Keen after tumbling and ano at 77.5V

S

Sharperthansticks

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Sep 19, 2017
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After tumbling with some creek rocks for a few hours, dipping quickly in hot Multi-Etch, and then anodizing at 77.5V, these are my Keen scales:


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Rykjeklut said:
Ah. I've only seen rough charts of the process. thanks
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No problem. It's actually somewhat difficult to figure out without experimenting on the piece you're anodizing, because the exact color you'll get at any voltage is going to very strongly depend on what the surface is like. Shinier surfaces look very different than rough surfaces, as the voltage gets higher and higher. And if you want to make it even more complicated, if you don't use Multi-Etch (or Whink, i suppose), to take off the surface oxides before anodizing, the colors look different yet again. I thought I was going to use 81V, based on previous experience, but due to this surface treatment, it turned out that the blue colors started much earlier than they did for me other times. Anodizing is kind of a pain in the ass.
 
Sharperthansticks said:
No problem. It's actually somewhat difficult to figure out without experimenting on the piece you're anodizing, because the exact color you'll get at any voltage is going to very strongly depend on what the surface is like. Shinier surfaces look very different than rough surfaces, as the voltage gets higher and higher. And if you want to make it even more complicated, if you don't use Multi-Etch (or Whink, i suppose), to take off the surface oxides before anodizing, the colors look different yet again. I thought I was going to use 81V, based on previous experience, but due to this surface treatment, it turned out that the blue colors started much earlier than they did for me other times. Anodizing is kind of a pain in the ass.
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What makes it worse is when you can't get a hold of those products, and you have to guestimate :rolleyes:

It is a very interesting process nonetheless, and your Keen is one of the better looking "amateur projects" I've seen anyway,
 
Rykjeklut said:
What makes it worse is when you can't get a hold of those products, and you have to guestimate :rolleyes:

It is a very interesting process nonetheless, and your Keen is one of the better looking "amateur projects" I've seen anyway,
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Thank you again. I've been experimenting for a few months, and that's how I learn. It turns out that you can do a whole lot with relatively little equipment. With a simple rock tumbler, creek stones, ceramic media, burnishing solution, Multi-Etch, 110V power supply, and a Dremel, you can stonewash, shine up, anodize, and shave off hotspots. One cool trick is to shave off hotspots, which ordinarily leaves bare titanium that doesn't match the existing ano. Well, just give your piece a dip in ano, and make sure to anodize just below the existing color, and the bare titanium will now just about match the rest of the knife. You can really do quite a lot with not too much. Which product(s) can't you get ahold of?
 
I have a purple Keen/Laconico coming one of these days.
How can I tune down the purple and perhaps achieve some kind of blue and blue-black?
I have some very basic anodizing supplies and chemicals from Home Depot.
 
Sonnydaze said:
I have a purple Keen/Laconico coming one of these days.
How can I tune down the purple and perhaps achieve some kind of blue and blue-black?
I have some very basic anodizing supplies and chemicals from Home Depot.
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I don't want to say that there's only one way to do something, but usually, to achieve two distinct anodizing tones, you anodize, tumble with some coarse media or stones in a rock tumbler or a vibratory tumbler, and then re-anodize at a second tone, where the second tone is lower on the voltage scale. (Always anodize at your highest voltage color first, tumble, then anodize at your next lower voltage, and so forth. So, for two tones, you just anodize at the high voltage color, tumble, and then re-anodize at the lower color.)

You're going to want to need to strip that purple off beforehand, though. Many people use Whink, but it has the unfortunate effect of being very harsh and ruining the surface finish. That's why serious anodizers usually use Multi-Etch, which you have to order over the phone. (Only one company sells it. Just Google them.) I have a theory that substantially watered down Whink will function exactly like Multi-Etch, but I've never tested this theory.

As for black, you can't anodize titanium to black using the electrolytic process. Black is a whole other ball of wax; you'll have to look online for further guidance on that one. I've never anodized to black. Maybe one day I will.

If you're anodizing using 9V batteries strung together, your results are, well, not terribly under your control. With a 120V unit, you can fine tune the voltage down to .1V, but with the battery setup, you're locked into increments of 9V.
 
I will be using 9v batteries, but I just want to get away from that wimpy purple color. Darned near anything else is acceptable.
 
You can always just go past the purple into blue...if it's the low range purple your looking for around 25vdc to get into blue, if that doesn't change it then you're going to need at least 70vdc:thumbsup:
 
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