Question: Plating on engraving

rodsta · Oct 13, 2016

I'm looking at doing a job in brass that will be nickel plated. Anything special to think about engraving wise? There may be some wriggle cutting and wonder if it needs to be deeper than normal.
Thanks,
Rod

John B. · Oct 13, 2016

The thing to remember is that plating is only as good as the underlying metal preparation.
Any marks on the base metal will show under the plating.
And no, no need to increase the engraving depth.
With nickel it is sometimes advisable to rub a little printers ink into the plated engraving to bring out the contrast.
The above applies to Electro Plated Nickel.

rodsta · Oct 14, 2016

Thanks John. I won't be doing the plating but I'll keep that in mind.

Rod

John B. · Oct 14, 2016

rodsta said:
Thanks John. I won't be doing the plating but I'll keep that in mind.

Rod

Hi Rod,
I did not think you were going to do the plating yourself but be careful if you are counting on an outside plating company to do
any pre-plate metal polishing.
Some plating companies know how to handle engraved goods.
But many don't and their "polishing" has wrecked some beautiful engraving.

SamW · Oct 14, 2016

What kind of nickel plating are you contemplating (no pun intended)? Electo or electoless? I have many years ago done electroless nickel on both steel and aluminum and found it to be excellent for fine detail.

rodsta · Oct 14, 2016

John B. Good point. I'll make sure to let the platers and customer know.

Sam I'm not sure what kind of plating they will do. That's something the customer is taking care of. It's on armrests for Banjos. ??

Rod

Question: Plating on engraving

rodsta

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rodsta

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