I’m considering getting a titanium pretty soon, and quite weirded out about those videos where they just make sparks by hitting a titanium against concrete. Did this on my aluminum, and gave it some pretty bad scratches that would give me a couple scars every so often. Are titaniums the same or would you advise against it?
p.s. is it possible to strip a titanium with a stainless axle?
Titanium is a MUCH harder material so damage from sparking is minimal. You will see scuffing so it’s definitely noticeable damage but you can typically easily satin or polish it out.
Editing to add if you do spark do it on smoother concrete and gently control it to the ground. They will get larger dings and pits if you just chuck it into the ground.
Aluminum don’t spark because it is too soft. Titanium and aluminum both can burn, but titanium is hard enough so that friction can heat up the bits of titanium that fly off to burn when you hit it against concrete. Aluminum has a even lower burning temp, but it is also much softer so before the friction can heat it up to the burning temp, the bits already flew off.
So as far as hitting concrete is concerned, titanium still scratches and get nasty gnashes, just a bit less than aluminum. The spark are bits of titanium burning, so sparking will always mean damage on the yoyo.
Regarding stripping axle, I don’t think the hardness is different enough to guarantee that the SS will be stripped bare before titanium will take damage. Keep in mind, hard as titanium is, screw threads are very fragile. I have given nasty dings on my titanium yoyos with my wedding ring, which should be much softer than titanium. The ring probably took more damage, but a softer material can hurt a harder material as long as the forces involved are large enough.
I got this about 10 months ago; and have sparked it every day. Any dings/dents I get, I just “polish” away with some Walk the Dog. Still plays great!
Oh that’s just wrong to do it on an anodized one… raw… raw is for sparking!!
(or any Ricochet, of course)
There are some pretty deep dings in there, i wonder what it would look like if the same hit was done to an aluminium yoyo.
We need a manufacturer to produce a ti to spark! Sparky would be a great name for such a yoyo. All you cell phone fiends could post Sparky sparkin here there and every where! 
What makes a good sparker? If i have to guess:-
5. Wide yoyo, because we want it to be stable, since we are hitting the floor [WRONG as MarkD ponts out below]
Combining them, I would suggest a not as high rim weight (rim weigh lowers rpm given the same strength of throw), large diameter (larger radius the larger the speed of the edge of the yoyo when it contact ground), a narrow raised ridged on the rim of the yoyo dedicated for contact with floor (small contact area), and a heavy yoyo (give faster spin, and since we cant go max rim weight, we also get rotational inertia with weight).
I am basically imagining two saw blades separated by a 70 mm rod with a bearing in the middle LOL.
Given that the Tings are not ridiculously expensive, i wonder whether we can get a fairly cheap sparky, with just a very narrow titanium ring on a raised ridge on a plastic yoyo. Since its for sparking, there is no need to make it glass smooth.
Edit: More thoughts on keeping the spark time long. It seems a lot of the things that makes it initially spark better (fast spin) works to decrease spark time (ie high diameter)… its going to be a balancing exercise to get it to stay spinning above optimal sparking spin speed without losing too much spark time. Weight being the only thing that benefits both, so basically its gona be as heavy as people can tolerate, and you play around with how far to the rim the weight is going to be to maximise spark time.
Love it! hehe
You actually want the yoyo to be narrower. It’s difficult to make a wide yoyo play smooth, and they’re more susceptible to damage when they hit the floor due to the longer lever arm. Something like the Thicc or O-Ting is already pretty close to ideal imo.
I had an Edge that gained its namesake after I gave it the same kind of love. I have no idea where it is now as it is now a skincutter.
Isnt that kinda the point? the spark is a chunck of titanium flying off and burning… optimal sparking means maxium damage!
But i wanted a wide yoyo, mainly because i want a long sustain grind with constant spark production. A wide yoyo prevent the yoyo from wanting to tilt, so you get a longer spark time. Of course you are right that if we are just bouncing the yoyo off the ground a wide yoyo it is gona give you more damage, but hopefully bigger sparks!
Edit: i think i misunderstood your post. Yes a wide yoyo will be more prone to the wobble, and that terrible for sparking… sigh more balancing exercise to be done.
Yeah, no problem. I just want to make sure that folks understand that increasing the width has more drawbacks than just hitting multiple strings at once by accident.
I have never been able to polish or satin out the scuffs from sparking a ti yoyo. I would love to see a technique that works.
How about a stone wash?
I got a pad that is made for buffing out scratches in titanium watches and some VERY fine grain sandpaper. If it’s really bad I use the sandpaper and then the pad, if not too bad just the pad. Then I use some Flitz metal polish to buff out. I’ve had varying degrees of success depending on how bad the damage was. With a lot of it I’m able to get back to a satined finish. Never have been able to get back to full polish but probably with enough elbow grease you could.
Check titanium watch scratch pad on ebay!
Hmmmmmmmm… Might actually design a CAD because of that.
