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Hi there everyone! So...first post here, but I'm a frequent lurker and knife enthusiast. I've always been curious about how well 9V batteries would perform in anodizing a knife frame/scales/hardware/etc. Now...keep in mind...I went all mad-scientist on this thing because I genuinely don't care how my knives look. They drop into my pocket and are used daily. If I got the same mentality with them as I do my phones (obsessive to the point of "weird" about defects) I would go insane and refuse to use them on anything. So why not have some fun?
What I did...exactly:
Take apart the knife (whatever knife you may be using that has titanium parts). REMEMBER where everything goes. Be organized...and when in doubt...take photos so you KNOW where to put it all back later. The Kwaiken here has TEENY TINY bearings...and no housing. Seriously. They're free to fall and roll away the second you separate the liners. I was lucky not to lose any. I didn't actually have to take the liners off for this project...but she was due for a cleaning anyway and why not, right? Plus...I wanted to see if the spacer was titanium or not (hint: it is. But she didn't take anodizing all that well).
I cleaned the scales (and spacer) meticulously. I soaped 'em up with dawn to get the factory grease off and rinsed them really well. Then I threw some latex gloves on and wiped 'em down with some Windex on a paper towel...and left them to dry on a new and clean paper towel. Compulsive? Yes. Did it make a difference? Probably. Finger oils or any of the stubborn grease from the factory would have definitely caused an issue when anodizing. I'd recommend you take just as much care (or more) if you plan on doing this yourself...or even if you go full-fledged bad-ass and buy a power supply rather than some cheapo batteries. Or anything in between. Next I mixed a solution of baking soda and water in a random drinking glass. You should use distilled. I used purified stuff from the grocery that I had in the fridge. How much baking soda? IDK lul. I probably used 1.5 tablespoons and 12oz of water.
Now...I tore an old cord into two and stripped the ends. No alligator clips here. What do you think I am...prepared? I formed a careful and flat wall of aluminium foil that I draped along the top of the glass...and let it extend across the entire wall of one side of the glass.. This aluminium foil will connect to the NEGATIVE side of a 9V battery. Since I was a lazy bastard and didn't have any alligator clips...I wrapped the stripped wire around the female end (bigger end that wraps around the smaller end) of a 9V and taped it down with some electrical tape so I wouldn't have to treat it ultra-carefully. Then I wrapped the excess aluminium foil that was sticking out of the cup around the other end of this connection.
You're almost there! I taped down the other wire (again - torn off of any old regular cord) to a SEPARATE battery on the positive terminal.
Here's where you have some choice. By Daisy-chaining the 9V batteries together and matching positive to negative...you increase voltage. You can google some charts for titanium anodizing voltages and try to match it (don't bet on it, but maybe). Or you can just wing it. I'd say winging it is the best idea for batteries.
Now. I knew these things would not only drain fast...but wouldn't actually be carrying the true and accurate voltage of 9 times n amount of batteries. So I figured I'd flash mine with a high voltage (I used all 12 9Volt batteries that I bought) for a few seconds rather than trying to get a consistent color. You can do this in two ways, really. Drop the part in with the positive wire attached to it...but not to the battery yet. Then touch the battery for 0-3 seconds. Or you can do what I did...and just lower the part in and hold it there for 0-3 seconds. I intentionally took about 2 seconds to drop the scale in fairly slowly...held for a second...and took it out. This is the rainbow scale that you see in the pictures above. Next I was wondering if I could get a consistent pink (shadd'up eh!?) across the other...but didn't want to ruin the whole scale if not. So I dipped 'er in with 7 batteries at the bottom (where the knife is now pinkish) and got yellow. Added a battery...pink. Well. Pretty pink. I'm into it, so I figure I'd dip the whole thing in and hopefully get a solid color...I didn't REALLY think it would work...but I hoped it. With a careful watch on voltage from a DC power supply you can do this sort of thing. With a string of 9V batteries...you cannot. The colors would NOT meld. I held 'er in there for two batches of 30 seconds or so each. I ended up at the color you see along the middle of the hard-lined scale. Then I was in fuck-it mode again and dropped all 12 batteries together and threw the other end of this scale in for 20 seconds. That's the purple-ish (there really is a decent amount of green there, but the color is fairly accurate in the photos) end you see on the scale in the photos. And we're done! Well...I dropped the spacer in shortly after. But she really didn't take the anodizing all that well. It IS pink-ish now (despite sticking to the same 12 battery chain) but you really have to get in decent light to see anything other than a slight pink hue.
What I learned is...if you want a consistent color...you'd better just dip the whole scale in and hope for the best.* Remember - you can go up in voltage easily.* Down...you cannot.* I did some chopsticks as well that I don't have photos of...and the whole things came out in a flawless blue. The same can be said of the triple-dipped scale you see pictured. Each "hold" in the solution with x amount of voltage made its own consistent color.
What do you think of it? I mean...I came in curious and not caring how she would look. I left...LOVING it?! Like...that shit is pretty sexy. Not going to lie. So...if you're curious. Give it a shot guys. Even with just a 4-pack of 9Volts you can get some sexy blue scales but not much more than that (I did the previously mentioned chopsticks with 3 batteries). This 3x4-pack experiment was like 50 bucks or something...but totally worth it if you ask me.
Hi there everyone! So...first post here, but I'm a frequent lurker and knife enthusiast. I've always been curious about how well 9V batteries would perform in anodizing a knife frame/scales/hardware/etc. Now...keep in mind...I went all mad-scientist on this thing because I genuinely don't care how my knives look. They drop into my pocket and are used daily. If I got the same mentality with them as I do my phones (obsessive to the point of "weird" about defects) I would go insane and refuse to use them on anything. So why not have some fun?
What I did...exactly:
Take apart the knife (whatever knife you may be using that has titanium parts). REMEMBER where everything goes. Be organized...and when in doubt...take photos so you KNOW where to put it all back later. The Kwaiken here has TEENY TINY bearings...and no housing. Seriously. They're free to fall and roll away the second you separate the liners. I was lucky not to lose any. I didn't actually have to take the liners off for this project...but she was due for a cleaning anyway and why not, right? Plus...I wanted to see if the spacer was titanium or not (hint: it is. But she didn't take anodizing all that well).
I cleaned the scales (and spacer) meticulously. I soaped 'em up with dawn to get the factory grease off and rinsed them really well. Then I threw some latex gloves on and wiped 'em down with some Windex on a paper towel...and left them to dry on a new and clean paper towel. Compulsive? Yes. Did it make a difference? Probably. Finger oils or any of the stubborn grease from the factory would have definitely caused an issue when anodizing. I'd recommend you take just as much care (or more) if you plan on doing this yourself...or even if you go full-fledged bad-ass and buy a power supply rather than some cheapo batteries. Or anything in between. Next I mixed a solution of baking soda and water in a random drinking glass. You should use distilled. I used purified stuff from the grocery that I had in the fridge. How much baking soda? IDK lul. I probably used 1.5 tablespoons and 12oz of water.
Now...I tore an old cord into two and stripped the ends. No alligator clips here. What do you think I am...prepared? I formed a careful and flat wall of aluminium foil that I draped along the top of the glass...and let it extend across the entire wall of one side of the glass.. This aluminium foil will connect to the NEGATIVE side of a 9V battery. Since I was a lazy bastard and didn't have any alligator clips...I wrapped the stripped wire around the female end (bigger end that wraps around the smaller end) of a 9V and taped it down with some electrical tape so I wouldn't have to treat it ultra-carefully. Then I wrapped the excess aluminium foil that was sticking out of the cup around the other end of this connection.
You're almost there! I taped down the other wire (again - torn off of any old regular cord) to a SEPARATE battery on the positive terminal.
Here's where you have some choice. By Daisy-chaining the 9V batteries together and matching positive to negative...you increase voltage. You can google some charts for titanium anodizing voltages and try to match it (don't bet on it, but maybe). Or you can just wing it. I'd say winging it is the best idea for batteries.
Now. I knew these things would not only drain fast...but wouldn't actually be carrying the true and accurate voltage of 9 times n amount of batteries. So I figured I'd flash mine with a high voltage (I used all 12 9Volt batteries that I bought) for a few seconds rather than trying to get a consistent color. You can do this in two ways, really. Drop the part in with the positive wire attached to it...but not to the battery yet. Then touch the battery for 0-3 seconds. Or you can do what I did...and just lower the part in and hold it there for 0-3 seconds. I intentionally took about 2 seconds to drop the scale in fairly slowly...held for a second...and took it out. This is the rainbow scale that you see in the pictures above. Next I was wondering if I could get a consistent pink (shadd'up eh!?) across the other...but didn't want to ruin the whole scale if not. So I dipped 'er in with 7 batteries at the bottom (where the knife is now pinkish) and got yellow. Added a battery...pink. Well. Pretty pink. I'm into it, so I figure I'd dip the whole thing in and hopefully get a solid color...I didn't REALLY think it would work...but I hoped it. With a careful watch on voltage from a DC power supply you can do this sort of thing. With a string of 9V batteries...you cannot. The colors would NOT meld. I held 'er in there for two batches of 30 seconds or so each. I ended up at the color you see along the middle of the hard-lined scale. Then I was in fuck-it mode again and dropped all 12 batteries together and threw the other end of this scale in for 20 seconds. That's the purple-ish (there really is a decent amount of green there, but the color is fairly accurate in the photos) end you see on the scale in the photos. And we're done! Well...I dropped the spacer in shortly after. But she really didn't take the anodizing all that well. It IS pink-ish now (despite sticking to the same 12 battery chain) but you really have to get in decent light to see anything other than a slight pink hue.
What I learned is...if you want a consistent color...you'd better just dip the whole scale in and hope for the best.* Remember - you can go up in voltage easily.* Down...you cannot.* I did some chopsticks as well that I don't have photos of...and the whole things came out in a flawless blue. The same can be said of the triple-dipped scale you see pictured. Each "hold" in the solution with x amount of voltage made its own consistent color.
What do you think of it? I mean...I came in curious and not caring how she would look. I left...LOVING it?! Like...that shit is pretty sexy. Not going to lie. So...if you're curious. Give it a shot guys. Even with just a 4-pack of 9Volts you can get some sexy blue scales but not much more than that (I did the previously mentioned chopsticks with 3 batteries). This 3x4-pack experiment was like 50 bucks or something...but totally worth it if you ask me.
