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  for Metal Finishing since 1989
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What is Woods Nickel Plating?

I am working with a customer to give them some guidance on design for a small stainless steel metal form and I need a spec sheet or description of what Woods Nickel plating is to assist me in completing this inquiry.

Paula Horwath
Metal Stamping - Wheeling, Illinois, USA
2004

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2004

Wood's Nickel is a nickel strike solution invented by Donald Wood [dec.] of Hill-Cross Company [a finishing.com supporting advertiser] for the activation of stainless steel. Stainless steel quickly acquires a natural passivated film which is difficult to remove, and difficult to plate onto with good adhesion. The Wood's Nickel Strike contains a lot of HCl and is designed to simultaneously dissolve the passivation layer and deposit nickel onto the stainless steel. The formulation is in the Metal Finishing Guidebook. There are other activation/striking solutions, but Wood's nickel is the standard.

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

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2004

In case you cannot get a Metal Finishing Guide book. There are several variations, but the one I like best is 32 oz/gal Nickel chloride and 12 fl. oz/gal hydrochloric acid.

There is a very effective sulfamate nickel strike that works well on all alloys including some that the "Wood's" nickel strike is less effective.

Don Baudrand
Consultant - Poulsbo, Washington
(Don is co-author of "Plating on Plastics" [on Amazon or AbeBooks affil links]
           and "Plating ABS Plastics" [on Amazon or eBay or AbeBooks affil links])