All our titanium frames come with a “Satin” finish unless the customer chooses to paint them. Basically there are two types of finishes you will commonly see on titanium frames. The first is a glass media blasted finish (‘Satin”) which we use and he other is a “brushed” finish. The brushed finish is accomplished by using Scotch Brite synthetic steel wool and rubbing down the entire frame until a consistent pattern emerges. I prefer the media blasted finish because I think the frame looks more complete and professional. Also I don’t like to work around the air-born debris that is created when doing a brushed finish. Once we blast the frame we do not touch it with our bare hands because oils from our skin will imperfect the finish. We handle the frame using gloves and apply all the decals. Once the decals are on we apply Lemon Scented Pledge furniture wax to lock in and protect the finish. I don’t know what’s in the Pledge but we’ve tried substitutes and the Pledge produces the best results by a long shot. Once the customer has their frame the only maintenance required is an occasional rub down with some pledge to protect it from oils and staining and that’s it.

Below are images of our sand blast system including an 8hp 2 stage compressor with refrigerated line dryer, multiple coalescing filters and a “reverse venturi” system my old business partner Tony made. All this insures that their is no oil or water in the air that can contaminate the finish or any other process we use the air for. Also pictured below are  Nick’s freeride 26″ hardtail built around a Fox 36 RC2 Talas, it’s going into the blaster Monday for it’s final finish and a Dura Ace build kit for Kurt.

This entry was posted on Friday, October 23rd, 2009 at 5:17 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.