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Selective rhodium plating and cleaning

April 30, 2016
-- apologies, this was misfiled and not posted until June 10

Q. Hi,

I'm new to rhodium plating, I've just got a Jentner RM01 which makes plating very easy, however the selective rhodium plating of bi-colour objects is giving me a little trouble.

I used a stopping-off pen (which when it came, was basically just a permanent marker, nothing special) to cover the bits I wanted to remain yellow.

I then put the ring in the electrocleaning solution, and to my surprise the marker all came off, probably ruining the cleaning solution in the process (thankfully it's not expensive).

Was this a mistake? If I'm not supposed to electroclean then how am I going to ensure a high quality finish? Was the pen I used wrong?

Now I am afraid to try plating it directly, without electrocleaning, in case the stopping off layer comes off and ruins my expensive rhodium solution.

Please help!

Mike Green
jewellery reseller - Bristol UK