Solid friction is considered by some to be a fundamental property of two contacting materials, while others consider it to be a property of the larger tribosystem in which the materials are contained. A set of sliding friction experiments were designed to investigate the hypothesis that the unlubricated sliding friction between two materials is indeed a tribosystems-related property and that the relative influence of the materials properties or those of the machine on friction varies from one situation to another. Three tribometers were used: a friction microprobe (FMP), a typical laboratory-scale reciprocating pin-on-flat device, and a heavy-duty commercial wear tester. The slider material was stainless steel (AISI 440C) and the flat specimen material was an ordered alloy of Ni{sub 3}Al (IC-50). Sphere-on-flat geometry was used at ambient conditions and at normal forces ranging from 0.01 N to 100 N and average sliding velocities of 0.01 to 100.0 mm/s. The nominal, steady-state sliding friction coefficient tended to decrease with increases in normal force for each of the three tribometers, and the steady state value of sliding friction tended to increase as the mass of the machine increased. The variation of the friction force during sliding was also a characteristic of the …