(FORTUNE Magazine) – Techno-cognoscenti, hold on to your hats--titanium has now officially replaced carbon as the glam atom of the decade. Graphite? Outre. Titanium? Oh, so very. Metalheads can now find titanium golf clubs, skis, jewelry--titanium anything.

Which raises this question: If titanium is the sixth-most-common element in the world (60 times more prevalent than copper, for example) and was discovered in the 18th century, why do manufacturers suddenly have a titanium jones? Blame glasnost. Most titanium used to be consumed by our old friend the military-industrial complex. But when the Cold War turned to thaw, the industry faltered. That's when titanium suppliers hit on the bright idea of marketing their metal's otherworldly attributes to the private sector, which soon discovered titanium's secret physical property: Just saying the word can make a company grow.

"From the day we put our Titanium Hardcase on the net," said Tom Kambouris, president of RhinoSkin, about his pure-titanium PalmPilot case, "we were a company that was profitable. It was going to be a hobby, but the friggin' thing has taken on a life of its own." The Hardcase was back-ordered before they made even one and sold out before there was a picture of the product. Never mind that you could make a protective case out of, say, plastic. "It's a toy for your toy," explains Kambouris. "I used to wear a Batman Utility Belt as a kid, and it's the same thing now--if it looks like it has superpowers, it's perfect."

Titanium Wedding Rings, based in Montreal, is on a similar titanium high, growing 600% in its first three years. The metal's reputation seems to be the main attraction. "People really like that some of our rings test out at a tensile strength of 200,000 pounds per square inch," says the company's president, Roy Arnell. One big plus: You can promise your significant other that unless you're hit by a meteorite, your ring won't dent.

To paraphrase Twain, much of the hype about titanium has the added advantage of being true. When it's alloyed with 6% aluminum and 4% vanadium, for example, titanium has half the weight of steel and up to four times the strength. Add to that titanium's biocompatibility--the ability to be ignored by the human body's immune system--and an extreme resistance to corrosion, and you have what architectural-metals consultant Gary Nemchock calls the "armor for the 21st century." Titanium is now the metal of choice for hip and knee replacements, and it's in the 35,000 panels that cloak Frank Gehry's new Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain. Denver-based Volant Sports, which already makes titanium-fortified skis, is looking into all-titanium skis that weigh half as much and are twice as strong as its steel skis.

Titaniumania has been good for the bottom line of the world's biggest titanium supplier, Timet, headquartered in Denver. In 1994 the company had $146 million in sales; this year it's projecting about $800 million. That said, the metal won't be cheap anytime soon--extracting pure titanium "sponge" from titanium ore still requires sophisticated (and expensive) chemical distillation. As a result, Timet's average alloy sells for about $15 a pound, while stainless steel still sells for about $2 to $3 a pound.

At prices like that, some companies are tempted to skimp. That's why the International Titanium Association has set up a group of titanium testers, who chemically determine titanium content for companies that request it. Although there's a cheaper way: "Wilson has these 'titanium core' [golf] balls," says Michael Metz, Timet's marketing director. "When we called them up to try to sell them some of our product, we kept getting the runaround. I finally put one in a vise and got out a hacksaw." Metz tore away the ball's white cover, hoping to see a glint of metal inside. No go. "I have three of them sawed in half on my shelf," he says, "and I have yet to find any titanium." No titanium metal, anyway. It turns out the "titanium core" is just rubber and clay, bound together by a chemical called isopropyltriisostearoyl titanate. But try fitting that on a golf ball.

--Paul Hochman

PAUL HOCHMAN is technical editor of Ski Magazine.