Metal finishing Q&As since 1989

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Silver Plating Safely

Alas, I too have searched for a simple recipe for silver plating, one I could drop in my wife's recipe box in the kitchen. And she has that big Pyrex mixing bowl, and the flashlight in the kitchen drawer takes D-cells...almost a complete electroplating lab! Everything AND the kitchen sink!

I haven't found the holy grail of home-brew silver plating-yet. I managed a paint shop on a military base for a while. I had several binders packed with MSDS's. There is stuff out there that can get you.

Used fixer for developing photographs is supposed to work. The fixer dissolves the unexposed silver from the photographs, so it seems like a step in the right direction. Used fixer should already have lots of silver in it too. I just can't get up the nerve to walk into the one-hour photo with a 5-gallon bucket. I just bought a pint of fresh fixer concentrate for four bucks from a photography supplier. I also got a 10 troy oz. bar of silver from a metal recycler for $50. Now that's an anode! Maybe someday I'll sell them back a half dissolved bar. In the meantime I'll be paying more attention to the price of silver! I think it's going to work. My only fear is that the silver bar will dissolve and nothing will happen. I'll be trying it any day now. If it works I'll scan a pix of my silver penny and send it to you. I just have to wait until the wife is away for a while.

Tom Haycock
- Woods Cross, UT, USA
2001