Gold-plated by hand and crafted with the highest quality material, our 24C Snuff boxes are unique and fit for purpose. With brass as the base material, the gold plating adds a hygienic coating and powerful antibacterial properties. A single coating takes a full day to complete and requires a highly complex process. This is why our delivery time can take up to 30 days – because good things take time.
Step 1: Surface Preparation
First, we prepare the metal surface to ensure it’s clean with no oils, dust or dirt remaining. The piece is then polished to improve adherence, as dust and dirt interfere with the plated metals adhering to the storage box. This also helps keep the plating tanks free of contaminants.
Step 2: Cleaning
After the surface is prepared, and a visual inspection is done, electro cleaning, ultrasonic cleaning, or steaming, usually takes place. This second, deeper, cleaning step must follow to ensure the metal is still free from oils and dirt – helping to produce superior plating results. Steam cleaning blasts off any remaining oils that managed to hang on during the polishing phase.
Step 3: Rinse
The piece is rinsed thoroughly with water to remove any cleaning agents and prepare it for coating.
Step 4: Coating
With time, temperature and voltage carefully controlled, the piece is submerged into the plating solution to attract ions of gold or the final metal that show on the surface. Different metals require different voltages and temperatures.
The items to be plated are hung from a cathode bar, which is a pole with a negative electrical charge going through it. The pieces connected to the cathode bar are also negatively charged. When the jewellery items are submerged in the tank, an electrical charge is applied and the negatively charged jewellery attracts the positively charged ions present in the solution. The positively charged metal ions are submersed in the solution bath. When the cathode bar is lowered into the bath the metal jewellery gets plated.
The plating thickness can be controlled by adjusting the immersion time in the plating tank.
Step 5: Final Rinse
The materials are rinsed off with water and then hung out to dry.
Step 6: Drying
The pieces are hung, preferably not touching each other, in order to dry.
