Plating help

[bman40]

just received my Caswell plug and plate brush plating kit (nickel)

Question: Can I plate Nickel over gold?

I have and old trashed new - need to re-plate, and I prefer nickel to gold. Can I plate over the old gold or do I need to somehow remove all the gold.

if I need to remove it - how?

thanks

Barry

 

[newmikemac]

I'm very curious about the prospect of trying to replate a razor and hope that you will keep us posted as you go through the process and let us know how easy, how costly, etc. the process is.

 

[Goldtwins]

I also want to know how this works. I would love to get some old razors that I passed on in the store and re plate them like that. Obvioulsy scratches would still be an issue. Anyway I am new here so I am sure many others can correct me if wrong and you probably know this already but I think the gold razors are laquer coated so you need to remove all of that first. I would ask the company then about nickel over gold. That was no help huh?

 

[ambrose]

The plating using a plug and plate some out super thin. It may be just enough or perhaps you can build up a decent layer. Let us know keep us posted.

 

[onotoman]

Yes, absolutely, Nickel sticks to Gold like fleas to a hounds back!

The secret is to clean and polish the razor first, then scour with cleaning solution to make sure it's chemically clean. Rather than Plug and Plate, youd be much better off with the plating tank kit as you need to use around 3 volts and allow to plate for around 12 to 34 hours and you should get a result like this:

(these were done with a bit heavier duty kit than the Caswell One after totally stripping the razors, but you should be fine with a standard Caswell Tank Plating kit and some good preparation. The Plug n Plate is more useful for spot plating gold or plating with copper before tank plating.

Stripped Razors:

Good Luck and always wear cloves when handling the chemicals!

just received my Caswell plug and plate brush plating kit (nickel)

Question: Can I plate Nickel over gold?

I have and old trashed new - need to re-plate, and I prefer nickel to gold. Can I plate over the old gold or do I need to somehow remove all the gold.

if I need to remove it - how?

thanks

Barry

 

[HerrHepcat]

Stripped Razors:

How do you strip the razors so clean?

 

[newmikemac]

Wow. That's the first time I've seen razors totally stripped like that. It obviously helps you get super results.

 

[MAK]

I'm very interested in this too. Is plating something that the average person can do and where do you get the equipment?

 

[onotoman]

Hi Guys,

There are two ways to strip nickel - one is to use acids and reverse current etc (complicated and hazardous)

What I use is a great chemical called MetalX from Caswell. This is a harmless powder that is mixed with water and added to a tank. The tank must then be heated with a titanium heater to around 150 degrees F and the solution needs to be agitated using an air pump. The razors are then dropped into a seive or similar and suspended in the solution.

About an hour or two in this tank strips the nickel back to copper/brass. I then just polish and scour before plating.

The kit to strip plating costs around $300 plus the periodic top up of solution. A professional plating setup costs around $800. So, unless you plan to plate a lot of items, you could buy an awful lot of razors for the costs.

Hope this helps