Wife's collectables

[Aukai]

Before the shut down whenever my wife and I traveled she would buy a shot glass from the destination, and she has a small curio cabinet for her collection. I turned one out of 316 polished it, and gave it to her with a Tim the Tool man AR AR AR AR grunt.
My next addition to her collection is a shot glass made from Damascus titanium, it is shaped, but not polished yet or parted off. I would like some guidance on burning it for the color change, I have an O A torch with different tips, but I don't have a propane torch at home. After polishing, I know that it must be cleaned very well, but that's it. Has anyone here done this? Thank you.

 

[mmcmdl]

but I don't have a propane torch at home

I'll put one on the pile .

 

[darkzero]

For heat coloring titanium, as you heat it, you'll get a brass/gold color first, then bronze, then a darker bronze, then dark purple, then purple, then a dark blue, then blue. Lighter blues come after that as well as more hues but with heat coloring you usually can't get to the lighter blues & everything after that.

Unless you have a lot of experience with heat coloring, achieving the color your after consistently is not easy as once you see the color you want while heating, that won't be the color it ends up at as it soaks in more heat & cools.

I don't have a lot of experience heat coloring Ti, I mostly "anodize" Ti with an electrolyte bath. But with heat coloring it's much easier to get the different colors fading in. I would just have at it, start by gradually heating it. If you don't like the way it came out, polish it & try again until you're happy.

You can practice on a piece of Ti but that won't really help you in achieving the look you want on you shot glass unless that practice piece is the same shape/mass as you shot glass. Even then it won't be the same cause your shot glass is Timascus. But it will help you find out what colors you can achieve.

 

[Aukai]

Thanks Dave, thank you Will. I'm not sure if I should part it off, then color, or partially part it, color, then finish the parting...

 

[Aukai]

This is the progress so far, the chunk drilled, raw finish, and polished.

 

[hman]

The pre-polished appearance is fantastic! Hope you bring out get something like that from your heat treatment.

 

[mmcmdl]

You better check your head alignment . That thing looks tapered !

 

[Aukai]

The raw still has all of the ridges from turning, I hope coloring it will bring out better definition.

 

[darkzero]

I'm not sure if I should part it off, then color, or partially part it, color, then finish the parting...

If you plan on only heat coloring the top, then you can do that first & part if off after. But if you want to color the entire thing, I would part it off first instead of partially coloring it, part off, then attempt to fully color it. That's just my thought though but once you part it off it won't be as easy to chuck back up to polish if you wanted to do it over.

You could always leave it unparted now & practice heat coloring it so you can easily repolish it to try again if needed. Who knows, if you plan on heat coloring the entire thing, give it a go unparted & see what happens. It may just come out good.

 

[Aukai]

I'm going to rest a bit then give it a go