how to blue and antique ti?

[casey1]

saw some mods on it and i have no clue how it happened. I would also like to know how to blue stainless steel

[The Deacon]

Are you talking actual bluing (a process involving chemical baths) rather than anodizing or heat coloring, either of which can produce a blue coloring?

[casey1]

honestly i do not know :) heat coloring and anodizing sounds easier so how do i do that? and how is the antiquing titanium done? not that i get to do it anytime soon but i want to know how so i can someday when i get a ti knife

[Slash]

keep in mind I've never actually bothered coloring any Ti.
but, I think a regular plumbers torch will work for anodizing. try the hotter yellow(map) gas tank.

I'm not sure what type of finish you're refering to with antiquing. but, if it's like my benchmade 760. that's done through beadblasting.

take care as you don't want to injure yourself or your knife.

[casey1]

this is what i really want to do to a sage 2 http://spyderco.com/forums/showthread.p ... 14&page=19 that's antiquing

[Slash]

that antiqued Ti scale looks just like my benchmade 760.
unless you know someone that has the equipment to do that your best bet is just to send it to a knife modifier or whatever they're called.
there's this guy named tuffthumbz on youtube that does good work for reasonable price.
I think he has all the tools for the job you may need.
http://www.youtube.com/user/tuffthumbz
http://tuffknives.weebly.com/

[JNewell]

You can flame-blue titanium or you can anodize it, but conventional oxidizing (which is what bluing usually is) can't be done. Anodizing is actually pretty simple. I would leave flame-bluing to someone who really knows what they're doing.

[insaneinmate]

I read one time that the antique titanium you are looking at is done with scotch brite pads.

[Creepo]

The blue colors are achieved through anodizing via:
- electricity, creates a uniform color that AFAIK depends on the voltage
- heat, blowtorch or similar hot flame, multiple colors possible
Blowtorch is generally easier for beginners but when you want a specific even color it gets tricky.

For the antique look, I would guess it involves light sanding on a soft surface using high grit paper. On a soft surface most of the pressure is focused on the edges so they wear more than the flats. You could try to sending korbiaka a message asking how he did it. :)

[Johnny Boy]

As has been said the "antiquing" that you've pointed out could be done by hand. It all depends on what you're looking for. The well worn appearance you linked to I would personally try and do by hand will a combination of high grit sand paper and scotch brite. I'm thinking that you may be able to quickly sand the entire piece and then tape off the edges and bead blast the interior to return it to it's orginal form. The more mechanical you get with this the less natural it will look though. IMHO anyways.

Anodizing is an electrical process as seen here. I have never heard of it done with a torch.

As a fabricator I have played around with torch bluing. IME it's pretty easy but, it's also very easy to remove. Makes me think that most classic blued metals are either torch done and then coated or chemically/acid done. If you were gonna try this yourself I'd try it first on a junk knife of similar material. Even when I have tried to chemically blue/black blade steel I haven't had much luck in it staying (seems to come off too easy). Once I tried per directions on a SS blade and it just kept coming off so I left it overnight (10 hours) and found the blade to be severely etched but, not stained.

[bada61265]

something like this?



took a propane torch to it, buffed slightly with some 1000 grit wet or dry

[Slash]

something like this?



took a propane torch to it, buffed slightly with some 1000 grit wet or dry

sweet, which type gas did you use and how long did you heat if for?

[Butaangas]

I also have a question. Does the titanium frame lock loosen up after heating? (like heat treating, or removing the tension out of the frame lock)

[FlaMtnBkr]

Titanium doesn't really heat treat. A few alloys can gain a couple points of hardness but not much. Using a torch is an easy way to color titanium but can be hard to get a uniform color and you can end up with blue, purple, gold, and usually a combination.

The antiquing is probably easiest using a soft backing like a piece of foam and high grit sandpaper. A little pressure will cause the foam and sandpaper to curve around the sharp corners and polish them more. You can also just Target the corners with the paper so the center doesn't get changed much. That or put it in your pocket and use it for a couple years.

Stainless clips will get some color from heat as well but not as much as ti and it seems a little more random what you will end up with.

[bada61265]

sweet, which type gas did you use and how long did you heat if for?

propane and heated until it changed colors. id like to try it with a hotter torch and a finer flame. might be able to get a pattern of colors with a hotter finer flame

[phaust]

I really like the uniformity electricity gives (although I really like how your S2 came out, bada). I did my Ti/G10 Military light blue but don't have a good picture offhand (I'll try to get one once the sun comes up tomorrow). Here is another knife just to show what I'm talking about when I refer to uniformity:



All you do is attach positive to the titanium, negative to some aluminum foil, and submerge both in a mixture of water and baking soda. To determine the color, I use a Warner Electric MCS-103 power supply I got cheap off eBay wired to use a standard outlet, but I've read 9 volt batteries are sufficient.

As for antiquing, Scotchbrite pads and 0000-grade steel wool have worked well for me on other brands' titanium knives. The texture on the Ti/G10 Military is more durable than the texture on the other knives I've done, so assuming the S2 has the same texture, you might need to start off with sandpaper (I wouldn't use less than 1000 grit).

The trick to making it look old is to make it look worn with use, which requires an uneven wear pattern. It doesn't have to be drastic to look nice, which Bada's S2 proves. Actually, you don't have to take any of the coating off if you carry the knife because the anodizing comes off with use. For example, the knife above is less than a month old, and just pressing on the thumb stud with my thumb has worn off some of the anodizing (the tip and on the second ridge at 10 oclock):