A grade 2 pure Ti was processed by high-pressure torsion (HPT) under 3.0 GPa for 10 revolutions to achieve an improved strength. Wear tests revealed that HPT only slightly improved the wear resistance of pure Ti. Subsequently, a TiN coating with a thickness of 2.5 mu m was deposited on different Ti substrates to improve the wear resistance. Both indentation and scratch testing demonstrated a much improved load-bearing capacity when ultrafine-grained Ti was chosen as the substrate compared with coarse-grained Ti. All results indicate that pure Ti processed by HPT, when combined with a subsequent coating, represents a good candidate material for bio-implant applications.