JC week 5: material costs, technique exploration, anodizing aluminium

NB: journal entry for the Jewellery and Small object module at South bank Griffith university (QCA) to view the full journal click here

This entry contains:
Metal costs
Anodizing research
metal embosing experiments

Metal costs for final project

The following prices are for A4 metal sheets from the QCA stores

Aluminium                                        $5

Brass                                                 $22

Copper                                              ??

Titanium                                           $36

NB: the QCA studio does not have equipment for aluminum soldering or welding, riventing of materials will be required, aluminum can be anodized (colored ) look further down this post for details.

Titanium cannot be welded or soldered and will need riveting but can be colored to a range of tones ie grey, yellow, green, purple.

I have purchased 2x A4 sheets of aluminium and 1x A4 sheet of Brass for this project. The intention is to create the grip,pommel and half of the cross guard from brass and the remainder of the cross guard from aluminium. I had originally intended on making the entire handle of the sword from aluminium due to cost and weight and had intended to anodize for a golden color. But I have since decided to use brass for the coloration.

I aquired scraps of aluminium and brass from the University to do embossing and texturing experiments. Note the center piece of aluminium has first been textured and then embossed. The embossing process removes the textured surface. 

Experiment with steel metal strip to add lines to a piece of aluminium using a mallet

Experiment on aluminium using wire and a mallet to texture the surface

Anodising aluminium

"Anodizing increases corrosion resistance and wear resistance, and provides better adhesion for paint primers and glues than does bare metal. Anodic films can also be used for a number of cosmetic effects, either with thick porous coatings that can absorb dyes or with thin transparent coatings that add interference effects to reflected light."
Anodizing - Wikipedia

In short the process goes a little something like this:

1) Clean it
2) Put it in an acidic electrolyte.
3) Run a DC voltage through it.
4) Dye/paint it.
5) Seal it

 cleaning it in a solvent bath. I rubbed it with methylated spirits
acidic electrolyte: this should be battery acid, tho you can get away with lemon juice 
the DC voltage should be at least 20V and the cathodes should be lead
the aluminium piece you are anodizing needs to be submerged in the electrified acid for approx 45mins
to seal the dye/paint boil in water for 30mins approx

for more detailed tutorials on anodizing visit the following sites

http://www.instructables.com/id/Anodizing-Metal-at-Home-The-LJS-method/
http://www.wikihow.com/Anodize-Aluminum
http://astro.neutral.org/anodise5.shtml