Gold Plating

Anyone know where one can send a silver ring to be gold plated for a
reasonable cost in small quantities?

Tripps has a really nice mans ring but $11 for silver and hundred$ for gold
makes gold rings a rather expensive gift. It occurs to me that the silver
could be gold plated and one would not have a clue.

Any ideas?

js

Check out the EasyGem http://schmidling.netfirms.com/eg.htm
--
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On Wed, 28 Apr 2004 22:24:34 -0700, in rec.crafts.jewelry (Jack
Schmidling) wrote:

Anyone know where one can send a silver ring to be gold plated for a
reasonable cost in small quantities?


Almost any decent goldsmith should be able to do it. Barring that, look in
your local phone directory for plating services. The shops that normally do
chrome plating on bumpers, or other industrial plating of various sorts, also
usually have some gold plating solution around somewhere. If that doesn't help
you, Rio Grande, the jewelry tools supplier in Albuequerque NM, not only sells
the suppllies, but also has a subsidiary branch (or at least used to) called
Red Sky Plating, that does small runs for jewelers or others.

Tripps has a really nice mans ring but $11 for silver and hundred$ for gold
makes gold rings a rather expensive gift. It occurs to me that the silver
could be gold plated and one would not have a clue.

Well, nobody would have a clue unless they happened to be familier with gold
jewelry a little bit... Your plated silver would feel lighter in weight, the
color likely will be a bit different than commercial gold alloys (at least, the
14K ones), and more importantly, even if the piece is a good fooler at first,
the gold layer is thin. It wears down. sometimes rather quickly. Do you
really wish to give gifts that will, after perhaps six months wear, be
obviously cheap plated silver rings instead of the more costly gold ones they
probably will be implied, or believed to be when given? You're setting
yourself up for some disappointed recipients, perhaps, unless you're very sure
to tell em up front what the rings are made of... Personally, I'd recommend
leaving the silver rings as silver. It's also a precious metal, and worthy of
respect in it's own right. Use plating to change the color only after careful
consideration of why you're doing it, and the implications involved. remember
that gold plating on a silver ring is NOT permanent.

Peter

"Peter W. Rowe"

You're setting
yourself up for some disappointed recipients, perhaps, unless you're very
sure
to tell em up front what the rings are made of... Personally, I'd
recommend
leaving the silver rings as silver. It's also a precious metal, and
worthy of
respect in it's own right....

I am not trying to "cheat", in fact, I want some gold rings for myself to
begin with.

My interest is in faceting stones and not making jewelry but giving someone
an unmounted stone is a invite to the junk box. Rings are nice ways to
present them. I just happen to think that some stones, (white?) look better
in gold but spending $300 to match color seems a bit of a reach.

I have no experience with plated gold and am interested in knowing more
about it's durability. You make it sound like it will not last at all but I
suspect that also is a bit of a stretch.

js


--
Astronomy, Beer, Cheese, Gems, Sausage http://schmidling.netfirms.com

On Thu, 29 Apr 2004 05:24:36 GMT, (Jack Schmidling) wrote:

Anyone know where one can send a silver ring to be gold plated for a
reasonable cost in small quantities?

Tripps has a really nice mans ring but $11 for silver and hundred$ for gold
makes gold rings a rather expensive gift. It occurs to me that the silver
could be gold plated and one would not have a clue.

How long do you plan to know the giftee? Plating wears off.

--
Marilee J. Layman

On Thu, 29 Apr 2004 22:47:00 -0700, in rec.crafts.jewelry Jack Schmidling
wrote:

I have no experience with plated gold and am interested in knowing more
about it's durability. You make it sound like it will not last at all but I
suspect that also is a bit of a stretch.

Well, I DO have experience with plated gold on silver, and I intended to say
that it will not last that long. But that's a relative term. I will last for
a while, but how long depends much on how thick the gold is plated on, whether
it's put down directly on the silver or whether an underplated layer of copper
is used, and how the item is used. The bottom lines are that rings take a good
deal of wear, and unlike some items that don't get exposed to as much friction
and wear and tear, any gold plated layer will wear down. Just how long this
takes can of course vary. If the gold is plated directly on the silver,
without an underplate, and is quite thin, then within a few short months, even
if the item is not worn at all, the color will begin to fade, as the gold
dissipates slowly into the silver. (a copper underplate prevents that slow
dissipation of the gold into silver). Even with an underplate, if the ring is
worn at all frequently, if the gold layer is fairly thin, then the color will
start to get worn through in anywhere from a few days to a few months, at least
on outer exposed edges and areas subject to friction/abrasion. Recessed areas
will hold up reasonably well. If the gold layer is put on very thickly, which
requires somewhat more sophisticated plating methods than most jewelers have
available, then it's possible for a gold plated layer to last much better.
Perhaps a year or two even with substantial amounts of wearing, before those
exposed edges and outer surfaces wear through enough to be really visible as
such. If the owner, however, uses any sort of polishing cloths or the like to
clean and brighten the ring, then it would often be possible to cut through the
gold plating in minutes or less, so they'd better know the ring is plated to
avoid premature wear-through.

But keep in mind that even solid gold rings, worn frequently, will show
substantial wear, as edges and corners and surfaces get scratched and abraded
down. A couple years wear on a solid gold or silver ring will give it enough
wear and tear to show visible thinning and wear on parts of the ring, A
plated layer of gold, generally will be much thinner than the thickness of
thin aluminum foil even at it's best, and can often be a layer of just a few
atoms thickness in a thinner cheaper plating. It's just not reasonable to
hope that such a thin layer will last all that long in a use like a ring.
Pendants or even earrings might last a lot longer, since they are exposed to a
lot less wear and tear in use.

On the other hand, and on the positive side, if you gold plate sterling, when
it wears through, all that then shows is a still attractive silver surface.
This is unlike ordinary gold plated costume jewelry, which is usually plated
over a brass or bronze base metal. In those cases, even with the fairly heavy
plating usually used in such items, when it wears through you then have exposed
metal areas that can corrode, turn green, or turn fingers green, in reacting to
the now exposed copper based metal. That is then a more dramatic symptom when
the gold layer is worn through, than will happen with gold over silver.

And commercially, one does find gold plating applied to silver, and sold under
the terms, vermeille, or sometimes (slightly incorrectly) as electrum.

And one solution to the dillema is to plate the silver jewelry with gold,
especially in the areas around the stone, but then carefully and deliberately
polish the gold back off of the shank of the ring, and other such exposed areas
that will wear quicklyl This can leave a gold plated coating on recessed or
protected areas under and around the color stone, and those areas may well hold
the plated color for years, while the areas where the gold would have worn off
have been polished to deliberately reveal the silver again, so as the ring
wears, it doesn't then go through that stage of just looking dingy as the gold
wears through. It won't last as long as gold, even so, since silver is simply
softer than gold, and wears faster. But if you choose your mountings
carefully, this "two tone" approach might work well enough for what you intend.

Peter

"Peter W. Rowe"

On the other hand, and on the positive side, if you gold plate sterling,
when
it wears through, all that then shows is a still attractive silver
surface.

Thanks for the tutorial. The fallback position fits quite well as all I
want is to add some contrasting color to white stones. So if some of it
wears off, it is not great loss.

Very interesting about the copper base.

As a point of interest, I just ordered a "Plug and Plate" kit from a web
dealer and am looking forward to playing around on my own. Not sure what to
expect but the for $50, it won't be any great loss if it doesn't last
forever.

Thanks again,

js

Check out the EasyGem http://schmidling.netfirms.com/eg.htm

--
Astronomy, Beer, Cheese, Gems, Sausage http://schmidling.netfirms.com

Jack Schmidling wrote:


I have no experience with plated gold and am interested in knowing more
about it's durability. You make it sound like it will not last at all but I
suspect that also is a bit of a stretch.

No it is not! Gold plating on silver will not last.

You say that you have no experience with gold plating, yet at the same time you
accuse someone who does, with making a statement that sounds like a stretch.

Please do not do that. It is very unbecoming.

Abrasha
http://www.abrasha.com

Jack Schmidling wrote:

"Peter W. Rowe"

On the other hand, and on the positive side, if you gold plate sterling,
when
it wears through, all that then shows is a still attractive silver
surface.

Thanks for the tutorial. The fallback position fits quite well as all I
want is to add some contrasting color to white stones. So if some of it
wears off, it is not great loss.

Very interesting about the copper base.

As a point of interest, I just ordered a "Plug and Plate" kit from a web
dealer and am looking forward to playing around on my own. Not sure what to
expect but the for $50, it won't be any great loss if it doesn't last
forever.

Thanks again,

js



Hmmmm,

You want to waste 50 bucks on a "plug and plate" kit, but you don't want to
cough up the money for a gold ring. One wonders about that logic.

Abrasha
http://www.abrasha.com