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gold plating pine cones,leaves
Hi all, i have been searching for days and have been unable to find
any help on how to gold dip/gold plate miniature pine cones (for use in jewelry) can anyone send me in the right direction? books, tutorials, anything? thank you! Linda |
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#2
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gold plating pine cones,leaves
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#3
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gold plating pine cones,leaves
Peter, thats EXACTLY what I needed to know! thank you so much. I
received one as a gift 20yrs ago and have always wanted to do it myself. I am looking into equipment, supplies and the like thanks again, I'm psyched now! Linda design27.com |
#4
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gold plating pine cones,leaves
wrote in message ... Peter, thats EXACTLY what I needed to know! thank you so much. I received one as a gift 20yrs ago and have always wanted to do it myself. I am looking into equipment, supplies and the like thanks again, I'm psyched now! Linda design27.com What could it have been? Just as an aside while on the subject of plating, just reminiscing, here's a story from the past. I recall buying some 'magic' plating solution that really did work. It was way back in the early '60s on a holiday trip to London. We visited a well renowned (then at least - perhaps still?) market street named Petticoat Lane. At around the age of ten, being brought up in the quiet countryside this was an amazing experience - it seemed you could buy just about anything here - and more! Stalls/barrows lined the streets both sides and thronged with browsers and buyers - a wonderland to be sure. Anyway we came upon this stall that was selling amongst a huge array of other things 'Magic silver plating solution' or similarly named. A little bottle about two or three inches tall and one and a half inches diameter. The stopper was a cork. The solution in the bottle seemed to separate fairly easily leaving around a quarter of an inch of medium/light brown (almost light copper colour) residue in the bottom and a clear liquid taking up the remainder of the bottle - it wasn't too expensive and I was hooked! You simply gave the bottle a good shake, placed a penny or something metallic in (say) a saucer and poured the 'magic' liquid over the penny until covered. I don't recall how long it had to remain there but it was only a few minutes or so, and I don't recall if it began to change colour whilst in the bath. However when you took it out and dried it and then gave it a good rub between some soft cloth it immediately became bright silver - almost chrome plate appearance -- indeed it was magic. We would pour the unused liquid back into the bottle and cork it for another day. If I haven't bored you yet then there's a little anecdote attached to this stuff -- quite possibly not unique. It those days in our small town it was customary that at break times in high-school we were allowed 'up the street' to buy a snack or more likely a fly cigarette! We had been taking the 'silvered' pennies into school to show around to our mates. Everybody wanted one and we were happy to oblige. It was one day 'up the street' at break time that one of our more entrepreneurial mates decided to capitalise on the effect. He decided to spend it in the baker's and bought half a dozen cream buns using his shiny (half crown!!!). I wasn't there at the time but as I recall he got out of the shop and managed to devour only part of the first bun out of the bag before the shopkeeper caught up with him -- you could drag a kid by the ear to the headmaster in those days! I don't think anything much happened about it apart from a stern lecture and 'six of the best' to the culprit. The rest of us were given a lecture in the possible dangers of even contemplating such activities. That was it - it was only used for good after that episode. Bet to digress. If any of you readers recognise the description of this magic fluid I would be very interested to learn just what it was that was in the bottle and how it managed to apply such a splendid plating (colouring) in such a short time just by steeping in it. It was remarkably resilient as I recall. Anybody? Thanks for reading, Neil |
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gold plating pine cones,leaves
Neil wrote:
Bet to digress. If any of you readers recognise the description of this magic fluid I would be very interested to learn just what it was that was in the bottle and how it managed to apply such a splendid plating (colouring) in such a short time just by steeping in it. It was remarkably resilient as I recall. Anybody? I remember that stuff, it was great fun plating every metal object in sight . It looks like it's still available: http://tinyurl.com/2chxfv |
#6
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gold plating pine cones,leaves
Re "Silver" plating coins.
Probably an acid solution of a mercury salt. Highly poisonous and quite irresponsible to sell to anyone without chemical or medical knowledge, especially a child, but very effective in coating a coin with a thin bright coating of mecury metal. I think it was illegal even then - defacing British coinage was once an arrestible offence. G.H.Ireland -- _ _________________________________________ / \._._ |_ _ _ /' Orpheus Internet Services \_/| |_)| |(/_|_|_ / 'Internet for Everyone' _______ | ___________./ http://www.orpheusinternet.co.uk |
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gold plating pine cones,leaves
On Sat, 15 Dec 2007 12:19:22 -0800, in rec.crafts.jewelry Mr G H Ireland
wrote: Probably an acid solution of a mercury salt. Highly poisonous and quite irresponsible to sell to anyone without chemical or medical knowledge, The version I recall, sold for electronics use but doing the same thing, wasn't mercury salts, but rather tin. At least, tin was the metal deposited, and the coating was nice and bright, as I recall... PWR |
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gold plating pine cones,leaves
"Mr G H Ireland" wrote in message ... Re "Silver" plating coins. Probably an acid solution of a mercury salt. Highly poisonous and quite irresponsible to sell to anyone without chemical or medical knowledge, especially a child, but very effective in coating a coin with a thin bright coating of mecury metal. I think it was illegal even then - defacing British coinage was once an arrestible offence. Yes I suppose it would have been classed as defacing the coin of the realm, but I don't think we knew about then and we couldn't afford to do too much damage. Come to think about though it we used to make RAF Spitfire lapel badges from ha'pennies (well, we thought they were a reasonable likeness Bent double and squashed flat in a vice, then the radiused edges bent outward to form two flaps. Finally the parts of the flaps cut away to leave the main and tail wings. Oh yes, I'd almost forgot, we would embed one side of a small safety pin within the centre seam. Sounds a pretty coarse job - and it probably was! |
#9
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gold plating pine cones,leaves
"Peter W.. Rowe," wrote in message news On Sat, 15 Dec 2007 12:19:22 -0800, in rec.crafts.jewelry Mr G H Ireland wrote: Probably an acid solution of a mercury salt. Highly poisonous and quite irresponsible to sell to anyone without chemical or medical knowledge, The version I recall, sold for electronics use but doing the same thing, wasn't mercury salts, but rather tin. At least, tin was the metal deposited, and the coating was nice and bright, as I recall... I think I still have one lying in a box of long forgotten coins collection. Is there any simple test I could do to determine if it was tin or mercury? |
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