- Joined
- Jan 8, 2017
- Messages
- 503
Disclaimer: Any modification done to your knife outside of the CRK factory has the potential to void your warranty.
Let's set some ground rules here before we begin. I spoke with bhyde and got permission to post this in this forum since I have had a few questions about how I did what I did. I am not recommending others do the same. While most believe a simple electric anodizing will not void your warranty, CRK has the right to make that decision on each and every individual knife they receive and what may be allowed today may change tomorrow. So please, let's keep all of the comments about warranty out of this thread and keep it for questions and comments about the process or pictures if others decide to do the same. If people begin to move this thread off it's intended track, I will request bhyde to step in and ask folks to please stay on topic, but I really don't want to see any infractions go out. If people want to start a discussion about warranties please start a new thread, or use one we already have created. Thank you for understanding and following these guidelines to keep this post alive.
Okay now that we got that garbage out of the way, let's anodize a knife. Okay I already anodized the knife, but let me recreate and walk you guys through. Now before we begin we need to have a fundamental understanding of what anodizing is. Ok we really don't but I like science and it's my post so you're getting it. Essentially when you look at the titanium slabs on your knife, what you are looking at is bare metal and how it refracts light which causes us to see the color silver (this isn't crayola crayons so we're going to KISS) on out slabs. When you electrically anodize titanium, you are simply building up or changing the oxide layer that already exists on that metal from i's current exposure to air. By changing the oxide layer you are changing the way light refracts off of the metal, causing you to see a different color. In layman's terms, you're changing the corrosion resistance of a metal and in the process you're changing the color you see with your eyes.
So what colors can we get from anodizing?
Ok now that we understand what we are doing, kinda, let's begin. First a list of the materials I used in my process.
- slabs/clip you want to anodize
- dawn
- toothbrush
- Rubber gloves
- 9V Batteries
- Alligator clips x2
- Titanium wire (must be titanium, I got some on the cheap off of Amazon)
- Aluminum foil
- Some white vinegar (or other conductive fluid, tsp...etc.)
- A plastic tub of some kind to work in
Step 1. The first thing you are going to want to do is clean whatever you are anodizing with some simple dawn dishsoap and a brush of some kind. You must be wearing gloves for this process as you will affect the outcome of your anodize if you get hand oils on the knife. So scrub away with some dishsoap and a brush until you have removed all grease, oils...etc. When done, simply dry and place on a paper towel.
Step 2. Now you must decide on a color. I wanted a blue color so I went with 4 9V batteries linked together. This gave me 36V and you can see what color that equates to in the picture above.
Step 3. Take some aluminum foil and place it along the back edge of your plastic container.
Step 4. Fill your plastic container with vinegar so you can fully submerge whatever parts you will be anodizing.
Step 5. Create a loop out of the titanium wire so that you can hold your piece in the liquid without fully submerging the wire or the clip you will attach to it.
Step 6. Connect one lead to the negative terminal on the batteries and connect the other clip on the same lead to the aluminum foil.
Step 7. Connect your second lead to the positive terminal on your batteries and connect that to your titanium wire.
See picture for how the setup should look.
Step 8. Hang the slab/clip from your loop and fully submerge in the liquid. Ensure at no time do you allow the slab or titanium wire to touch the aluminum foil.
Step 8a. At this point you should start seeing tinny bubbles begin appearing around the aluminum foil. This means your process is working. You should also notice your wire changing color, but it might be hard to see on your slab of titanium.
Step 9. Count/time how long you held the piece in the solution so that if you are doing multiple pieces you can dip them for the same period of time. IIRC I used 20 seconds.
Step 10. Remove from vinegar solution and rinse with water and dry with paper towel.
Step 10a. It will be hard to see the different immediately depending on the voltage you chose, but laying one piece next to a plain jane piece will make it terribly obvious.
This is it. This is the whole entire process. Every picture I have ever shown on my small Inkosi with the exception of the original is after anodizing. Here are a few picture so you can see the before and after.
Outside in the sun.
Do note, I opted for something very subtle and most people who see pictures of my knife don't even realize it has an anodize job because of how uniform and calm it is. It's actually pretty hard to see the difference unless it's right next to another piece of titanium.
To do this cost me <$10 as I had everything I needed minus the titanium wire.
Good luck and I hope this help folks who were curious or wanted to experiment.
Let's set some ground rules here before we begin. I spoke with bhyde and got permission to post this in this forum since I have had a few questions about how I did what I did. I am not recommending others do the same. While most believe a simple electric anodizing will not void your warranty, CRK has the right to make that decision on each and every individual knife they receive and what may be allowed today may change tomorrow. So please, let's keep all of the comments about warranty out of this thread and keep it for questions and comments about the process or pictures if others decide to do the same. If people begin to move this thread off it's intended track, I will request bhyde to step in and ask folks to please stay on topic, but I really don't want to see any infractions go out. If people want to start a discussion about warranties please start a new thread, or use one we already have created. Thank you for understanding and following these guidelines to keep this post alive.
Okay now that we got that garbage out of the way, let's anodize a knife. Okay I already anodized the knife, but let me recreate and walk you guys through. Now before we begin we need to have a fundamental understanding of what anodizing is. Ok we really don't but I like science and it's my post so you're getting it. Essentially when you look at the titanium slabs on your knife, what you are looking at is bare metal and how it refracts light which causes us to see the color silver (this isn't crayola crayons so we're going to KISS) on out slabs. When you electrically anodize titanium, you are simply building up or changing the oxide layer that already exists on that metal from i's current exposure to air. By changing the oxide layer you are changing the way light refracts off of the metal, causing you to see a different color. In layman's terms, you're changing the corrosion resistance of a metal and in the process you're changing the color you see with your eyes.
So what colors can we get from anodizing?
Ok now that we understand what we are doing, kinda, let's begin. First a list of the materials I used in my process.
- slabs/clip you want to anodize
- dawn
- toothbrush
- Rubber gloves
- 9V Batteries
- Alligator clips x2
- Titanium wire (must be titanium, I got some on the cheap off of Amazon)
- Aluminum foil
- Some white vinegar (or other conductive fluid, tsp...etc.)
- A plastic tub of some kind to work in
Step 1. The first thing you are going to want to do is clean whatever you are anodizing with some simple dawn dishsoap and a brush of some kind. You must be wearing gloves for this process as you will affect the outcome of your anodize if you get hand oils on the knife. So scrub away with some dishsoap and a brush until you have removed all grease, oils...etc. When done, simply dry and place on a paper towel.
Step 2. Now you must decide on a color. I wanted a blue color so I went with 4 9V batteries linked together. This gave me 36V and you can see what color that equates to in the picture above.
Step 3. Take some aluminum foil and place it along the back edge of your plastic container.
Step 4. Fill your plastic container with vinegar so you can fully submerge whatever parts you will be anodizing.
Step 5. Create a loop out of the titanium wire so that you can hold your piece in the liquid without fully submerging the wire or the clip you will attach to it.
Step 6. Connect one lead to the negative terminal on the batteries and connect the other clip on the same lead to the aluminum foil.
Step 7. Connect your second lead to the positive terminal on your batteries and connect that to your titanium wire.
See picture for how the setup should look.
Step 8. Hang the slab/clip from your loop and fully submerge in the liquid. Ensure at no time do you allow the slab or titanium wire to touch the aluminum foil.
Step 8a. At this point you should start seeing tinny bubbles begin appearing around the aluminum foil. This means your process is working. You should also notice your wire changing color, but it might be hard to see on your slab of titanium.
Step 9. Count/time how long you held the piece in the solution so that if you are doing multiple pieces you can dip them for the same period of time. IIRC I used 20 seconds.
Step 10. Remove from vinegar solution and rinse with water and dry with paper towel.
Step 10a. It will be hard to see the different immediately depending on the voltage you chose, but laying one piece next to a plain jane piece will make it terribly obvious.
This is it. This is the whole entire process. Every picture I have ever shown on my small Inkosi with the exception of the original is after anodizing. Here are a few picture so you can see the before and after.
Outside in the sun.
Do note, I opted for something very subtle and most people who see pictures of my knife don't even realize it has an anodize job because of how uniform and calm it is. It's actually pretty hard to see the difference unless it's right next to another piece of titanium.
To do this cost me <$10 as I had everything I needed minus the titanium wire.
Good luck and I hope this help folks who were curious or wanted to experiment.
Last edited:
Thanks.
