Anodizing Steels -

rlinger · Mar 1, 2003

Bob Warner was kind enough to write up a description of an anodizer, and other things. He mentions using it for titanium. Maybe I missed it but it says nothing of anodizing steels.

Can I anodize steel with a setup like his??? If so, I may start shopping for a autotransformer.

EDIT: It wouldn't be fair not to include a link to his site, where the descriptions reside: http://warnerknives.com/

Thanks; Roger

truck · Mar 1, 2003

rlinger, I do not believe that you can anodize steel. Titanium, and aluminum can be anodized. Unfortunately, I cannot give you a description of the chemical process so that both of us know why this is so. Hopefully one of the local legends will come to the rescue.

SeaStrike · Mar 1, 2003

Anodizing cannot be done with steel. I believe it's a process with electricity, or something like that.

Tom Anderson · Mar 1, 2003

The anodizer listed in Bob's tutorials is a DC type power supply. It's used for reactive metals like titanium and niobium. The color is actually an oxide growth on the base metal.

Aluminum is anodized through a completely different process, using an AC power supply, acid, and dyes.

If the steel could be coated with aluminum (via metallic spray transfer), it might be possible to have it anodized. I'm not too sure about possible galvanic corrosion beneath the surface, though.

You'd probably be better off with simple heat coloring on the steel, where you get golds, purples, and blues up to around 500°F - although the microscopically thin oxidized color would be prone to scratching.

rlinger · Mar 1, 2003

Outstanding. I am a bit less ignorant now than a few minutes ago.

Thanks for the quick answers.

Roger

truck · Mar 1, 2003

Thanks also for the differentiation between aluminum and titanium. You makers are a handy bunch!

Chuck Gedraitis Knives · Mar 2, 2003

I saw a knife on Knifeart.com that was suppoed to have an anodized steel handle? Is the description wrong? Here is the link.
Chuck

Link

Tom Anderson · Mar 2, 2003

"303 Stainless Steel coloured with a very specialized electro process which only a few makers in the world know how to do."

"Electro process" and anodization could be two very different things. For instance, there are many variations of commercial laser coating applications that can produce a variety of colors on steel. Some of the new coatings on end mills have a rainbow effect.