How to Plate With Silver

Pendant

The silver plating on your jewelry may be wearing thin, or your grandmother's silver plated tea service has seen better days. You can send these items to a professional, who uses sodium cyanide in the process, or you can use a home method that doesn't use dangerous chemicals. Immersion plating can be done without using an outside electrical current, and it is much more cost effective than commercial plating.

Things You'll Need

• Items to be silver plated Commercial silver plating solution Rubber gloves

Instructions

Immersion Plating

1. In this type of plating, you will immerse the object to be plated into the plating solution. You can also rub it onto small areas with a paper towel. Because the process relies on a chemical bond, the exposed metal of the item must contain copper in order to form an electric charge between the metals.

2. Thoroughly clean and dry the item to be plated. Make sure the thin areas are cleaned entirely of the old plating.

3. Prepare the plating solution according to the manufacturer's instructions.

4. Wearing rubber gloves, immerse the object in the solution. If the object is large, or only small portions need to be plated, rub the solution on the bare spot with a paper towel. The plating is immediate.

5. Immediately buff the object with a soft cloth to avoid rapid tarnishing.

Tips & Warnings

• Although this process will build up thin spots on previous plating, it is not recommended for all-over plating.