Friday, April 03, 2015

Heat/Flame Anodizing Titanium Project for Paracord Applications...

County Comm recently sent me a couple of their new Titanium Pico Pulls, one plain and another that they had already anodized.

I figured I'd finally try a heat/flame anodizing (heat coloring/thermal oxidation) project with the plain titanium pill fob, and some other titanium paracord lanyard beads, I still have around, that I purchased a couple of years ago.  I've uploaded a video to YouTube for this project:



I used the butane torch that County Comm had sent me back in 2011.  I could probably have used my Zippo/Z-plus torch lighter, but the hands free torch seemed a little safer for my first attempt with this type project.  I first searched google to look for some anodizing info and watched a couple of YouTube videos others had shared before trying it myself.


The Waterproof Titanium Pico Pulls arrived in clear Twist Vaults with a bit of foam to keep them from rattlling around.  The small storage containers are good for storing EDC items, meds, and assorted whatnots. 



The 'shiny' bead on the left in one of my photos is before heat coloring/thermal oxidation which is different than chemical anodizing (the term 'anodized' is commonly used for both methods when searching for info on the process), the darker flat gray one is after having already cycled through the bronze, purple, and blue colors and didn't change any further, and the last two were where I stopped with mostly purple/blue tints with just a bit of bronze coloring.


Anodizing titanium can also be done with chemical bath/electrical methods (electrolytic oxidation), which offers better control of the color results, and I may try that in the future...

  



And a couple of pics with the lanyard beads used with paracord zipper pulls on my Limited Edition VENOM mochi by Stormdrane drawstring backpack.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

HI - VERY COOL NEW RINGS. I REALLY LIKE THE BEADS. WHERE DID YOU GET THE BLACK CABLE/RUBBER/LEATHERISH LOOPS? I WOULD LOVE TO TRY THEM OUT.
THANKS. DEWAYNE

Stormdrane said...

I bought the vinyl covered cable key ring off ebay a few years ago.