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Post plating "blackening" of nickel plating

February 17, 2010

Hi,

from reading some posts on here it is alluded to that Black nickel plating can be achieved by blackening nickel plate in some way. could anyone shed any more light on this?

I'm a musical instrument technician and have a Nickel plated saxophone that would look fantastic blackened but am concerned with the consistency of finish as well as the longevity of the result. it once had a flash plating of silver that lasted about 2 years!

if anyone has any advice or even better some images of possible results that would be appreciated. I have seen blackening done on brass and nickel silver as well as ferrous products but never on nickel plate.

I realise this is purely aesthetic but figured that was ok on a site called finishing.com?

thanks all

Tom Rodgers
musical instrument technician - Sheffield, United Kingdom

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Hi, Tom. The black nickel that I have seen was electrolytic and was indeed applied as a topcoat over bright nickel plating. Another option is black chrome plating on bright nickel plating. Many plating shops can offer one or both of the processes.

Regards,

Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
February 16, 2010

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February 18, 2010

Yes you can blacken nickel plated objects:
1 lit water
o,5 gm potassium thiocyanate ⇦this on eBay or Amazon [affil links]
5 ccm pure H2SO4
25 ccm hydrogen peroxide(30%)
15 minutes immersion,15 C temp.
According to:
O.P.Kraemer-Rezepte fuer die Metallfaerbung und Metallueberzuege ohne Stromqulle,Saulgau 1977.
Hope it helps and good luck!

Goran Budija
- Cerovski vrh Croatia