I’ve had several pieces (made of sterling silver or bronze) gold plated to a 50 millionth thickness at Red Sky. As soon as I handle them they start to get orangy. When I asked about it they said that that is from oil from my skin tarnishing the gold and comes off with soap and water. Which is true, if I wash them with dish soap and water the orange coloring mostly goes away, but then the second I touch them again they become orange again. Is this typical for gold plating? Does anyone have any suggestions to prevent this? Is there another plater that anyone would recommend?
Hi Aran,
I’ve had that same problem before but am trying a new-to-me plater, Tanury
in RI, and I’ll be sure to report back!
Sara
Is it only tarnishing where you touch it or is it an overall tarnish? Does it tarnish like that even without touching it?
When you plated over the bronze did you first plate with Nichol silver? This blocks the bronze from harming the gold. The same applies with plating over sterling silver, there must be a Nichol plating layer between the gold.
It seems to be just where we touch it. I’m not sure if it was first plated with nickel since I sent it out.
Sara, please do let me know how that goes. Thanks!
hi there,i cannot answer your question but i have a question for you since you do plating ,i made a pendant of 2 1/2 spheres ,coped out a pattern on both pieces ,vividly polished them inside out soldered them together ,pickled the finished piece,re polished the outside,but now i need to polish the inside in order to gold plate the inside,i have very limited access to it ,any suggestions?