Anodizing Titanium Integral Knives

[xzonin13]

Hello everyone. Recently I picked up a proper setup for electro-anodizing titanium, basically spent the past week having a lot of fun messing with my knives. Got some nice low and high blues going. I ran into a snag when I tried to anodize my Reate Jack 2.0 where I could easily do the accent parts, but I could not for the life of me anodize the integral frame itself. Note, I haven't tried anodizing any other integrals. My anodizer is the one that goes to 1 amp and 120 volts, and it has absolutely no problem with small parts or full scales. This integral couldn't make it past 10v, the anodizer hits 1 amp and just stays there. I've got a giant sheet of titanium as the negative so the surface area shouldn't be a problem, I'm using TSP with distilled water, and I pre-treat with rust remover. With the anodizer at 10v it basically just slightly darkens the titanium. Has anyone had this issue or had success with anodizing an integral? I'm thinking maybe the part is just too large for this relatively low-power setup.

 

[WValtakis]

Are there steel parts still in the frame, detent ball or lockbar insert? That's what it sounds like.

 

[xzonin13]

That's what I thought at first, but no. I'd removed the lockbar insert and Reate generally is good about having the detent ball in the insert instead of in the lock. I know that absolutely killed my ZT 0640, that insert was impossible to remove so the highest I could take the anodizer was around 20-24v before it ate up all the electricity.

 

[115Italian]

Maybe your negative connection is too large. How are you suspending the knife frame in the solution?

 

[xzonin13]

My negative is a 200mm^2 titanium sheet that sits about halfway in the solution, my positive is a hook of titanium wire.