Stippled anodization pattern, a guide

Lapedog

Lapedog

Joined
Dec 7, 2016
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So a few of people have been asking me how I get the stippled pattern anodization on my knives. Its been a pain in the butt to retype everything and to copy paste into a new PM I need to bust out my laptop... too lazy so I decided to copy a PM into here to give a how to guide.

This is the pattern I am talking about. It looks even better in real life.

U3iwmnf.jpg

VCSJdvp.jpg

0A6DdrH.jpg


This guide will take you through the basics of anodization with the first video showing you what materials you will need as well as teaching how to do basic submersion anodizing.

The second video along with my explanation will show you how to do spot anodizing without submerging the titanium piece.
 
Hello! Saw that ZT you anodized in the one of a kind thread....that's a wicked pattern it resulted in. Not sure if you are willing to share secrets, but I'm very curious to know the technique if you are... Did you soak the towel in the solution then wrap it around something attached to the negative lead? Whatever you did, it looks great!

Best,
Keeth
 
Rival1314 said:
Hello! Saw that ZT you anodized in the one of a kind thread....that's a wicked pattern it resulted in. Not sure if you are willing to share secrets, but I'm very curious to know the technique if you are... Did you soak the towel in the solution then wrap it around something attached to the negative lead? Whatever you did, it looks great!

Best,
Keeth
Click to expand...

Thanks! No problem at all. I will share the secret. It’s actually easy once you know what you’re doing.

I don’t know how much you know about anodizing at home so here is a video showing you the basics. Teach you how to clean the titanium

(Btw a great place to get pure titanium wire locally is larger vape shops. They use them to make custom heating coils for their vapourizers)

After you understand that watch this video which shows you how to anodize without submerging the parts or even disassembling the knife. Its the first video on this page.

http://strsbackyardknifeworks.blogspot.com/2013/02/anodizing-made-easy.html?m=1

Wear rubber gloves. Oil from your hand will ruin the anodizing after you clean it.

For my power source I used 4 9 volt batteries chained together. Negative wire hooks to the negatve end of the 9 volt daisy chain and positive hooks from the positive end of the 9 chain to somewhere on the knife where it won’t end up touching the negative end of the opposite wire.

Now in the second video you saw the guy tracing along the liners to “colour in” the titanium. I used a little torn piece of bounty brand paper towel dipped in the anodizing bath solution and laid it on the titanium. Then instead of colouring it in by drawing around on the titanium under the towel I instead touched somewhere on the towel with the negative wire and held it in place. The voltage causes the colour to only spread out so far from the site you touch and the colour naturally changes as the electic current gets weaker the farther it goes from the site you touched. The pattern on the bounty causes the speckled pattern.

If you see in the picture I posted the blue spots are where I touched and held the negative wire. I think the higher voltage you use the further the colour will spread from the point you touch and hold the negative wire to. The spot will be the voltage you selected with the chain of batteries and the colour will go down this spectrum until the current cannot go further due to reistance in the titanium or running out of wet paper towel. For my colour I used 4 9volt batteries.
FSZVgeK.jpg


Good luck and have fun!
 
Rival1314 said:
Hello! Saw that ZT you anodized in the one of a kind thread....that's a wicked pattern it resulted in. Not sure if you are willing to share secrets, but I'm very curious to know the technique if you are... Did you soak the towel in the solution then wrap it around something attached to the negative lead? Whatever you did, it looks great!

Best,
Keeth
Click to expand...

Btw do you know how I invite someone else to this PM? I make no money off the technique and am glad to share the method. There is another guy I want to invite to this thread.
 
Rival1314 said:
Hello! Saw that ZT you anodized in the one of a kind thread....that's a wicked pattern it resulted in. Not sure if you are willing to share secrets, but I'm very curious to know the technique if you are... Did you soak the towel in the solution then wrap it around something attached to the negative lead? Whatever you did, it looks great!

Best,
Keeth
Click to expand...

You can also use a regular sheet of white printer paper, print a shape onto it and cut that shape out. Dip the paper in the anodizing bath (distilled water plus baking soda) and lay it flat on the titanium. Dry around the edges of the paper shape with a q tip or something so the currant will only run through the paper. Then “draw” ontop of that paper template woth the negative wire.

Please don’t judge me for the fake strider. I got it in a trade as a bonus gift I didn’t know was coming and use it to practice anodizing since it is all titanium.

UF3nfgQ.jpg


This part I did the submerging technique found in the first video on this pm. I dipped the whole clip in lower voltage bath (2 9volt batteries daisy chained together) to get the purple colour. Then I dipped only the tip of the clip in a 3 9volt battery bath.

Higher voltage colours can overwrite lower voltage ones. But lower voltage colours cannot override higher voltage ones.
 
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WOW! Lots of info, thanks! I think you can add someone to this by tagging them Lapedog Lapedog I have seen it done on regular threads at least. This would be a great thread to start in the tinkering/embellishment forum too. I do have a full variable voltage setup that allows me to go up to 140v and have been doing work using full immersion. I have dabbled with the "paintbrush" technique but I gotta say, your paper towel trick is impressive! I'm gonna have to do some experimenting this weekend.

You mentioned using baking soda & distilled water for your electrolyte....personally I have had great success with Distilled & TSP (its a industrial cleaner, I get mine at Home Depot in the paint aisle....its used for commercial prep). I have also had success using contact paper to cut out shapes for masking, then peeling them off after anodizing. If you know someone that is into scrapbooking and has a "cricut" they can cut into vinyl and do really intricate designs too...
24177793_1972433266361838_8420696439402790912_n.jpg
 
oh...and the strider made me smile...I have a clone microtech sigil I got in a trade (someone tried to pass it to me as real), that's what I use for most of my trials & expiraments too:-)
 
Rival1314 said:
oh...and the strider made me smile...I have a clone microtech sigil I got in a trade (someone tried to pass it to me as real), that's what I use for most of my trials & expiraments too:)
Click to expand...

Yeah the paper masking technique is cool! I guess that it has to be waterproof sort of or the anodizing bath will sort of soak through.

There are lots of solutions that work well for anodizing. Apparently different ones can have different effects on colour. Honestly I don’t think baking soda is the best one. Apparently people have had great success using diet coke.

When I get home I will probably use my computer and copy paste the main info into a new tinkering thread. Would be great to see you contribute! I’m not trying to hoard the info for myself.

Anodizing is a fun way to mess with your knives at home for pretty cheap.
 
Rival1314 said:
WOW! Lots of info, thanks! I think you can add someone to this by tagging them Lapedog Lapedog I have seen it done on regular threads at least. This would be a great thread to start in the tinkering/embellishment forum too. I do have a full variable voltage setup that allows me to go up to 140v and have been doing work using full immersion. I have dabbled with the "paintbrush" technique but I gotta say, your paper towel trick is impressive! I'm gonna have to do some experimenting this weekend.

You mentioned using baking soda & distilled water for your electrolyte....personally I have had great success with Distilled & TSP (its a industrial cleaner, I get mine at Home Depot in the paint aisle....its used for commercial prep). I have also had success using contact paper to cut out shapes for masking, then peeling them off after anodizing. If you know someone that is into scrapbooking and has a "cricut" they can cut into vinyl and do really intricate designs too...
24177793_1972433266361838_8420696439402790912_n.jpg
Click to expand...

Btw in the first video I posted they show a product called whink rust stain remover. It is the ultimate product for removing anodizing. If you submerge the Ti part in it the anodization strips of in literally seconds. Just be careful it will etch and eat away steel in seconds too.

I believe it is 2% hydroflouric acid
 
If you post it, I will share:-)

I have been using Wink for a while, great stuff. I also use a product called Multi-Etch fro Rective Metals. Its a bit pricey, but it is able to remove ano like Wink, but without the acid content so its easier on the metal and leaves a really fine finish....almost like a bead blast.
https://multietch.com/
 
Rival1314 said:
If you post it, I will share:)

I have been using Wink for a while, great stuff. I also use a product called Multi-Etch fro Rective Metals. Its a bit pricey, but it is able to remove ano like Wink, but without the acid content so its easier on the metal and leaves a really fine finish....almost like a bead blast.
https://multietch.com/
Click to expand...

Just wanted to notify you I posted our anodizing conversation.
 
The "Bounty pattern" is very cool, never thought to do something like that!:thumbsup:

~Chip
 
Btw guys you can get this pattern by covering the whole scale with a piece of printer paper soaked in the anodizing bath.

IMG_0352_opt.jpg


Then you can use the negative wire end (the end of the negative aligator clip in my case) to draw this pattern through the soaked paper onto the titanium scale underneath.

I used the same method to draw the sickle and hammer onto the Strider clone in the image above.
 
Btw here is my attempt at reproducing the snake pattern on the above Zeiba. The current went out from where the nevative lead touched since the anodization bath soaked paper I covered the scale with then traced on carried it to the surrounding titanium. That resulted in the titanium around the traced “snake” pattern turning bronze.

This is because the current continued away from where I touched the scale through the paper but got weaker due to the electrical resistance.

l9YxLig.jpg
 
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