And you may ask yourself, 'how do I work this?'

2/7/05 04:12 pm

I have purchased a piece of silverplate. It is quite a pleasing form- however, it's had some of its silver scratched off here and there.
I am told that there are means of easily electroplating silver in your spare time, in the privacy of your own home; I haven't found any indications of how to do this, though.
Does anyone have suggestions?

netdancer
2/8/05 12:26 am (UTC)

http://www.caswellplating.com/kits/plugnplate.htm
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- colubra
  2/8/05 12:34 am (UTC)
  
  Well shit, that looks workable indeed.
  
  Have you used this? Do you know how well it works?
  - netdancer
    2/8/05 12:45 am (UTC)
    
    Nope, but I've done metal plating in labs, and it looks workable. The company seems reputable, too. They sell all manner of interesting stuff.
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surreality
2/8/05 12:26 am (UTC)

I know silver -leafing- is workable... but silver plating tends to require quite a few highly poisonous chemicals, last I heard. A woman I took a few classes from was looking into it, along with electroforming, and she found that copper was the only "safe" metal to work with in-home, I believe.

I do know you can send it off to places that do restorations on silver plate, though.
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sinick
2/8/05 12:46 am (UTC)

There are also solutions that deposit a layer of silver.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=1216&item=3780085545
http://shop.store.yahoo.com/dotcoms/nusilver209007.html
http://www.speed-demon.supanet.com/replate.htm

I have never used them so I cannot comment on their effectiveness.
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darkemoone
2/8/05 09:21 am (UTC)

My godfather is an antiques dealer who just so happens to deal mostly in antique silver and silverplate. I believe he knows how to electroplate. If you like, I can give you his phone number, and perhaps he might be able to tell you.
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- colubra
  2/10/05 03:29 am (UTC)
  
  I'd be interested, yes- or if he has a restoration specialist he uses, that'd be worth it too.
  I like the damn vase, and I'm finding that the silverplate is WAY too thin (just using the water-and-aluminium method of de-tarnishing it has wound up with several high points of the mold being de-silvered!)
  - My Godfather's number:
    darkemoone
    2/12/05 09:10 pm (UTC)
    
    Richard Knapp Antiques
    Richard Knapp (925) 254.6014 or (925)654.8931
    
    Just tell him Astra pointed you in his direction, and I'm sure he'd be happy to help you out.
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aaronthemad
2/9/05 01:47 am (UTC)

I could have sworn I've seen Mr. Wizard do this once. He just took one of those 4-inch rectangular batteries, and ran some cables from it with alligator clips. He clipped the negative cable to a piece of silver and the positive cable to a metal object to be electroplated, and dropped them both in a beaker full of water and let science do the rest.

But it's been a long time since I saw that. It may have been copper rather than silver, it may have been some solution other than water (salt water?), and the poles of the battery may have been reversed. The Wikipedia article reminds me that it's metal ions passing through the water that do the plating, so the target object would probably have to be clipped to the negative post, since metal ions are generally positive.

It doesn't seem like it would be dangerous to experiment with. At least, the risk of electrocution is low if you're dealing with a battery (smaller than a car battery) rather than a wall socket. I guess the battery might rupture and leak battery acid if you treated it wrong.

A quick google search for "how to electroplate silver" indicates that it may be more complicated than I suggest, to do a good job of it.
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