doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Gold Plating or Alternatives

I am re-conditioning an Ithaca Knickerbocker (Ca: 1926) that I will be keeping for my personal trap shooting use. In addition to refinishing the wood, re-cutting the checkering, installation of an Ithaca Sunburst pad and having the action "tuned" I was going to have the trigger re-plated in gold, as it was originally. I have not been able to find a place that will do this small job for less than a minimum fee of $250 to $350.

Now, I do not expect this to be done free but I also don't want to spend that kind of money to do such a small, trivial part. (would have the receiver re-case colored instead). Could anyone give me an idea of where I can have this small job done more reasonably or possibly suggest an alternative to Gold Plating.

Thanks in Advance.

Steve

Caswell Inc. sells brush plating kits that are ideal for small parts. For gold, you will have to nickel or copper plate the trigger first. Read the on-line instruction manual first to see if you want to tackle the job. It's really pretty simple.

OB
http://www.caswellplating.com/kits/plugnplate.htm

Steve:

You might try Reliable Electroplating in MA. I have used them in the past, although not for gold, and was pleased with their service. They advertise:

Plating Of Guns And Gun Parts In:

BRIGHT NICKEL, BLACK NICKEL
GOLD & SILVER

Phone is 508-222-0620


Glenn

Mr. Steve, I have used Reliable for years and found them "reliable" as well as giving very good work and at a good price. Ken

Steve,
I hand made a piece of jewelery for a girl some 25 yrs ago and had it gold plated for $40 back then at an industrial plating biz. I would think under $120 would be 'reasonable' today.

A few yrs ago, I had a Nitro Spcl toplever built up with hardchrome under the crossbolt (it was gold inlaid on the top, otherwise I would have welded it) to tighten the worn crossbolt. The guy built up about .040" but took two setups to do it. $75.

Nitre blue the part!! Don't laugh, nitre salts can be used to give any number of different color hues. Remember the original Luger sideplates and triggers in that deep straw color, that's it. They just weren't polished extremely well before nitre finishing and were not quite the look you can get if you take a bit more time. If you buff the piece to a high polish before you nitre finish it, and watch the temperature chart carefully, holding the temperature at the Deep Yellow to Straw level on the chart, the finished product looks great. It's not precisely the color of gold if you hold a piece of gold jewelry next to a finished piece, but it's very, very close, and it holds up very well. Most people think it's gold plating. I use it on my doubles when I have Don Menk re-case color an action for me. There I go giving away secrets again.

Alternative:

Ya seen those perty Gold drill bits in the hardware store??

Those have been treated will a process called "Titainium Nitride"
or commonly called "tin coated"

Perty durable,, but dont know what it would cost. Seems logical though it would be less expensive than gold plate.

Just my two cents from the machining biz, but I believe the type of plating is not the determining factor in the overall cost of plating it. Setup and handling cost is the issue. My friend that owns a cutting tool mfg biz sends stuff out for TiN coating regularly. But, IMO, it is a relatively ugly gold color (if gold is specified, since there is at least a gray color as well) and is 'frosty' in appearance. BTW, TiN is the gold stuff that the RBL has on some of its parts.

After Basic Training in 1963, we were allowed to have our corps buckle and keepers (Ds) "annodized" or gold plated. Opted for "annodized", and they looked great. Not sure what the process really was, but they looked as good as gold (pardon).

Anodizing is a process of converting the surface of the metal, normally aluminum but also other non-ferrous metals, where the metal's natural tendancy to oxidize is enhanced and accelerated electro-chemically and a controlled layer of oxide is produced. Colors on aluminum are produced with dyes and other methods. The anodized surface has further oxidation resistance due to protecting the pure metal underneath from exposure to oxygen.

I'm not familiar with any methods to 'anodize' steels. There may be some, I'm just not familiar with them. Black oxide/hot salt blue is as close as I can think of to 'anodize' on steel.

Plating is altogether different from anodize in that plating adds an overlayment of metal where anodize converts the metal surface.

There are a number of gold colored plating methods for steels that use gold colored metals other than true gold. Some may be more durable. I seriously doubt that most inexpensive gold colored watches have real gold plating nor the triggers on my Browning shotguns.