soldering vermeil wire

[pearlescence]

Hi
Does anyone know of a way to solder vermeil wire. I'm making a plait of two silver and one vermeil wire (all 1mm) and I just want to catch the end to start it all tidily. My first attempt is a neat soldering job but the first couple of cms of gold has vanished. It's not the end of the world but I would like to keep the gold layer if poss.
thanks

[Goldsmith]

Vermeil is just gold plating and you can not solder it with silver solders and expect it to remain gold. You need some sort of gold plating device to re colour the ends of your chains if you intend soldering them with silver solders.

James

[caroleallen]

Try a pen plater.

[silken]

Yep, gold plating after soldering is the only way to deal with this. The silver just 'absorbs' the gold plating at you heat it. Even though true vermeil does have a fairly thick plating of gold compared to other plated items, the silver just eats it up! You can solder gold filled wire but I never use gold filled personally.

I have a little pen plating kit and it works a charm

[pearlescence]

Hi again
tried using gold solder and the plating still disappears, It's disappearing about 2-3cm while the solder is 5mm if that.
can you recommend a pen plater - no idea where to start or what criteria to judge them by, but sounds a useful bit of kit since I do work with vermeil now gold is so dear

[silken]

You can get basic kits on eBay but they're not the best. I got a great kit from Spa Plating. They do a simple battery operated one that I hear works very well. You don't need to buy the entire kit, all you need to be able to plate is the plating pen (if you have the battery one, there is no need to buy a rectifier/power source) and some plating solution. The special pen plating solution is better because it has a higher gold content which makes the plating process more efficient. You'll need some nibs as well but you can use cigarette filters instead, they work out much cheaper and do the same job.

http://www.goldn.co.uk/battery-plating-pen/

http://www.goldn.co.uk/gold-pen-plating-solution/

[pearlescence]

That looks like a plan, thanks.
next question
how long will 25 ml of solution last? (I know that is a bit of a piece of string question but for eg, I have had the same large bottle of auflux for about 10 years and I think more has evaporated than I have used)

[silken]

If you're only using it to plate the occasional bit of silver, it lasts for ages. If you want to build up a heavier plate, you have to use more solution but if you're only plating a small surface area, 25ml should last you quite long. I have had a 20ml bottle last for a looooong time and I've been plating lots of bits and bobs, anything I can get my hands on really

It's funny, I use my auflux every day and it just doesn't appear to be going down! I'm certainly not complaining though.