There has been a buzz in the Musky community for a few years about
the indestructibility of Titanium leaders...Nothing is indestructible !
The failure of a Titanium leader came up during a recent discussion with
a Musky angler at the Milwaukee Musky show. He commented that he thought
that the darn things were indestructible and that he would not have to buy
leaders again until his leader broke. He went on to say that the leader did
not show any sign of cracking until it just broke in the middle (a solid
wire Titanium leader). He asked me if I could explain what happened…I
couldn’t, but I told him that I would research the matter to see if I could
discover a reason.
I got a hold of a couple of metallurgical engineers that I know from my
Aerospace days when I was a director of Quality Assurance to see if they
could shed some immediate perspective on the matter of Titanium metal
fatigue.
My question to them opened a flood gate of information about Titanium and
its characteristic assets and short comings. I could have written a
doctorial dissertation with all of the information that I received.
Distilled down, the information stacks up this way:
The greater the mass of the Titanium metal product, the slower the rate
of metal fatigue…that is to say that a solid sheet of Titanium used as skin
for an aircraft will fatigue at a slower rate than a single strand of
Titanium wire that is .018 - .025 of an inch in diameter. The reason for that is
related to the exaggerated bending and twisting associated with the wire.
So what can be done? Well, you cannot change the basic characteristic of
metal to fatigue. Certainly, leaders get one heck of a workout during a
Musky season and there is no formula that one could apply that would
forecast a threshold for replacement.
Another area of concern with Titanium leaders, and any other
leader that uses a mechanical crimp to close the leader loops,
is related to pull strength. There have been problems reported
with leader crimps pulling out at less than the rated strength
of the leader. Before you buy a leader using crimps, you might
want to ask if each leader is "pull tested" to verify its
rating.
As a general rule of thumb, you can replace your Titanium leaders at the
end of each Musky season. Of course, that can be costly but the possibility
of losing a Musky to a failed leader far out weighs the cost associated with
leader replacement or you can return to using less expensive steel leaders where you can
better assess the need to replace the leader…you
will have to be the judge.
Click Here To See A Stainless Steel Leader Making Kit.
Click Here For An Assortment Of Pre-made Stainless Steel Leaders.
What about stranded Titanium leaders?
