Kizer - Are the standoffs titanium?

stonproject

stonproject

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Nov 22, 2013
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Want to mess around heat coloring some titanium, but am not gonna mess with knife scales until I'm comfortable with the process. I'm wondering if anyone knows if kizers stand offs are titanium, or is there a fool proof way to check myself?

As a side question, when heat coloring ti scales, can the extreme heat bugger up the spring on the lock? Or if you heat it slowly can you avoid messing up the lock? I heat colored some cheap steel framelocks and there were no adverse effects on the locking mechanisms but have never tinkered with ti.

What are pros and cons of anodization vs oxidization (heat coloring)?

Thanks for reading, and welcome any insight.
 
Magnet will let you know if it's steel. My bet is, unless noted, it's steel.
 
I'm not sure about the standoffs. What model is it?

The heat won't mess up the tension of the lock, but there's a chance you can make the detent ball pop out if you heat that area up too much.

Anodizing and is forced oxidation by electricity (or sometimes heat). I've noticed no difference between knives that have been anodized with heat or electricity. I've don't both, and the colors wear the same.
 
Anaries said:
Magnet will let you know if it's steel. My bet is, unless noted, it's steel.
Click to expand...

Did the magnet test and they're all ti it seems! awesome.

@bluesbender, any advice on heating for coloring? Also any advice to not ruin my detent?
 
Just because they are not magnetic, does not mean they are titanium. Some stainless steels are nonmagnetic.

I just keep the torch moving and watch the color. Look at the chart below for the different colors you can get. The purples and greens on the far right take a lot of heat and are hard to achieve. When heat anodizing, I stay in the blue-gold color range (less heat). You'd probably have to get it pretty hot to pop out the detent.

Left: less heat
Right: more heat

9f44d099c64af9aa872150d8ee76a285_zpslfp3hrhe.jpg
 
Well these suckers have some serious loctite on em. If I hit the screw head with a bic lighter would that loosen it up?

Thanks for the pic I appreciate it.
 
so if I want to make add say an image of a dog head on the blue-gold colors when anodizing ti, how to do it?
 
I'd use a hair dryer or heat gun over a bic lighter to heat loctited screws. I have a Kizer Dorado and figured the stand off was steel. Maybe it's Ti? It looks like steel.
 
Blues Bender said:
Just because they are not magnetic, does not mean they are titanium. Some stainless steels are nonmagnetic.

I just keep the torch moving and watch the color. Look at the chart below for the different colors you can get. The purples and greens on the far right take a lot of heat and are hard to achieve. When heat anodizing, I stay in the blue-gold color range (less heat). You'd probably have to get it pretty hot to pop out the detent.

Left: less heat
Right: more heat

9f44d099c64af9aa872150d8ee76a285_zpslfp3hrhe.jpg
Click to expand...

Not as hot as you may think. The detent likely pops out due to "heat of expansion" and "contracting under cooling". The titanium limer and the steel detent ball will expand at different rates. The causes movement between the two parts which can force the detent out. It can happen across the range of temoeratures; ofcoirse more likely at hotter and much cooler (than ambient) temperatures.

Hope this info is useful to anyone and the generality applies to most dissimilar metals.
 
Blues Bender said:
Just because they are not magnetic, does not mean they are titanium. Some stainless steels are nonmagnetic.
Click to expand...

This. Maybe they are titanium? But could just as easily be some austenitic grade stainless steel or an aluminum alloy, both options which would be more cost effective, and yet plenty strong enough for back spacers on a knife.
 
strategy9 said:
This. Maybe they are titanium? But could just as easily be some austenitic grade stainless steel or an aluminum alloy, both options which would be more cost effective, and yet plenty strong enough for back spacers on a knife.
Click to expand...


Ill have to test them with anodizing. But it wouldn't surprise me if they were ti, kizer doesn't seem to cut corners, and make all their knives in ti so it wouldn't be hard or expensive to make spacers in ti. But at any ratr, once I can get these damn screws out ill mess around with em.

FWIW I'm using wiha tools so its not my wrenches stripping this screw. Tried hair dryer and bic lighter, these screws are not budging
 
sharp_edge said:
so if I want to make add say an image of a dog head on the blue-gold colors when anodizing ti, how to do it?
Click to expand...

Annodize with electricity. If you want the dogs head gold and the handle blue, anodize the entire handle gold, and use a stencil to draw the dogs head on. Draw with nail polish. Once the pattern is drawn, continue to anodize up to blue. Remove the nail polish and you'll have the pattern you want.

For a blue head and a gold handle, draw the pattern on first, then annodize up to blue. Remove the nailpolish and anodize gold.

Gold comes before blue on the spectrum*, so gold requires less voltage. Once you anodize to a certain color, you can't anodize to a color that is below that color on the voltage/color spectrum unless that area has been left un-anodized.

*note that gold reappears after blue, but is more pale in color. The first color in the spectrum is a dark gold/brass/bronze color.
 
stonproject said:
Ill have to test them with anodizing. But it wouldn't surprise me if they were ti, kizer doesn't seem to cut corners, and make all their knives in ti so it wouldn't be hard or expensive to make spacers in ti. But at any ratr, once I can get these damn screws out ill mess around with em.

FWIW I'm using wiha tools so its not my wrenches stripping this screw. Tried hair dryer and bic lighter, these screws are not budging
Click to expand...

FWIW, you can anodize with 9V batteries.
 
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