Why are most titanium yo-yos raw?
I really want a couple titanium yo-yos someday. I’d love to find a old beater for edc so I can spark it up and one beautiful one for the collection. But I’m going to be extremely picky about spending that much money on the right one.
The edc one I’m not concerned with looks because I intend to grind it down. But for my collection I want something semi organic to organic, blasted, and some color. Black looks good sitting still but I want something that has contrast. Bright.
Aroundsquare has tons of anodized titanium products so I know it’s possible.
What do you think? Raw or anodized titanium?
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My first Ti was raw, it just felt “right” lol. Whats funny is now that it is actually my most damaged yoyo (slammed straight down into concrete super hard in a weird accident lol) it’s actually going out to he custom anodized. I prefer the raw look personally, aluminum is easier to anodize and takes the color better too.
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For the most part, titanium doesn’t need any surface level protection. The material is considerably harder and more resistant to oxidation than aluminum is. The main reason for anodizing on aluminum yo-yos is to protect the material. Aluminum oxide created during the anodizing process is incredibly hard and durable. Aluminum itself is soft and prone to small scratches. Titanium, not so much.
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It may not be necessary but it looks good
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It probably also increases the defect rate for an already expensive product.
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Risk/pricing in anodizing was my main assumption for this. Titanium anodization is hard, and the price increase on anodized ti always seems to reflect that. Companies would have a greater B-grade rate, increased labor costs, and then have to make that cost back by asking people to spend more money on what was already a prohibitively expensive product.
I feel like it also gets a little awkward because one of the big pros of titanium is the durability. But adding an anodized layer on top of the titanium increases the price while greatly lowering the durability (as far as aesthetics are concerned.)
It does look good though!
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I’ve always assumed that it was because people preferred it that way. Ti is a luxury item, and anodizing kind of masks the fact that it’s Ti (for most people). @mable , is the Ti ano softer than raw Ti?
I just recently bought a raw Acadia (one of my favorite yoyos) here off the BST because I thought I’d like the feeling more than the ano’d one that I got originally. Now I can’t decide which one I prefer and I’m failing again at keeping the collection balloon from inflating.
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Yeah. Ti ano being scraped off is weird though. Since the ti itself doesn’t deform or ding from just stuff like a tile floor bonk, it just kind of looks and feels like an extremely thin layer of film is missing. It feels nothing like when you ding an aluminum yoyo and can tell aluminum under the anodization was damaged too. This picture took way too long to try and take, hopefully it illustrates how thin the ano layer is.
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I think if more people knew what a good (~32-64Ra) surface finish looks like they would wish aluminum yoyos were avaliable raw as well. Unfortunately aluminum oxidizes and tarnishes very quickly, and it is very soft without anodize. Especially compared to titaniums unfinished properties.
See pic below: YYWS proto i did for Wayne as a side project. Yes thats aluminum, no its not polished. Just fresh out of the machine.
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That DOES look good. I’m guessing you can’t get this kind of look if its been anodized at all? Would a clear coat do anything for raw aluminum?
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Anodizing aluminum is a surface treatment, so it actually reacts with the aluminum itself. There are different classes of anodize, but your typical type 2 class 1 anozide will haze the finish from the process. I dont do in house finishing, though, theres a lot to learn about anodizing, and a lot i dont know.
A clear coating would be difficult to maintain buildup, thus probably resulting in vibe, and wouldnt give you the strength of a finish like anodizing does.
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How about powder coat? Just curious.
I know Ti is a very tough metal and has its own characteristics. If I ever purchased a Ti Yoyo, I would prefer raw.
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Titanium can looks sooo cool anodized. With a raw, you can anodize it yourself to make some crazy designs. Idk why more brands don’t do something like this
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I’m getting a little confused about the processes. The ano’d Acadia I have has a rough blasted feel and a consistent color as well. It looks and feels different than a raw Ti yoyo. I have a few Dizzo’d throws (most started raw I believe) and those feel like raw but have that cool, mostly subtle, coloration, but they don’t seem to have a “layer” like Aluminum ano does (or even like the pic of ano’d ti that @mable posted does). Maybe someone like @persson or @jeffreypang911 or @Marioyo could shed some (more) light.
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The process for adding color to Ti by anodizing seems even more fickle than the process of anodizing Al, since the colors come from a reaction in the metal itself. While impressive results are possible (see above), I only recall a few production yo yos that were sold from the “factory” that way, and they are almost all 1 of 1 colorways.
I would expect the defect rate for any complex coloration would be enormous.
edit: just to be clear, I am in no way an expert, so I could be incorrect about any of this and would be happy to learn more from someone who understands the process. From my simplified point of view, there are 3 ways to “anodize” Ti.
- Similar to Al (type 2? including hardcoat/AMS2488) (luftverk)
- Electrical bath that changes the color of the Ti based just on the voltage level (dizzo)
- Heat anodize where you take a torch to it (my understanding is that this can give you rainbows in the best case, but you wouldn’t have much control over the exact outcome)
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Powder coating isn’t quite as durable as anodizing, and on top of that since it is a coating it is hard to keep perfectly consistent to prevent vibe.
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Raw. But I like that it’s raw because then you can anodize it. I don’t like chemicals so aluminum anodizing is just a dream for now, but grab a voltage regulator and a plastic tub, a little nail polish, and you’re good to go! I’ve found good success with knife scales. Ti anodization isn’t really traditional anodizing though, so the layer is thin. Electrolysis I believe. If my Ari didn’t look so good raw I’d give it a splash ano.
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Ive had raw Al yoyos and nickel plated ones, and im not really a fan of the silver. But with Ti, it just looks nice. I also have anodized Ti (Sunbird, Acadia, Catch 22 custom Dizzo ano), and I still prefer Ti raw. Mable’s point on dings/scratches is also true. I have a beat-to-hell raw Ti-Vayder, and I could easily polish it up to look pretty good. I also have a dark grey one I keep mint and it looks really nice, but im not really sure what treatment they did to these? It feels a little sticky though.
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Those just look like ano flaws. If the ano was scraped off or damaged you’d see the raw ti below it, those are just a different shade of black. Anodizing ti is hard, and the fact a lot of A-grades ship with minor flaws like that seems like a testament to that.
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