My Tutorial on Anodizing Titanium

Must the Cathode be titanium? Seems the cathode will be "de-oxidized" and therefore unreacted, except for possible cleaning of rust. Seems like a piece of aluminum will suffice. Am I incorrect?

Doesn't the amperage determine the time it takes to achieve the color? If voltage determines color then amperage should determine how long a piece will take to color up. Bigger piece low amps = slow process. Higher amps = faster, smaller piece = faster?

Am I incorrect here as well?

Happy to be wrong. Just asking! Nice work. The day I make knives as nice as yours will be a happy day! See you in 20 years!
 
shotgunner said:
Must the Cathode be titanium? Seems the cathode will be "de-oxidized" and therefore unreacted, except for possible cleaning of rust. Seems like a piece of aluminum will suffice. Am I incorrect?

Doesn't the amperage determine the time it takes to achieve the color? If voltage determines color then amperage should determine how long a piece will take to color up. Bigger piece low amps = slow process. Higher amps = faster, smaller piece = faster?

Am I incorrect here as well?

Happy to be wrong. Just asking! Nice work. The day I make knives as nice as yours will be a happy day! See you in 20 years!
Click to expand...

Anything that goes inside the electrolyte bath should be titanium. Accidentally switch the polarity just once and you'll know why. I once put a titanium part in with a press fit 440C steel pin and forgot to mask the pin. It reacted and rusted immediately. You just need to meet the surface area requirements - meaning it can be a relatively inexpensive thin sheet of titanium. You don't need to use a piece of 1/4" thick titanium plate. :3:

If you put too large a part in the bath with a low amperage power supply, it might not achieve the color no matter how long it sits in there. I have a 1/4 amp DC power supply and it's only good for small parts like back spacers and pocket clips. At least, that's my experience.
 
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Here's a photo of a pen I recently made that illustrates all three methods of coloring titanium:

Touch-of-Timascus-II-1.jpg


The slots in the pocket clip were done with a brush.

The grooves and dots in the pen body were done using the submersion method (the high areas were satin polished for the 2-tone finish).

And the Timascus insert in the front was heat colored.

I'm sure by now a lot of you who posted earlier have gotten into anodizing titanium. How about sharing some photos with the rest of us?
 
Here's a shot of the Timascus insert in the end of the cap. This was also colored using a torch before the insert was staked into place.

Touch-of-Timascus-II-3.jpg
 
Amazing work Mr. Anderson. Are you still making any Mohawk framelock knives? I came across your tutorial the other day and bookmarked it. I am new to knife making and want to try to make a folder. Your framelock folders look AWESOME.
 
I really enjoy anodizing and I still haven't explored all the different ideas I've had. The pipe cleaner method is something I stumbles on accidentally. Here is one I did a while back:

m9m27.jpg


Tom's work shows his appreciation for how anodizing can be used as an accent, deep blue contrasts so nicely with satin finished ti, and I've found that you can reverse it so the satin finish ti is the accent. This photo doesn't show it well but all the little holes in the back and the bevels on the back spacer are accented with blue.

m11-04.jpg
 
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Les,

That scales on that first one look exquisite! Could I ask what this 'pipe cleaner' method you mentioned is? Have been making some bracelets from Ti sheet, and will be using some of Chad's Moku-Ti soon, but am still toying with finishing methods.
 
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