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Ted Mooney, P.E. RET
Pine Beach, NJ
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for Metal Finishing since 1989
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Should I plate my trumpet with 10k gold or 14k?
Q. Aloha! Could someone please tell me if I can do 10k or 14k gold plating that will be reasonably tough to wear off from a lot of handling? I have an old trumpet that is/was silver plated and then a low karat gold plating applied by the factory or their outsourcing. This musical instrument manufacturer is no longer around and I want to restore my instrument to its original condition of just a light gold wash look. I have e-mailed and called many dozens of companies .. most said they only do 24k (found some smaller businesses that do 18k). A place in Indiana does just about the best 24k work I've seen, but won't do 10k or 14k.
Stanton Haugenprofessional - Honolulu, Hawaii
October 18, 2011
A. Try any hard gold plating solution, but don't think that it is something for eternity. You may use some special clearcoat (for hardware) to protect it too. Hope it helps and good luck!
Goran Budija- Cerovski vrh Croatia
October 21, 2011
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A. I don't think they make a true 10K or 14K yellow gold plating solution, at least not one composed of gold, silver, and copper, like karat jewelry is. What they do have is "color" gold plating solutions, those which have the "color" of 10K, 14K, etc., but not necessarily the same composition. These "color" golds are plated quite thinly and would definitely require a clearcoat to provide any wear resistance. If you can find a plater that specializes in plating large amounts of costume jewelry, they should be able to provide about any color you want and a proper, durable clearcoat. Chris Owen- Nevada, Missouri, USA October 21, 2011 A. Most gold platers get their "alloy" golds from specialist suppliers. They have developed what the jewelry and decorative trade require. That is a deposit that matches the colour of different 'solid' alloys. They do this with small additions of various metals or mixtures of metals, nickel, cobalt, iron, copper etc. (as I recall, our sample box had about 20 different colours)  Geoff Smith Hampshire, England October 22, 2011 |
A. A large company I once worked for sold a wide range of color gold solutions. To see the true color of the deposits, without the glare, we plated a series of 1" x 4" polished brass panels, in beakers, with bright nickel and then the various color golds. Then, we put a piece of white Kleenex on the panel and dampened it with a few drops of water to make the Kleenex cling to the panel. Any wrinkles were smoothed out very carefully to prevent tearing.
We made a large set of master panels. These were used to compare (using the Kleenex) deposits of the customer's solution, when the color got out of whack. We made adjustments to the customer's solution, plated more panels, and zeroed in on the correct color.
- Nevada, Missouri, USA
October 24, 2011
Q. How do you clean or polish an 18k gold trumpet?
Angela Crow- Pensacola, Florida
June 21, 2019
A. Hello Angela,
You could go to a jewelry store and purchase some jewelry polishing cloths. They would be safer to use on an instrument than any liquid or chemical.
Electronics plating - Winston-Salem, North Carolina USA
June 21, 2019
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