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Masking for plating rhodium over shell and soft stone

I am a Rhodium Plating solutons manufacturer for the Jewelry industry...one of my offshore customers came up with a very interesting problem : He wants to plate rhodium onto silver jewelry into which he has mounted a beautiful red shell called Spiny Oyster. His experiments reveal that high temp, high current, and acids bleach out the color of the shell, I was thinking of using a wax stop off, and will do some experiments, but does anyone know of a lacquer that we can apply with a brush, that will air dry, and resist the 30 seconds to 1 minute of Palladium solution and Rhodium solution immersions? (and a 5% sulfuric activation step?) without losing its gloss and protective qualities? Suggestions appreciated!

Glenn Thompson
Plating solution manufacturer - El Paso, Texas
April 22, 2010

The problem is not finding a stop off that will work, but finding one that you can economically remove after the plating.

James Watts
- Navarre, Florida
April 26, 2010