Tritium supply?

RDT

RDT

Joined
Dec 17, 1999
Messages
4,117
Anyone know of a reasonable Tritium Supplier? Have a customer want some for his knife but I
ve never used it amd well, I think for an individual it would probably be difficult if not impossible to get given it's main purpose.

But, I thought I'd do the research anyway. i know some knifemakers are using it for their folders, etc.

Thanks!
Rich
 
You're going to have to elaborate on this? Exactly how is tritium going to be used on a knife??? Glow in the dark handle? Tritium luminescent signs are just a tube or something that is phosphor coated and has some tritium gas inside. The tritium itself doesn't glow.
Stacy
 
bladsmth said:
You're going to have to elaborate on this? Exactly how is tritium going to be used on a knife??? Glow in the dark handle? Tritium luminescent signs are just a tube or something that is phosphor coated and has some tritium gas inside. The tritium itself doesn't glow.
Stacy
Click to expand...

Ah ha! I had that feeling. I know nothing about it except that I have had it in my watches a couple times. But this fella wants it for scales!!! Well, I thought that would be near impossible or more likely improbable.

I though you already answered the indirect question for me, which makes my decision...LOL

Thanks!
 
tube inserts would be pretty cool though

you could do inlays in the handle
or even mill a slot in the blade and insert it the middle so it could be seen from both sides

it would look pretty neat when glowing in the dark at night time when being used or gimmicky depending how you look at it

on ebay you should be able to get watch replacements
 
Hmmm, that would be sweet! But, I think for the effect desired maybe some Glow in the dark G10 wuld be more practical. So I'm gonna suggest that to him instead. He'll save a few buck too I'm sure!

Thanks guys!
 
RDT,

Look in the knifemaking supplies and tools forum. there are glow in the dark scales for sale there. If you want to make some, there is powder available on e-bay to add to your epoxy. Hope this helped.
 
RUJOCO said:
RDT,

Look in the knifemaking supplies and tools forum. there are glow in the dark scales for sale there. If you want to make some, there is powder available on e-bay to add to your epoxy. Hope this helped.
Click to expand...

That's exactly what I was thinking! I saw that Shadetree was offering the glow in the dark scales, they look great too! Thanks!
 
I have a little bottle of tritium paint used for military rifle sights or others, got it from a gun parts supplier, but don't remember whom. Google tritium paint I suppose.
 
RDT said:
Anyone know of a reasonable Tritium Supplier? Have a customer want some for his knife but I
ve never used it amd well, I think for an individual it would probably be difficult if not impossible to get given it's main purpose.

But, I thought I'd do the research anyway. i know some knifemakers are using it for their folders, etc.

Thanks!
Rich
Click to expand...

I've sone a lot of serching for this.

The 'bay' has some little tubes from time to time and there is a site if you google that sells them as well.
They are not cheap and pretty fragile from what I gather.
I finally gave up and bought some quality yellow glow paint.
 
Candlepowerforums for sale pages seems to have tritium capsules listed all the time. I got the feeling this stuff isn't really available except from non-US sources, but I don't know that for sure.
 
Go to your local airport where they take care of Biz jets. They frequently have tritium filled handles on emergency exit doors. If they get scraped up they get replaced.
 
Tritium is considered a toxic material so I would be careful with it. check out a MSDS

greg
 
knifekits has some stuff called Half life, Its a powder you add to epoxy and it glows in the dark. It does not glow constantly like radium or tiritum, so it needs to be exposed to light to make it luminesce. I have used it and it works well.

Half Life

It comes in blue and green.
 
I'll second (or third?) the candlepowerforums.com. I've ordered probably a dozen of them over the last couple of years from different guys on their buy/sell pages. I like them a lot.

Mill a small slot in the scales (you can even clamp on a couple of straight edges and use a dremel with a burring bit) and epoxy in using a good, clear epoxy. I cover the whole thing with epoxy, carefully sand flush, and polish. That will keep dust and dirt from building up and partially obscuring the vial.

I've never had any problems with them, they aren't that delicate. The size I like is about 1.5mm x 5mm. They're small, about the size of a piece of rice, but show up well when it's really dark. If your guy has to have something bigger, you can get a couple of the Nite rings keychain fobs. They are in an acrylic tube, but are pretty easy to get out.

The reason you can't get them here easily is the NRCC deems anything except watches and gunsites to be a "frivalous" use. I've got them on the bezel of an HDS flashlight, and on a couple of other flashlights. I've carried them everywhere, including in my pocket on airplanes and never had any problem. As far as it being poisonous, you would have to buy a LOT of them and crack them open with your teeth and sucking in the gas at the same time. The wavelength is so short it can't penetrate the glass of the vials or even the epidermis of your skin.

Oh, and get green. It's the brightest. (I'm waiting on Bart to get more yellow)
 
Tritium is pretty cool. I have always seen the vials mounted in a milled out slot, like Lukus described.
Another option is Moonglow handle material available from Masecraft. It's some sort of
glow-in-the-dark plastic. It has to be charged up in the light before it will glow.
 
When you consider that tritium is one of the costliest materials around to buy as a solid (anywhere from $80,000 to $100,000 per gram), not to mention very difficult to find in any considerable quantities, you should price this guy a knife with solid tritium handle scales and see what his reaction is :D. Also, pure tritium decyas pretty rapidly.

FYI, tritium is used as a fission booster in multi-stage nucs in which a small nuclear explosion is used to create one or more much larger reactions.

--nathan
 
Thanks everyone! Nathan, he mentioned me doing Ti handle scales as I've done that before but he knew the cost of Ti was too high for him....LOL
 
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