Gold Plating Pewter

A. Brian,

Pewter is tin with small amounts of copper and antimony in the alloy. Should try copper first but if the product is not pewter but a lead based metal you will definitely need copper first.

A. When gold plating copper (or other extremely reactive metals) a barrier coat needs to be used between the copper and the gold. This will prevent the copper from oxidizing and 'rising' to the surface, which tarnishes and corrupts the gold plate. nickel or rhodium make excellent barrier coats.

A. No, Mr. Stone, it isn't possible. Plated metals are always the familiar metallic colors. Silver plating is silver colored, copper plating is copper colored, etc. It is possible to very subtly change the colors of some plated metals as you see in the familiar tri-color gold (slightly pinkish, slightly greenish, etc.) and it is possible to blacken some plated metals with sulfides, etc. as you might see in a school class ring where the recesses are dark and the high points shiny.

What you may be thinking of is electrophetic lacquers. These are tinted, translucent coatings, that can be applied on top of bright nickel or other shiny finishes to give a "candy apple" effect.

A. Hi, Joseph. It is possible to gold plate virtually anything including pewter, but it may require underlayers of other metals. It is probably best to copper plate it, then nickel plate it, then gold plate it for corrosion resistance and tarnish resistance. Most people want their gold plating to be shiny and reflective, and this is much easier to achieve with a layer of bright nickel plating below it.

Regards,