Thread: Applying gold wash.

I recently got a beautiful covered tang Clauss with gorgeous scales. The blade has a very very shallow etch that's barely visible, but that I think would love the look amazing gold washed.

Has anyone done this before? Is it really doable or should I abandon the idea?

Check out WIP: DD Goldedge Replating/Restoration.

As the equipment is pricy for just one use, I would send it out. I would look for a local guy who makes jewellery and/or does plating. Talk with local gem and mineral society's members they would likely have a line on someone who does plating locally. I have a gold washed razor coming from ebay and may be looking for such a person soon.

Have fun

Jonathan

Today there is Gold plating solutions without Cyanide that works fine.
I don't find it's that hard to gold plate, the main thing is to get and keep everything clean.

Heavy sugars in the solution will give a brighter touch as will switching the current around,
like 100:1, when you quickly let the solution eat away a little gold it will go for everything that's not perfectly flat first.

I only got the cyanide solutions and don't like to use them at home.
Got a big old rectifier for plating that could melt a razor if you do it wrong, hehe!

Edit: Remember, gold plating is thin, really thin, every little scratch you got on the steel will show up in the gold,
if you want to do it the fast and easy way, you should nickel plate it first to get a perfect surface, then gold plat.
Nickel will smooth out and cover almost anything!
That's why sometimes people bought a heavy gold chain and after some use it start to show a silverly color.
That's the nickel saying hi, it's faster to nickel plate and then gold plate a gold chain instead of giving it a good polish on the machines.
I call it cheating!

Search user name AaronX he was doing some, and posted what process he was using, I got to hone a few of the razors he did and the Gold Wash was very well done, much better then the originals...

The old and trusted way would be to dissolve gold in mercury, apply and then heat to evaporate the mercury, not allowed anymore but dang it's good!

I'm sure there's some way of only plating the shallow etch area and not the entire blade, right?

I wonder if I wouldn't be ahead just to use one of the gold leafing paints and a fine brush and flow it into the etch. It's really quite shallow.

Originally Posted by maddafinga

I'm sure there's some way of only plating the shallow etch area and not the entire blade, right?

I wonder if I wouldn't be ahead just to use one of the gold leafing paints and a fine brush and flow it into the etch. It's really quite shallow.

Sure, more than one!

You could plate strait over the etched area and then buff away all gold on the higher area.

Or you could cover the areas you don't want to be plated in wax or lacquer.

Or use a stencil, some work to get it right, better if you're doing many of them.

There is also plating pens which you can "paint" on the gold, if you got everything for plating you can make one yourself.

You can get an electroplating kit from Caswell, not cheap though.
I have tried it, not on razors, and it worked very well