Knifemaking Tuesdays Week 38 - Anodizing and fixing warped blades Media
Published: 12 years ago
This week we're rounding the last few corners for finishing up the first batch of knives and even got some of them shipped! In the first half of the video I start by upgrading my titanium anodizing tank into something nicer and bigger, using a titanium cathode instead of aluminum. Then at 5:25 I show how I can test out colors without committing the entire part to a certain color. After that I go through the voltage ranges on a piece of sandblasted titanium, which doesn't show colors nearly as brightly as shiny Ti.
At 12:39 I show the finished knife in two tone, the honeycomb pockets are a muted dark green and then we polished the flats and all the edges, anodized the top face blue, then polished the edges again! The end result looks incredible.
At 14:46 I explain why warped blades bug me like crazy. With the method I chose to make these blades it leaves the possibility that some will warp in the final machining process, so I had 4 blades that were off center. Now this isn't something you can fix by messing with the pivot pin tightness, the blade actually has a slight curve to it and one or two of them were rubbing the side. To fix that I was able to re-machine one side and relieve some stresses in the blade, bringing it closer to center and making it straighter. Not perfect, but acceptable. I've got some ideas for the next run that will hopefully make things more reliable.
Thanks for watching!
www.JohnGrimsmo.com
At 12:39 I show the finished knife in two tone, the honeycomb pockets are a muted dark green and then we polished the flats and all the edges, anodized the top face blue, then polished the edges again! The end result looks incredible.
At 14:46 I explain why warped blades bug me like crazy. With the method I chose to make these blades it leaves the possibility that some will warp in the final machining process, so I had 4 blades that were off center. Now this isn't something you can fix by messing with the pivot pin tightness, the blade actually has a slight curve to it and one or two of them were rubbing the side. To fix that I was able to re-machine one side and relieve some stresses in the blade, bringing it closer to center and making it straighter. Not perfect, but acceptable. I've got some ideas for the next run that will hopefully make things more reliable.
Thanks for watching!
www.JohnGrimsmo.com