Black Titanium?

Jewelry Discussion
1

Hi all,

Have any of you seen jewelry made in some black metal? You see young
people wearing it. Does anyone know what the metal is… titanium?
or who might manufacture in it?

Thanks in advance.
Mary Ann Archer

2

Hi Mary Ann;

Have any of you seen jewelry made in some black metal? You see
young people wearing it. Does anyone know what the metal is...
titanium? or who might manufacture in it?

Take a look at Quality Gold’s Chisel line. There are a couple black
finishes I’ve seen, one of which is a powder coating, basically a
plastic deposited using an electro deposition technology. It’s done
on stainless and titanium. There are also cases where the finish is
anodized. We’ve got a stainless multi-cable done that way. Check
Rio’s Gems and Findings catalog too. Haven’t looked at Stuller’s
stuff lately, they’re probably not carrying that sort of thing
though. Of course, I’ve seen a lot of plain old black paint over
stainless, which come off pretty easily.

David L. Huffman

3

Mary,

It could be blackened stainless steel. I’ve seen it available in
jump rings and wire form. I have no idea how they blacken it though.

Michele
MikiCat Designs

4

i’ve seen black Zirconium used in jewellery. it could be that.
zirconium is a reactive metal just like titanium.

you hear the term ‘black lined’ used to discribe black titanium used
in body peicing. could be worth a google. i would expext that both
metals are heavily annodised to get a black colour.

5

What I have seen is a vapor deposition coating. This is a high tech
process not for studio application. Sort of anti-bling. There is a
really interesting charcoal black that develops on Niobium with a
simple heat treatment. It is dense, very hard, will polish and looks
great.

Bill

6

Hello David

I have not a good command of English, but if I understand you ask
what could be the black metal thatyoung people wear. I work in Italy
for several companies, one of them was using a process know that PVD
process with gold, but you can use on other metals (in this moment I
use on casting pieces of steel and we make PVD process in black) you
can get all colors, and is very strong, practically is the coating
that is used on firearms. May be colored titanium heat (I’m working
on to make Flowers very expensive collection with pave diamonds), the
difference between steel and PVD process is the production costs,
other material broadcast is Carbonio, i drawing a collection with a
producer of this material, this week i was in Basel fairs and i show
men collection with white gold and carbonio use it only in plate.

I hope to be useful if you need are at your service greetings

Gerard Poube

7

As far as I remember Spectore Corp. claims to have a patent on black
titanium. See SPECTORE - AMERICA'S LEADING TITANIUM MANUFACTURER or
contact Eddie Rosenberg for details.

Sandor
ti-research.com

8

There are several varieties of “black” titanium jewelry being sold.
As far as I know the first was Spectore’s, they have a proprietary
patented alloy that turns black with heat treatment. Some of the
others are various vapor coatings (PVD, CPVD etc) but all including
Spectore’s are some form of coating over the bulk titanium, a patina
if you will. Spectore’s is quite durable, I don’t know about the
others but I have seen claims of “diamond like hardness” which I
would take with a few grains of salt but eventually any coating will
wear off if it is on a ring.

Jim

James Binnion
James Binnion Metal Arts

9

Mary Ann,

Have any of you seen jewelry made in some black metal?

My guess is that it would be Black Titanium Nitride. After blowing
the dust off a few memory cells, I thought it was in JCK that I some
years back read about it so I found this link for you…

http://tinyurl.com/yzpf2eg

You can do this to some degree in house by heating and cooling the
Titanium… I used to know the entire method but the cobwebs are just
too danged thick!!! I remember it took 2000 deg. F. or so to make it
happen… it was a tough process but I do remember getting some nice
blacks and the surface was really really durable. You couldn’t
scratch the finish at all. There was a company that sold the Titanium
called Reactive Metals. If I recall they were in Arizona somewhere. I
started buying Titanium from them but found it easier to work with
Niobium. I used to anodize both metals and use them in mountings like
stones… made interesting pieces. Anyway, perhaps the article above
& this info will put you on track.

Good Luck. Dan.
DeArmond Tool
http://www.classwax.com
http://www.dearmondtool.com

10

There are several varieties of “black” titanium jewelry being sold.
As far as I know the first was Spectore’s, they have a proprietary
patented alloy that turns black with heat treatment. Some of the
others are various vapor coatings (PVD, CPVD etc) but all including
Spectore’s are some form of coating over the bulk titanium, a patina
if you will. Spectore’s is quite durable, I don’t know about the
others but I have seen claims of “diamond like hardness” which I
would take with a few grains of salt but eventually any coating will
wear off if it is on a ring.

Jim

James Binnion
James Binnion Metal Arts

11

Black Niobium jump rings are pretty hot for us right now. We heat the
niobium to red hot with a MAPP torch, quench and polish. Very nice
durable black. Map works great, oxy-hydrogen did not work well,
propane works but was very slow.

Jon Daniels
The Ring Lord Chainmail