Titanium scrap

Joined
Feb 19, 2001
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285
I've recently been experimenting with anodizing Ti as I have plans to anodize some a couple of bits on 2 of my knives. I'd explain what set up I'm using to do this, but frankly it's so embaressing I'm not going to tell you. :D Anyway, I've only got one small piece of Ti to practice/experiment with, and even though I believe I'm getting semi-decent results now (i.e. it no longer comes out brown and/or grey) I'd like to test it on a fresh piece of Ti before attempting the process on a "good" knife. So my question is, has anyone out there got any scrap pieces of Ti you could sell me? Obviously I'm not fussed what size or shape, as long as there is a flat-ish surface so I can get an idea of how well the anodizing is working.

Feel free to e-mail if you can help out, or even if you want to know what my anodizing set up consists of. ;)

Many thanks.
 
Jay, just use the same piece of Ti. You can clean off the anodizing with a almost any rubberized (Cratex) wheel. Or just use a 600 grit belt.
 
Thanks for the reply. Unfortunately (and stupidly upon reflection) I didn't take very good care of that piece. It's all scratched and pitted, and theres a "few" spots where I accidentally shorted it out. :rolleyes: Anyway I can't get the piece totally clean, and the anodizing is "spotty" around the marks that I can't get out. It's not that I must have a piece to try, I just wanted to practice before ruining a knife, and as I'm on a limited budget, I can't really buy any Ti stock for this.

One other thing I've just realised I didn't make very clear. I don't make knives, I'm just trying to do a custom job on a couple of production models I own - so in other words I haven't got a belt sander or rubber wheel thingy, in fact I haven't got access to anything like that. My anodizer is strictly home built, so you can't even vary the voltage or anything.
 
All knifemakers (at least the ones I know) throw out ti scrap by the pile.......also race car builders and specialty fabricators.....try look around where you live......I could send you lots but the freight would be prohibitive. See if there is a folder maker living somewhere in your area.
 
tape a piece of sand paper on something flat and work your Titanium side to side on the paper. start fine and step up to a courser grit untill you find one that will take the pits out the step back down untill you have it polished(to step down is to use paper that is consecutively finer grit. 80, 100,120,150,180.220,320,400,etc)

this should work if you have enough thickness
 
Tom & Eric thanks for your advice. I have already tried to get some locally with no avail. Still I'll check around again, just incase.

I'll also give another go to sanding it down to get the pits and stuff out. The maim problem with that though, is it's a sprung piece that was actually the liner lock part of an old knife, so it's pretty hard to keep it flat.

Failing that, I'll probably just try and anodize what I wanted to anodize anyway. I mean, how wrong can it go.... ;)
 
GuyInBlack,
I used to do a little bit of titanium anodizing back when I still taking chemistry. I used 3 nine-volt batteries, and had them linked together with alligator clips and stuff like that. The cathode was a little piece of stainless steel, and I did the anodizing in a anhyrdrous borax and water solution.
I found that if you wanted to vary the voltage and change the colors, you can make it so you only use one of the batteries, or link two batteries and raise the voltage. My anodizing was spotty too. You might try degreasing it by wiping it with acetone. If your batteries are shorting out, then you might be touching the titanium to the cathode or touching the wire that the cathode is connected to into the liquid (if your setup is similar to mine).
I could make orange, blue, purple and some other colors. If you'd like, I could try to ask my chemistry teacher if he still has the lab sheets with instructions on the setup.
 
If you live near an army base, make friends with helicopter repair crews.... they just throw away titanium pins ALL THE TIME. My brother-in-law was a repair tech in Germany and some guy used to come by in a Volvo to get the left-over titanium bolts they were throwing away. These things were about 16 inches long and 1 inch around. After a few months he was showing up in a BMW, you figure it out ;)
 
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