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Gold Plating Problems with Jewelry, How to make gold plating last longer? PVD?




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Long lasting gold plating for jewelry

Q. I am a jewelry designer based in Los Angeles. For my costume jewelry line, I want to provide my clients with a cheaper alternative to gold fill - the gold plated chain and findings available on the market tarnish within a month of use, however I am looking for something that will last much longer, at least 2 years of everyday use, but not necessarily as long as gold fill. A rough example, a 1.5 mm box chain necklace would cost $2.00 for gold plated brass, and $30 for gold fill. I am ideally looking to spend somewhere in between without compromising on the thickness of the chain.

I have gotten pieces plated in LA before, however the platers were never able to tell me the exact thickness of the plate. They did tell me it was much less than even 1 micron. The plating they applied did not last very long at all and tarnished within a month or two.

How many microns (or less) of plating is necessary to make the plating last for about 2 years of everyday use? As I mentioned I'm looking to pay the equivalent between basic gold plating and gold fill.

I also read on here about some coatings that can be applied on top to protect the plated brass, can someone advise me about these? By how much longer do they increase the lifespan of the plating?

Sarah Minra
designer - Northridge, California, USA
May 10, 2016


A. Hi Sarah. This subject has been beat to death on this thread and a dozen like it, so every answer you seek is on this site if you have the patience. Gold can easily be plated from a barely visible thickness of 1/6 micron or so to 100X that. Very heavy hard gold plating can be a final finish that can last for years, but most gold plating is much thinner and requires clear-coating to survive any time at all. Gold colored titanium nitride in lieu of some or all of the gold is another potential solution.

Gold is expensive and most of the world has been working desperately to use almost none of it. Just a few years ago, one micron of gold was the standard for costume jewelry; now the biggest issue seems to be simply finding a shop willing to reliably do plating of a quarter that thickness. If the shops you are working with don't know and don't care what thickness of gold they are applying, obviously it is junk. Just above your entry is one from Indonesia where the writer still applies over 3 microns of hard gold, so such suppliers still exist.

Regards,

pic of Ted Mooney
Ted Mooney, P.E. RET
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
May 2016




Q. Thank you for the response! I spoke with a plater in LA yesterday and explained my issue and he suggested buying sterling silver pieces instead of brass and plating gold over them (I believe this is vermeil?) He said gold tends to last a lot longer over sterling silver compared to gold over brass.

As I mentioned, gold plated brass chain can cost $2 and the same chain in gold fill is $30 and I wanted to stay somewhere in between. I'm wondering if going the route of plating gold over sterling silver will give me a long lasting gold finish and allow me to stay in the price range I wanted to. Any advise on this would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

Sarah Minta [returning]
- Northridge, California, USA
May 12, 2016




How can I gold plate a brass handle on a walking stick at home?

Q. Help, I am making a Walking Stick/Cane and it has a brass handle. I polish it and it turns dark and stains my skin. I have tried several clear coats. They help for a while but it chips and or wears off in spots and tarnishes again. I would like to know if there is a way for me to plate the brass with gold so that I would not have to keep removing the clear coat and tarnish and polishing and coating it again every few weeks...
...

...I would like to know if there is a low cost way that I can do it at home. If anyone can offer help on clear coating. One that is strong and hard.
I thank you for your help.
Ric

Ric Crio
Hobbyist - North Carolina, USA
July 11, 2016


A. Hi Ric. Sorry for your medical misfortunes and the ill treatment you received from a cruise line, but our limited time and bandwidth forces us to focus on the metal finishing side of things and not get drawn into posting comments and retorts and clarifications and rebuttals and second opinions about cruise line complaints, etc.

You could gold plate this brass handle, but gold plating solutions are expensive, about $400 for a quart, and you would still need a plating rectifier and some expertise.

I would suggest trying several (4 or 5) very light coats of brass lacquer instead.

Regards,

pic of Ted Mooney
Ted Mooney, P.E. RET
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
July 2016



Q. I have some old gold coins. I could try making a mold of the handle and casting it. Or try just dipping it into melted gold to coat it. It shouldn't take more than a few hundred coins. Would gold, 22K, stick to brass? Would I have to treat the brass in some way first?

Ric Crio [returning]
Hobbyist - North Carolina, USA
July 12, 2016


A. Hi. That's not how gold plating is done. It's done with electricity in a water-based solution usually containing potassium gold cyanide. It's not trivial to the point where it can be done with surplus gold coins.

The melting point of gold is higher than the melting point of brass, which is one reason you can't do it via hot dipping.

Yes, you probably could cast a replacement out of solid gold by melting a few hundred coins as you propose. But weigh your brass handle, multiply by 2-1/4 because gold is about 2-1/4 times as heavy as brass, and multiply by the value of gold, about $1300 per Troy ounce for the value of that brass walking stick handle. Depending on the exact design, it sounds like about $25,000. If you have that many gold coins, I think you'd be better off buying a gold plated replacement, which would cost about 1% to 3% of that.

Regards,

pic of Ted Mooney
Ted Mooney, P.E. RET
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
July 2016




August 22, 2016

Q. Hello

Is 50 µm much gold plating? is that nearly 400 mils?

I found a company here that sells chains, is 50um real 18k gold over stainless steel 316L.

Is that good quality? will last long time?

And this gold over 925 sterling silver, (2.5 microns of gold) is that better buy?

If I am looking for gold plating is which is the best plated chain? is it over silver or brass or copper or stainless steel?

Best regards

Far Farre
Sweden & Los Angeles, california, usa


A. Hi Far. "Nobody" anywhere is doing 50 micron (µm) gold plating (which would be 200 ^2 mils). Jewelry made of 316L with 50 µm of gold cladding would be beyond fantastic quality and would last essentially forever. But as mentioned earlier, sales blurbs are not meant to technically inform you, and you could easily be misreading something :-(

2.5 microns of gold over sterling silver can be called "vermeil" and is very good quality jewelry but 2.5 µm does not compare to 50 µm :-)

Regards,

pic of Ted Mooney
Ted Mooney, P.E. RET
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
August 2016



Thanks for the answer.

The company still says it's 50 µm of gold, cost about 70 dollars for 50 gram figaro chain.

Do you know any good company that sells very good vermeil chains? (byzantine or figaro)

Those companies that are on eBay that sells vermeil are they good? The chain are made in Italy and stamped 925 and 2.5 microns of gold over and the figaro chain has ITProlux anti tarnish over.

How about this Gold overlay? I found some that are stamped 18K GL made in Brazil, all on eBay

Far Farre [returning]
- Los Angeles, california, usa
August 25, 2016


A. Hi again. It would probably be difficult or impossible for a trained jeweler to compare such stuff from sales blurbs, and nobody can say which items are real vs. counterfeit. But that's the thing with jewelry, you buy it for what you perceive as beauty, you don't buy it to make money as a precious metals speculator. You could see if Consumer Reports or your better business bureau or your state's consumer protection agency has any bad reports on companies, but you can't get brand recommendations from a "no registration required" anonymous public forum because salespeople just pose as satisfied customers :-)

We can continue to explain what terms like vermeil mean, but that's about it. I am rather surprised that vermeil would have an anti-tarnish coating on it, as I thought it was thick enough and corrosion resistant enough to have no need for it. Good luck.

Regards,

pic of Ted Mooney
Ted Mooney, P.E. RET
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
August 2016



August 26, 2016

Q. Thanks again

I am going to buy a figaro chain, and solid gold is too expensive, so is vermeil better than gold filled?

1. Here is one vermeil chain I am thinking of:
[deleted by editor]

2. This too is interesting
[deleted by editor]

3. and this is the last one but is it gold overlay:
[deleted by editor]
Far farre [last name deleted for privacy by Editor]
- Los Angeles USA


A. Hi again. Sorry, but we cannot post your request for people to tell you which of the three brands/sellers is "better", for the reasons we mentioned. For my personal taste vermeil is "better" than gold filled.
But #1 said nothing about vermeil, it just says "color: yellow" -- it could contain no gold at all with that description.
#2 said 14K gold, but no indication of thickness at all -- it may contain only 10 cents worth of gold, or not even (no way to tell) since the thickness is not mentioned. #3 says "18K gold layer", but again no indication at all of thickness. I personally don't know what that means, if anything.

I've tried to tell you why people can't do what you want, i.e., tell you which chain is "better" based on a sales blurb -- from resellers offering jewelry with no brand names, no less; it's a fool's errand. Please go by seller's reputation or a recommendation from a friend who has one. No matter how you value your time, you've already spent the $10.99 cost of the cheapest of the three :-)

Regards,

pic of Ted Mooney
Ted Mooney, P.E. RET
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
August 2016



Q. Hello

This ION plating or PVD is that better than vermeil chain, because I saw the gold is electroplated on sterling silver?

Now I'm talking about ion plating on real 316L stainless steel.

Thanks!

Far Farre [returning]
- Los Angeles USA
August 30, 2016


PVD gold coatings are not gold. They are a hard nitride, basically tool coatings. If deposited properly, PVD coatings are extremely hard and durable. For this reason, several industries have gone away from gold plating to PVD, including faucetry and door hardware.

jim treglio portrait
Jim Treglio - scwineryreview.com
PVD Consultant & Wine Lover - San Diego,
California

August 31, 2016




Q. Hi all!

I have a question. I am a young woman and I have a really successful jewelry line in 925 sterling gold and 18 carat gold plated jewelry. We sell a lot online, BUT we get a lot of returns back about the plating. We have the jewelry made in China and they said they plate it a couple of times and they liquid it with medical fluid.

I really want to keep the gold plating last longer because I don't know what to do anymore with it. I am not a professional in plating and gold business, so can please someone help me with this question? I would really appreciate it!

Thanks a lot!

Tessa De Vries
Designer - Amsterdam
September 2, 2016


A. Hi Tessa. If you're making important money, you should consider retaining a plating consultant. It is difficult to make real suggestions when we don't know what you are ordering or what you are getting or what the price sensitivity is.

But it is most certainly possible to get gold plating that is thick enough or that has a capable enough clearcoat or which is backed up with titanium nitride (TiN) coloring to easily solve the return problem and last many years.

There probably are capable jewelry plating shops in Amsterdam or within easy travel distance which can deliver super quality; if that's not an affordable approach, they can offer you the knowledge to specify a process so you can have the jewelry plated properly in China. A problem which we talk about frequently here is that, while Chinese manufacturers can do a great job for companies like Apple, when you are in the position of just "throwing it over the wall" and hoping for the best, rather than controlling the manufacturing process, it's very difficult to get quality work.

You can probably afford and specify significantly thicker gold plating, which would last on its own, but which is expensive. Or you can apply a good protective clearcoat so it is the clearcoat rather than the gold which resists wear. If the volume is high, you can probably afford to have TiN applied by a PVD process before the gold plating. TiN is gold colored (you can see it on drills in a home improvement store) and is very hard and long-wearing, and inexpensive. The idea is for you to do TiN plus gold plating, and then the jewelry will remain gold colored even if the plating wears.

If you can offer more info, we can probably offer more help. Good luck.

Regards,

pic of Ted Mooney
Ted Mooney, P.E. RET
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
September 2016


A. Hi Tessa. We frequently see jewelry items that are gold plated in Asia that our customers ask us to measure the gold thickness. It's usually 0.02 to 0.05 microns of gold thickness which is very thin and will not withstand much wear. I'd recommend that you ask for 1 to 3 microns thickness and verify.

Neil Bell
Red Sky Plating
supporting advertiser
Albuquerque, New Mexico
redsky
September 5, 2016




Q. Hi,

Sorry, I've got a question again, hope you can help me! I've asked it the manufacturer in China, but he said the TiN is poisonous which will harm people, so that's why they don't use it. Do you have any experience on that? Please let me know!

Kind regards and thanks again,

Tessa De Vries
Designer - Amsterdam
September 5, 2016


A. Hi Tessa. I think Neil is on the right track that you simply need significantly thicker gold plating for your high end jewelry, but TiN is certainly not poisonous or harmful. It is applied as a substitute for gold in some applications like bathroom faucets, and in combination with gold plating on high end watches. The problem is probably that the vendor can't offer it.

The thing about TiN is that it is relatively inexpensive when applied in volume because Ti is not a precious metal like gold is. But TiN cannot be electroplated; it must be deposited from a $1M+ Physical Vapor Deposition (PVD) chamber, so it's not suited to low volume items or to small, low capital, plating shops.

Regards,

pic of Ted Mooney
Ted Mooney, P.E. RET
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
September 2016


thumbs up signHi

I found a manufacturer that makes gold double chains that are made in Sweden.

It is brass core and over it 10 microns of gold, but they cost! It's about 7mm wide and 50 gram heavy and costs 500 dollars!!

Would I buy it? NO, it has no second-hand value; you can't sell it to a pawn shop; it's only gold surface and expensive.

For 500 dollars you can get real gold.

Far Farre [returning]
- Dallas Oregon usa
September 23, 2016




October 20, 2016

Q. Hello,
Thanks to all for all this information. I read through this thread and got confused about one question I have now.

Let's see if I understood it correctly by summarizing some... Using Gold IP plating (which is a PVD method of depositing gold) is much better (more durable) than electroplating. PVD requires less gold, much less.
For costume jewellery with PVD 0.5 micron would be good quality (to last years)
For electroplating a few micron would be necessary to last years.
This is still all without clear top coatings, which would enhance durability even more.

Now come my doubts:
- In the first posts of this thread it is said that with IP plating one should first deposit TiN and then electroplate the gold on top. So, the gold is not deposited by PVD? Or is it / can it be?

- It was not clear to me if top clear coat is only customary with electroplating, not with PVD, as it would not be needed. What is usual?

- My supplier says he uses 0.035 µm Gold IP plating (fashion jewellery). Sounds very little to me but jewellery looks very good and is tried (by wearing) to be also durable compared to electroplating items purchased from China (not sure yet if years).

- Supplier says that with IP plating you cannot specify a Gold Karats, as with electroplating, because of the method of deposition. True or false?

Thanks for all the help in advance!

Regards,

Sicco Schets
- Ojén, Malaga, Spain


A. Hi Sicco. A problem in understanding this stuff is that gold is a precious metal but it is also a color ... and people are sometimes not careful in explaining which one they are speaking of. Further, their main interest is sometimes to induce you to buy by keeping you confused, rather than to technically inform you.

wikipedia
Ion Plating

Titanium Nitride is gold in color, but it is not gold. Gold metal does not "stick better" or "wear better" when applied by PVD than by electroplating, but gold colored titanium nitride (which cannot be electroplated, but must be applied by PVD) wears much better than real gold metal. To add further confusion, although Titanium nitride is approximately the color of gold, it is possible to get the color of the article even more realistic by applying a thin coating of real gold on top of it. So your vendor is telling you that they are applying 0.035 microns of real gold, but there is gold colored titanium nitride underneath it, sufficient to last a reasonable time. If your item contains well under 1¢ worth of gold it's probably a bit silly to worry what karat it is :-)

Regards,

pic of Ted Mooney
Ted Mooney, P.E. RET
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
November 2016



November 2, 2016

Q. Thank you very much Ted,

So if my vendor says he uses IP plating and deposits 0.035 µm of gold, you believe this must be on top of a PVD deposited layer of TiN?

Maybe I should rephrase my question: IP plating of only gold, without TiN underneath, is not possible or usual?

Furthermore, I'd like to understand better (for my communication with suppliers):
1) whether a top clear coat is, or not necessary or usual with PVD.
2) If gold, in IP plating, is typically electroplated on top of PVD TiN (as mentioned in 1st post)

Thanks again and best regards,
Sicco

Sicco Schets [returning]
- Ojen, Malaga, Spain



Hi again,
sorry, just now Ted's last sentence sunk in.

Well, my interest in how many karats the gold is, is because of the color. 24k gold is much more orange-like, than 14k gold, which is more yellowish, at least in my beliefs so far. And I believe that TiN color is more 14k (or even 10k) gold color.

As I understand it, the karats in gold refer to the purity of gold, unlike the karats of a diamond, where it indeed measure the size (or weight). And whence the karts defines its gold color intensity.

Best regards,
Sicco

Sicco Schets [returning]
- Ojen, Malaga, Spain
November 2, 2016


A. Hi again Sicco. This is getting repetitive, but it is possible to electroplate a layer of gold that is thick enough that it can last a very long time without any IP plating, PVD process, clearcoats or anything -- just the gold plating. See the earlier answers for a discussion of these thicknesses. But most people consider it economically prohibitive to apply that much gold these days, so they either put a TiN (gold colored) deposit under the gold or in place of the gold, or they put a clearcoat on top of the gold plating so it wears away slower. It's not that you can't deposit 0.035 µm of gold except on TiN, it's that this coating is so very thin that you probably won't get a good saturated gold color in the first place, and it would wear away in a day or so anyway.

A clearcoat on straight TiN without any real gold present probably wouldn't make much sense because the TiN is more wear resistant than the clear coat. But if you have TiN followed by an extremely thin layer of actual gold, I imagine some people would clearcoat it to retain the best gold color longer.

Yes, gold karats refer to the purity, 24k being 100% pure, 12K being 50% pure, etc; whereas diamond carats refer to the size or weight.

Regards,

pic of Ted Mooney
Ted Mooney, P.E. RET
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
June 2017



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