[Jewelry making - Article 00048] - Re: [Orchid] Re-plating a water pitcher

[Peter W . Rowe]

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>           Otherwise, you'll spend a lot of time and some money and get
>     some pretty dismal results.  Now if I turn out to be wrong and you
>     find a way to make it work, you can string me up for a public
>     flogging. 

    David, I'll second your fine posting.  Perhaps it will help to
    further mention that perhaps the confusion is in just what sort of
    plating is required.  People reading a jewelry tools catalog will see
    plating machines and solutions. These types of plating are generally
    geared to jewelry scale work, and jewelry needs. Most often, it's
    rhodium over gold or platinum, and only a thin coloring coating is
    required.  When one wants to put rhodium plate over sterling,
    though, several preplating steps are needed to isolate the silver
    from the plating solution, which it would contaminate, and which
    could damage the silver surface as well, so then that type of rhodium
    plating, which otherwise is very simple to do on gold or platinum,
    becomes an order of magnitude more difficult. 

    Similar is the case of silver plating,  The quart bottles of silver
    plating solution usually sold in the catalogs are designed for thin
    coatings, most often over an already silver item, like sterling
    silver.  Intended then usually to hide solder seams or fire scale,
    this type of plating is relatively simple.  But a coffee pot is a
    whole other animal.  For one thing, it's a LOT larger. Even with the
    simple setups, one would need a rather high capacity power supply,
    perhaps in the 50 to 100 amp capacity, to handle this properly. 
    And, one will need multiple anodes, all fine silver.   Now, if the
    item was previously silver plated, then as David says, plating just
    over that will make a messy looking surface, so it first has to be
    refinished to remove at least most of the old plating.  Then for any
    decent durability, it needs a MUCH thicker silver plate coating than
    the normal decorative coating.  To get that to work well, one needs
    considerably more complex baths, usually with proper brighteners. 
    These aren't one time additions to a bath, but need to be
    periodically replenished if they are to work.  Without them, the
    deposits become rougher and rougher, leading to the sort of nodular
    growth seen on uncontrolled electroforming.  Silver is far more prone
    to this behavior than are gold plating solutions.  The simple silver
    plating solutions found in the catalogs are not brightened at all,
    intended just for thin color coatings, and producing a dull, matte
    white surface much like freshly pickeled soldered work.  On a thin
    deposit, it's only a little dull, and can be brightened with a bit of
    baking soda or a rouge cloth.  but for the thick deposits needed
    here, such a matte finish wouldn't be easy to brighten at all, at
    least not without again removing much of it.  All in all, this is
    simply not, as David points out, as easy to do properly as it might
    seem. 

    However, you may wish to look beyond the internet for quotes.  Try
    the yellow pages for electroplating shops.  The same shops that will
    put new chrome on your car bumper often also run small tanks of
    precious metals like gold or silver, and some of them will be
    equipped to replate something like your coffee pot. Or, if you like,
    here in Seattle I know of at least one firm that specializes in
    silver plating of this sort.  If asked, I can look up the name and
    phone number. 

Peter Rowe


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