Will Nail Polish Protect from Whink when Removing Anodization?

[Chronovore]

Hey. I was interested in a knife except I hate the color pop of the anodized titanium thumb stud. I've used Whink to remove anodization in the past. However, I don't know about removing the thumb stud. In theory, I could probably submerge the blade in boiling water to loosen up the thread locker on the thumb studs to remove them, but I'd like to explore this first.

If I carefully paint the relevant portion of the blade with nail polish and let it harden, will that be sufficient to protect it for the very brief time it takes for the Whink to work?

I'm hoping some more experienced modders can point me in the right direction here.

 

[BitingSarcasm]

The thread locker will heat up enough to be breakable if you put the tip of a soldering iron against the screw head for a bit; I use a butane powered heat knife to keep electricity out of the equation. There's no need to submerge anything.

 

[Chronovore]

The thread locker will heat up enough to be breakable if you put the tip of a soldering iron against the screw head for a bit; I use a butane powered heat knife to keep electricity out of the equation. There's no need to submerge anything.

I've had mixed luck breaking thread-locker conductively with my soldering iron. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn't.

The few times I've used boiling water to unlock bolts on a fixed blade (non-wooden handle) have been excellent. The water temp is controlled, steady, and distributes nicely over the submerged section. I wouldn't do it to an intact folding knife or anything. I didn't even want to do it here.

I was just looking for a quick save on doing this with Whink. Even using flitz to scour it off would be annoying. The question ends up being which step or combination of steps is least annoying.

 

[J. Doyle]

I'd much rather use boiling water and take the stud off than mess around with nail polish.

What concerns do you have about the boiling water?

 

[Chronovore]

I'd much rather use boiling water and take the stud off than mess around with nail polish.

What concerns do you have about the boiling water?

I don't really. It's just that if a protective coat for the adjacent steel actually works, that could be a lot quicker and more convenient with less steps. It would save me setting up to do the boiling water, rubber pads and pliers to remove the studs, potentially sparing the threads from a Whink bath, then reattaching them with a little blue loctite.

Even now, my motivation to do this project is waning...

I had been looking at the Kansept Convict. It's a cool knife but they did some weird stuff with the hardware. Some versions have the thumb stud and/or all the screws except for the pivot anodized. Some have just the thumb stud. I hate the way any of those combinations look. So I'd either need to anodize the pivot on one of them or strip the ano from the thumb studs on another and both of those things are kind of a pain with what I have on hand.

 

[J. Doyle]

I don't really. It's just that if a protective coat for the adjacent steel actually works, that could be a lot quicker and more convenient with less steps. It would save me setting up to do the boiling water, rubber pads and pliers to remove the studs, potentially sparing the threads from a Whink bath, then reattaching them with a little blue loctite.

Even now, my motivation to do this project is waning...

I had been looking at the Kansept Convict. It's a cool knife but they did some weird stuff with the hardware. Some versions have the thumb stud and/or all the screws except for the pivot anodized. Some have just the thumb stud. I hate the way any of those combinations look. So I'd either need to anodize the pivot on one of them or strip the ano from the thumb studs on another and both of those things are kind of a pain with what I have on hand.

I understand you now. That all makes sense.

I'm not familiar with whink or how it works. What would it do to adjacent steel? Could always nail polish a test piece of something and see if whink eats it away.

 

[Chronovore]

I understand you now. That all makes sense.

I'm not familiar with whink or how it works. What would it do to adjacent steel? Could always nail polish a test piece of something and see if whink eats it away.

Whink is a rust remover with a combination of acids including HF. It's nasty stuff but takes the anodization of titanium very quickly. It's what a lot of modders use.

I'd rather not put it on a blade but I suppose I could run some tests. I don't have any good sacrificial candidates in S35VN or steels with an equivalent corrosion resistance rating. However, I do have some spare blades in 8Cr13Mov (definitely less stainless) and Acuto 440 (probably more stainless) that I could try out.

If I actually get around to it, I'll share results.