Non-cyanide silver electroforming

**MMM Jewellery** · 03-02-2014, 02:22 PM

Hi
I have seen a few older posts on this subject but none seem to answer my questions:
I'm experimenting with electroforming at the moment and i have had a few good results with copper. I'm now starting to look at silver electroforming.
I see Cooksons sell a silver solution suitable for electroforming but on reading up on the data sheet over at your new boss's site (Heimerle + Meule) I see that it is cyanide based, which is not ideal. (incidentally, I am amused that people wouldn't countanance using cyanide but will happily use sulfide based patina solutions, despite hydrogen sulfide (300-350 ppm) and hydrogen cyanide (100-300 ppm) having almost identical LC50 values!)
So my questions are:
-Does Cooksons sell a non-cyanide silver electroplating solution? If not I'll try some of the specalist groups out there- SPA plating seem to have one.
-Are the non-cyanide silver electroplating solutions suitable for electroforming? I've not been them mentioned in this context when reading up on the subject- only as plating solutions.
-Can you use a fine silver sacrifical anode with the non-cyanide solutions to avoid depletion of the silver from the soution (which I believe is the case with cyanide solutions, but correct me if I am wrong) They often seem to recomment a stainless steel anode.

If I can't get no satisfaction I will try just silver plating my copper electroforms- which is probably the low hassel way of doing things!

Thanks for your help.

Matt

**Dennis** · 03-02-2014, 03:28 PM

I'm not sure of the answer Matt, but a number of the so called plating solutions are just dips designed to cover patches of wear on silver plated items, such as for instance cutlery.

As they work electrolytically on base metals and cease to function as soon as the exposed surface turns silver, the coverage will be very thin and virtually an illusion.

I do know that even thickly covered, electroformed items can be very fragile and need a decent shell. So yes, it's best to send them away to a specialist company.
However you look at it, you won't survive breathing in hydrogen cyanide.

Regards and welcome, Dennis.

**MMM Jewellery** · 03-02-2014, 04:08 PM

Thanks for your reply Denis

I am specifically interested in the electroplating solutions, rather than the electrochemical ones you mention- there are new non-cyanide ones out there now, so surviving hydrogen cyanide is not an issue anymore. I belive the counter ions are succinamide (recent) or sulfur based (available since the 70s but not used much) which have lower toxicity and should be low risk for hobbyists like myself- I guess I'm looking for someone with experience with the new generation of electroplating solutions.

My experiements with copper electroforming are actually quite robust- I have exerted considerable pressure between thumb and fingers without flexing of the form- comparable to 1.2 mm silver sheet for instance. That took about 6 hr to build up, so silver should be doable too- maybe with a couple of light copper coats in the middle to generate alloys and help with hardness.

Thanks Matt