Selling Titanium Rings - Categorize by Grade or Properties?

[Whitney]

I currently specialize in selling Titanium jumprings and findings mostly to chainmaille makers. I am constantly explaining the characteristics of the various commonly available Grades to people who aren't deeply familiar with working in Titanium. I'm considering changing my primary descriptions from "Grade N" to "Soft" or "Hard" and then within the specific item list the "Grade". I'm curious what others think and whether that sounds like a reasonable swap as people are often times afraid to try Titanium because they have heard that it is very, very hard and difficult to work with. If rings are first categorized as "Soft" or "Hard" then I would lump Grade 1 and Grade 2 together as "Soft" and Grade 5 and Grade 23 as "Hard". Thoughts? Anyone? Your $0.02 opinion?

 

[MrDeranged]

I've been thinking about this since you mentioned it earlier and it's actually a harder question to answer than I thought. I'm not 100% sure that re-categorizing is the answer. Categorizing as 'Soft' or 'Hard' may be too generic for some clients. (as they're also used, I believe, for describing 'wire temper'). While someone with experience in working with titanium might know what you mean by 'soft' or 'hard', what about someone who only has experience with 'soft' metals? Are they going to think working with 'soft' titanium is the equivalent of working with copper? It's like the difference between working with stainless and then going to spring temper stainless.

You might be better off with a chart/blog entry that you can point to that explains the differences between the grades and gives an 'equivalent' in other metals or if you're going to recategorize, then have the chart in addition to that as well so it covers all experience levels.

 

[Brienne]

You know... This is a great question. My neurodivergent self is gonna answer with way more detail than you proly care for

I've been getting more experienced working with Ti over the last year. As a newbie, I relied on folks telling me it was hard. Or else, I FOUND OUT when I got it and tried... ruined a couple nice pairs of pliers and had to file and grind (but their joint will never be the same, something I relate to on a personal level, LOL).

That said, from a business perspective, I'll give you my exp. I've used grade 6, 5, 2, and 23. The Gr6 alloy is nigh unusable, but is very springy and strong. I'm just worried I'll break it (or my hands or tools). Gr5 is easier to work with, but still has the springy strength I *expect* from Ti. Gr2 is nice and light, but is so soft I almost wonder what advantages it has over mixing Anodized Al with SS. I recently used some Gr23 in small links from you, and found them similar to Gr5 (as you suggest in your descriptions). It seems the only major difference between 5 and 23 is purities and FDA testing or sumthing?

Okay, TL;DR -- If I were a new customer, I'd wanna know hard/soft... If/when I become more experienced, I'd wanna know what kind it is, so I can source similar products (from other/new sources, eg. for color or stock issues). In short, maybe say summat like "20g 7/64in ID (3.65 AR) Black glass Grade 23 (hard) titanium" That way you have the old info and ALSO include the goods for newbies

so, err... yes?

 

[Studio Castile]

I think both pieces of info are useful. I don't think experienced maillers are going to hold it against you for having roughly categorized some grades as soft are hard. They will want to know the grade though so make sure that info is still there. I wouldn't worry about the specific temper unless you are going to go hardness testing and offering options. Short of that, it doesn't seem terribly useful.

Looking at your site, I would add to the left some checkboxes of tags to filter the category by. I'd list all of the grades as well as "hard" and "soft" and then tag every product with both "hard" or "soft" and the actual grade.

 

[Karpeth]

I believe there will be as many opinions as there are customers. I would like as much data as possible.

 

[moaatt]

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Is there any way to include both in the title like "Grade 2(Soft)" perhaps? That might satisfy everyone if you have the appropriate spacing for it.