Skip.
I was a manufacturer's sales rep for ten years for the first eyeglass frame
company to manufacture frames from Ti (Charmant Eyewear). Initially we would
market them plain (kinda ugly blah midtone grey matte..not exciting..and very
expensive..think my first model in ~1984 was $400 or so..plain square style
for men only). As the cost of raw goods became more reasonable we started
painting them, etc to make them prettier. Paint scratched off in no time,
cloisonne would pop out a matter of weeks. Eventually we had to go to ion
plating as that was the only finish that would actually imbed into the
surface and have staying power. The last time I was in Japan and walking
around one of our 5 factories (I htink it was in 1993), I was struck by two
things..thousands of boxes for Waterman pens (we had the contract to
manufacture them at that time), and the second interesting sight was....
Olympus boxes stacked up to the ceiling in one department. It was an
eye-popping sight! When I enquired, I was openly told about the Waterman
contract, but was told I "had not seen the OM's". Strange.
Since then i have always wondered if perhaps they used ion-plating on the
tops & bottoms of the 4T. It is fairly durable considering that it is a Ti
base.
Susan
Susan Steele
Amherst, VA
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