Summary for immersion tin plating Discussion
Immersion tin plating on sterling silver jewelry was asked about by Dan Daniel Kurkcu, who wanted to know whether PCB immersion tin crystals from eBay would work on silver. Marvin Sevilla answered that yes, it should work because it is really displacement plating rather than true immersion plating. He also noted a practical problem: tin and silver are so similar in color that it may be hard to tell whether the plating succeeded. For better results, he suggested copper plating the jewelry first and then tin plating it. Marvin added that tin on copper jewelry can look beautiful, and questioned why tin plate silver at all if the end result is still a white, silvery finish.
Q.
Hello
I am trying to plate Sterling Silver jewelry with tin. I came across PCB Immersion tin plating crystals on eBay .
Would immersion tin plating solution work on silver?
Thank you.
Dan
Daniel Kurkcu
hobbyist – Middlesex
October 19, 2015
A. Yes, it will work as it’s really not immersion plating (displacement plating), but since Silver and Tin have similar tone of color it will be difficult to see if the plating was successful or not, I would copper plate it first then Tin plate it.
I find Tin plating to be as beautiful as silver on copper jewelry, but I would like to know why the need to tin plate silver since you will end up with similar results (white silvery finish).
Marvin Sevilla
– Managua, Nicaragua
October 19, 2016