How To Anodizing Ti - DIY at home

bflying · Dec 24, 2016

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[add. 2/5/2018:. This started out as just showing (mostly to myself) that it is possible to anodize Titanium at home with minimal supplies, most likely already on hand. The beginning was mostly my own results during some time off around Christmas 2016. As time has gone by, amazing forum members have jumped in with their tips, tricks, and helpful info for all to benefit.

I guess from this point on, I would love the thread to be less about me, and more for anyone that has been bitten by the anodizing bug. So please, contribute anything that has to do with anodizing titanium, or even related. Successes, failures, tips, tricks, tools, supplies, and pics.....Many, many Pics.

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Personally, I have graduated from 9 volt batteries and Coca-Cola, to a tabletop DC power supply (a whopping $110 which included 7 day express shipping from China), and distilled water with baking soda and Borax for the electrolyte. Though I still think Coke works great. But now I'm less likely to drink my knife project.

If you have anything in Titanium, and have never anodized anything, try it. If you don't like it, it's usually pretty easy to remove. Or just strip and start over for a new look. Each time is like getting a new knife...... er, well sort of. ]

And now, back to 2016.....
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I've been very attracted to many of the ano'd knives I keep seeing pics of. And Whitty (USA MADE BLADE) has been killing me with all the cool variations that he's put out of knives I already own. I decided to do one of my own. Plus, I love trying new things.

After reading around the "big wide" for some time, decided to try the 9 volt battery and Coke method. I don't have the funds for special equipment, nor do I have the patience to wait for delivery once my mind is fixed on something. I chose my ZT0450 as the sacrificial lamb. I didn't really want a ZT to be my "first", but it was the least expensive I have on the shelf with known decent titanium. And if I must say [pats self on back], it didn't turn out half bad. I only did the back for this first go around. Now that I kind of know what to expect, I'm pretty sure I'll continue, and do the front also.

Based on what I read, I started with four batteries for a purple color, then toned it down to blue with 6 batteries.

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bflying · Dec 25, 2016

Ok, since the back turned out about as well as I could have hoped, I just went ahead and did the front side also. Sorry about the crappy phone pics. I just could not get them to show the color appearance in hand. I did accidentally touch the gator clip a couple of times. Left a couple of small burn picks. Fortunately not in any conspicuous places.

Over the long weekend, I may end up with a bunch of colorful knives. [emoji16][emoji51]

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WuYen · Dec 25, 2016

Looks pretty nice, good job.👍

bflying · Dec 25, 2016

Thanks. I'm sure the pro jobs are part skill and part art. I don't have either. Only a willingness to try something new. But now I'm feeling a bit crazy, and want to try another. Maybe something with a front scale and titanium frame lock. Like the 452CF, or 562CF. I have not been able to get the voltage for any green shades. But still think something with a slight purple hue would still look good. That's less voltage than I used to get the blue. Maybe 3-4 nine volt batteries.

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bflying · Dec 25, 2016

So it turned out to be a nice lazy Sunday/Christmas. No new knives on Santa's list, so my mind kept wandering back to my ano test run. So I sacrificed another Sinkevich. Not for everyone, but then I like it, so that's all that matters.

This time I ran three 9 volt batteries. Got a nice yellow to bronze across most of the frame of my ZT 0452CF. Then tried varying spot times and wand speed on the edges to get a deep purple. While I was trying to blend the color transition, I kept coming back to the edges in an attempt to tone down the purple to a touch of blueish/gunmetal.

Feel free to critique or offer tips or suggestions. If my feelings get hurt, I promise to cry in private. [emoji12]. I add the un-touched 456 just for color perspective of original color.

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bflying · Dec 26, 2016

It appears I'm just talking to myself here. But that's nothing new. [emoji23]. As long as I'm on a roll, here's a few more pictures.

This is my super secret ano lab. You'll notice the high tech beaker (cut down plastic cup) for the secret sauce (Coca Cola). The space age speaker wires, with radio shack gator clips( I actually did a poor but adequate job soldering the clips to speaker wire). And the high tech electrical tape holding the wires onto the power source......9v batteries. Man, my shop has got it going on!!!

This is the super secret, black market Ti color estimator. So far with my two knives and three colors, it's been pretty kinda sorta accurate.

And here's the website that finally got me to quit reading, dreaming about fancy power supply to take me to that very 1/1000'th of a volt needed for some crazy knife/cat lady whom demanded a very unusual shade of Fucia. Wait, or was it Puce. Don't you just love it when some stranger takes the time out of their day to blueprint exactly how I could accomplish a desired task with a battery and a sip of Coke. Crazy, and I'm very appreciative.

I read a lot of how-to sites, but this one clicked with me. For anyone that wants to Ano their super-duper Titanium keychain pry bar/bottle opener/wrench/1.5" ruler/hex wrench.......just to see if it works, I double dogs dare you!

The site I used can be found here.

https://www.nycresistor.com/2012/07/06/9-volt-battery-chain-anod izer/

So, what does Boxing Day hold in store for this obviously wild and crazy guy? I'm going to buy another box of 9 volt batteries and try to hit some colors in the 70-125 volt range. I think that green is calling me.

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115Italian · Dec 26, 2016

Not bad for a quick setup like that. Looks good.

Kalibr906 · Dec 26, 2016

Cool project you did. I have been checking out different ways to color titanium and was thinking about trying the torch method. I appreciate this post to see the results one can get with just the 9v batteries. Tough I don't think I have any speaker wire laying around or a solder gun. Maybe I will have to try this method out though, seems pretty simple to set up. Keep us updated on the next attempt.

bflying · Dec 26, 2016

My first thought was to try the torch method also. It was actually another members thread showing a bright rainbow of color he achieved with a torch, that re-inspired me to want to try. I don't have a propane torch on hand (though I know they can be picked up pretty inexpensively), because I've just never had the need for one. I do have a couple of the little butane "creme brûlée" style lighters and tried one on a titanium bead a while back. I didn't have much luck with it. I'm not sure if I didn't get hot enough, or too hot, but just ended up with charcoal black and a few hints of color when moved around in the light.

I didn't really need to solder the wire to the alligator clip. With pliers the wire is crimped in plenty tight. But I really wanted to try out a little butane solder pen that I picked up on impulse at harbor freight over a year ago. I'm easily distra[SQUIRL!!!]cted by little gadgets, toys, and things that light. This little guy checked three boxes off my already short attention span, but is not really essential to my ano test.

The other thing I thing noteworthy is that I didn't even take the knives apart. They both stayed intact, leather lanyards and all. Unlike a torch, the only part being affected is the small area under the cotton cloth roll in the clip. Sure there is electricity going through the entire part. But only the q-tip sized area under the cola dipped anode get any of the color effect. The steel, aluminum, carbon fiber, etc, remain unaffected.

I also noticed that the speed that I moved the anode around affected the color a bit. Like on the second knife (the ZT 0452CF), after I had created a solid yellow-ish bronze color all over by moving the anode around nice and slow. When I went back to the edges and tried to get the darker color, it seemed to work better by moving back and forth faster. Almost like one might move a crayon to darken up a solid area in a coloring book. Giving a very different color combination. And on that knife, I only used the same three 9 volt batteries. Whereas on the ZT 0450 front, I used a bank of 5 batteries, and kept the anode contact slow and consistent over the entire surface. Which yielded that nice solid blue color.

All I all, it was a very interesting and fun experiment. And strangely, all from things I had on hand over the holiday weekend.

I hope everyone had a very Merry (and relaxing) Christmas.

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bflying · Dec 29, 2016

I let a couple days pass, and sure enough, got bored again. {Don't know why I just said that sentence in my head with a British accent while typing it. Strange}. Anyway, I really wanted to try out a few more voltages without murdering a $200-$300 knife. I realized I have been toting the Boker pry on my keychain for a number of months. Just remembered it was some form of titanium (though seems very low grade, but not unexpected).

Anyway, I decided to just use it as a test canvas for different voltages. I started out with some pattern in mind, but as I added, very quickly started to run out of room. So it just became random. Add a battery, hit a spot. Add another 9 volts, and touch another random location. I could only find 12 batteries in the house, so I still have not to get into those elusive rich greens.

It was interesting, and even a bit educational. I now have some ideas that I would like to achieve with some ZT's 0808, 0801, 0562CF, and possibly even my current favorite edc the 456. Also have a Kizer 3452 that I think would look good with a slightly different shade than it currently sports.

Well, enough of my yakkin'. On with the Ano-mentary, if you will. [emoji41] Here's the pry with power from 3 nine volt batteries to 12.

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bflying · Jan 4, 2017

I decided that I didn't like the purple edges as much as I thought I would. So I hit the sides of the 452 again, but with the 5 battery combination that I used for the blue on my 450. There is still a little purple in the fade. I guess if I get tired of this combination, I could always just make the entire side blue. I must say, this has been a very interesting process.

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bflying · Dec 13, 2017

It's been about a year since I started this thread, so I thought I'd stop back a show a couple recent ano's. Haven't really done much, but have improved a little. Mostly because of learning from the experience of others here on the forum. And from tips and suggestions made. And also the good ole learning curve that includes many mistakes. If anyone else is doing home anodizing, please show your stuff. And as always, tips, tricks, suggestions, and critique are always welcome.

Recently used a couple Massdrop knives to practice on, as they are very plain and simplistic. Here's where last weekends project landed. The Crux with a fade, bronze to blue. I'm still using batteries, so need to be a little creative in the dip, and speed. The ZT0801 was done in all blue. Then the flats were sanded and re-dipped at a lower voltage for the gold (light bronze-ish) color. Looks like my ZT0055, or ZT0808 is next in line for some color.

I've also been playing around with the electrolyte as suggested by someone on Instagram. Was using just Coke, as I got hit and miss results with baking soda water. But now know that was because of my errors in mixing and storage. Also tried using CLR. Sounds counter intuitive as anodization is actually controlled rust. But it gave some pretty bright color at some voltages. I actually ano'd the Crux front scale over a dozen times while experimenting. This blue came out of CLR.

Cow51 · Dec 13, 2017

Nice posts. I have been wanting to anodize the stand offs on my Mantra a nice deep blue, haven't decided on my exact process yet.

I'm waiting to hear back from spyderco to find out if they are Ti or not.

I'm curious, what setup and process do you use?

bflying · Dec 13, 2017

Cow51 said:
Nice posts. I have been wanting to anodize the stand offs on my Mantra a nice deep blue, haven't decided on my exact process yet.

I'm waiting to hear back from spyderco to find out if they are Ti or not.

I'm curious, what setup and process do you use?

I talk a little bit about my setup in post 6. Learned a bunch, but still using 9 volt batteries. Here is the site I used to get off the ground last year.

https://www.nycresistor.com/2012/07/06/9-volt-battery-chain-anodizer/

This is a video I ran I to a couple weeks ago that is one the best, concise, and simple ano outlines I've seen, and done in around 15 minutes. Realistically you can start with nothing more than 9 volt batteries, wires, rubbing alcohol, and Coca Cola. But using this guy's setup with a couple more items, results will be much cleaner and more predictable.

Cow51 · Dec 13, 2017

Awesome thanks! I'll check them out and providing my standoffs are Ti I'll give it a shot.

bflying · Dec 19, 2017

Dangit, I did some more. Just....Can't.....stop. I love how the colors look different in every light. And you can make the color more or less variant by changing the base finish. Like ano on a super high polish will be constantly morphing with every light, angle, and shadow. But a significant matte bead blast finish, or even just an acid etch will show more of a matte solid color. Notice the ZT0055. The mint green on the sides does not change much in pictures. But the purple in middle (sanded to 2000 grit) can show Barney purple one second, and Navy Blue the next. Very cool.

Cow51 · Dec 19, 2017

Nice! I watched that video you linked and it looks really simple, I'm just waiting on some titanium wire and I'm going to give it a go. What is that knife on the left in the first picture of your last post? Looks pretty nice.

bflying · Dec 20, 2017

Cow51 said:
Nice! I watched that video you linked and it looks really simple, I'm just waiting on some titanium wire and I'm going to give it a go. What is that knife on the left in the first picture of your last post? Looks pretty nice.

That is the Massdrop/FerrumForge Crux. It is a pretty nice knife for the price.

mattmanyam · Dec 20, 2017

Very, very nice work!
Been fun watching your progress, keep it up!

bflying · Dec 21, 2017

mattmanyam said:
Very, very nice work!
Been fun watching your progress, keep it up!

Thank you. It has been a fun process.