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Ted Mooney, P.E. RET
Pine Beach, NJ

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Plating of Wood Sculptures

I have a wooden sculpture and would like to plate it with a metal finish, preferably bronze or brass.

Thank you,

David Friedland
- Long Island, New York

Funny that I should read this question today. I was searching for a coating (for a highly technical application) and someone steered me to Luminore. This product seems to be the type of coating you are looking for. It appears to be some type of (proprietary) polymer matrix with metal added. It seems appropriate for art work. They claim it can be applied to wood and various other substrates. I have no idea if this particular product works as advertised and this is not an endorsement of any sort.

Ronna Erickson
- Amherst, Massachusetts

DEAR FRIEND,

PLATING OF WOOD IS ONE OF THE LOGICAL RESULTS OF PLATING OF POLYESTER. FIRST WOOD IS SEALED WITH USUAL METHOD THAT IS USED IN PAINTING. THEN THE SECOND COAT WILL BE POLYESTER. THEN THE PROCEDURE TO PLATE POLYESTER BEGINS.

Raafat Albendary
electroplating shop - Cairo, EGYPT

There are numerous options, David, depending on exactly what you need.

Simple "metallic" paints are available at any hardware store. Higher quality, better, imitations of metal are available from proprietary multi-step spray painting technologies offered by our advertisers shown in the banner at the upper right corner of this page, and the cold spray metalizing that Ronna mentioned (in the interest of fairness, similar proprietary coatings are available from Liqmet, Metal Facades, Metalier, Verometal and probably others).

Mr. Albendary offers a third option--painting with polyester, and then applying plating-on-plastics electroless plating technology. A fourth possibility is the application of a conductive paint or two-part silvering solution, available from companies like G.J. Nikolas [a finishing.com supporting advertiser], and then electroplating that. Good luck.

Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey

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