RAW MATERIAL TO MAKE UP NICKEL BRIGHTENER

Hi, cousin Nick. Generic brighteners and addition agents for nickel plating are rather thoroughly explained in ASM Metals Handbook, Vol. 5. These generic agents may prove fine for hobbyists and small users, and meet your needs, and I hope this helps.

But if you are asking how to make modern brighteners similar to those offered by the major suppliers, unfortunately those are proprietary. That question has come up many times now -- see threads 6205, 11172, and 316/92 for a few starting threads. But unlike other requests for information, this one often meets with hostility. So, for the benefit of those new to the industry who wonder what is going on, I thought I'd take a moment to explain "Why all the hostility"? --

The plating industry is a strange one. Throughout its history, the sale of proprietary nickel brighteners has been the single dominant economic force that made the whole thing viable. All of the journals published in this industry, and all of the societies serving it, and all the university research sponsored by those societies, all of the scholarships awarded, plus the technical conferences held for the industry, and the subsidized local newsletters and meetings, are only available to us all thanks to support from the suppliers who manufacture and sell those proprietaries. Additionally, there are many people who, as a result of their former employment with these suppliers, know how to make nickel brighteners, but who, out of a sense of ethical obligation, remain silent instead of cashing in.

You are certainly absolutely welcome to enter the fray and to make and sell your own brighteners, folks! But it is natural for some people to believe (correctly or incorrectly) that if you are not willing to put in decades of costly research yourself, then the only way you can possibly find the answers is if people unethically reveal to you the closely guarded secrets which have made our whole industry viable. Some readers will be resentful and immediately interpret such questions as being: "How can I get around paying my fair share?"

We don't hate questions, we love them; but this one specific question: "How do I make the same brighteners that the suppliers developed through long years of research?" is a tough one to talk about :-)

Good luck and regards,