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Blackening Nickel Plated Items
-----Q. I have some nickel plated items I would like to blacken. Any suggestions. I know nickel is pretty resistant to oxidation.
Steve Krevekplating - Bismarck, North Dakota, USA
2006
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A. Immersion in 50% nitric acid, warm (say 120 °F) for 10-20 seconds will blacken nickel.  Jeffrey Holmes, CEF Spartanburg, South Carolina 2006 A. Oil it very very sparingly with boiled linseed oil ⇦ on eBay or Amazon [affil link] (or any other edible oil or fat), then heat it slowly to 400 °C. Repeat if needed. Instead of oil you can use 20% shellac solution.Good luck! Goran Budija- Cerovski vrh Croatia 2006 |
Q. I currently procure a cable strain relief that is made from nickel plated brass. I am required to blacken this part. Does anyone know of a good process for this. I was told that I should try black zinc coat, but this might oxidize quickly as this part will be mostly used outdoors.
carlos santos- Billerica, Massachusetts
August 23, 2018
A. Hi Carlos. I think the most robust solution would probably be either black chrome plating or black electroless nickel plating.
You will be plating onto articles which have weeks-old or years-old nickel plating on them, which will be very passive. You can try activating it with a Wood's Nickel Strike ⇦ huh? before plating ... but definitely run samples before committing to the process. Good luck.
Regards,
Ted Mooney, P.E. RET
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