Custom Titanium Chopsticks
Custom titanium chopsticks made on a manual lathe and finished with careful annodizing.
Problem
At the time of embarking on this project I had just started learning how to properly eat with chopsticks. Around the same time I had also learned that you could easily electrolytically annodize titanium. Naturally, this meant that I had to make my own pair of titanium chopsticks to eat with.
Design and Manufacture
Titanium (commerically pure) was selected for this project due to its ability to be annodized, where heat or an electrolytical bath is used to grow precise thickness of titanium oxide and form unique, vibrant colors. Done entirely on a manual lathe in the shop I worked at, these chopsticks were carefully tapered and retaining features were added. The rear end of these also received a decorative taper and grooving. Afterwards, they were brought to a polish then annodized with a voltage-boosted lab bench power supply. Numerous pairs were eventually made as my friends learned that I had made the chopsticks I was eating with.
