Could someone tell me how to galvanize a sterling sheet?

[RonF]

Could someone tell me how to galvanize a sterling sheet? I would like to try some making some dags on galvanized sterling.

I understand the argument for just using .999 silver sheets, but it is so much easier to locate sterling.

[jgmotamedi]

I am also interested in simple (thin) electroplating right before a final polish. I know a number of people on this forum do this. Are you making your own plating baths using KCn? If so, I would love to hear your recipes, as well as times, anodes, and amperages.

Has anyone used the so-called green plating baths? Do they work for Daguerreotypes?

[Mike Robinson]

Hi All,

I have been galvanizing for 9 years now. The story of my discovery of spontaneous galvanism for use with clad plates is written in the Daguerreian Annual 2000. The plating bath I used back then was simply exhausted film fix.

Immersion plating (without the need for any external power supply) happens when a bi-metal (clad) plate is lowered into the solution.

It works great on existing silver surfaces but does NOT create an adherent deposit on copper, so its no good for those that want to make plates directly from base metals. For that you need a plating formula that does not immersion plate, such as cyanide based formula or non-cyanide proprietary formulas like e-brite 50/50.. I tried making my own plates for a while with a KI based formula that I developed but found the preparation of copper and plating far more labour intensive compared to working with the silver-clad copper plates. However it does work. The few full-plates I’ve made this way, beginning with copper.

Posted below is my current (pun intended) plating formula for use with clad plates.

For those that want to try galvanizing onto sterling silver or plated silver you need to use an external power supply or a copper, wet-plate style dipper.

Tip – Baron Gros states that the proper current is when a full plates takes on a eight decigrams of silver in one hour.

From this you can calculate the current density. Compare this to what your silver plater uses!

You don’t have to galvanize as thickly as Baron Gros. He recommends a creamy white surface. Others, including S & H, galvanized to a “sky-blue”

Since the clad plate is copper backed and silver on the front it will generate electricity when dipped into an electrolyte. The current density created is ideal for daguerreian image quality. Used film fix makes a fine immersion silver galvanizing bath.

Immerse the plate until it takes on a sky-blue colour. Remove from the bath, scrub off the loosely adhering silver on the back copper, rinse with distilled water and dry.

After galvanizing, polish again.

Repeat the galvanizing and hand polishing steps a second time.

Robinson’s Galvanizing Bath (1 litre ) aka “Moose Juice v4.0”

Part 1 – Sodium Thiosulfate Solution

Dissolve 480 grams in 600 ml of hot but not boiling distilled water

Add water to make 1 litre.

Part 2 – Silver Chloride preparation

Dissolve 4g of sodium chloride in 50 mL distilled water

In a separate beaker dissolve 12 g of silver nitrate in 50 mL of distilled water. (refer to MSDS on safe handling of silver nitrate)

Pour salt solution into silver solution under safelight and sodium chloride will precipitate. Let it settle and pour off the water. Wash the precipitate 3 times with distilled water.

Dissolve the silver chloride in the sodium thiosulfate solution.

The plating solution will require replenishment with more silver chloride from time to time.

Keep a good notebook. If you think using bromine complicates the process, thats nothin’ compared to the variables of silver-plating.

best

Mike

[Pobboravsky]

Hi,

“Keep a good notebook. If you think using bromine complicates the process, thats nothin’ compared to the variables of silver-plating.”

Mike kids you not!

Recovering galvanizer

Irv

[CasedImage]

Hi Mike, thanks for that, most interesting, I shall try the second galvanising, this makes sense as second goes on previously galvanised plates did seem to work better. I have been using a galvanising recipe that must have one of versions 1 to 3.0 from from Eric Mertens which originally came from you and in it you have the additional ingredients of Sodium Sulfite Sodium Metabisulfite. This seemed similar to a fixing recipe (15 each of grams Sodium Thiosulfate and Sodium Sulfite in 1 liter of distilled water) of Irv’s that I’m told is uses the sodium sulfite as an oxygen scavenger. What rationale led you to drop these from the formula?

Information in discussions like this is such a great thing for the contemporary dag genre, it will enable artists to achieve better images and is one of our goals in establishing cdags.org, many thanks.

www.CasedImage.com

[Mike Robinson]

Hi Alan,

OOPS you are right. I actually haven’t omitted these, the part 1 does include sodium sulfite and metabisulfite.

A cut and paste error in my previous post

Part 1 – Sodium Thiosulfate Solution

Dissolve 480 grams in 600 ml of hot but not boiling distilled water

Dissolve 20g Sodium Sulfite

Dissolve 50g Sodium Metabisulfite

Add water to make 1 litre. This is basically Kodak F24 fixer formula with twice the quantity of dry chemicals.

Part 2 – same as above

sorry for not proof reading.

best

Mike

[jgmotamedi]

Interesting, thank you Mike. If I understand correctly, the immersion technique depends on there be two different metals–copper and silver–on either side of the plate to create a mild current which deposits the silver on the silver, correct? I suppose one could easily enough sand the silver off the rough side of an electroplated plate and use your immersion method, or better yet, use a wax-resist during the original electroplating to ensure that there is silver on only one side.

jason

[CasedImage]

Hey Jason, I am just doing that very thing, I have some plates from Harvey Zucker who made them in the 1970’s (electroplated). At Andy’s suggestion I sanded down the back of the plate, it seems to work fine. Mike mentions using a collodion style plate dipper made of copper – so maybe by just being in contact with the back the plate the reaction will work?

I think in Baron Gros’s manual (see resources page) he mentions using copal varnish on the back of plates to save on silver plating solution.

www.CasedImage.com

[Mike Robinson]

Another thing to remember. With the immersion technique copper is lost from the plate as silver is added.

If you try to weigh plates before and after plating, to determine silver thickness added, you’ll find the plate actually loses weight!

Copper ions get in the bath but it doesn’t seem to be a problem.

This also means that pinholes in the silver surface that might go through to the base are not repaired with this plating method, only made worse.

I don’t worry about scraping off the back of an electroplated plate. A spare piece of copper in contact with the plate will work. I’ve even taped a couple of pennies to the back of a plate and found it works. That’s why I suggested the dipper. A more controllable system would be a DC power supply.

Just my two-cents worth of advice.

Mike

[photolytic]

Jason and Alan,

If you cover the back of your plates with platers tape before you send them to be electroplated you will not get any silver on the back.

http://www.mcmaster.com/#76095a138/=3q6rd4

This tape is resistant to cleaning solvents and will not contaminate the platers silver bath. It comes in 3 inch wide rolls and should be applied with a slight overlap.

It is easily pealed off leaving a clean copper surface with no adhesive residue.

For dip plating Ake Hultman in Sweden has successfully tested a commercial brush silver plating solution on his electroplated Dag plates.

http://www.goldn.co.uk:80/products/silver_plating_soln.htm

According to the manufacturer their solution leaves 0.6 microns of bright silver on the plate. This can be increased to 2-3 microns of bright silver by applying a 2-3 volt potential. No silver (or copper) anode is required.

“Dear Mr. Hultman,

Thank you for your enquiry. I’ve tested our silver in a tank and it

plates well bright up to a thickness of 3 microns with the minimum required buffing by hand to give the final flaw-free appearance.

For tank coating, I recommend 2.5 – 3.0 volts with a carbon or platinised titanium anode and constant agitation. The solution may be operated at room temperature.

Best regards

Richard Palmer

Director”

[jgmotamedi]

Thank you, this is all very helpful. Anybody make their own KCn solution? Not that I want another horrid chemical in the studio…

[Mike Robinson]

From the above post a few weeks ago, one correction

I said

“Pour salt solution into silver solution under safelight and sodium chloride will precipitate.”

What I should have written is “silver chloride will precipitate”

Thanks Ken, for pointing that out.

best, Mike

[Mercury]

Je vous en prie, Mike. A small thing, since you are now my teacher. Fair enough, but I still like to nail you now and then!

Ken

[Author]

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