9 Years manufacturer 24″ rubber glove with cotton linning-smooth finish for Ottawa Factories

FAQ Content

Ideally one would want to dawn rubber gloves and wear those throughout the process shown. Although I took the voltage high here at 59 volts at one point I don’t really recommend going that high. I would instead suggest staying under 30 volts. This not only keeps arcing at a minimum but its easier to get uniform color spread with voltages starting at 12 volts upwards to 28 volts for a nice blue color. Dipping in a tank is preferred but otherwise this works for anodizing if you have a power source but are not set up with much. You could in fact get a nice sudued dirty brown or olive drab color with a 12 volt car battery doing this same thing.. It is however always a risk and proper safey measures such as gloves and safety glasses and even a rubber mat by rubbermaid like what I sit on in this video are all good ideas.

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 are handy for cleaning out the insides of old folders also. 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. If you do anodize this way you will tarnish the metal parts some and if you leave the alligator clip in one place too long it will spark off on you. I don’t recommend doing this if the folder you are going to be coloring liners on has carbon blades and/or backsprings or other parts that can be oxidized to form rust patches. Even stainless can corrode this way so again, it is just for example taking into account that I have done this many times in the past.

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.

This hurts! A selection of videos I directed while at work. We couldn’t hurt the lad (too much) as we would be in trouble Check my video list for more!