Crystallised Titanium Strip

Crystallised Titanium
Crystallised Titanium Colour Patterns

Crystallised Titanium Strip

Price range: R175.00 through R2'000.00

What is Crystallised Titanium? Grade 5 Titanium that looks much nicer.

Picture a white‑hot titanium bar sitting at roughly 1 200 °C. Instead of snapping the heat off, dial it back gradually. The instant the metal drifts below its crystallised point, tiny solid “seeds” — the first nucleation centers — begin to form. Those sites act like seeds, and from each seed a tiny metallic tree—what metallurgists call a dendrite—starts growing. Let the cooling rate stay gentle and you’ll see primary branches, then finer secondary arms, spreading just like frost on a windshield.

Here’s the neat part: titanium doesn’t keep the same crystal lattice all the way down. Above about 882 °C it sits in the β-phase (body-centred cubic). Below that, it shifts into the α-phase (hexagonal close-packed). As the solidification front crawls, parts of the metal are still β while others have already gone α, so every dendritic arm locks in a slightly different orientation. Where those arms meet, they knit together into visible grain boundaries—tiny ridges that catch the light and give the finished surface that lightning-bolt shimmer.

Why does any of this matter beyond the cool look? Those extra grain boundaries boost dislocation density, which nudges hardness up a notch and tweaks how the metal handles thermal expansion. In other words, the pattern isn’t just eye candy; it subtly changes performance.

Knife makers love it because a knife scale blank can come out both prettier and a touch tougher. Science and art in one bar of metal—hard to beat that combo.

PLEASE NOTE!!!

SOLD PER: 4,3mm x 40mm x 25mm OR 4,3mm x 40mm x 300mm

 

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Description

Colouring Process of Crystallised Titanium: Heat Treatment and Electrochemical Anodising

Crystallised titanium can be coloured either by controlled heating in air or by anodising in an electrolytic bath. In the heat-treatment method, clean the piece and heat it in a furnace or with a torch in air at specific temperatures (°C) to produce interference colours:

  • ≈385 °C: pale gold–straw
  • ≈412 °C: purple
  • ≈440 °C: deep blue
  • ≈510 °C: light green
  • ≈565 °C: red-purple
  • ≈648 °C: brown-gray
  • ≈925 °C: green-blue

These colours arise from successive titanium-oxide phases (TiO₂, Ti₂O₃, etc.) forming thin-film interference layers Wikipedia.

For electrochemical anodising, immerse the titanium part as the anode in a 10–20% H₂SO₄ (sulfuric acid) bath at 20–22 °C. Apply 15–110 V DC (depending on the desired hue) at a current density of 15–30 A/ft² (≈1.5–3 A/dm²) for 1–5 minutes. Typical colors include:

  • 20 V: purple
  • 30 V: blue
  • 60 V: orange
  • 90 V: blue-violet
  • 110 V: green

The exact hue is controlled by oxide-layer thickness, which grows approximately 1.7 nm/V, producing vivid, dye-free finishes 3ERP.

Applications of Crystallised Titanium

Applications of Crystallised Titanium and Timascus encompass a broad spectrum, ranging from functional tools to high-end fashion accessories, highlighting its versatility and unique appeal:

Knifemaking. The knife community grabbed crystallised titanium first, and it’s easy to see why: lightweight crystallised titanium scales or bolsters  that gleam like fractured ice, yet still hold up to everyday carry abuse. Makers will often plasma-etch or low-voltage anodise the dendritic surface, turning each ridge into a micro-rainbow that sets off a mirror-polished blade.

Jewelry and wearable art. Ring blanks in Grade 2 crystallised Ti have become a staple on lathe-turning forums. The material machines cleanly, handles a high lustre, and — thanks to its biocompatibility — won’t set off nickel allergies. Anodising lets artists “paint” across the crystals in gradients of teal, violet, and gold without any dyes or plating.

Exclusive watches. A few boutique watch brands have begun using crystallised titanium for bezels and case backs. Besides the head-turning texture, the higher surface hardness shrugs off pocket scratches, and the oxide film resists sweat better than stainless steel.

(REFERENCE: https://nobliecustomknives.com/crystallized-titanium/)

Additional information

Weight .3 kg
Size

4,3mm x 40mm x 25mm, 4,3mm x 40mm x 300mm

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