Hey all.
I messed around with some more Titanium anodizing this weekend. I don’t know if people realize that a lot of cool stuff can be done with Titanium, much like aluminum… so I figured I’d share!
YYF Ricochet - Matte blue with polished pink/purple splash
VsNYYC TiWalker - Polished pink/purple with gold lettering
I did my Ti Dream, but man… your results are singularly impressive. Mine was kinda ghetto (9V batteries) because I couldn’t find a bench power supply of high enough voltage. That tiger-striped blue/purple is amazing. Just amazing.
Question, how did you keep the engravings while doing an anodize?
(Yes, I know this’ll probably be irrelevant compared to everything else, but I’m curious and want to anodize my two titaniums)
it is not irrelevant to me.
the engraving of the ti-walker is still present because it is made by a process called “annealing”, whereas the engraving of the ricochet,made for simple laser engraving, is no longer present
That tiger striped blue and purple is gorgeous! :o
I wonder if you take commissions… My raw throws could definitely use some of that love.
Hell yeah! P.s. if you ever want to get rid of that ti-walker, hit my line up… 
that ti-walker belongs to chaosgow
How does this annealing process work? does it make the engraving part of the anodized oxide layer instead of bleaching the layer? (like ~97% of engravings are)
honestly I don’t know much, I also searched around to understand something…
Ah, I see. So does that mean most Ti yoyos have an anneal? It seems like it since the engraving seems to sparkle slightly compared to an aluminium laser engraving. I’m just assuming at this point. XD
sorry if I go back to this discussion but I would like to add a couple of very interesting videos for those wishing to anodize their titanium yoyos … in fact it is a much simpler and faster procedure than that of aluminum …
I did not know this and I did not imagine it … when the finish changes everything!
It will and does. If you acid bath longer it will change the finish too or let it oxidize in open air. The fun and easy part with ti anno!
Ti is so much simpler than aluminum. Plus it is fun! Don’t kill yourself with low amp/high voltage and it’s rather easy. 
Watching a piece rainbow through the voltages is a simple and easy feast for the eyes. Then the trick is knowing, which all data explains, a lower voltage color will be over ridden by a higher voltage one. But a higher voltage will not change with lower voltage color while in the bath. So plan accordingly and play!
UGH, I love that TiWalker colorway, I wish I could own it.
If you have the yoyo you can do it yourself. Don’t like it, an acid bath (rust remover etc.) will remove it in a second or two.
Pictures can be off on my screen of course but it looks like the deep purple/blue that you get at 18v. You can do that easily with a couple 9v batteries instead of buying a power supply (approx $130 for a 120v max, $40 for a 30v max). Some TSP ($3 a box, trisodium phosphate) some aluminum foil with a plastic tub to dunk it in and your set.
Not my pic but accurate.
I’m going to save this for the future, if I ever get a titanium, and thank you very much for the information!
i’m
not too familiar so i had to do some research myself, but in annealing you appear to be heating an object up just before it’s melting point so it becomes malleable. just as an opinion, this doesn’t seem the most effective process for aluminum yoyos. and with ti i would think you’d just ‘brand’ it once it gets to temp, but it seems a lot to risk if you’re heating a metal that hot and you still want it to remain vibe free.
sorry i couldn’t be more help, but i have been following this topic intently.
Titanium is heat reactive so when it’s heated up it changes colors just like when you anodize it doesn’t look as nice though. I’ve messed around a bit with anodizing titanium too through flame and power bank.
Well what if I wanted to have the appearance of an etching in negative space? How hard is it to control fine line areas to not be anodized?
