Hey everyone,
I was wondering about De-Anodizing my Summit, so I can re-Anodize it a new color. But I was wondering if when I De-Anodized if it would also remove the laser sketch of the Summit logo and mountains. or the onedrop and clyw logo on the other side.
Also, when I redo the Ano, would the new coat cover the laser sketch?
Thank you!
Stripping the ano, chemically, won’t remove the engraving. New ano will not cover up the engraving. Be sure you have someone that can blast and/or anodize the yoyo before doing it or you’ll just have a raw yoyo.
I recommend having an adult do this or, at the very least, supervise. Maybe the anodizer can strip it for you since it is possible you could destroy the yoyo.
It is only a good idea to strip with specially designed anodize stripper…Greased lightning is truly bad and makes an ugly finish. Stripping however removes the “white” part of the laser engraving, but you still have the engraving in the metal part. Anodizing over that will make it no longer white, but the color of the anodize you desire and it will still be barely visible. On some of my work, you can see these effects.
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Incorrect. The engraving is done by removing anodizing. If you remove the rest of the anodizing there will be no more engraving.
I HIGHLY recommend AGAINST doing this. Stripping will likely ruin the yoyo and take it out tolerance.
Actually, MiamiBuddha is in fact correct. You remove the white color to the engraving by stripping the anodize, the the engraving itself is still in the surface of the yo-yo. It takes a heck of a lot of blasting to get most engravings out ( I can see the engraving through a lot of blasted yo-yos.
Thank you. I know da5id is a knowledgeable individual with yoyos in general but I also know that I am not wrong considering I’ve done it many times.
It can be both. It might be that a blast or chemical strip that removes “just enough” of the old ano to prep for a new anodize doesn’t go quite as deep as the laser etching does. That’s just speculation; I really don’t know the science behind either process.
But I can say with certainty that my stripped (via bead-blasting, not chemical I don’t think) and re-anoed Summit still shows ghost traces of the old engravings. I don’t mind and in fact found it was a nice subtle little surprise. 
Traces is basically the same thing as gone in terms of the OPs question. He wanted to retain the engraving entirely but that is not possible because the engraving is mainly just removed anodizing. Yes traces can exist on the raw aluminum under the anodizing, it’s just a trace.
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He wants to know if it’s still visible. A trace is visible. Your point is moot.
Agreed. It’s all in terms of how one interprets the question. The question is “Does the engraving remain?” so it can be interpreted as:
- I want it to look new and untouched. Will stripping destroy that which I wish to keep?
- I want it gone. Will stripping remove it completely?
Then within #2 the answer is still “Most of the time, some traces of the old engraving remain and will be visible”.
You were answering #1, David. I think England was answering #2 and then qualifying with the “traces remain”
Yup, I took his question to be pragmatic and not theoretical. But in either case, the engraving will no longer look like it did originally.