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Silver plating Musical instruments

Quickstart:
     Nearly all silver plating is done from cyanide solutions, which are deadly poison unsuitable for home/hobbyist use. If a hobbyist wants to experiment with silver plating, there are some cyanide-free approaches, but musical instruments are very difficult to electroplate for several reasons: large size, need for careful masking of internals & moving parts, possible tone changes, etc. -- so to add to the difficulty by using inferior cyanide-free solutions presents a huge challenge.
     We urge hobbyists who wish to try silver plating to practice on simpler items and scrap rather than risking damaging a precious musical instrument.
     But persevering readers will find most of what they wish to know in this thread.

[editor appended this entry to this thread which already addresses it in lieu of spawning a duplicative thread]
Q. Hi everyone,
I could use some insight. I work in musical instrument manufacturing and we are looking for ways to make the horn airtight for plating to avoid the inadvertent plating of the inside of the horn. We have made solid valve caps, and lead pipe and bell plugs and have been using stick lanolin on the valve slides/main tuning slide to prevent the slides from being plated in place. One of our platers is asking us to not use the lanolin to spare their tank from the lanolin leaching out. We have noticed that where the slides abut, there is some cloudiness in the final result. We experimented with Stop Off, but it's not creating a seal. Does anyone have any advice on how we can go about keeping solution from getting into the horn, while also being something that won't leach into solution. Thank you in advance.

Josh Kane
Shipping Manager - Holliston, Massachusetts
February 10, 2025

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⇩ Related postings, oldest first ⇩

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Q. Not sure I'm asking this question in the right place, but where might I find information about learning to silver plate brass musical instruments? Such as the technical process used, training programs, professional organizations. Thanks in advance.

John Charles Eckberg
- New Hope, Minnesota, USA
2002

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Q. I have been plating iron and copper successfully using a simple ammonium chloride bath. I recently have developed a need for silver plating and wanted to know if a similar bath would be feasible? Or do I have to go with a commercially prepared bath? I want to plate between .0005" and .001" and want to plate from the anode.

Thanks for any help,

Kyle Olson
- Lincoln, Nebraska, USA
2003

Q. Hello. I am a University Graduate student. I have been plating copper photogravure printing plates with Iron using a one pound to one gallon mixture of Ammonium Chloride to Water. I also have been electroforming organic objects with Copper using the same electrolyte solution. (Only the same formula not the same solution bath to plate different metals.) I would like to plate silver onto copper for making photo plates as this is a mandatory step. Would I be able to plate silver using this same solution formula? I will be plating between .0005" and .001" of silver onto my polished copper plates and then polishing the silver surface. I am also plating from the anode for both iron and copper and would like to continue to do so for silver. If I am not able to silver plate using this formula can anyone suggest an alternate formula or must I use a commercially prepared formula? If a commercial formula is mandatory and it is within the policy of the website is there a recommendation as to what will meet my needs? If this will help answer the question I am plating iron to copper in a 30 gallon tank, copper in a sixty gallon tank, and will be making a 2 gallon tank to plate silver. I will be using copper plates that are any where form 4"x5" to 6.5"x8.5". All copper is 32 lb copper. I hope that I sufficiently covered my situation, I reissued this question with more information.

Thank you,

Kyle Olson [returning]
University of Nebraksa Lincoln - Lincoln, Nebraska, USA
2003

Thank you for the informative response. I will do as you suggest and not try this. This does leave me without a plating solution. Do you have a suggestion of a standard, non-proprietary plating formula? Thank you again. Kyle Olson (As a curiosity, I thought fulminates were stable in solution and gained their notoriously explosive nature once in solid form. I thought that meant dry but if they precipitate out and are thus solid that would meet the criteria for "not in solution." Anyway just my curious naivete and not any suggestion of trying this by any means.)

Kyle Olson [returning]
University of Nebraska-Lincoln - Nebraska, USA
2003

Q. Hello again,

I posted a question this summer about the possibility of plating silver with an ammonium chloride bath. (I am attempting to plate silver onto polished copper. I then fume the plate over iodine and bromine. At this point the plate is sensitive to a certain range of light. An exposure is made on the plate and then a development and post development fix the plate. After outsourcing the silver plating we are attempting to do it in house here at the university because we already perform some simple plating of iron and electroforming of copper. )

The response that you gave was very helpful and I again wanted to thank you for the advice. I have since taken your advice and mixed the suggested double cyanide bath. The formula was an older one, as you also told me that is what I would probably be able to find. I have, of course, been following good chemical safety, fume hood at all times, and I enlisted the aid of our chemistry department in working out the formulas for monitoring the silver and free cyanide content of my solution. My question concerns my brightener. My formula suggests .0001 oz/gal of carbon disulfide. It also suggests using "turkey red oil" (or sulphated castor oil to be correct) to "stabilize" the carbon disulfide.

Before adding either of these I wanted to consult experienced experts on whether or not you could suggest
1) a superior brightener either a) proprietary or b) the correct formula/proportions for a non-proprietary additive(s)
2) if you can't lead me to a better brightener, at what ratio should I add the turkey red oil ? my formula is not specific, only that it may be successfully used to stabilize the disulfide. If you suggest a proprietary brightener would you be so kind as to inform me of the company or manufacturer of the product?

Thanks a lot for your past insights and for your time and help with this question.

Kyle Olson [returning]
student - Lincoln, Nebraska, USA

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Q. For making the silver plating solution I am using:
- pure silver anode
- sodium cyanide

It's the correct formula?

Choo Yik Hean
- Malaysia
2004

Ed. note: Unless you are an experienced chemical process supplier, you don't "make" silver plating solution, you buy it.

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Multiple threads merged: please forgive chronology errors and repetition  🙂

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Q. I'm a professional musical instrument repairer specialised in wind instruments, and I read the whole of the input into your site to try to find out more about electroplating. I think the overall message about the dangers involved and in particular the lifetime responsibility for the dangerous products used is very well put. My question is really what is the metal normally used for plating what we call "silver" instruments? Is it really silver? And does it therefore involve really dangerous liquids? Does anyone know of a company doing a musical instrument plating service in the States, in Britain or in Europe? I am thinking seriously of setting up a full scale service myself, applying maximum safety conditions and proper waste disposal. Apart from the advice you may well give me: "DON'T DO IT!" which of the many books would be the best to start with? Thanks in advance - and thanks for the very serious way you treat the problem on your site.

Keith Braithwaite
Musical instrument repairer - La Capelle, Picardy, France
2004

Q. Thanks for getting back to me Ted Mooney and Goran Budija. I'd like to know more about these safer products, Goran. So a ferrocyanide based bath can be fairly easily prepared and is safe to use? I'd like to hear more about that. Any literature on the subject would be interesting too. Thanks very much

Keith Braithwaite [returning]
Instrument repairs - Picardy, France
2004

Many thanks for the formula - once I've finished reading the book and seen more or less how to approach the task from a safety point of view I'll get down to trying it out.

Thanks again

Keith

Keith Braithwaite [returning]
Instrument repairs - France

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Q. I am a woodwind repair technician with no experience plating instruments. I found a company that tells me there is no cyanide in their plating solutions and no concern with respect to toxicity.

Am I being naive or is it possible that they have a truly safe product to use? What do you think? Thanks?

Alan Lefkowitz
- New York
2004

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Refinishing a King Trumpet

Q. Hi I would love to refinish my trumpet. It is a B-flat King. I got it off eBay for $140.00. This Trumpet is in excellent shape. There are no dents. Most of the finish fell off though. I want to get it refinished silver or gold but but at an inexpensive price. If it is possible I would like to refinish the trumpet at home. People in my Band are making fun of me and I can't blame them. (even though it does get annoying)

Thank You

Ben A.
- Florham Park, New Jersey
2007

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Q. I've been working with a plater that silver plates trumpets. He says that he doesn't like to plug the holes of the trumpets because the horns tend to float if air is left in them. I do not want to have plating on the inside of the horn because I think it affects how the horn plays.

He also does not want to risk polluting his solution by filling the horn with water or some other fluid.

I'm suggesting that he plug up all ports of the horn when it is full of plating solution before the plating begins. My question is this: If the horn is under the solution and the openings are plugged up, how much if any of the plating will end up on the inside of the horn from the solution trapped inside?

Gregg Peele
Buyer - Charlotte, North Carolina, USA
May 31, 2009

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!! And here I am fooling around with silver spoons, a power supply, and some type of salts with fruit acids and saccharin and whatnot (for stomach problems) and a few pearls of plumbing cleaner soda ... and plating copper with silver from a spoon. Hehe ... oh, and almost forgot, a couple of cigarette ash taps for the hell of it into the mix; first I reinvented Coca Cola (looks like Silver sulfide) and there is some black version of calcium deposit on one spoon, I used two spoons at first to make the famous soft drink, but then I put the piece of cleaned copper plate back in as anode and it became silvery.
Voltage, I used like 8 V for a while, then 24 V, then 10 V and whatever. I think now it runs at 8V again, lol

Regarding Ag2S, I am going to try an aluminium plate and either nitric acid or baking soda sometime; maybe it makes a silver colloid or something, but that can be drawn out with silver electrodes or something I suppose.
Hehe, I am just fooling around with this out of curiosity.

Mitt Navn
- Enplass, Nordvest, Norway
March 2, 2011

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Q. What is the "silver" plate used on modern musical instruments? In the old days regular silver plating was used. New trumpets are advertised as silver, but are much more durable than before. They also don't tarnish like real silver.

Dwight Johnson
Hobbyist - instrument repair - Wheaton, Illinois USA
August 5, 2011

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Q. Using silver ring as anode, and worn silver plated necklace as cathode, What solutions would work?

Greg Alton
- Evansville, Indiana, U.S.A.
April 5, 2013

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Q. This thread is very helpful. Thank you.

I'm new to plating, educating myself. I'm hoping some posters might chime in to help me. I'm interested in brush plating/pen plating areas of worn-thru plating on a tuba (very large piece). I'm not sure if the mostly intact plating is silver or nickel, but the underlying metal is brass.

Questions:

Does the large size of the piece mean I'l need more amperage?

Do I have the following steps right?

Step 1: Polish worn spots to a mirror finish.

Step 2: Use stainless anode wrapped in a brush/pad for electrocleaning with an alkaline solution, yes?

What alkaline electrocleaning solution do you suggest?

How long?

Step 3: Rinse area to be brush plated with distilled water.

Step 4: Short bath in acid dip.

What acid dip solution do you suggest?

Step 5: Rinse area to be brush plated with distilled water.

Step 6: Brush plate worn-thru areas with silver (or nickel) anode wrapped in a plating gauze soaked in silver (or nickel) pen plating solution.

What pen plating solution and voltage/amperage settings do you suggest?


Most importantly: What do I have all wrong, and/or what am I missing?

Thank you for any suggestions or corrections.

Riccardo Ruotolo
- Columbus, Ohio
November 1, 2020