The Armour Archive

Hi all,

I plan to use a cheapie HF rock tumbler to polish my new TI aventail.
I am looking for suggestions on a tumbling media.
I would like to get it 'bright' to 'mirror', and because I am a polish junkie, would prefer it mirror.

So here is my thought...

I was thinking of using just plain sand, the finer the better. But I am not sure how well this will work, and if I should do it wet or dry.

At this point, all I have is the tumbler and the aventail...so I am open to suggestions/warnings/threats....



Anyone have any suggestions?


Thorfinn

I don't think a tumbler will do what you want, a tumbler is for de/buring and putting a light textured finish on parts. If you want a mirror finish, rouge and a buffing wheel is the way to go.

Jim

check riogrande.com for medium for polishing..


actually tumble polishers are very popular for jewelrywork..

it dont get any brighter than jewelry polish..

a buffing wheel on mail is a serious redneck " hold my beer n watch this here" moment..

dont try it Thorfinn.. I like ya and wouldnt wanna see that TI mail stuck to ya like a pissed off porcipine..

IIRC, Balder has a tumbler/polisher at work that uses stainless pins as the medium. They use it to deburr parts. That might do the trick.

Titanium doesn't get REAL shiney even on a day when the magick is working but I have had fair sucess with soapy water and lots of time.

The problem with polishing Titanium is what to do afterward to prevent the oxide from forming. If you don't have a brine bath and a voltage supply to passivate it, it will be dull grey rather quickly. Now if you DO have a way to passivate it you can do all sorts of funky colors since the oxide layer is translucent and reflects a specific wavelength dependent on the oxide layer thickness. We have sample parts at work that are "rainbows" for color matching.

Let me see what I can find tomorrow at work. Do you know what grade of Ti or Ti-alloy it is?

Sean

I dunno what Knuut uses...
Maybe he can chime in and let us know if its an alloy or pure TI.

I have absolutely NO intention of getting this thing near a buffer.
We had an SCA knight killed by a buffer a few years back, and I won't get anything flexible near mine after hearing what happened.
(Thanks for the heads up anyways Samuel!)

I will post any results I have, because this might be something others will want to either do or avoid...I am all about saving somebody elses body parts from my mistakes.

So far my research has turned up 3 different grades of sand at LOWES.
A 25 lb bag is cheap, so I am going to get a coarse and fine bag.

I am going to first try tumbling for an hour with some coarse sand dry.
I will look at results, and then add some water, and do anorther hour.

Unless anyone has some input on if tumblers work better dry or wet internally?

Thorfinn

Performance Armor is able to get a shine on their Ti plate products. Perhaps try contacting them for more information?

OK, as far as tumbeling media goes do not use sand.

I cannot say that I have ever tumbled TI but I can tell you how you would go about it if you are finishing other metals.

First off, if there are surface imperfections you wish to remove, (small scratches burs etc.) you will need a cut-down media. I would suggest a ceramic or plastic pyramid. Run this with a non-chelating deburring compound. You can use a drop of original Dawn dish soap in a pinch. Basically add your object and media to the tumbler and add enough liquid to fill just past the surface of the media.

Keep in mind that the media and your object should not occupy more than about 2/3 the volume of your canister. If there is much in the way of oxide or imperfections, start with a medium or course cut-down and then work your way up to fine. The process will be slow, and each media stage will likely need 12-24 hours (or more) for any real effect to be noticed.

Once you progress through the various cut-down media I would then move to a stainless steel or porcelain burnishing media. These are also used with a burnishing compound. Basically this type of media will planish the object…this is what will take it to a mirror finish. Again this will take some time so be patient and check it frequently.

I usually purchase my media from Rio, but there are a number of sources on the internet. If you need any links email me and I can send you some. Keep in mind though that some of the media (esp. porcelain) will need to be run by itself for 24-48 hours to break it in….

Marcus

After re-reading my post I didn't really define what a deburring compound is...basically its water with a little bit of dish soap to used to break the surface tension and move the debris away from the metal as it is tumbled. I use something called super sun-sheen from Rio but like I said you can add a drop or 2 of Dawn to your water and it works well. just fill your tumbler up just enough to cover the media and you should be good.

Marcus

Sean Powell wrote:The problem with polishing Titanium is what to do afterward to prevent the oxide from forming. If you don't have a brine bath and a voltage supply to passivate it, it will be dull grey rather quickly. Now if you DO have a way to passivate it you can do all sorts of funky colors since the oxide layer is translucent and reflects a specific wavelength dependent on the oxide layer thickness. We have sample parts at work that are "rainbows" for color matching.

Let me see what I can find tomorrow at work. Do you know what grade of Ti or Ti-alloy it is?

Sean

I have a Knuut Ti hauberk on order as well, and had been wondering about this. One of the things I like best about Ti mail is that its natural color is like freshly scoured iron-- I get the weight benefit, and it still looks like the real deal.

I want the grey color. I'd just like it to reflect more light, i.e. a smoother surface on the rings.

My still-in-the-brain-not-on-the-credit-card-yet solution is to get a cheap cement mixer from Home Depot (about 80 bucks), replace the metal mixing paddles inside with wood 2x4 sections (as another AA'er says he has done when he scours rust from rivetted mail with his mixer), and use walnut-shell medium to polish. Friends that reload say it polishes brass cartridge cases like mirrors. Dunno if it will work on Ti, but I guess we'll see.
M.

bah

if you want a mirror dont use sand you will be very dissapointed. maybe some kind of powdered white polish might work? takes some heavy pressure to get the grey xide coating they put on the sheets of Ti off.

chain is dangerous to polish with a wheel. probably the best/worst way to get it to mirror.... please be very careful. use a low powered wheel if you must try it. that and jump out of the way if the wheel grabs it.

a wheel polishing accident could injure you and rip your nice new ti mail... if the buffer is high powered. again use caution if you must try polishing it with a wheel.

I disagree titanium tarnishes quickly. here are some pairs of legs I made during my time as a production armourer. http://tiarmour.com/price%20list%20vari ... i_legs.htm

they held the polish just fine. easily over a year and sometimes much longer(very heavy usage dulls both stainless and Ti). very close to stainless in polish durability but those Ti legs polished right back up to a high polish with white polish and a cloth wheel. many people thought I was always wearing a new pair of legs because my old ones polished up so easily.

I am getting one of my first pairs back for an upgrade and a polish so will take a few pics and post them. it will be interesting to see how they are fairing under a ducal punishment.

if you have a pair of my Ti legs cherish them because I dont think I will be making any more in the future.

my earliest work... I anodized it gold but soon after I bought my 7 1/2hp baldor buffer I realized that titanium mirrored up very nicely.

it looks like plain old steel when satined with a scotchbrite floor polishing wheel.

the chinese industrial machine drove up metal prices so high thats its not worth it to make production armour with it anymore.

I still do some armouring for fun. my latest .025 6-2-2-2-2 body harness weighed 3 1/2 lbs unpadded. bwahahaaaaa... sir hathawulf was the recipient(inside joke)

mrks

hey an idea...

of course this wont be a mirror shine by a long shot but..

sand blast...

Bens got an air compressor that could kick out plenty air.. theres a lot of tool rental places in the area in cinci..

Ive sandblasted a 350 chevy block before and it cleaned it nice..

with a very fine sand you could haze it all the same color rather well..

Nice idea...
I'll call Ben and see what he thinks...

Thorfinn

Sir Thorfinn wrote: I have absolutely NO intention of getting this thing near a buffer. We had an SCA knight killed by a buffer a few years back, and I won't get anything flexible near mine after hearing what happened.

I remember hearing an SCA knight got hurt on a buffer a while ago, I don't remember hearing about one dying. What the hell happened and who died?

Richard Blackmoore
KSCA

Hi,
I was not there, so I have my info second hand.
I will not go into gory details.
Basically he was buffing a belt buckle, the belt was looped over his back/neck.
Buffer caught the buckle, neck broken.
Dead.
Very very sad...

His name was Sir Forgan Aurelius, he is still well loved, we miss him.

Thorfinn

Damn. Sorry to hear that. Thank you for the information.

Richard