very good perfconn, know try finding someone not trying to sell you billet rods. your going to have to dig past the b.s. to find the truth. i will post the place were the info's from but i'm going to wate to see how many people chime in. no convining here i have broke many of the top brands in testing and know the ones that brake first. but thinks for the info. just a little f.y.i you don't change grain flow around the ends with heat treating but you are ready knew that i'm sure. so how does heat treating make a differents in the grain flow around the ends? Like steel and aluminum rods, titanium rods can be forged or cut from a billet. Given a choice, titanium rods are most durable when manufactured by the forging process. This is because the grain size of even the best aerospace grade titanium is less than steel. In a Richter-esque grain-sizing scale where a 6 rating is twice as tight as a 5 rating, titanium rates between 5 and 6 while high-carbon steel is far more cohesive, rating as high as a 9. To offset the possible negative impact on strength, a fully machined forged titanium rod is the best type thanks to the improved grain structure around the big end versus a cut-out true billet titanium rod.