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Summary:
PROS:
Demuredemeanor said: While certainly a good notice for those who are newer to knives, I personally like the idea of a titanium knife for their use in marine environments; salt water and sea side knife use can make for constant cleaning.
tskiller said: Titanium isn't about hardness, its about weight. The Izula is almost three times as heavy as the Vargo or DFK. If you are a backpacker and going ultralight, every gram matters.
Chrome said: Pending the results of the poll, I'm perfectly willing to take on a high-maintenance knife edge. I won't have to worry about rust, and I have the benefit of a nice diamond wheel sharpener at home that produces results I'm entirely pleased with.
Lepepwerdna said: Titanium carbide / nitride is very hard: ~9 on the Mohs scale. This is approximately equal to sapphire. Diamond is 10 for reference. This is also much harder than most steels when hardened. This is why Carbides / nitrides are used in cutting tools for working hard metals such as steel. Most knife blades will have a Rockwell hardness between 50-60, this is about equal to 3-3.5 on the Mohs scale.
CONS:
Connguy said: Titanium is a very strong metal, but not remotely as hard as modern steel (strength != hardness). This means it makes a very poor choice for a knife, because it can't hold an edge
Toxic said: True. A pure titanium is pretty soft, so in order to make it harder, alloys are used (the most common is 6AL4V). But even best alloys can't compete with steel in hardness (which is main requirement for a cutting edge material). Even chemically hardened titanium alloys are inferior to decent steel.
Synthful said: It's also quite brittle. The allure of a Ti knife isn't it's functionality, it's the weight and feel. In essence, it's a collector's knife. You could use it here and there, but mostly it will just be a talking piece.