Scandium

I am reading a story on View From The Porch and I spot a phrase that tickles my funny bone, so I open the comments to say so, and I come across Scandium. Scandium, one of those obscure metallic elements that fill up most of the periodic table. So I start looking up information on Scandium. Some of it I have read before, but this time I have a connection, however feeble, and I pay a little more attention. The stuff is rare and therefor expensive, though not nearly as expensive as Rhenium. It's produced as a byproduct, more or less, of producing other more important metals. This is the only reason we have the stuff. I doubt it would be worth it to dig up the amount of ore of needed to produce Scandium if that was the only thing we got out of it. However, most of what we use these days comes from stockpiles in the former Soviet Union, more than is being mined. I suspect the price will remain relatively low until those stockpiles run out, then like a pusher, the world will be hooked and the price will go through the roof.

Scandium's big claim to fame is:

The original use of scandium-aluminium alloys was in the nose cones of some USSR submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs). The strength of the resulting nose cone was enough to enable it to pierce the ice-cap without damage, and so, enabling a missile launch while still submerged under the Arctic ice cap.

from Wikipedia.

But here we have a handgun (specifically a S&W 1911 sc Commander) made with a scandium alloy, scandium alloyed with aluminum, presumably. Once again something obscure has crept into my life without my previously noticing it.

From an article in Guns Magazine, Sept, 2002 by Massad Ayoob:

For carrying comfort, obviously lighter is better. An all-steel "J-frame" hammerless may weigh 20 ounces. The aluminum framed Airweight version is perhaps 14 ounces. The AirLite Ti version cuts overall weight to under 12 ounces. Scandium construction allows for a .357 Magnum AirLite Centennial that weighs barely over 10 ounces. As weight goes down, recoil goes up.

 Update December 2016 replaced missing picture.