Best way to clean and bring out colors in anodized titanium- specific type of anodizing difficult to bring color out

ElementalBreakdown

ElementalBreakdown

Gold Member
Joined
Jul 14, 2020
Messages
492
I have tried every type of cleaning, but am having a tough time bringing out the color in "entropic" type anodizing. My knife is an Olamic and they claim they don't use ferric chloride to anodize, but other makers that achieve a similar effect DO use ferric chloride.
To be clear, I have NOT used any chemicals that should have permanently affected the anodizing. I've always used a microfiber cloth gentle enough to clean delicate electronics. That may be part of why I am having a hard time.
I have tried ammonia based (like "Windex") cleaners, Pledge multi-purpose (safe for screens and TV's), Gentle soap ("Dr. Bronner's"), "Invisible Glass", and a steam jewelry cleaner.
So far, the best results were just with distilled water in the jewelry cleaner, and I know it isn't somehow ruined because with a lot of work I have been able to bring the color back, but it's not easy and extremely time consuming.

I guess it's possible that being almost a year old, it's just a matter of oxidation or wear from use and I'm not going to get the color back. I definitely EDC it, but I don't work construction and haven't subjected it to anything but pocket wear. But pocket wear might be enough since I have carried it almost every day.

Does anyone have something else to try? I'm going to try Amazon's best glass cleaner ("Better Life Natural Streak Free Glass Cleaner) which contains "Purified water, coconut surfactant, vegetable-based surfactant, preservative.")

They just put an amazing black timascus clip on it for me and I am going to clean it up and take some pics, but this is pretty frustrating. To Olamic's credit, they warned me before purchasing it that most people buy this type of anodizing on a knife to keep it in the safe. The only real problem area is on the pivot collar, the faux bolsters look pretty god and the work on the spine still looks acceptable.

Not a huge deal, but I'd love to bring back the deep blue/purple on the collars.

Any thoughts?
 
This is related and even more interesting. How fast one can remove anodization of titanium. Literally seconds:
 
I don't know much about that stuff but I think I remember someone saying one time to clean the steel with lacquer thinner. Though I wouldn't swear to it.
 
My Olamic 247 arrived dull looking - and nowhere near the color shown in their images. I followed their recommendations to no avail. One of several things I disliked about the knife.
Wish I could be of more help; but I couldn't even get get the color back on a brand new Olamic.
Edited to add:. It was a few years ago; but I'm pretty sure they recommended Windex and rubbing hard with a chamois.
 
Last edited:
Glad you replied- the stuff from Amazon (their brand) is the best glass and also Ti ano cleaner I have used. No comment on the other stuff- I was happy with mine, and compared to some Ebay sellers that almost certainly post absolute Photoshop monstrosities that are absolute fakes, they are pretty great IME.
What kind of ano did you get? I beat the snot out of my Olamic and the main entropic ano on the faux bolsters still looks great, just the pivot collars are losing their color.
 
ElementalBreakdown said:
I don't want to remove it! Just bring out the color. I know it's literally like atoms thick. Just wondering the best way to bring the color back!
Click to expand...
There isn't really any way to "bring back" the color of a faded anodizing layer. The titanium oxide layer that gives it the color will wear down over time, even just rubbing against your skin and pants pocket etc. That "entropic" aka lightning anodizing effect isn't actually that hard to do if you're willing to try to redo it yourself. Just clean off the old layer with a polishing wheel, clean thoroughly with acetone, then heat it up until it starts to turn straw color, then dip in ferric chloride and voila, you have a beautiful lightning pattern. If you mess it up it's easy to wipe off the ano layer with the polishing wheel and give it another go.
 
Last edited:
ElementalBreakdown said:
I have done that, I put the question to Olamic and they claim it's a different process. Colors are not going to get that bright with ferric chloride
Click to expand...
It's possible they are using some different chemical for the quenching and keeping it a trade secret. I've often wondered what the ferric chloride is really doing chemically and wondered what other chemicals would work but I haven't experimented with anything else
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top