Where the
world gathers for metal finishing
Q&As since 1989


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Gold plating over sterling silver?

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Q. We are talking about electroforming gold over both silver and or wax. I would appreciate your input on what electroforming solution would be good to use.

vic masciarelli [returning]
- Northborough, Massachusetts
May 30, 2016

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Q. We would be using Technic gold electroforming solution.

Also I have a second question: why do electroplating and electroforming companies move the items either back and forth or back and forth in a circular pattern when they are plating ?
thanks
Vic

vic masciarelli [returning]
- Northborough, Massachusetts USA
June 14, 2016

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Q. Hi

I am interested in why vintage or antique jewelry that has a silver base and then is finished with a vermeil gold coating maintains its finish unlike costume jewelry. The gold layer seems to remain intact with regular wear and therefore a great economical alternative to karat gold jewelry. You mention here that silver jewellery usually has another coat of perhaps nickel before gold would be applied. I do not know if jewellery created in the 1920s to 1940s would have this additional layer or not.

I thought maybe it would have something to do with gold and silver's placement in the periodic table, but have forgotten my chemistry! It is a group 11 as are silver and copper so I think there is something in that.

Kind regards,
Kate

Catherine Amato
- Kent, United Kingdom
May 11, 2017

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Q. My ring is too small but it is Sterling silver with a gold plating what can I do?

Kristina Brooks
- Aurora Colorado
June 29, 2017

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Q. Hello and thank you for sharing your expertise. For my business I have a need to gold plate about 100 sterling silver charms (like the kind used on charm bracelets). They are small, around 10 mm-12 mm each, but do vary in size. Do you think I can find someone who can do this at a reasonable price? It is also very important that the gold last for 5 years +, or be permanent. Also, would it be possible for a professional to "dip" the charms in gold? Paint on gold leaf?! Not sure what is the best course of action. Thanks very much for your thoughts.

Kathy Bertone
- Naples, Florida, US
July 29, 2017

Ed. note: Sorry, this RFQ is old & outdated, so contact info is no longer available. However, if you feel that something technical should be said in reply, please post it; no public commercial suggestions please ( huh? why?)

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September 5, 2017

Q. My hobby is making silver jewelry. I use PMC, fine silver and sterling silver; and frequently I use all 3 in a single piece of jewelry. Lately I was try to apply a gold plate to a pair of earrings. The body of the earring is PMC3. In the center there is a circular cutout of 8 mms surrounded by a 10 mm round ss ^ ^{sterling silver} gallery wire bezel. I cleaned the earrings in an [on eBay or Amazon], then tried to electroplate using Midas 24 k gold plating solution. For some reason, I cannot fathom, the earring which is a about an inch and a quarter puffed diamond shape, is plating on the back and the edges, as well as the gallery bezel but the rest of the front in not plating. I tried it on the second earring of the pair with similar results. What is going on. Help, please, I would be so grateful.
Thanks,

Mariam Valliani
- Baltimore, Maryland, USA

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Q. Hello! My question is in regards to one of your answers where you stated that gold would not adhere to stainless steel? I was under the impression that there have been new developments in making that work. Can gold now be successfully applied to Stainless steel? And with all your wonderful Knowledge, I'm curious what you think About stainless steel used for jewelry? Thank You for sharing so much with so many!

Christine Doehring-Hubbard
Artist - Hitchcock, Texas United States of America
November 7, 2017

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Gold Plating on Silver Surfaces

Q. Hi everyone;
I am Irem from Turkey, Izmir. I was graduated from Chemistry of METU. My father is a jeweler. We have decided to work own job by plating gold on the silver surfaces. I have made many pieces of research on this topic but I could not find gold plating on the silver surfaces process which gives detail of it.
I would like to learn process steps of plating, required bath solution name, and concentration and required voltage or current amount.
Please someone can give the process detail or reference document for it?

Thanks in advance.

Irem Tuncel Boğaz
Chemical Coating Engineer - Izmir, Turkey
December 28, 2017

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Sterling pendant causes skin reaction

Q. Hi, what would be the best way of putting a gold finish on a sterling silver pendant. I made a Sterling silver pendant for my niece, but for some reason her skin seems to be reacting to the silver metal on her chest. She loves it and does not want to change it but she does wear a lot of gold so I had thought I may be able to melt some gold and dip the silver into it but after reading all of what questions have been asked I guess it is not a simple thing to do. Do you have any suggestions to be able to put a coating of some sort onto the Sterling silver pendant. Thank you

Barbara Olive
- Queensland, Australia
October 3, 2018

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Q. Thank you for your prompt info. I will find out if the company I buy my silver from if they add Nickel when producing it. I always thought copper was added to silver not nickel. I know all of their silver is recycled. I have been buying silver from them for quite a few years and have never had anyone react in any way from wearing it.
Thank you
Barbara

Barbara Olive
- Queensland, Australia
October 6, 2018

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Q. My plater doesn't provide a white bronze undercoat on my sterling silver jewellery prior to the gold plating.
Apparently they don't have the facilities to do it.
The specifications are 2.5 to 3 microns of gold on sterling silver.
Is the white bronze step crucial to the longevity of the gold plate finish given that is will be 3 microns thick?
This is one reason as to why I am thinking of buying a home plating kit.
What are the pros and cons of doing a white bronze undercoat if I decide to do all of my plating at home?

Kaye Walsh
- Melbourne , Victoria, Australia
October 10, 2018

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RFQ: Does anyone know of an individual who could gold plate silver earrings?
I sent my daughter's earrings for repair of a broken clasp. They were yellow. When I picked them up, they were "silver". The jeweler had put them in a cleaning solution which removed the "yellow" layer.
We had assumed they were real gold.
Now, she would like to have them gold plated again?
Is it possible?

Hassina Taykor
Buyer - Lyman, Maine, USA
December 12, 2018

Ed. note: Sorry, this RFQ is old & outdated, so contact info is no longer available. However, if you feel that something technical should be said in reply, please post it; no public commercial suggestions please ( huh? why?)

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Plating White Bronze onto .925 Sterling Silver

Q. I want to plate .925 with a White Bronze/Copper solution from a top U.K. company, in the 2:1 self mixed ratio as recommended. Can the .925 accept the White Bronze mixture directly? Or, should I copper plate first? Can the mixture be adjusted, so as to enhance the yellow/golden glow of the copper, and still retain its hypo allergenic and tarnish resistance?

John Moresky
- Long Beach, New York, United States
March 31, 2019

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Q. Thank you Mark. I want to plate small .925 sterling silver pendant settings, and .925 rope chains (very simple necklace). Which leads me to another question. Is it possible to simply 'stain' sterling? Similarly to gun black or the other sulfur [affil links] type stain I read about. Also, I have a 5V/18A Electroplater, can I anodize sterling?

John moresky [returning]
- Long Beach, New York, U.S.
April 3, 2019

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August 11, 2021

Q. Our company designs silver jewelry with a high focus on quality and comfort. Since we also wanted to offer gold colored pieces, we took on a long journey to find a reliable plater here in China than can help us produce high quality, hypoallergenic vermeil jewelry.

About six months ago, we finally found a plater specialized in electronic components that does pure gold plating at our required thickness (at least 2.5 micron, that is 'vermeil'). The only issue we had that the jewelry was slightly dull when it came back in some cases, but nothing a little buffing couldn't solve.

Unfortunately, (and to our horror) a couple of days ago two customers contacted us because their jewelry has tarnished within days (see photos). It seems we are back at square one with our search. In our book, pure gold shouldn't tarnish and we are still not sure what has happened.

     

Our jewelry is made of sterling silver. After polishing and cleaning, we plate all pieces with an anti-tarnishing solution. We are not sure what this solution is entirely made of because of trade secrets, but it has served us extremely well in terms of preventing tarnishing and wearing comfort. We also tested it for any metals that are either dangerous, allergenic, or irritant, and nothing came up. After we apply the anti-tarnish, we send the items we want to have gold plated out to the plater. We are not entirely sure about this, but we think that our plater is using cyanide based solutions. If the jewelry looks dull after the plating, we lightly buff it with rouge, clean it in the ultrasonic and rinse with distilled water afterwards. Finally, all jewelry is sterilized in a hospital grade autoclave (steam under vacuum at 120 °C for around an hour, with a drying cycle at the end of it).
After confronting the plater with the corrosion problem our two clients have encountered, there has been a lot of discussions, but no clear explanation of what happened, nor a solution. So far, our guess is that:

1. On a few pieces we removed the anti-tarnish plating because we had to touch them up before sending them out to the plater, so with these pieces the plater applied the gold plate directly on sterling silver. So it might be the silver has migrated through the gold plating, but it is unlikely since the plating should be at least 2.5 micron thick.
2. The solution the plater used was contaminated or low in gold and therefore the plating was somehow defective (micro cracks, porosity etc) or had impurities which reacted with sweat, tap water, pool water or cosmetic products the customer was using. Or the plater made any other kind of mistake we can't think of.
3. We weren't careful enough when buffing the jewelry after the gold plate. We either physically damaged the plating, or residuals from the rouge or the solution of the supersonic bath we used are causing problems. The solution of the supersonic bath is 98% distilled water with a non-toxic, ammonia [on eBay or Amazon]-free, soapy cleaning agent.

We think in the future we will
1. avoid sending the plater any jewelry that doesn't have anti tarnish plating.
2. Polish the jewelry with any products after the plate.
3. Change plater. We already have sent samples out to one candidate. When they come back, we will send them to the lab to run three tests on them: thickness, safety (what metals the plating contains, something we do routinely to make sure there are no dangerous or irritating contaminants in the alloys) and a salt spray test (not sure yet for how long though). But since we are not really sure what went wrong with the current plater, we don't know if this will solve our problem for sure.

We are thinking also of:
1. Heat the jewelry at air to around 400 °C after the plating, or do short salt spray test to be able to single out any pieces that show signs of tarnish. We would need to buy an oven and/or a salt spray chamber to be able to run these tests on site.

To save your time, here is what we think won't work:
1. Applying an e-coat since we really don't know what it is made of, some types contain PVC, and some can be irritant. Besides, it shouldn't be necessary if the plating is done well because pure gold doesn't tarnish, right?
2. Use nickel plating as a base to increase adhesion because some people are allergic to it.
3. Use PVD or TiN because some of our jewelry contains gems that would be damaged in the process. Setting the stones after plating would be difficult for how our production process is set up.

So, in case any of you has another idea of what went wrong or has any suggestions on how to move on from here, we would be really glad. Also, in case someone can suggest a reliable partner with operations in China that does pure gold, or another kind of high quality gold vermeil plating, please let us know.

Marwin Chen
- Kunmin Yunnan, China

Ed. note: Sorry, this RFQ is old & outdated, so contact info is no longer available. However, if you feel that something technical should be said in reply, please post it; no public commercial suggestions please ( huh? why?)

A. Silver will migrate right thru gold, you must have a barrier layer like nickel or palladium.

Robert H Probert
Robert H Probert Technical Services

Garner, North Carolina

August 12, 2021