Enhancing Scratch Resistance on Ti?

Peter Atwood

Peter Atwood

Joined
Oct 26, 2000
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I'm working on a framelock folder right now and I'm undecided as to how to put the final finish on the knife. I could bead blast it but I look at my Sebenzas and how they scratch up and I'm not sure that's the way to go. If I anodize then that finish is also liable to get pretty beat up.

I'm thinking that I read somewhere that after bead blasting you can oil the piece then hit it on a wire wheel. That's supposed to help out and make a more durable finish. Anyone have any experience with this?

Thanks.
 
Peter,
I'm not sure if putting it on a whire wheel will help, it might just remove some of the bead blast finish. I have learned a new trick, first you polish the ti and then cut out of tape a design that you want, maybe a few dots, or a stripe or flames whatever and stick it onto the liner. Then you beadblast it and when you remove the tape you have the design left polished. You can leave it like that but I heat it up with a torch and the bead blast anodizes blue from the uniform texture and the polished part comes out rainbow. It looks really cool if you do flames. Make sure you don't touch it after blasting or your oil from your fingers will cause it to not uniformly color. Then to protect it you could clearcoat it. It won't leave a slippery feel as long as you don't use too much and this should help with a more durable finish.
Chuck
 
Sounds like a great idea Chuck! I was thinking of doing some sort of resist but haven't decided for sure. Supposedly Tom Mayo does some sort of beadblasted finish that is more scratch resistant than the Sebenza. Anybody know how to do that?
 
I know that aluminum when anodized acquires a hard coat of aluminum oxide that imparts a lot of wear resistance over bare aluminum. Does the oxide film that forms on Ti during anodizing do the same thing? Could the thickness of this film be manipulated to increase wear resistance? Any anodizers out there?
 
George, nice thought but it turns out that no matter how long you leave it in the solution the coating is the same thickness. It turns out that the heat generated colors are more long lasting and wear resistant than the anodized colors. We did side by side comparison tests at Tom Anderson's workshop this summer. The ano colors do have a big advantage though, and that is repeatability.
 
I use the wire wheel method on all of my folders. It leaves a textured, shiny finish which IS more resistant to scratching. It probably will remove a bead blasted finish though.
 
Peter,

I use the ceramic bead (SEPR B60)and either leave it that way or do a final brush finish with a Norton Beartex 1000 (6 AO Fine)either after the blasting or by itself. The Norton wheels work real nice for fine scratch satin finished.
 
Speaking of the SEPR 60 ceramic beads, thank you Mr. Carson for that tip from a few weeks back. I finally got a cabinet (Skatblast), and a bucket of beads. It works great, and I especially like the way it seems to seal the surface of the ti, against fingerprints.
 
I've heard of people heating the end of the locking tab on Ti liners and frame locks. Its supposed to form a hard coat of Titanium oxide that will reduce the wear on the lock. I guess its the same idea that George had only using a diferent means to get there. I don't know if the oxidation or whatever it is would be the same from heating as it is from anodizing or not. If its hard enough that it really does reduce the wear on the lock then it would probably do pretty well on the rest of the handle too.
 
What does that end up looking like Dennis? Is it black or are there other possible colors? I'm always open to new ideas! :)
 
Here is a thread that has a pic of a BC coated Sebenza:

http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=175667&highlight=boron+sebenza

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Here is another thread that talks extensively about BC. The manufacturer started the thread and gives a lot of good info.

http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=171848

I believe the only color available is black. My understanding is that if it is applied to a blasted surface it has a flat appearance and if it is applied to a satin finish the black looks shinier. It is supposed to be one tough finish.

Several forumites have had knives done. It is very inexpensive to have done.

If you want other colors there may be other finishes that they could do.
 
LOL, I followed the thread all the way until it linked back to here. Thanks for posting that Dennis, it was very interesting and I don't know how I missed it before. I have a couple of questions so I hope Darrel will see this and answer them.

Darrel:

Can the material be selectively removed from the blade by sandblasting or grinding with abrasive belts? I can think of some possible effects that could be achieved if this were so.

What kind of resist is used to mask off areas that you don't want coated and can that be done beforehand by the knifemaker? I would be interested in the idea of a custom pattern of my own design.

Did you ever get that anodized titanium and test the clear coat finish? If not, I will send you some.

I think most of my other questions were quite adequately addressed in the linked thread. This sounds like an excellent product and it makes me more inclined to use some of my carbon steel for folders. I will definitely keep this in mind in the future.
 
Peter

It is very hard to remove Boron Carbide without using a Diamond grinding wheel both Rob Simonich and Bob T have tried sandblasting
it off with Glass Beads and Aluminium Oxide but didn't remove the coating. You can selective mask an area of a blade with a special tape
that was used during the coating of Rob's Tiger Stripped pattern.

Regarding a clear coating for Titanium I haven't had time to work on this project yet but have coated Titanium with Boron Carbide. It looks like a dark gray color and will help with the scratches you get on uncoated Titanium.According to Bronco the Sebenza I coated for him
has held up great.

If you have a special project you want to work on give me a call sometime and we can discuss it further.

Darrell Lewis
 
Send it to some one who does plasma TiN coating, one of the harder coatings and extremely tough. As far as I have seen only one colour though, quite nice gold.

TLM
 
Boron Carbide is very hard to remove with conventional sandblasting. I was able to do it recently. However you will want a very tough resist, and use high pressure, 100lbs plus. Boron Carbide has a Rockwell C of about 95! I am going to stick with the way I am doing it with the tape. Here is a couple of my latest Boron Carbide coated blades.

Boron Carbide is much harder than TIN coatings, but it is only available in the dark color. Coated over a polished surface it looks black, and over a sandblasted finish is a dark slate gray. Here is a link to a picture of a TIN/Boron Carbide combo coated blade. :) Scroll to the last picture on the page. http://www.simonichknives.com/covert.htm
 

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Those are really cool Rob! Now, is that done with just tape or did you polish the blade, tape it, then sandblast then send it out for the BC finish? Seems like you could achieve some neat variations depending on how you masked and sandblasted.

What kind of tape is it? I'm guessing it's that shiny metal foil furnace tape since it has to be able to withstand 240 degrees. Or is it something else? Thanks for posting those pics! :)
 
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