What is nickel silver? Plating/replating issues

A. Neither, Connie. A scrap yard might give you a couple of dollars for the base metal, but nickel-silver contains no silver, and the silver plating is too thin to recover. Their value is in your attraction to them, their beauty, and their age & rarity. Look on eBay for something roughly similar by Albert Pick & Co. to see what people are asking (not necessarily getting).

Luck & Regards,

A. Hello Barbara!

Nickel silver is a family of copper-zinc-nickel alloys, generally thought of as Copper Development Association (CDA) alloys 745 to 782, containing somewhere between 55-72% copper, 10-18% nickel, and 10-27% zinc. Color ranges from ivory to silvery white, and while they have good resistance to corrosion, you should avoid exposure to ammonia ⇦this on eBay or Amazon [affil links] and its solutions.

A. Hi Barbara. Most silver plated flatware is made of nickel-silver (which contains no silver), but then has an electroplating of real silver on it. Yes, the silver plating is thin and does eventually wear through. Usually you'll see it in the spoons first, as you notice that the recess of the spoon is a different color than closer to the edges. Usually you will also start getting a metallic taste when the silver has worn off and your tongue is touching nickel-silver.

Regards,

"Electrodeposition of Alloys: Principles & Practice"
by Abner Brenner

on AbeBooks

or eBay or

Amazon

(affil links)

A. Hi Chris. I am not certain offhand whether this alloy is possible to electrodeposit. Some alloys can be plated, if suitable complexing agents can be developed that can retard the more noble metal from plating out preferentially, whereas some other alloys remain not electrodepositable.

Brenner has a page or so about it, and he doesn't seem to consider it likely.

But please describe your situation rather than casting the proposition in the abstract. If you have thousands of objects that absolutely must be plated with german silver, and no substitution will work, a shop may be interested in trying to develop the process with you. But if you have only a few parts, it may be possible and necessary to suggest an available substitute. Good luck!

Regards,

A. Why would anyone want to plate with nickel silver? This alloy was originally developed as a base to be plated with other metals, especially true silver. I would guess that ordinary nickel plate would be the metal most similar and would give a much better surface. Rhodium or chrome would also be quite similar in appearance, while tin would give the closest non-tarnishing appearance to real silver. And then again, there is real silver plate, which would tarnish, but can be easily cleaned for a good color.

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Hi, Emmit.

Thanks. I'm beginning to think that maybe Chris was looking for silver plating on his/her nickel-silver items and that we misunderstood his need.

To clarify for readers who are finding themselves lost, silver plated flatware and service items are often made of nickel-silver (which contains no silver), and are electroplated with silver. When the silver plating wears off, the flatware has a metallic taste as well as a poor appearance.

Regards,

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

A. Hi, Shelagh.

If you previously used this pickle bath, you dissolved some copper into it. When you immerse a less noble metal into it, like a zinc-bearing nickel-silver, the copper will immersion deposit onto the nickel-silver. This is a very thin coating, though, which should come off. If the pickle was really aggressive, it may have dissolved enough zinc to leave the alloy too copper rich. I'm not sure that it would really be a clean fix but, silver deposits onto copper in the same way, so you could try putting the articles into silver nitrate or a commercial silvering solution .

Good luck.

Regards,

A. Hi Kathy. Sorry but I don't know what you mean by "nickel and silver" flatware. "Silverplate" is flatware that looks just like sterling silver flatware, but is actually made of silver plated nickel silver (there is no silver in nickel silver). Is that what you mean?

Here is a photo of a sterling teaspoon, a silverplate tablespoon, and a stainless teaspoon. The two silver items are somewhat tarnished so they have a slightly yellowish cast. If the tarnish is removed, they will have a definite whitish cast compared to the blue-ish cast of stainless steel.

Does your flatware look like this silverplate? If so, you can clean it with silver polish, but you might also be interested in letter 4785, "Polishing Silver with Aluminum Foil and washing soda ⇦this on eBay or Amazon [affil links] ". But if the middles of the bowls of your spoons are a different color than the edges, the silver plating has worn away. Good luck.

Regards,

A. Hi Senthil. German silver is a copper-nickel-zinc alloy and is probably not commercially electrodepositable. But why would you want to cover over "real silver" with a cheap, poor imitation of silver?

You may have a good reason, but my guess is you may be misunderstanding something! Please suggest what it is that you wish to plate, and why? Lots of lost motion like this with no actionable answers is the usual result od Abstract questions :-)
Thanks.

Regards,

C'mon Boby, we enjoy trying to help, but ...

It's already noted twice on this page that such an electrolyte is unlikely; a close color match sounds unlikely ... but a reference book was cited if you want to research it.

It's suggested that people who say they want to electrodeposit "german silver" are usually misunderstanding what german silver is.

Please tell us what it is that you want to plate (and whether it's one piece or a million), and why you want to plate something that is already german silver with more german silver because it's a strange request. Thanks!

Luck & Regards,

"Electrodeposition of Alloys: Principles & Practice"
by Abner Brenner

on AbeBooks

or eBay or

Amazon

(affil links)

A. Hi again.
<= Brenner discusses copper-nickel-zinc alloys on pp. 605-606 of volume 1, but doesn't believe that more than 10 micron has been achieved, so I don't think you'll find any electrolyte to achieve it ... but you're certainly welcome to try! If you can find these papers anywhere, Brenner references Faust & Montillon "The Electrodeposition of Copper, Nickel, and Zinc Alloys from Cyanide Solutions", a 3-part series published in vol. 65, 67, and 73 of Transactions of the Electrochemical society from 1934-1938; and Izgaryshev & Ravikiovich, "The Electrolytic Preparation of Copper-Zinc-Nickel Alloy", Zhur, Obshchei Khim 1939.

I don't understand how your EDS was able to determine the thickness and composition of a plating layer on a substrate of the identical composition as the plating, but best of luck with your project.

Regards,