Gold Plated Metal

With costume jewelry the base metal would contaminate the tanks with the gold in them so a different metal is plated prior to the gold plating.

Gold plated metal.

Plating is quite common in the jewelry world with gold and rhodium being two popular types. Gold plating is a process where a thin layer of gold is bonded onto a base metal. In a gold plated jewelry item the metal beneath the gold plate will eventually come to the surface and become discolored so it will need to be polished. Generally plating is the process through which a piece of jewelry made from a certain metal or alloy is covered with a layer of another metal.

Additionally this step is used when the base metal like copper is known to atomically migrate outside of the gold layer to create spots of tarnish after plating. Gold plating is a method of depositing a thin layer of gold onto the surface of another metal most often copper or silver to make silver gilt by chemical or electrochemical plating this article covers plating methods used in the modern electronics industry. This process was invented by an italian chemist luigi brugnatelli in 1805 the first person to plate a thin coat of gold onto silver. An all inclusive kit is ideal.

For more traditional methods often used for much larger objects see gilding. Gold plated items have a base metal underneath the gold plate like copper or silver which makes the jewelry piece stronger and less likely to bend though these jewelry metals tarnish.