I'm pretty willing to expirement. My wife couldn't stop giggling when I got this. I've been instructed to keep it hidden if I don't want my 8 year old to steal it. She'd probably think I bought it for her. Not sure why she would think that.
And we've come full circle. My brush design turned in O1 tool steel and plated in 18ct Gold (on right) next to the aluminum brush (left) anodized in gold. Now I really can't take my SOTD photos when I'm naked.
You made me curious on the plating. Are you sending these out for polish and plate or do you do that yourself? Plating is a "Dark Art" and requires a lot of skill and knowledge. I remember. Used to be involved in plating 15k -20k parts a month. Nice job, by the way.
I polish and plate myself. Plating can be quite complex and temperamental just as you say, but there are simple processes and plating kits that cater to jewelers and hobbiests. While I use a lot of sofa ash, lye, battery acid, and various swimming pool chemicals, I stick to commercial electrolytes. A nickel electrolyte will cost you $30 per liter, but as long as you don't contaminate it, it will last a very long time. This brush spent 10 min in Simple Green, 3 min in hot lye, soda ash, and TSP, 1 min in muriatic acid, 10 min in bright nickel, and a total of 2 min in 18ct gold. I use almost the exact same process for razors but I tend to use sodium bisulphate instead of muriatic acid.
Quite an undertaking. As you and I know there are a lot of ways plating can go sideways if the process is not followed carefully. You apparently know what you're dong as confirmed by the quality of the parts. Would you do any CASS testing on these, or is there not the need. Don't think it will be subjected to a harsh environment, so likely not. Looks pretty good to me.....
No CASS testing here. I have been known to go over my parts with packing tape to make sure the plating won't lift off. I've had a few failures. Thankfully all my batches are small so it's pretty easy to mix fresh chemicals and control the temperatures. I did try storing mixed solutions between batches for a short time, but I quickly decided it wasn't worth it. I use the cleaning and etching chemicals I use because they can all be dumped down the drain. For the record, there are no slow drains in my house.
