Nickel Replating

[Marcwithac]

I have a Waterman BHR 58 in beautiful condition except that the nickel plating on the cap band has worn through. Can anyone recommend someone who does nickel replating on bands and clips? If not, is this something that can be done easily at home?

[Ron Z]

You might be able to do it at home. The issue is the cost of the equipment, and (as I have found out) not all nickel plating is created equal. Some of it goes on very nicely with a litter prep work, and others won't stick at all unless you pickle it first in acid first.

 

The best and heaviest plating as achieved with tank plating, but that gets to be rather expensive. Pen plating is most often used, but the layer is somethat thin, so would wear off with heavy use.

[Addertooth]

Worn Nickel plating is frequently different than worn gold plating. Typically, worn gold plating has a very smooth texture, which has easy surface prep before plating. Worn Nickel plating tends to have sharper/rougher transitions where the nickel plating is gone. This makes it to where more surface prep is needed for replating nickel.

 

Look for my posting "Plating 101" which talks about some of the concepts of plating from home. In the example, gold plating was performed, but other than some extra surface preparation, the process is very similar.