Plating

We do offer a nib plating service for the nibs we sell in this store.

These are the different platings we offer:

Gold: 18k gold plating on steel nibs. This is a special electrolyte plating for stainless steel. It is durable and shiny on polished nibs.

Green Gold: new in 2023.

Brown Gold: new in 2023. Also called Chocolate Gold. It is a blend of gold and ruthenium.

Rose Gold: this is an alloy of gold and cooper metals to create a pink color coating. A previous gold plating is required so the process is longer than a single one coating plating. Bare in mind that this is Jewelry Rose Gold plating that means that a minimum of 14k gold content is required.

This plating can tarnish over time due to the copper content of the alloy, this is normal.

Rhodium: also called white rhodium. This is a white silver color plating. It is strong and durable. It is shinnier and whitter than polished stainless steel. Over stainless steel it requires a previous coating of gold.

Black Rhodium: this is a special plating that requires several steps, it is durable and shiny. It is a dark grey color  thick coating that protects and gives the nib a modern looking as it has not been used in the past.

Black Ruthenium: this is is dark brown color. See picture below.

Two Tone: this is a mixture of platings. Or may be a partial plating too, plating only part of the nib instead of the whole nib. Also can be made plating one part with one type of metal and the other with another type of metal.

We do two tone Gold nibs, two tone Rose Gold and two tone Rhodium.

Advices on plated nibs:

-plating is a thin layer of a precious metal over a solid metal.

-avoid polishing compounds over platings as these can remove the coating.

-avoid rubbing the nib surface with any abrasive material that can wear and make the surface dull.

-avoid treating the nib roughly by bending it, or changing its curvatures, the coating may peel off.

Plating flex nibs is not recommended, it adds extra thickness and while bending the tines the coating may peel of.

Here are some samples of our platings:

1. The picture below is a Two Tone Rose Gold plated nib. Two Tone always has the tines silver color and the body of the nib in other color. This nib also have Partial sandblasting, it is a procedure to make the metal matt and give it a texture:

Two Tone rhodium Rose Gold FPnibs 
2. The nib below is a Two Two Rverse Gold. It is reverd because the silver color is in the body of the nib instead of in the tines, as the previous nib. In this nib the tines are gold plated and the body are white rhodium plated:
Two Tone Reverse nib FPnibs
3. This is a Two Tone Reverse White and Black Rhodium. It si reverse because the silver color is in the body of the nib -white rhodium, and the tines are black rhodium:

  

4. Here you can see a Rose Gold plated nib on the left and a natural gold on the right. I say natural because it is the color of the nib material, it is not plated:

ROSE GOLD VS GOLD NIBS

5. This is a Two Tone gold nib. In this case we plate only the tines of the nib with white rhodium metal. The body of the nib is the natural color of the gold alloy metal:

6. This is a Bock 250 Stainless Steel nib. In the begining the nib is totally plain, so we need to engrave the line to separate both color, so we decided to make it all the way along the nib:

 

7. Comparison of 3 gold platings: standard gold, green gold and brown gold:

8. Comparison of Black Ruthenium on the left and Black Rhodium on the right:
9. Here is a Two Tone Gold and Black Nickel:
10: Here is a comparison of a standard stainless steel nib on the left, and the same nib Rhodium plated on the right:
Polished steel vs White Rhodium Fpnibs Jowo nib