01-10-2003, 08:02 PM
Eugene,
I slept on what you wrote, and I believe that you are making a mistake:
1. Most enamels melt (fuse would be a more proper term) between 700 and 900 degrees centigrade, depending on the color (some of you may be surprized to learn that different enamel colors melt at different temperatures).
2. Gold melts at 1064.4 degrees centigrade.
3. Silver melts at 961.9 degrees centigrade.
Plating:
1. The simplest way to plate something is to dip an object in a bath of molten gold, provided the object's fusion point is higher than that of gold. In my experience, it is not the most common technique used today.
2. The amalgam method: gold is dissolved into mercury (quick silver) to make a paste called amalgam. The amalgam is placed on the object to plate, which is then heated at about 250 degrees for many hours until the merury has evaporated. It is a dangerous technique as the fumes are extremely toxic. This technique results in deep shinny plating and was the plating technique used from the antiquity until the 18th century. Both this technique and the previous one are refered to as "hot plating"
3. Electro-plating, also known as "cold plating": appeared during the 19th century, after the discovery of electricity (of course...). In short, and without going into the nitty gritty of it, his technique binds the atoms of gold with the atoms of the object that is being plated. As such, not all substances can be plated, since it results from a chemical reaction at the atomic level. This is the technique most widely (if not almost exclusively) used today.
Given these details, it is easy to understand that no harm (other than heat patination that can easily be washed away by acid bathing) would happen to an object that has been plated before being enameled.
Following your logic, since silver has a much lower fusion point than gold, the heat needed to fuse the enamels would damage more readily the silver than its gold plating, and therefore make silver an unsuitable metal for enameling! Personally I think not.
You refered to hot and cold plating in your posts. I do agree that these techniques are different, and present different results. However, there is no way that a hot-plated metal item would see its plating melting away in an enameling oven.
Please feel free to share with us any technical details about these plating techniques you may have, as I am very curious to find out more on this topic, which, in my practical experience to date, has gone along the lline of what I have put forward so far.
Marc
I slept on what you wrote, and I believe that you are making a mistake:
1. Most enamels melt (fuse would be a more proper term) between 700 and 900 degrees centigrade, depending on the color (some of you may be surprized to learn that different enamel colors melt at different temperatures).
2. Gold melts at 1064.4 degrees centigrade.
3. Silver melts at 961.9 degrees centigrade.
Plating:
1. The simplest way to plate something is to dip an object in a bath of molten gold, provided the object's fusion point is higher than that of gold. In my experience, it is not the most common technique used today.
2. The amalgam method: gold is dissolved into mercury (quick silver) to make a paste called amalgam. The amalgam is placed on the object to plate, which is then heated at about 250 degrees for many hours until the merury has evaporated. It is a dangerous technique as the fumes are extremely toxic. This technique results in deep shinny plating and was the plating technique used from the antiquity until the 18th century. Both this technique and the previous one are refered to as "hot plating"
3. Electro-plating, also known as "cold plating": appeared during the 19th century, after the discovery of electricity (of course...). In short, and without going into the nitty gritty of it, his technique binds the atoms of gold with the atoms of the object that is being plated. As such, not all substances can be plated, since it results from a chemical reaction at the atomic level. This is the technique most widely (if not almost exclusively) used today.
Given these details, it is easy to understand that no harm (other than heat patination that can easily be washed away by acid bathing) would happen to an object that has been plated before being enameled.
Following your logic, since silver has a much lower fusion point than gold, the heat needed to fuse the enamels would damage more readily the silver than its gold plating, and therefore make silver an unsuitable metal for enameling! Personally I think not.
You refered to hot and cold plating in your posts. I do agree that these techniques are different, and present different results. However, there is no way that a hot-plated metal item would see its plating melting away in an enameling oven.
Please feel free to share with us any technical details about these plating techniques you may have, as I am very curious to find out more on this topic, which, in my practical experience to date, has gone along the lline of what I have put forward so far.
Marc
