my first Attempt at anodizing what do you think?

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johnroman8

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May 13, 2011
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Here is my zt 0560 edc knife. This is my first attempt at anodizing, I did it at 45 volts. What do you think?
 

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Thanks. But yes first attempt, I'm off the next two days so I will play around with voltage, and try different colors.
I only wish the liner on the zt 0560 was also titanium so I could do a two tone finish.
 
The way I anodized my zt 0560 is I put 5 (9 volt batteries) in series and put 1 leed wire on the positve
Post and attached that wire to the titanium and put in 1 cup of water with 1 teaspoon of baking soda and the
Other wire is attached to the negative post and I put a small piece of cloth on the end of that wire with a alligator
Clip and put that in the water and instantly the titanium is anodized blue. As you ad more batteries the color will change.
 
johnroman8 said:
The way I anodized my zt 0560 is I put 5 (9 volt batteries) in series and put 1 leed wire on the positve
Post and attached that wire to the titanium and put in 1 cup of water with 1 teaspoon of baking soda and the
Other wire is attached to the negative post and I put a small piece of cloth on the end of that wire with a alligator
Clip and put that in the water and instantly the titanium is anodized blue. As you ad more batteries the color will change.
Click to expand...

Is that seriously all it took?! I have been ignorant about this for far too long :rolleyes:
 
TO make the anodized coating harder to rub off (going in and out of the pocket), can you put two coats on it? Always wondered about that.
 
yea i think so. plus if you raise the dc voltage you can make diferent colors. i think it goes from blue to a yellowish gold, and then pink into purple. i have to find out the exact voltage for each specific color. i thought it was harder also. all you need is distilled water, 4 aligator clips, two 1 foot lengths of wire, baking soda, and either a dc power supply or you can use 9 volt batteries and just put them in series. i used 45 volts to get that blue color.
 
i checked out your knife collection, i love your hinderer xm-18 3 inch slicer grind. that is on my top 5 knife list one day i would love to own.
 
It is one of my very favorite knives, one I will keep forever. Easier to carry than the 3.5 and smooth as buttah. You have a good eye. I may trade my 3.5 for a 3" spanto.

johnroman8 said:
i checked out your knife collection, i love your hinderer xm-18 3 inch slicer grind. that is on my top 5 knife list one day i would love to own.
Click to expand...
 
A few notes to think about when you experiment:
If you annodize at a high voltage, you can then polish off part and come back at a lower voltage which will only color the part you polished.
High voltage colors require a surface prep to really pop. Multi-etch from reactive metals studio works very well.
I got the most intense colors at lower voltages-- I want to say below thirty volts but I was using a variable transformer run through a full wave bridge rectifier. Not sure if using batteries would give a different result. Have fun, Titanium is COOL!
 
I wonder how this would work on the Southard. The same? Are there different surface preps since it's already anodized, and stonewashed?

I too never knew that you could ghetto ano. :thumbup:
 
A google search will yeild the different voltages required for the different colors. Lower voltages give you darker colors, bronze, dark purple, dark blue, whereas the higher voltages give you the brighter, more vivid colors.

It's fun to play with. Just remember, you can start low and go higher, but you can't go the other way. Once the color is on, you'll have to sand it out.

I used TSP (trisodium phosphate) in distilled water when I did it.
 
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