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[Andeerz]

Oh, I'm not necessarily saying it shouldn't be included.  :3  I'm just saying that it's not all that much better than steel for most purposes it would be used for in the game, if it is, in fact, any better at all, which I doubt for reasons covered in the previous links. 

Better than (assuming wrought) iron? I'd say probably for armour, but not for mass weapons.  For swords and other edged weapons, I'm leaning towards "no" since I think that wrought iron edges would be easier to sharpen and probably hold an edge for as long if not longer than any titanium alloy I've read about.  Plus, added mass, though making the weapon slower, would lead to an increase in momentum transfer to the target which is very important for any weapon.  Also... I have a feeling that titanium might not actually be better for maille... the only way to really substantiate that, though, is to find an actual test.  I'm gonna search for that sometime...  Maybe it might be better, though.     

Also... if corrosion was in the game, then titanium could really shine! 

So, I'm not against its inclusion, though I'm not sure I'd use it if I had abundant iron and the capacity to make good steel, given its properties are accurately modeled.   

[Rowanas]

As far as armour goes, titanium would really be a step up. Andeerz, the light weight and incredible impact resistance of some grades of titanium would make steel look like glass armour. If nothing else, you could wear armour three times as thick, or layered thrice, out of titanium or just once out of iron.

[Virex]

It's not melting point. It's the fact that it wasn't able to be isolated.

I mean, consider aluminum. Bauxite has aluminum in it, but it's chemically bonded to other stuff, so unless you can isolate it (which requires relatively high-tech chemical/electrical processes) it's not going to do you much good. Same thing.

Or hydrogen, for that matter. Water has hydrogen in it, but that doesn't give it the properties of elemental hydrogen.


Basically, it doesn't matter what the melting point of titanium is, because they wouldn't have been able to isolate it in the first place. The melting point only matters if you can get the stuff by itself somehow.

To get back on this, to make Titanium you have to use either magnesium or sodium, both of which can only be made by electrolysis (well, technically one can make magnesium using silicon, but that requires temperatures in excess of 1900-effing^o Celsius and a source of pure carbon). The only alternative is to electrolyze the molten titanium precursor directly. Oh, did I mention you need chlorine gas to start both processes, which in itself requires the electrolysis of chlorine salts?

[G-Flex]

As far as armour goes, titanium would really be a step up. Andeerz, the light weight and incredible impact resistance of some grades of titanium would make steel look like glass armour. If nothing else, you could wear armour three times as thick, or layered thrice, out of titanium or just once out of iron.

"Some grades of titanium"? Sure you aren't talking about alloys there?

[Andeerz]

"Some grades of titanium"? Sure you aren't talking about alloys there?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titanium_alloy#Grades

Grades are the same thing. 

Also...

Rowanas, after reading up on some stuff about titanium, I think you're right that at least some alloys of titanium would be much better for armour applications in place of steel.  The fact that it weighs so much less than steel for the same mechanical properties*** makes it ideal.  A 40% lighter suit of armour with the same (or better) durability and the like would be pretty awesome. 

***I'm hesitant to say that it would be that much better without looking at some concrete information on the matter.  I should make a trip to matweb.com... I do not yet know about how brittle titanium and steel alloys are relative to each other, and this might be a big deal with regard to armour performance.  Strength is one thing; brittleness is another.

Also, to get back onto sort of how titanium could be in the game:

I really don't see it being in the game with anything short of magic or technologies significantly more advanced than those available during medieval times.  Titanium is expensive nowadays not only for its demand, but also because it's frikkin' hard to make into a useable form.   

[Lord Aldrich]

You won't see dwarves messing around with chlorine gas anytime soon.

Just imaging the possibilities!

Off topic, but you could easily add in an inorganic with the properties of chlorine that caused a syndrome (I'm thinking it would make lungs and eyes melt  ) when inhaled.

[G-Flex]

The fact that it weighs so much less than steel for the same mechanical properties*** makes it ideal.  A 40% lighter suit of armour with the same (or better) durability and the like would be pretty awesome. 

Not if it has to be three times as thick, though. Also, "strength" isn't a single value; I'm not sure what types of strength titanium does/doesn't exceed at.

[Rowanas]

I admit that while I'm aware of the rough physical properties of Grade 5 titanium and steel, I don't have any hard numbers.

If you trust wikipedia, they have a comparison of steel and titanium somewhere, but I can't remember where.

[Silverionmox]

Also, I doubt the effectiveness of solving the problem of hard-to-get flux by adding another weapon metal that is about as hard to get as aluminium.

[nitpick] Actually, titanium is the ninth-most common element in the Earth's crust. The reason it's expensive is because it naturally occurs as titanium dioxide, and seperating the pure titanium is extremely difficult. [/nitpick]

I agree with the fact. Though my reasoning was that either titanium was in the same boat as aluminium because of the occurrance as an oxide, or that it would have to be extracted from the minerals ilmenite and/or rutile, both of which are as common as native aluminium in the game.

[ZCM]

Wouldn't it be cool to have titanium trees growing in the caverns?

[Namfuak]

Wouldn't it be cool to have titanium trees growing in the caverns?

Hah, that would be awesome.

Anyway, I read through the posts here and I like the idea of having it related to Alchemy.  As it stands alchemy has little use, but it would make a lot of sense that it might be used to create a catalyst in order to separate chlorine from sodium.  I'll add that to the OP.

[darkrider2]

Wouldn't it be cool to have titanium trees growing in the caverns?

That would be a nightmare for wood-cutters.