Salt I clip stripped and then anodized. (pics)

[Fred Sanford]

Cool. Check this out.

Here's what I did.

I got 4 - 9v batteries and taped them together. I only ended up using 3 of them and I wired them in series (if you don't know the difference between parallel and series look it up).

I put a Tupperware container with water and about a "heaping" teaspoon of baking soda. I stirred it around to mix it in. Then I took it outside. I hooked up 3 of the 4 9v batteries in series and then I put a piece of titanium into the negative alligator clip and submersed it in the water in the container (Making sure the alligator clip was NOT touching the water).

Then I used a titanium hook I had (from an old clip) to lower the clip fully into the water/baking soda solution. I left it there for about 40 seconds (maybe less) and it was a nice dark blue. I then thought it was too dark so I took it downstairs and sanded it with 600 grit paper until the clip was silver again. Then I anodized it again. Worked perfectly.

I recommend stripping the clip with a paint stripper before hand (like I did) and then anodizing it without sanding it at all. The look mine has is after it was anodized dark blue, then sanded with 250 grit and then 600 grit and then re-anodized. It looked very AWESOME being anodized before any sanding at all.

I was surprised how easy it was. I followed (kinda) the instructions linked below (not mine).
http://aphtyr.avara.net/arts/ano/ano.htm (I think this person is a member of Bladeforums but I am not sure). Thanks for the help regardless!











I tried to anodize the barrel bolt but it wouldn't change color. I have a feeling that it's not Titanium. Either that or it's too thick and I just didn't leave it in there long enough.

I hope someone can chime in and let me know if the barrel bolt is Ti or not.

[duff72]

Ti can also be flame anodized with great results(use caution though because it can go badly in a hurry then its a lot of sanding and stripping)-nice job I like it-you can also get some gold,green,pink and purple from anodizing

[Jay_Ev]

I think it looks great. Good job, D Lowry.

[white cloud]

that looks very attractive to me. do you have any idea of about the durability of the new finish? of course i guess it is easy to redo it.

[tonydahose]

i like...nice job David

[Shenmue728]

Looks sweet. When i get a tasman i'll be looking into that.

[Jazz]

Beautiful, Dave! Nice work - thanks for sharing, and also for the link. Nice color (that's how we spell color in Canada, eh :D ).

- best wishes, Jazz.

[Toad310]

That looks great! Nice job, thanks for the info, and photos.

[amen74]

Very cool. I wouldn't mind doing that to my Salt.

[dialex]

...I tried to anodize the barrel bolt but it wouldn't change color. I have a feeling that it's not Titanium. Either that or it's too thick and I just didn't leave it in there long enough.

I hope someone can chime in and let me know if the barrel bolt is Ti or not.

I was living under the impression the clip isn't titanium either, but steel... :confused:

Anyway, congratulations on a fine job, the knife looks much better now :cool:

[spydutch]

Very nice job David :cool:

[Doc Pyres]

Well, I'll be! I didn't know that one could anodize so easily. Very cool! Thanks for the tip. :)

[Lord vader]

I like it,It looks similar to gun bluing,I wonder how that would look on the blade?

[Fred Sanford]

It was actually quite fun too. I can tell that I needed to clean up the clip better too. When I stripped the paint I cleaned it up and dipped it and it looked really good. It was a real dark blue. Then I sanded the entire clip with 250 and then 600 and then anodized it again.

Thanks for all the compliments!! :)

I think I'm going to do the one on my Pacific Salt a bronze-gold color. I found that I can get the bronze-gold look by using only 2 - 9v batteries instead of 3. When I used 4 batteries the color turned out real dark blue/purple looking. Neat stuff.

[Lord vader]

It was actually quite fun too. I can tell that I needed to clean up the clip better too. When I stripped the paint I cleaned it up and dipped it and it looked really good. It was a real dark blue. Then I sanded the entire clip with 250 and then 600 and then anodized it again.

Thanks for all the compliments!! :)

I think I'm going to do the one on my Pacific Salt a bronze-gold color. I found that I can get the bronze-gold look by using only 2 - 9v batteries instead of 3. When I used 4 batteries the color turned out real dark blue/purple looking. Neat stuff.

Can you give us a step by step process using the batteries?

[Fred Sanford]

Lord vader,

Sure. I'll try to do it later tonight if I can. :)

[tonydahose]

i found this ..it might help at least with the color you want and how many volts you need for them.

http://mrtitanium.com/anodizing.html

[Peter1960]

You gave your Salt a nice personal touch. Well done, David.
Titanium is non magnetic ... check the magnetism of the barrel bolt - just an idea :)

[markg]

So that is what you were playing with last night on Facebook!!! :)

[ChapmanPreferred]

Excellent job David,

I think it looks great. I may have to try that soon.