In this paper, the effects of material properties on the friction and wear behavior of pure metals are investigated. The sliding material pairs are selected based on their relative compatibility and relative hardness ratio of the specimen. The initial and steady-state friction coefficients are obtained in the experiments and the wear rates are quantitatively investigated. It is shown that the initial friction coefficient is affected by the hardness ratio of sliding materials. Furthermore, in steady state condition, neither hardness ratio nor compatibility has significant influence on the frictional behavior. As for wear, the ductility of the metal affects the wear particle generation process which in turn affects the frictional behavior. The findings of this research suggest that frictional interaction cannot be simply characterized by either compatibility or hardness ratio of the materials undergoing sliding contact.