a ti BM bead for a lanyard, sounds amazing.

I'll suggest tungsten because you just can't hurt it. But that would probably be hard to machine and expensive.

Using scraps of damascus would be sweet for its iconic looks. I don't believe that you can easily melt down the unused metal without losing the "grain" so this would be a cool use of the scraps.

Ti would be neat, and likely a good cross between cost and performance.

Not too sure about pewter. Sourcing a new material would probably add to cost. From a practical standpoint lead and malleability are concerns (though I know that different formulations can avoid these). From an aesthetic and coolness factor, to each their own but I'd rather have one of the first three I mentioned. =)

Nice idea. I would definitely switch out my skull beads on my lanyards for a pewter butterfly. At least on my Benchmade models that I've put lanyards on.