Titanium is considerably tougher than steel.
Having worked in steel, on and off, for most of my working life (35 years) I can tell you that bending or shaping mid grade Ti is a bloody site harder than good mild steel of even twice the thickness.
Skink's flipper blade is 1.5mm Ti and took some effort to bend to shape.
Skink is now over five years old and despite hundereds of fights I have never had to re-shape the blade.
This would not be true if it were steel.
Mike.