Crystalized Titanium Dice
Through a space aged process the natural crystalline structure of titanium is enlarged, giving it an other worldly appearance much like a meteorite.
Space Aged Metal
Titanium is rather abundant in the Earth’s crust, though it is rather hard to purify from its naturally occurring state of titanium dioxide, the white pigment commonly used in paints and dyes. To purify titanium into its metallic state it takes massive amounts of electricity.
Titanium is lightweight, insanely strong, and very stable at high temps. So much so that an alloy of Titanium called 6Al4V was used in the construction of the vaunted SR-71 Blackbird (the world’s fastest airplane) to withstand the extreme temps of up to 950 degrees F created by the friction of the airflow and high super sonic speeds.
Handcrafted Excellence
We’re known for making the best dice on the planet. Of those dice, Titanium is one of our absolute favorites even if it is a gigantic pain in the #^%$ to work with. Despite all its foibles, titanium makes what we consider to be a perfect die. Perfect weight & superb luster combined with insane colors make Titanium the perfect metal for dice.
We’ve plumbed the depth of alchemical knowledge to bring metallic crystals to your gaming experience. By heating titanium in a vacuum furnace to 1200 degrees, our metallurgical minions have brought to you the wonders of meteoric steel, in a titanium package.
Science and Lasers Oh My!
Unlike other metal dice on the market, our Dragon’s Breath Dice receive their numbers at the very end of the crafting process. This makes for incredibly crisp and hyper-contrasted numbers. They are engraved with a laser ablation process. Which is a fancy way of saying we blast the surface with 1.21 gigawatts of laser beam awesome sauce that vaporizes the titanium in to its constituent components leaving behind an ultra polished number recessed a few thousandths of an inch deep. This process leaves the perfect balance of the underlying platonic solid completely intact, unlike machining away a deeply recessed number.
Crystal Math Rocks
Through a process that makes one feel very much like Walter White, the raw titanium must be heated under vacuum to roughly 1200 degrees in freedom units in order to enlarge the crystalline grain structure of the titanium base metal. This process is quite similar to what iron meteors undergo as the cool in space. This is what gives meteoric iron its characteristic crystalline structure.
Fire up the Crystal Math lab!
Once the dice are machined and ground to final size they are then treated to a bath of boiling hot acid. This process releases titanium ions in the form of Ti3+ giving the solution a brilliant purple coloration. This acid bath reveals the large crystalline structure developed during the vacuum heating cycle.
This process is complex and difficult to perform, but the results speak for themselves. Especially once our signature Dragon’s Breath Finish is applied.
Dragon’s Breath Finish
Like all of our metal dice our Titanium Dragon’s Dice receive our signature Dragon’s Breath Finish. This is a heat anodization process applied by hand to each die. The artisan’s skill here is showcased in the bright vivid coloration unique to each individual dice. This coloration will range in a pattern of hues from golden bronze, through a deep violet, to royal and sky blues.
Just how are we able to attain such a vibrant color pallet? Through science of course! Our Dragon’s Breath process involves an exceedingly intense flame, over 3,700 degrees Fahrenheit to be exact. Under this blast of pure distilled draconic hate, the base metal undergoes a surface transformation by reacting with atmospheric oxygen. This reaction forms a clear crystalline oxide layer that is much harder than the base metal making our Titanium Dragon’s Breath Dice even tougher.
Thin Film Interference
But how does this layer of clear titanium crystal create those beautiful colors?!?! Through the magic of a soap bubble.
Soap bubbles are made of a very thin film of... well soap.
Much like the soap bubble above, light can both pass through and reflect off the surface of the clear crystalline layer formed by our Dragon’s Breath process. This happens at the molecular level meaning the difference between both the reflective surface of the crystalline layer and the base titanium are mere nanometers apart. This happens to coincide with the wave length of light.
Using this interference in the reflected light we can control the perceived color of the die simply by control how thick we allow the outer layer of titanium crystal to grow. This is done by carefully controlling the amount of heat the die is exposed to and how long the die is left at elevated temperatures. Depending on the final thickness in a given area of the die we can achieve different levels of both constructive interference and destructive interference.
If you’d like to deep dive in to the world of thin film interference Harvard University has published this fantastic article.
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Through a space aged process the natural crystalline structure of titanium is enlarged, giving it an other worldly appearance much like meteorite steel on these single d20s.
$414.00
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