Plating a BH badge?

[Jim R.]

I would like to gold plate one of my BH badges with 18k fast gold from Caswell and I need to check a few things first.

First is I'm assuming that these badges are cast zinc with a brass plating, and if that is the case, can I just clean and prep the brass plate and then plate on it?  I'm not sure yet whether I'd try a direct gold plate, or a nickel plate first, but I'm hoping that whatever I do, the black enameled (?) areas will be left alone and will mask the plating solutions.

Has anybody tried this, or can somebody fill me in on the composition of the badges so I can come up with a proper plating strategy?

Thanks,

Jim

[Wardsweb]

Yes they are a etched zinc plaque, one color painted background with a suede texture. Raised brushed gold tone metal border and logo with a protective semi-gloss clear coating.

[Jim R.]

Luther,

Thanks.  I guess I had it backwards -- thought the background was metallic and the logo and border were black.  With the semi-gloss coating, it's probably not worth trying to plate as it seems like it would be very difficult to remove the coating and leave the background intact.

Thanks,

Jim

[Doc B.]

I have a badge on a key fob that I made from ebony and elephant hide. Pocket carry has worn through the clear coat and the gold color, so the badge is now zinc highlights with the black paint background. The border and the logo are all flush on the surface and the black background is in relief. So I bet if you just turned a badge face down on some 400 grit paper you could cut through the clear coat and the gold colored surface to expose the zinc, and preserve the black background.

[Jim R.]

Dan,

Thanks.  Sounds like it may be worth a shot.  I'll have to figure out how to plate zinc, but that shouldn't be too hard.

-- Jim


P.S. -- I've never used gun bluing -- will it work on 18-8 stainless, and if so, what kind of color does it give -- a dark enough blue that it could be considered close to black?

[Doc B.]

The cold blue we use is really for regular carbon steels. It will do from absolutely nothing to maybe putting a pale gray on stainless steels. Caswell Plating sells a blackener for stainless steel.

[Jim R.]

Dan,

Didn't know about the SS blackener -- that should make it easy.  Already planning on using their SS gold activator for gold plating.

-- Jim