Removing Anodization

S

Sharperthansticks

Joined
Sep 19, 2017
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Background: My knife maintenance and tinkering skills are improving, but I'm not a craftsman. I have a Dremel and Flexshaft, 2 Wiha bit sets, a small working area in my apartment, a table vise, and various screwdrivers and other standard hand tools. I do not have a full workshop. I'm comfortable tearing down knives to clean, lube, and reassemble them , though it takes me a LONG time to get them back together with the centering and action just right. (I'm looking at you, Kizer knives.)

I told you all of that to describe my skill level as well as my inventory of tools, because I'm interested in purchasing a knife that has an anodized back scale, and stripping the anodization. I'm considering trying Flitz and a cotton Dremel buffing wheel at 5000 rpm. (That's the slowest I can make it.) An alternative idea I'm considering is buying a small rock tumbler from Harbor Freight and stonewashing the anodization off.

What do you guys think? I'm not a tool expert.
 
It doesn't take much. I removed the old Ano off my CRK with a Scotch Brite pad pretty easily. Granted it was an old Ano job. I would maybe start with the Scotch Brite pad and use the Dremel cotton buffing wheel to polish it up. Assuming you want a polish.

See my post in this forum from early today.
 
aleforme said:
It doesn't take much. I removed the old Ano off my CRK with a Scotch Brite pad pretty easily. Granted it was an old Ano job. I would maybe start with the Scotch Brite pad and use the Dremel cotton buffing wheel to polish it up. Assuming you want a polish.

See my post in this forum from early today.
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Thanks, and I looked at your posting from earlier today; it looked to me like in one of the pictures that the ano was still partially on the knife. Will have to look again. So, removing ano from a front scale may be easier than from a back scale. Is it easy to get the scotch bright pad around the curves in the finger cutout of the back scale? I'd think there would be an uneven removal of material in that area. (That's what I've found in my Dremeling experience.)
 
Sharperthansticks said:
Thanks, and I looked at your posting from earlier today; it looked to me like in one of the pictures that the ano was still partially on the knife. Will have to look again. So, removing ano from a front scale may be easier than from a back scale. Is it easy to get the scotch bright pad around the curves in the finger cutout of the back scale? I'd think there would be an uneven removal of material in that area. (That's what I've found in my Dremeling experience.)
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It might be a bit tricky but I was able to fold the SB pad and get into the grooves pretty good. Granted I wasn't going for a nice smooth polished finish.

Any color in the after photos are from lighting or post processing. The Ano came off really easy. Took me about 10 minutes.
 
Darned if I know- I don't deal with Titanium.
If it's electrical "anodizing" for color, I would think sandpaper would work fine.
 
Just curios, what kind of knife?

It would awesome if you could post before and after photos. I love seeing stuff like this.
 
I use the bead blaster at work to strip ano off of Ti knives. We use ceramic grade glass beads and I set the pressure to 40psi.
 
Use hydrofluoric acid such as whink rust remover for titanium. It is super nasty stuff, wear gloves and a respirator if you have one.
 
Sharperthansticks said:
That sounds terrible and with the potential for taking off way too much metal. Hmmmm.
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It actually isn't that bad as long as you pay attention. It's far more harmfull to organic material than metal. If you are worried about the strength, dilute it down with distilled or RO water and let it soak longer.
Either way it will remove less metal than any kind of mechanical removal.
 
turtle13 said:
It actually isn't that bad as long as you pay attention. It's far more harmfull to organic material than metal. If you are worried about the strength, dilute it down with distilled or RO water and let it soak longer.
Either way it will remove less metal than any kind of mechanical removal.
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All right. And how do you dispose of that stuff? Just down the drain, and flush it with plenty of water?
 
Sharperthansticks said:
Background: My knife maintenance and tinkering skills are improving, but I'm not a craftsman. I have a Dremel and Flexshaft, 2 Wiha bit sets, a small working area in my apartment, a table vise, and various screwdrivers and other standard hand tools. I do not have a full workshop. I'm comfortable tearing down knives to clean, lube, and reassemble them , though it takes me a LONG time to get them back together with the centering and action just right. (I'm looking at you, Kizer knives.)

I told you all of that to describe my skill level as well as my inventory of tools, because I'm interested in purchasing a knife that has an anodized back scale, and stripping the anodization. I'm considering trying Flitz and a cotton Dremel buffing wheel at 5000 rpm. (That's the slowest I can make it.) An alternative idea I'm considering is buying a small rock tumbler from Harbor Freight and stonewashing the anodization off.

What do you guys think? I'm not a tool expert.
Click to expand...


Don’t bother stonewashing it off.

Insteas buy some Whink brand rust stain remover and submerge the anodized part in it for a few seconds. It will eat the anodization right off of titanium.

It is %2 hydroflouric acid. Just be careful it will etch even stainless steel in a matter of seconds.
 
Sharperthansticks said:
All right. And how do you dispose of that stuff? Just down the drain, and flush it with plenty of water?
Click to expand...
To neutralize use an alkaline solution of your choice. Baking soda Dissolved in water works fine. Or just put it in a sealable open top plastic container and keep it till next time.
 
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aleforme said:
Just curios, what kind of knife?

It would awesome if you could post before and after photos. I love seeing stuff like this.
Click to expand...
It was a Liong Mah knife at a good price on the forum. The knife had a bad ano job. Anyway, I thought it over too long, and someone else finally bought it. No biggie; I'll probably try this again in the future.
 
Sharperthansticks said:
It was a Liong Mah knife at a good price on the forum. The knife had a bad ano job. Anyway, I thought it over too long, and someone else finally bought it. No biggie; I'll probably try this again in the future.
Click to expand...

I almost jumped on that knife as well. Then I saw the ano job. It was a great deal though. I sold my Warrior One V2 CF a while back and regretted it instantly. Awesome knife.
 
Sounds like whink is the defacto easiest option. I'd like to get back to raw titanium from some anodized screws, would this be ok too?

Is it actually eating away metal? Will it potentially effect threads or fit etc?

Thanks
 
What kind of scotchbright the one with green side an yellow sponge otherside or the metal scotchbright
aleforme said:
It doesn't take much. I removed the old Ano off my CRK with a Scotch Brite pad pretty easily. Granted it was an old Ano job. I would maybe start with the Scotch Brite pad and use the Dremel cotton buffing wheel to polish it up. Assuming you want a polish.

See my post in this forum from early today.
Click to expand...
 
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