Anodized Aluminum

[jchch1950]

I have seen some reviews about pens made of aluminum, about their weight and feeling. Also in some cases they mention that the paint over the aluminum are prone to peel off or to be scratch with normal use. Any comments about the suitability of anodized aluminum for fountain pens?

[Astronymus]

Low quality will scratch more easily. Higher quality has thicker layers. The inodized layer is bonded with and harder than the aluminium itself. Never seen an anodized layer peel of. Must be China fake, just paint.

[sandy101]

My Lamy Aion's grip is anonized aluminium. I've had it for a year, and it has not gotten scratched yet (but then it is not painted). It is my work pen - so it sits in my drawer at work, and doesn't travel far.

 

The advantage of anonized aluminium is that it gives a textured grip. It means the section is not slippery to hold.

 

I've had brass pens and aluminium pens get scratched through every day carry. The best way to stop paint, or any lacquer from getting scratched is to invest in a carry case.

[Arkanabar]

The Platinum Plaisir has an anodized aluminum body (it shares its section and grip with the Preppy). I've scratched mine, leaving it in a pocket with keys.

 

eta: With enough friction, you can remove anodizing. I've had that happened to anodized bicycle rims, after enough braking.

Edited April 13, 2020 by Arkanabar

[Astronymus]

It's not indestructable...

[tinta]

Aluminium that is anodized can be quite durable. This finish is bonded to the metal, so if it peels it is not anodized, perhaps painted. There are different grades or thicknesses of this finish.

 

The two fly fishing reels above are both anodized aluminium. The two/tone gray reel has a thinner type I anodization. The green reel has a much thicker type II anodization. I've used the grey Valentine for almost 35 seasons, the green Tibor Light for maybe a dozen years.

A little of the grey finish has worn off the older reel. The green type II finish shows no visible marks.

My two Kaweco "Special" FP pens below have anodized aluminium barrels & caps. After two years of constant use, no wear is shown. Their grips (sections) are made of anodized brass. The anodization is starting to wear off the male threads.

 

You may also want to consider the "feel" of metal pens in your hand. It took me quite a while to get used to the initial cold feel of aluminium or stainless steel pens. I still prefer the feel of a resin (plastic) grip on a fountain pen.

[bogiesan]

Researching anodization is a a fascinating way to spend a few hours. Many different metals can be anodized! Several metal finishing companies offer multiple anodized colors on the same piece by using resists, engraving or removing previous layers, and multiple trips through the baths.

 

https://www.dsfinishes.com/ds-blog/2018/10/26/what-is-anodization-video

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anodizing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZhVOy-ytJY

https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/engineering/anodization

[tinta]

Researching anodization is a a fascinating way to spend a few hours. Many different metals can be anodized! Several metal finishing companies offer multiple anodized colors on the same piece by using resists, engraving or removing previous layers, and multiple trips through the baths.

 

https://www.dsfinishes.com/ds-blog/2018/10/26/what-is-anodization-video

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anodizing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZhVOy-ytJY

https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/engineering/anodization

Thanks for the links "bogesian", though at this time I'd rather be fishing.

I've got to bust out of the house, but at over 75, I feel I've got a huge target on my back. Got to keep safe.

[Astronymus]

Their grips (sections) are made of anodized brass. The anodization is starting to wear off the male threads.

Unlikely if it is made of brass. It might be rather bluinged. Brass isn't anodized.

[Addertooth]

Anodizing is very hard, roughly a 54 on the Rockwell C scale. But underneath, the aluminum is soft. Think about how hard glass is to scratch, or Sapphire perhaps, (as an anodized coating is technically an aluminum oxide). Now imagine if you had an amazingly thin layer of hard sapphire bonded to soft aluminum. You get an idea of it's characteristics. Some of the helicopters from the Viet Nam war had a sleeve bearing for the tail rotor which were anodized. They were fairly robust.

 

Anodized finishes are very resistant to acids, but amazingly susceptible to bases. I would photo etch panels which were anodized black with a Sodium Hydroxide bath to put legends and markers on the control panels. It quickly removed the black anodized finish. The color of the finish is determined by the "dye" the part is exposed to, prior to the high temperature steam sealing of the aluminum. This allowed for a huge variety of colors.

 

Overall, I like anodized finishes, but currently have no pens with this feature.

[Astronymus]

I like them too. That was the reason I began to collect the Lamy AL-Stars.

[jchch1950]

Thank you all for your comments and information. Now can buy some pens with different colours that will last a long time.

[BDarchitect]

As others here have written, an anodized coating on aluminum is incredibly durable. Another finish you may see is a powder coating, which is not as hard as anodizing but harder than paint. Powder coated finished can chip. You can scratch through an anodized finish to the raw metal below, but that takes some effort. Keys and a pen together in a tight jeans pocket would be a sufficiently abrasive environment to do that.

Edited April 14, 2020 by BDarchitect

[tinta]

Unlikely if it is made of brass. It might be rather bluinged. Brass isn't anodized.

I got the info directly from Mr Gutberlet @ Kaweco last fall. Contacted the company because I was concerned that ammonia pen flush will react with the Special's section if it's an aluminium component. I was told then that it's a form of anodization on a brass section, with a matte texture. Didn't inquire further.

You are correct though that brass usually is not anodized.

[Astronymus]

Unfortunately I only own the Special Dip Pen. As a copper alloy brass basicly can't be anodized. Though there are different ways to provide brass with a protective black coating. Obviously they did that.

[Anderglan]

Unfortunately I only own the Special Dip Pen. As a copper alloy brass basicly can't be anodized. Though there are different ways to provide brass with a protective black coating. Obviously they did that.

Apart from black enamel also a very durable "black chrome" was (is) a finish that some (usually premium price) cameras and lenses have over their brass body (e.g. some Leica, and Leicaflex items).

[Karas Kustoms]

As a company that works primarily in aluminum, brass, and copper we are immensely familiar with the characteristics of those materials and the types of coatings and finishes they can have applied to them.

As stated above, anodize (especially Type II cosmetic) is a thin force oxide layer that hardens the "outside" of the aluminum. Type II can be dyed to achieve different colors. It can also have what is called a "bright dip" finish applied to it to make it high gloss. Characteristics of the aluminum pre-anodize can remain in the post anodize process to change both the look and the feel of the pen. Hard tumbling or sandblasting the pen prior to anodize and leaving off the bright dip finish leaves a matte finish with more of a tactile feel, while polishing the aluminum and adding the bright dip makes a very high gloss finish. Anodize finish is harder than other metal finishes like lacquer, Cerakote, paint, etc. but it is still susceptible to wear from a like-hardness or harder material. Pocket carrying an anodized pen that rubs against a knife or car key can remove anodize over time. Anodize that has certain hues of color can fade from direct sunlight (red, pink, gold, and orange fade quickly while blue, green, black, and violet fade much slower). Impacts that will deform the base material will cause dings, chips, scratches, and other mars on to the surface and even deeper depending on the force of the impact and hardness of the object coming into contact with the aluminum. That being said I've had customers report lowering a several thousand pound pallet of goods onto their pen by accident and when it was recovered the pen merely showing scuffs and small gouges from the concrete with no crush damage.

Copper alloys (brass and bronze) cannot be anodized, they're colored via other means. Drastically changing the color of these alloys is most often accomplished via three processes: lacquer application, PVD (physical vapor deposition), or DLC (diamond like carbon). Lacquer on brass can chip and is often what you see on cheaper pens that are very heavy, I believe many of the larger, heavier Chinese pens are a brass base metal pen with lacquer finish applied to them. PVD requires an intermediate layer (normally nickel or nickel-palladium) to be applied to the brass before the PVD can be applied. This is a more premium process, and you usually see PVD applied to steel. It does provide similar protection to the base metal, and in brass applications it is often done in a layer fashion that ends up mirroring the color of brass but providing a wear and oxidation free surface that does not require polishing to stay brilliant. DLC is often applied to brass to give it a hard, black coating. It's used quite a bit with numerous types of metals to get the matte black look while also providing a hard finish (frequently watches, knives, and firearms).

[jchch1950]

A clear and complete explanation. Thank you.