please help me! with this disassembly

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lewdog

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Jan 30, 2006
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I am trying to disassemble my Bradley Alias 1 so that I can do an Oxiclean bath to remove the anodization. I've gotten everything off the handles except the little ball in the very end of the framelock arm and the large pin that goes through the knife blade. Here is a link that shows the front and the back of the handle--you can easily see the big pin and can see the hole where the little ball bearing is that sits in the hole in the end of the lock bar.

My main worry is the big pin. I have pounded it with a hammer from different angles pretty hard, covering it with a cloth so that the metal doesn't get scratched up. That sucker will not come out.

I was assuming that I would just leave the ball bearing in, but thought I'd mention it in case it was really bad that I left it in and someone knew how to take it out.

http://picasaweb.google.com/lewis.hutchison/KnifeHandle
 
lewdog said:
I am trying to disassemble my Bradley Alias 1 so that I can do an Oxiclean bath to remove the anodization.
Click to expand...

The handles slabs of the Alias aren't anodized to the best of my knowledge. Or are pretty much all Ti handled knives anodized that grey color?

I would assume that the female end of the chicogo screw is simply press fitted in there. I am not sure what to tell you other than try to tap it out with a hammer.

I don't think the detent ball is made to come out.
 
I pounded it pretty hard, but I was scared that I would damage the metal--bend something out of shape or scratch it up. Am I doing something wrong? Any suggestions or tips?
 
I thought that Oxiclean made steel rust, which I believe is what those two parts are made out of. Am I smoking crack?
 
I would not worry about the detent ball. If you manage to get it out , you are going to have a hell of a time getting it back in , if you even can , which I doubt.
The pin is fine too , like C Ben said , go for it.

However.. from your original post it seems you want the titanium to shine ? If so then oxyclean is not the direction you want to go.
 
No need for shine--I just really like bare, clean, "natural" looking metal. So, you don't think the oxiclean will rust it?
 
You would be better off using something like Flitz or someother metal polish/cleaner.

Oxyclean did not rust my detent balls , but I make no warranty. ;)
 
So, is there a cheap product (Flitz?) that would relatively quickly and easily take the anodization off with no chance of harming the metal? If so, what's the cheapest and most easily accessible?
 
Harming the metal ? None of them are going to harm the metal , Ocyclean might if you left it in long enough , but not the polishes.

Do not skimp when it comes to polish , get some Flitz if you can , there are other favorites too , Mothers mag wheel polish *sic* , Ren wax - which is hard to find locally..

I am now wondering if the finish you are talking about on the knife is a beadblast , and not anodized.

If they are beadblasted the best you can hope for with a polish is making it look sharper.
 
I recently saw a CRKT S2 in a knife store. That knife has a titanium handle. It looked much more "metallic" and brighter. Not shiny, just a lot lighter in color than my Alias, much closer to standard steel or nickel in appearance. My best guess is that's what titanium looks like with nothing on top of it and that the Alias has a dark gray anodization.

I took my Dremel with wire brush attachment to the inside of the Bradley handle last night. After just a bit of time, it looked much more like what I would assume bare titanium should look like. Much shinier and MAYBE lighter in shade than the rest of the handle but, if so, not dramatically so. I'm not absolutely sure whether the wire brush was taking off anodization or just polishing a bead blasted titanium surface down to a smoother one. It looked surprisingly uniform--I would have assumed that there would be more wire marks. However, I'm wondering if titanium (6al-4v or whatever that material is) is too hard for the wire brush to scratch it; that seems like it would prove that the bead-blasted finish is, in fact anodization. If that titanium can't be scratched by my wire brush, but the bead blast disappeared, then the bead blast couldn't be titanium--this is my thought process.

Thoughts?
 
Hmm , I would not use a dremel/wirewheel , since I think your final finish may be inconsistant ( others feel free to correct me here ) you may want to try various grades of sandpaper , maybe finishing at 1000 +.

My S-2 was a fairly light color , I used Oxyclean to darken it , so now it looks sort of dark battleship grey with 'tiger' stripes , after I acheived the desired darkness , I polished it gently with flitz.

Looky here... :D


4gnhdgl.jpg
 
DSCN2145.jpg

That is a bare titanum handle on my M16-13T, it is very pretty and does not turn icky colors.

As for a coating, it might be a deposition coating, similar to the coatings the Chris Reeve uses on his titanium knives, the only sure method to remove it would be sandpaper and just work up the grit to acceptable levels.
 
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