Disappointed with gold plating finish

[pink]

Hello

I took some ring samples to be plated in gold. It's a reputable company. The samples had a high polish finish but I had handled them beforehand as I took a couple of pictures. However, I didn't wear them. It's the first time I've taken items to be plated so I presumed the finish (2 microns) would be really uniform and shiny as that's how the metal looked to me. There aren't any scratches but in certain places there are rub marks and it looks a little dull.

Can marks be polished out afterwards? Do platers polish and degrease before applying the plate? How can I avoid this happening again?

Thank you

Alison

[Goldsmith]

Yes Alison, any decent plater should degrease items before plating, but they will only polish items if you have asked them first. I would take it back and point out the areas you do not like. Some hard gold plating can be polished after plating but if it's just a thin electro flash plating, polishing will strip it back to bare metal quickly.

James

[silken]

James has said it all really :)

The plater should degrease everything before beginning the plating process as areas of grease or other contamination will cause an uneven or just plain awful end result. As James said, polishing after plating will remove that 2 micron layer of plating very rapidly. You should take the piece back and explain your issues, they should be able to rectify it for you. Don't be afraid to take it back, if they've provided a service that isn't up to scratch then you're well within your rights to ask them to sort it out.

As a rule, the plated surface should look exactly like the underlying metal surface. If you send a high/mirror polished piece for plating, the end result should have the same finish. If you send a satin/matte piece in, that's what you'll get back, only with gold plating :)

[pink]

Thank you for your replies. I'll now know what to do in future!