Gold Plated Brightwork?

[MICHAEL S]

I recently mentioned to a friend that I was building a small boat (shellback dinghy). He owns a small printed circuit board company and asked me if I wanted to gold plate my hardware. Sounds like a good idea to me. :D (It would also be free) ;)

He says the finish would not be a standard jewelry type gold but a metallic rainbow type gold finish. His electroplating tank is approx. 12” x 18” so no long stuff, but how about plating the brass oarlocks, rudder grunions, and rigging snap rings and such?

Also, the dinghy has little or no brightwork indicated on the plans. What, if any, brightwork might I consider adding? I wouldn’t want to add anything inappropriate (like maybe rearview mirrors or a hood ornament?) to my little dinghy but perhaps you might have some tasteful suggestions?

Are there any reasons not to electroplate? :confused:

[Bruce Hooke]

Traditional parts to finish bright include gunwales, thwarts, the transom, and in some cases frames and knees. IMOOP the edge of a piece of plywood should not generally be finished bright, but plenty of other people clearly think otherwise.

On the gold plating idea, I don't know of any technical reason why it would be a bad idea, but I do think that it might be a bit out of character with the Shellback design, but what the heck, you only live once, so why not!

[JimConlin]

Seems to me there's been a misunderstanding on the meaning of the word 'brightwork'. It means varnished wooden parts.

[JAX]

In addition, gold plating is VERY soft. You have to nickel plate over the gold for any chance of durability of moving parts.

[Aramas]

I happen to like the look of verde gris on bronze. I bought a bronze buddha statue for a girl once, and it had been treated with an acid to make it go green, then it was polished. It produced a glossy green finish that I've never seen anywhere else. Wish I could figure out how to reproduce it.

[Wild Wassa]

The rainbow effect is called lustre, or gold lustre.

Aramus, The best place to to get info on a VG patina, is to contact the Sculpture Department at your local School of Art, which will be at a Uni, ... James Cook? They will have every working procedure known. Give it another month.

Unless a Forum Member answers with the details, of course.

Warren.

[ 01-06-2004, 02:08 AM: Message edited by: Wild Wassa ]

[Concordia..41]

Forum member Tim Searcy [sp?] has gold plated cowl vents and some other pieces. Search here and Misc. Boat sections and you should be able to find several threads on the subject. Also, I think there's a picture of him and his boat in People and Places - Who We All Are (Pictorial) thread.

(Looks great BTW!)

[ 01-06-2004, 07:22 PM: Message edited by: Concordia..41 ]

[John E Hardiman]

I my experience, gold plating is only used where the polished brass or bronze look is desired, but where the piece is handled infrequently or is wet often. These are things like doorknobs, faucets, handrails and grips, etc.; mostly on high end vessels where the time required to polish many fitting items is an inordinate labor cost compared to the rest of the operating expenses. There was an article about a Mega-yacht in Latitude 38 a few years ago damning the gold plating on fixtures. The yachts Captian wrote in a letter that said that all the gold plating paid for itself in about 6 months due to the wages not paid to two crewmen who would be required just to keep all of the fittings polished.

In the Navy, everything is now either brushed/worn matte or painted. The only stuff left to polish is makework for those who go to captian's mast. And they are now even cutting that back after we had to replace a couple of things (like torpedo tube breech doors) that were worn too thin by polishing. :D

[Ed Harrow]

TIM!!! TIM!!!! Your cover is blown! :eek: you'd best get out of port before your boat is stripped... :eek: :eek:

[Nicholas Carey]

Originally posted by Aramas:
I happen to like the look of verde gris on bronze. I bought a bronze buddha statue for a girl once, and it had been treated with an acid to make it go green, then it was polished. It produced a glossy green finish that I've never seen anywhere else. Wish I could figure out how to reproduce it.If you want to patinate copper or copper alloys, you want to check out these books from the Big Building With All The Books (or buy them…but they are dear):

The Colouring, Bronzing and Patination of Metals (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0823007626/ref=pd_sbs_b_1/002-9183768-8278431?v=glance&s=books), by Richard Hughes and Michael Rowe. Watson-Guptill/Whit ney Library of Design (http://watson-guptill.com/detail.html?session=b50b0efe2065f2079c14e042906e7a 3b&id=0-8230-0762-6), January 1999. 372pp. ISBN 0-8230-0762-6.

Contemporary Patination, 5th ed. (http://www.sculptnouveau.com/books.html#patination), by Ron Young. Sculpt Nouveau (http://www.sculptnouveau.com/), 2000. 286pp. ASIN 0960374418. Sculpt Nouveau also does workshops and sells patination materials and supplies (and has instructional videos to boot).

Pat inas for Silicon Bronze (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0964726904/ref=pd_sbs_b_3/002-9183768-8278431?v=glance&s=books), by Patrick Kipper. Loveland Press (http://www.lovelandpress.com/books/bronze_sculpture/patinas_for_silicon/index.shtml), December 1996. 225pp. ISBN 0964726904.

Happy controlled corrosion. Don't poison yourselves or your neighbors—the stuff you use tends to be pretty toxic. :D

[ 01-08-2004, 04:04 PM: Message edited by: Nicholas Carey ]

[mark g]

In reply to gold plating the deck hardware and oarlocks etc. to carify a previous post , the gold would be be plated over a min of .0004 nickel not the other way around. Also to consider the thickness of a typical gold plate is in the millionths of an inch. With gold being a soft metal the slightest abrasions will remove it. Definitely not practical for any hardware other that faucets etc. Mark g

[Mrleft8]

Verdigris is easy to develop. Take some table salt, disolve it in some ammonia, wipe it on your brass, copper, bronze.... and watch it go. You'll have to futz around with the proportions some, but IIRC it's a fairly small amout of salt per ammonia solution...

[John E Hardiman]

Originally posted by Mrleft8:
Take some table salt, disolve it in some ammonia, wipe it on your brass, copper, bronze.... and watch it go. NOTE: DO NOT do this on structural Al-Bronze or Ni-Al-Bronze parts. Ammonia (even in cleaning solution concentrations) will cause de-alloying of the material leading to corrosive attack. I've had to spend a fair amount of money to re-furb a prop that was damaged this way by the janitors in the wearhouse using ammonia to clean the floor.

[paladin]

Gold works fine on stuff INSIDE the boat. Tana Mari's Fynespray galley pumps and the knobs etc in the house/galley were done this way to reduce polishing. Everything OUTSIDE is predominetly Chromed Bronze or stainless steel (316L)....

[Andrew Craig-Bennett]

Mirelle's portholes, etc. were chromed when new in the 1930s and I have rechromed them. Chrome needs a polish once or twice a season; bronze once a week! I may yet gold plate the Fynspray galley pumps, as they are a real nuiscance to keep polished.

[cbob]

Andy, Bronze needs polishing once a week, mine muust be overdue by a couple of thousand. Thought that's why webe usin bronze, for the greening effect (affect?) Griffsan, for what purpose? cbob

[Andrew Craig-Bennett]

Yep most of my bronze work is that nice green colour! There are two exceptions - the galley taps and the (brass, not bronze, admittedly) compass binnacle. These two items look disgusting if allowed to go green.

[Nicholas Carey]

Originally posted by Mrleft8:
Verdigris is easy to develop. Take some table salt, disolve it in some ammonia...The traditional way of getting the usual green patina is to degrease the metal, heat it in a forge...

and then pee on it.

Urine is the secret ingredient.

Just a bit smelly.

But getting that deep glossy green you see on bronze sculptures takes either a lot of time or some slightly more specialized recipes.

FWIW, I'd trust recipes in the above books. Art convervators tend to avoid things that will damage the work.