will get one , one day.
I love brass, copper , and stainless lights.
I like the extra weight of these metals.
I am afraid the light weight titanium would be a turn off to me.
Having said that, I still would get one , one day, possibly the S2+ coming out in a few weeks, or a Maeerxu, they have many TI lights. Gorgeous designs.
I’m planning on getting the titanium S2+ when they come out, which will be my first and probably last titanium flashlight (or anything titanium).
Titanium coated tap and die sets. Idk if that coating really actually does anything or its just in my head but I like the color anyways.
But not on drill bits. Not good enough. Cobalt or nothing. Peels carbon steel like it’s one of those tiny oranges.
Depends on the tools. Most of the china ti vpd coating is junk and some of it isn’t really titanium. The good stuff does very well for what it’s intended. I think less so on thread cutting but it does have value in drill bits and reamers - milling tools have mostly moved on to other coatings that are much or very much improved over titanium. It’s point isn’t so much surface hardness because good drill rod and tool steel is usually plenty hard enough as is, but it does add a little…mostly it adds some lubricity which is helpful in wood and plastics, and to some extent aluminum and soft steels. Cobalt helps a little on some steels but part of that depends on using them correctly (better in stationary equipment than hand drills) and if done right the geometry is a little different - they were brought out mainly for work hardening grades of stainless (which is also where the 135° tip angle helps more than a traditional 118°, but now that wider angle is in almost everything…sometimes it isn’t best). In a hand drill M35 cobalt can handle a little more abuse (wobbling, overspeeding, etc) than good M2 or M7 steel. M42 is more brittle and often a poor choice for hand drills, especially in sheet/thin plate gauges. Good quality M2 drill bits will handle 98% of drilling needs just fine…at this point “good quality” rules out the majority of bits made overseas. US bits are expensive (although on par or even less than what Milwaukee and some others have been charging for their china bits in recent years) but they really are superior still. There are some good china bits out there, however, that use decent steel (not M50 and not steel with voids in it) and also grind them pretty well.
For taps and dies, the typical carbon steel rethreading types are only as good as the grind, and adding a titanium coating to those won’t help if they’re cruddy to start with. The steel all of those are made from is more than capable. Now for actually cutting threads rather than fixing damaged threads, it does pay to get HSS taps and dies, even if it’s onesies for the few sizes you might use most commonly. Great big world of difference and the cost outlay isn’t terrible like that (instead of a whole set).
I’m debating it. The titanium T3 is beautiful but it’s a chonker. You would easily mistake it for stainless steel given its weight. I don’t know why he made them so thick but it should survive anything thrown at it (or being thrown at something…). Given the relative reduction in heat dissipation maybe he thought the thickness would help there (not really an issue on that 14500 host). If the S2+ is like that I’ll probably pass.
I’ll field that. Heat loss to the system. Those gas flames aren’t actually much hotter than a wood flame. Theyre actually nearly identical. Both around 2000°F. Most fuels burning in air are around 2000°F. And it’s not actually that concentrated. It’s in open air outdoors. It’s not just trying to heat up the pan it’s trying to heat up the entire system, in this case all the air around it and everything touching it. So, the earth.
When you look up the temperature of a flame, butane, propane, isobutane whatever, its nearly always listed by adiabatic flame temp. This is a theoretical number calculated under the assumption that every single unit of fuel will react perfectly with every single unit of available oxygen and no heat will be wasted anywhere, nothing lost to the system. In real life that can never happen. The system is all the air and all the stuff on Earth. But most critical is the air and the stuff in closest proximity to the flame. The gas burner is not just heating the pan it’s heating all the cool air being pulled into the burner and all the cool air passing over the pan and unless you try and close the system a bit, like shutting the lid on a BBQ, there’s too much other stuff for the flame to heat and aluminum is really really good at disappating heat to the other stuff.
In the middle of a hot campfire the stuff in closest proximity to the pan being heated is already pretty hot. All the air around it is hot, all the stuff around it is hot, there’s no cold air blowing over the pan, the mini system that is the middle of the campfire isnt cooling it down, the pan is actually cooling the campfire down.
This is why we melt stuff in a furnace and close the oven door if you’re baking. Trying to make a smaller more closed system so less heat is wasted. The middle of a campfire is comparable to a furnace.
That’s certainly true that not all the heat is making it there (and really you wouldn’t want it to anyway so that the device may come closer to complete combustion for efficiency). The ambient air sucked into the mixing tube (isobutane/propane types) isn’t really being warmed by combustion…and the temperature of the evaporating fuel is lower anyway. I have a good friend who does this for a living actually and I’ll bet he could break it down succinctly. Combustion dynamics and fracking (liquids, not mining/oil fields) is an amazing science.
One data point here that I’d almost forgotten about. JetBoil at one time had a titanium model. They recalled them because of many issues with melted pots and convective fins and I believe a couple of “major canister incidents.” It turned out that the problem was with faulty spot welds and because they could not figure out how to make that work with the titanium parts, they scrapped it. But those did indeed melt and other than being a little bit “tighter” system than a typical pot-on-legs stove burner, it’s still much the same as most setups in terms of heat output and distance of pot bottom to flame spreader. I think I’ll drop a line to my friend, also ask about any other incidents with ti melting he may be aware of. He’s got an extensive database and ran a fantastic blog for many years.
Ya I’m doing a terrible job of explaining this.
Hmmm…ok intake air temperature absolutely affects flame temperature and Here a NASA study that demonstrates it and attempts to create an equation for the relationship between premixed air temperature and flame temperature with 3 different types of air propane burners with sources to other studies with similar findings that found preheating the intake air by ~+50°F from ~77F to 122F increased the flame temperature by+30°F all the way up to preheating the air by +850F which increased flame temperature by +378F by minimizing heat losses, the burner is part of the system as well, and increasing the speed of combustion, fire is a chemical reaction after all.
I have a hard time believing those titanium burners melted…maybe some part of it. stainless steel propane BBQs don’t melt and they have a lower melting temp than titanium and obviously way bigger burners. But I can definitely sell them getting hot enough to deform or be unsafe. You can still do that with pretty much any type of those little jet boil burners if you have it set up wrong though even today. Same goes with most any butane/propane torch. Btw I keep mentioning propane because those little isobutane canisters always have combination of propane/butane/isobutane and a bunch of other stuff. Btw btw the IUPAC name for isobutane is methyl-propane. It is an isomer of butane on paper but the molecule resembles propane. But theyre all blends. So are cans of butane lighter refills. They’re all blends. There’s a couple brands that are nearly entirely all isobutane though Im sure. It’s got a good vapor pressure on its own.
Anyways, circling back to those jetboil burners. They really aren’t that hot. You can’t even use one to make marbles out of soft glass, would take forever. And soda-limr glass melts at almost half the temperatures titanium or aluminum do. But you can use isobutane to make glass marbles if you hook the canister up to a Map-Pro turbo which you can do using an adapter and it does work well. The premixing and preheating of the fuel and air inside the swirl torch really bumps up the flame temp. But a jet boil is too weak.
The driving factor for me to get the titanium S2+ is that it would be different than all my other silicone button S2+s.
I’m not concerned about weight or thermal disadvantage. I’m just happy that I can add another unique S2+ to my collection that I’ll immediately transform into a triple with a custom lighted switch.
And assuming it will come with glossy and stoned washed versions, I’ll need to resist getting them both.
Thanks for that study…2018, which is newer than the last time I was anywhere near in depth with this. I’ll read through it later but it looks interesting. I hadn’t even thought in terms of elevated temperatures like that…just talking normal human atmospheric temps. 
The JetBoil is nothing special, basically a normal burner that is no more efficient than the rest. It’s the pot that is different. Kind of a cage welded to the bottom of the pot that partially encloses the burner head below, using aluminum fins to help capture and transfer a little bit of otherwise lost heat (it doesn’t serve as a wind shield…not effectively but that’s not a bad thing in this application). Most of the pics you’ll find if you search for the titanium model are of the aluminum fins melted and out of whack (the issue with the spot welding and integrity of a dissimilar metal joint), but there were at least two where the ti did melt. It didn’t just oilcan, it actually melted. I’m not sure how that happened but I would suspect that a) the users were “dry cooking” so to speak, and b) left it unattended while doing that, at least long enough to set the overheating in motion.
The “boil” in their name is somewhat important…need to have some significant mass in the pot to absorb heat (and/or be present and actually operate the thing smartly). You can’t really set them up wrong…just operate them wrong, which takes a certain level of ignorance, to be honest. Since the effective efficiency of the system is a little better than a comparable open air burner + regular cookware, there is actually more heat getting to the vessel. But yes, still limited by the potential heat of the fuel itself and there’s nothing trying to increase that in the system or in typical use. Anyway…probably still some pics of the melt out there if the hosts still exist. One was in a private forum (no search hits for that one ever), the other was on BPL - no idea what all is still available there these days since they had a major server change and other issues.
There are no pure-isobutane cartridges out there. They all have a little propane in there to boost cool weather performance (lower boiling temperature) and many mix a little standard butane with the iso. The propane is often 20% but some still push the DOT limits and get away with 25% (those are great when you can find them if you do any winter camping). Cheap stuff like the Coleman canisters are like 60% butane (not iso) and 40% propane and they give poor performance below about 40°F where the usual iso is very good down to freezing or a bit lower, depending, and can be used well into the teens with some special stupid pet tricks.
If you search for the “Adventures in Stoving” blog, that’s another good site. Jim put together a lot of info (with the help of some people who are in the biz and know their stuff) and posted a lot of articles over the years. He’s got one on there somewhere about why 100% isobutane isn’t used - can’t recall the reason now myself, so I should go read that again. Site isn’t well indexed, last I looked, so it might be easier to search google using the site: addendum. I’m sure he must have covered the titanium JetBoil news, too.
I wish Mapp gas were still available. I’m holding on to one half-full tank. When it disappears I’ll have to invest in an acetylene rig.
Damn real MAPP eh. I wonder if those things are worth money to anybody. There’s probably some guy out there that refuses to use anything else collecting them. It’s been what, like 15 years since they stopped making it? I wonder how long its good for. Too bad nobody ever started making it again.
I’ve been seeing this new version of “Map-Pro” lately not made by Bernzomatic that has 20% DMSO or something like that. Some fuel with an oxygen atom or two in it. I guess the idea is for it to be like ethanol for propane. Haven’t tried it but sounds like it could work. Oxygen is real expensive up here. Gotta buy refurbished medical oxygen concentrators and bottle your own but those things are expensive AF too. Don’t even get me started on acetylene. They regulate it like you’re trying to buy uranium. I use oxy/propane all the time but not for welding. It’s no acetylene. But it’s way hotter than just plain MAPP.
I have a like a $15 jetboil knockoff from AliExpress lol. Hasn’t totally melted yet. But it probably will at some point.
Im pretty sure there’s somebody out there that’s using almost 100% isobutane in their canisters but I forget who. Never 100% but like 90% or something. Or so they claim. The whole butane/LPG industry, except for full size tanks of propane, is real shady. Especially those butane lighter refill cans. Who knows what you’re getting. They won’t tell you. They don’t even know.
An adapter and those iso canisters with a Map-Pro torch like a ts8000 does work great. Hotter than propane i think. Maybe cuz it doesn’t use as much oxygen. Better stoichiometric ratio. Definitely hotter than a butane camping gas canister of like 60/40 butane:propane which you can also use on one of those torches with an adapter. Not as hot as Map-Pro but cheaper. There’s something to isobutane that works a little better than just propane/butane mix for whatever reason. It’s got pretty close to the vapor pressure on its own that they aim for with propane/butane mixes. Still not enough to work a regular propane torch though. Gotta be a mappro one.
I missed the boat when they stopped making Mapp…had I known, I would have bought a few tanks. I use it so seldomly but it sure is handy over propane sometimes. I think the last use was brazing a spanner into a convoluted shape to get at one single carburetor nut on a vehicle that has long since been sent out to pasture.
Acetylene down here must be expensive these days because apparently the tanks (any size) have become very popular theft items. I mean welding rigs have always been great items to pawn or sell cheap, but I guess it’s worse these days. But not as bad as catalytic converters…laws and restrictions have put a little damper on the copper thieves. Crazy. I was just looking at chiller pipes in a basement today and whoever placed those a few centuries ago just used 12ga solid copper wire as convenient zip ties in many places. Probably a couple hundred dollars’ worth of copper just used as scrap utility back then.
That cheap stove should be fine…just don’t ever fully enclose them with some secondary wind shield (or let food spill over the pot and onto the heat exchanger or canister…that can make things go boom).
The guys that like to burn the straight butane canisters (like the marine burners and home burners popular with Asian families) often put add-on filters on their pickup tubes somewhere. The main contaminant is usually some type of light oil (and I guess sometimes some minute solid debris). That little bit of oil can sure foul up a jet, though. A bigger problem in low pressure devices like lighters and such.
Refilling cartridges is kind of a fun hobby but only if you use a bunch of them (delays the landfill or recycling energy anyway). I say hobby, but I learned it purely for utility and only do it when I have to and there’s enough to bother with. Fun to learn about gas, though…all kinds of things that I never thought about. I thought I learned everything I needed to know with white gas and pump-pressure containers. Ha.
Whatever you do don’t buy one of those 1lb red cylinders of oxygen they sell next to the Map-Pro. Biggest ripoff in the whole store. You can rent a 4’ tall tank of oxygen for less money than 2 of those dumb things.
That filter thing isn’t a bad idea. I just wish they’d stop odourizing it. I guess it probably saves lives or a/e but comeon. At least add less of it. Or use something that smells good like roses lol.
I’ve dispensed those canisters into clear glass before to try and pick a good brand, and I cut them open everytime theyre (mostly) empty to feel for oil residue. Usually there isn’t much but probably it went out with the butane. Theres always little black flakes of stuff when I’ve dispensed them into a glass vessel before. Shake it around and it’d like a snowglobe but the snow is made of coal lol. Problem is butane is such a good solvent they can claim it’s been triple refined or w/e but unless your factory is medically sterile it’s gonna pick up some contamination somewhere on the line.
I think the butane comes from any old place…not sure how many places actually do that, but more than a few. The good camping canisters (i.e. not Coleman and off brands) I think are still mostly made at one place in Korea. Snow Peak does their own thing but I don’t know if that’s in Japan or where. Apparently those two outfits are top notch and contamination is almost nonexistent. Back in the day with white gas we’d stick little sintered bronze filters on everything - actually did help even as clean as that fuel usually is, but it helped a lot with kerosene (but not if you made the mistake of trying out the waxed stuff.
I vote lemons instead of roses. But now will all these covid survivors who have lost their sense of smell (we have one of those at work)…I guess they’ll just go out in an accidental ball of flame no matter what odourant they use.
OohOooh, can I play?
I like Titanium SO much I made my first ever knife out of a plate of 6AL4V with Dark Matter Gold Carbon Fiber scales and brass pins. I was on Oxygen, after Delta almost did me in.
I have many Ti items, have made several, and love electro anodizing to all of Ti’s wondrous colors! Yes, even my Ti flashlights!
Dude! I made matching Ti wedding bands for me snd my wife by hand, back in 1999! Well, using a carbide grit hacksaw and a drill. Literally hand held a broken high speed steel planer blade to shave the spinning Titanium into shape. Drilled a hole in one end of a 1” bar of Gr 23 Eli, cut it off with the hacksaw, mounted it on a rubber sanding drum and cut it with the planer blade held in my bare hand.
Wife divorced me within the year. Ended up crushing the rings in a vice.
The remaining piece of that bar is hanging on a Ti curb chain on my neck… as the Texas Poker. There’s a huge write up on it here in the forum from 10 years ago. 