As a knife maker I have worked in many different materials and tried different processes in the manufactuer of knives.
One of the areas that I experimented in was thermal colorization of metals, with Titanium being one of the metals that I used.
Thermal colorization of metal will go deeper into the metal, but can be polished off readly. Start with a highly polished set of handles and you can get a better picture of the colors as you heat the handles
Let me say that it is very difficult to melt Ti. It is not something that can be done with a propane torch, let alone a cigerette lighter. Neither one can get hot enough.
Remember the SR-71 BlackBird spy plane had an outter skin made completely of Titanium. And when it flew, the outer skin would glow red from the air friction.
Ti is an excellent conductor of heat and what will happen before you hurt the Ti is that you will ruin your knife, first by taking all of the temper out of the blade screws and the tang portion of the blade and eventiually the blade itself.
If you are going to experiment with thermal colorization of the Ti handles, I recommend that you first remove the blade from the handles if possible.
If that can't be done, then wrap the blade and tang portion of the handles in a wet cloth or better yet, suspend the knife blade over and down into a metal container filled with water and ice. Old coffee cans work well.
You can then use a propane torch to work on the colors.
When you heat the Ti, hold the heat source in one spot on the handles, (the latch area )
The colors will gradually move straight up the handles from the heat source changing colors slowly and then speeding up rather quickly as the heat in the handles increases.
To freeze a color, the handles must be cooled immediately when the desired color is reached or the color will continue to change even
after the heat source is removed.
(Knock the knife into the cooling bath)
The great thing about this is that if you don't get the colors that you want the first time, you can always do it over and over until you get the right colors.
Good Luck
ChuckG
BTW, Deep Red is not a color that can be obtained in thermal colorization.
I have been told by the people that are doing my anodizing that it is extremely difficult to obtain a red color with anodizing. About the best that can be obtained is a pinkish red.
By the heat method, you will get for the most part a rainbow effect of colors, not one solid color.
[This message has been edited by ChuckG (edited 10-05-2000).]
One of the areas that I experimented in was thermal colorization of metals, with Titanium being one of the metals that I used.
Thermal colorization of metal will go deeper into the metal, but can be polished off readly. Start with a highly polished set of handles and you can get a better picture of the colors as you heat the handles
Let me say that it is very difficult to melt Ti. It is not something that can be done with a propane torch, let alone a cigerette lighter. Neither one can get hot enough.
Remember the SR-71 BlackBird spy plane had an outter skin made completely of Titanium. And when it flew, the outer skin would glow red from the air friction.
Ti is an excellent conductor of heat and what will happen before you hurt the Ti is that you will ruin your knife, first by taking all of the temper out of the blade screws and the tang portion of the blade and eventiually the blade itself.
If you are going to experiment with thermal colorization of the Ti handles, I recommend that you first remove the blade from the handles if possible.
If that can't be done, then wrap the blade and tang portion of the handles in a wet cloth or better yet, suspend the knife blade over and down into a metal container filled with water and ice. Old coffee cans work well.
You can then use a propane torch to work on the colors.
When you heat the Ti, hold the heat source in one spot on the handles, (the latch area )
The colors will gradually move straight up the handles from the heat source changing colors slowly and then speeding up rather quickly as the heat in the handles increases.
To freeze a color, the handles must be cooled immediately when the desired color is reached or the color will continue to change even
after the heat source is removed.
(Knock the knife into the cooling bath)
The great thing about this is that if you don't get the colors that you want the first time, you can always do it over and over until you get the right colors.
Good Luck
ChuckG
BTW, Deep Red is not a color that can be obtained in thermal colorization.
I have been told by the people that are doing my anodizing that it is extremely difficult to obtain a red color with anodizing. About the best that can be obtained is a pinkish red.
By the heat method, you will get for the most part a rainbow effect of colors, not one solid color.
[This message has been edited by ChuckG (edited 10-05-2000).]
