Genuine protection
Two pieces can leave two different workshops looking identical on the day and be nothing alike six months later. The difference is not visible at handover, which is exactly why it is worth understanding.
None of them is visible at handover. All of them are visible six months later.
A plate at 0.75 to 1.0 micron is a proper coat. A flash at a fraction of that also looks perfect at handover — and goes through at the shank within months. Since nobody can see microns, thickness is the easiest place in this trade to save money quietly.
A rhodium bath is a consumable: it depletes as it plates, and it can be run thin or topped up honestly. A tired or over-diluted bath gives a dull, blue-grey, uneven deposit rather than a clean white mirror. Ask any plater how often their bath is renewed.
Plated straight onto silver, rhodium will eventually cloud, because silver migrates into it. A barrier underplate stops that. It is an extra operation and an extra cost, and it is the first step a cheap job leaves out.
Any trace of grease, compound or a fingerprint and the rhodium simply will not key to the metal there. It looks fine, and it lifts. Ultrasonic, steam, electro-clean and acid dip are not preliminaries to the job — they are the job.
Life
Rings
12 – 24 months
A ring takes the most wear, and the shank goes first.
Bracelets
About two years
Constant contact with a desk, a sleeve, a steering wheel.
Pendants & earrings
Several years
Barely rubs against anything. Often never needs redoing.
What shortens it
These are typical periods, not a guarantee. How long a plate lasts depends on the alloy under it, the thickness laid and — more than either — on how the piece is worn.
Including us. If a workshop will not answer these five, that is itself the answer.
What thickness are you laying, in microns?
Is there a barrier underplate before rhodium on silver?
How often is the bath renewed?
What is the cleaning sequence before the piece goes in?
What happens if it lifts — do you redo it?
Our own answers, for the record: a standard coat at 0.75 – 1.0 micron and up to up to 2.0 micron where a piece needs it; a barrier underplate before rhodium on silver; ultrasonic, steam, electro-clean and acid dip before anything enters the bath. If a job we plated lifts, bring it back.
Plating salts are bought, not made, and the difference between a reputable solution house and a cheap substitute shows in the deposit — its colour, its evenness and how it behaves over time. Ask us what we run and where it comes from; it is a fair trade question and it gets a straight answer on the telephone.
We have deliberately not printed supplier logos or licence numbers on this page. Anyone can put a badge on a website. What is worth having is the answer to the five questions above, from a person, about your piece.
The sensible way to judge any plater, including this one. Send a single piece, wear it for a season, then decide who gets the order.
Kanchwala Building, 3rd Floor, Room No. 28, 63 Dhanji Street, Zaveri Bazar, Mumbai 400003
