Thursday, February 28, 2013

Anodizing made easy

Ideally one would want to dawn rubber gloves and wear those throughout the process shown. Otherwise this works for anodizing if you have a power source. 9 volt batteries hooked up in series can also do this but I don't recommend doing it this way and if you do keep the batteries low in number. Three is as far as I'd suggest you try on that method and even then in the event a line crosses it can cause a battery or all of them to pop! Also,  I should have noted in the video also that instead of using a Scotchbrite pad to take any surface oxidation off the metal parts Smoky Mt. Knife Works sells a little item called, "The RUST Eraser" that every knife nut should have. You can slice these blocks or erasers any thickness you like so these also work to clean up the back spring or other metal areas one has to take surface oxidation off of after you color the liners. These erasers can fit once you slice one so that it only requires a good swipe once or twice covering the entire area of the back spring width all in one neat sweep. This way you don't drift into the liners scratching the color off in places as you clean the other parts. 

On a lot of the open build type folders being offered today in the industry such as, Benchmade and Emerson liner locks (some Emerson years had one side cheesy cheap stainless liner instead of the titanium but the lock side is titanium) this works great to anodize the liners without even having to take the knife apart. Of course it does nothing to change them inside or on the sides. So if you were to want to color the entire liner inside and out then you'd have to then disassemble the knife. Remember to seal the stainless steel detent ball in the lock and the non lock side on Emerson liners with a dab of nail polish and then remove it after dipping to color anodize. Failing to remember this step could result in a gritty feeling action due to oxidation on your stainless balls from anodizing.. You can also use duct tape if you don't dip too long and it works just fine in most all cases.





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