Despite the dull gray of this metal in pure form, vanadium forms the most gorgeous set of colors when dissolved in acid. This was sufficient motive to earn it its name after the Norse goddess of beauty Vanadis. Less trivially, worldwide vanadium output is gobbled up almost entirely by the steel industry where adding a pinch of it to the mix provides wondrous increases in strength. Thus, vanadium-infused steel is preferentially used for structural work in any kind of large-scale construction. Indeed, among the strongest steels ever manufactured is an alloy known as W2 that comes with a tensile strength of a quarter million pounds per square inch! That is a mind-bogglingly strong metal and the record can only be accomplished through a generous injection of, you guessed it, vanadium.

This hi-tech steel is far too expensive to be used for such pedestrian things as rebar or railroad ties and is reserved instead for the priciest submarines or for critical parts in machinery. So why not use pure vanadium then? Well, as it turns out, that strength comes at a very serious ding in the machinability scale. It is a whopping 300 times more expensive than ordinary grades of steel, for one, but more importantly it is vastly more difficult to roll and shape into the desired end shapes. That added difficulty thus makes that W2 mentioned above a bargain in comparison.

Regardless, a cube made of 99.95% pure vanadium is a pretty cool addition to your collection of gadgets and we're sure you'll want to keep it handy!

The weight of each 10mm cube is 6.1±0.1g.