Gold Plating

[bagsy]

Hi All, I will try in my best way to help clear the gold plating myths up a little. 18ct & 14ct gold are the hardest alloy of gold, harder than 9ct gold. Most gold plating is done by tank, if you used jewellers tank plating solution of 18ct, it would not last too long. There are so many modern formulations that make such a difference. Tank plating gold will typically have between 2 - 4 gms of gold per one litre of solution. However there are gold’s formulated with 8gms of gold per litre of solution with cobalt as an additive as this hardens the 24ct gold plating. Not to get too deep into microns (thickness), but as an example 1micron of 24ct cobalt hardened gold will last on a mobile phone for about 2-3 years. Typically if you put on 18ct tank plating gold with 2-4gms of gold per litre of solution to 1 micron thickness, you would be looking at the gold on the phone lasting months not years. Just to make things more complicated, 24ct gold formulated from one chemist may not be the same from another, even if they both have cobalt as a hardener. The chemists keep their formulations close to their chest and who can blame them. So it is a minefield and all is not what it seems sometime. In my experience, some of the gold plating from manufactures can only be described as flash coatings and you can rub them off so easily. Sweat, polishes and so on, also make a huge difference to gold plate. The right knowledge on how to look after the gold plate goes a long way. I have had people almost in tears with very expensive guitars that have been over exuberant cleaning and took the gold off. So take care and always seek good advice rather than hearsay. I tend to use top quality gold as it is cheaper in the long run. For cleaning guitar paint work or gold hardwear, check out a product called ultra-ion as it is water based and I don't think it has any silocen. Regards, Graham Baker

[s4wgb]

Thank you for posting Graham.Can you recomend a place to purchase this from?

[bagsy]

Try here ........http://www.waterless-wash.com/ultraion.htm

[s4wgb]

Sent them a nice email asking if they ship the UK etc.
And there reply was one word NO.
I thought thank you very much!

[bagsy]

Sorry, should have given you this link http://www.go-waterless.co.uk/prod/172/ ... wash-500ml

[s4wgb]

Thank you Graham.I have purchased some