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Titanium spoons for backpackers are just silly. If you want a metal utensil, aluminum is even lighter than titanium. Titanium is tougher but it's not like your

Titanium spoons for backpackers are just silly. If you want a metal utensil, aluminum is even lighter than titanium. Titanium is tougher but it's not like your utensil is a load-bearing beam. Plastic utensils are even lighter than aluminum and don't transmit heat as fast or get as cold in the cold. Wood utensils are good too.

lenticular 8y ago
Titanium is mainly just a marketing thing for consumer products. It's not really a broadly useful material in the same way steel is. Expensive, difficult to machine or weld, etc. Advances in steel alloys have reduced the strength/weight advantage to be minimal or nonexistent. It's good for some things though, most notably high temperature applications like gas turbine blades.
- zafka 8y ago
  Titanium is used for medical implants as it is bio-compatible.
tropo 8y ago
They are luxury, but not silly. Aluminum disintegrates in acidic food. It has been associated with Alzheimer's disease. It can crack. Wood can not be cleaned, it splits, and it even has slivers. Plastic melts or burns. Plastic cracks. Plastic gets discolored, often by foods that contain both oil and tomatoes. BPA has been a problem, and the substitutes in BPA-free plastic are sometimes suspected of being worse.
- snowwrestler 8y ago
  Anodized aluminum is food-safe and is commonly used in pans, where it experiences much harsher chemical exposure than dipping a spoon into some freeze-dried pasta. Wood can definitely be cleaned. Wood spoons are a common item in any kitchen where meals are commonly prepared. Bamboo is even tougher and easier to clean. It's not hard to keep plastic utensils from melting or cracking. I still use the same plastic camp utensils I got decades ago. I was working in outdoor retail when titanium utensils started being sold. Guess what? People ate just fine before them. When people started buying the titanium utensils, I would sometimes ask why (not challenging, just curious). To a person, they all said: because they're so light. (They were heavier than the plastic spoons.) I agree that they're a luxury, the same way a $200 Dolce & Gabbana t-shirt is a luxury: high price for no additional benefit. Triumph of marketing.

lenticular 8y ago

Titanium is mainly just a marketing thing for consumer products. It's not really a broadly useful material in the same way steel is. Expensive, difficult to machine or weld, etc. Advances in steel alloys have reduced the strength/weight advantage to be minimal or nonexistent. It's good for some things though, most notably high temperature applications like gas turbine blades.

zafka 8y ago
Titanium is used for medical implants as it is bio-compatible.

tropo 8y ago

They are luxury, but not silly. Aluminum disintegrates in acidic food. It has been associated with Alzheimer's disease. It can crack. Wood can not be cleaned, it splits, and it even has slivers. Plastic melts or burns. Plastic cracks. Plastic gets discolored, often by foods that contain both oil and tomatoes. BPA has been a problem, and the substitutes in BPA-free plastic are sometimes suspected of being worse.

snowwrestler 8y ago
Anodized aluminum is food-safe and is commonly used in pans, where it experiences much harsher chemical exposure than dipping a spoon into some freeze-dried pasta. Wood can definitely be cleaned. Wood spoons are a common item in any kitchen where meals are commonly prepared. Bamboo is even tougher and easier to clean. It's not hard to keep plastic utensils from melting or cracking. I still use the same plastic camp utensils I got decades ago. I was working in outdoor retail when titanium utensils started being sold. Guess what? People ate just fine before them. When people started buying the titanium utensils, I would sometimes ask why (not challenging, just curious). To a person, they all said: because they're so light. (They were heavier than the plastic spoons.) I agree that they're a luxury, the same way a $200 Dolce & Gabbana t-shirt is a luxury: high price for no additional benefit. Triumph of marketing.