Has anyone used Jackson Plating in Hounslow or Marque Restore in Coventry for dull chrome plating?....If so any comments on the work done...?...Ian
email (option): ian@wright52.plus.com
Or can anyone recommend a good plater for this finish...Not a 'faked up' finish, not satinising soaps or bead blasting....Traditional dull chrome....Ian
email (option): ian@wright52.plus.com
Hi Ian,
I tried for a while to find someone who could do a proper dull chrome finish. So if you turn it up, I would be interested to know.
A friend of mine used Coventry firm for bright chrome on some Bugatti parts, they were very good finish.
But I did not think they did a dull finish.
Darren
email (option): dwrudd @ lineone . net
My dull chrome was done using Marque Restore's vats, but by my mate who uses there premises. The finish was generally good, I had a few issues with the nuts and bolts not being very hexagonal after, so next lot I do, my mate is going to set me up with the polisher for me to do there. Then he'll plate them for me.
So Marque Restore do dull chrome, but I can't say how good a job their staff will do as I didn't use them.
email (option): horror@blueyonder.co.uk
I have always been confused by the term "Dull Chrome", Chrome is an element and sort of has to be Chrome coloured?
So is Dull Chrome oxidised or is it an alloy of Chrome and some other metal?
Rob
email (option): robmiller11(a)yahoo.co.uk
Chrome takes on the effect of the metal it's plated on to. Hence, if you want bright chrome and the metal isn't polished, it doesn't come out very bright. Dull chrome has a base of dull nickel, this is the process that most plating companies don't do. When the dull layer of nickel is chrome plated, it makes the chrome dull as well.
email (option): horror@blueyonder.co.uk
We always polished bike parts that were in for dull chrome plating to remove any pitting etc. Otherwise you are correct in that the diiference between bright chrome and dull chrome ia the underlycing nickel coat.
I'm sure that there is more to it than just the preparation...and if chrome is chrome, surely nickel is also nickel ?
Proper period dull chrome has a distinctive blue-grey colour and a very smooth surface. It is not the grainy rough feel that is often passed off these days by chroming over a bead-blasted surface.
Was here some sort of die or colouring agent included ? Did the process use the now-banned hexavalent chrome or trivalent ?
Although some modern chromers have come close, I haven't seen real, proper, instantly recognisable dull chrome since Raleigh stopped using it on their bicycles in the mid 1960s. For some reason, the technology seems to have been lost. It must have been a trade secret as various searches of old technical publications have turned nothing up.
email (option): horror@blueyonder.co.uk
I'm still confused so lets see if I have this right
The best (shiniest) Chrome is Triple Chroming, the object is cleaned in acid which strips it back to bare metal, its then copper plated, polished, nickel plated, and then a single (thick?) layer of Chrome, and polished again, possible with other polishing between process's.
Dull Chrome misses out either the copper layer or the nickel layer, or it has both but misses out some of the polishing?
Rob
email (option): robmiller11(a)yahoo.co.uk
After the metal is stripped, it is rough and if it was rusty, it's full of pits. It has to be polished or even filled with metal then polished before plating. This is done no matter what finish you want. What makes Dull Chrome, dull, is the dull nickel process. If I remember correctly, the nickel tank has to be heated. Whether it's this, or a different chemical in the tank, that makes the nickel a matt finish, but still over a smooth surface. The chrome over it changes it to a silver colour. No blasting etc is used to get this finish.
email (option): horror@blueyonder.co.uk
Its a difference in the nickel solution that determines whether its bright or dull. Can't remember the details and I lost my Canning handbook a long time ago.
Original Norton dull chromed parts were plated over a machined finish. There was no polishing involved...and the blue/grey finish is still visible, un-rusted on eighty year old parts. This was no wanky modern bright chromed finish dulled down. It is something different altogether and whilst some chromers come close on the odd part, none can do it consistently and none can effectively say why. To my mind it has to be a process that was banned in the 1960s. It was carried out by men in green-stained leather aprons but we can't ask them as they all died young - It was a pretty horrible process evidently.
Thanks Dean, I wasn't sure. I know the tank has to be heated and that takes ages. My mate has taken me round the place every time I've gone there, and he's explained every step to me, but remembering it is my problem :relaxed:
Rik, the process I'm describing is for re-plating a part. If the part is new, the surface is good anyway and not rough like it is when the acid has stripped off old chrome and etched the surface. When I first had some parts done, I said I don't want it polished or shiny. My mate tried explaining to me it had to be polished, so he got my kick start lever and dull chromed it without polishing. It was full of pits and looked awful. He'd made his point and said do you understand now..? :laughing: It didn't look bad when I gave it to him, but the acid takes out any rust and leaves a pit. So the main problem that I've found is how far do you go with polishing out the pits, you can end up with parts looking deformed. It's a bit of a compromise with rusty bits. Or you can spend a fortune filling in every pit, which he did for me on some Mazak Norton Domminator tank badges I had re-chromed. It took him hours.
email (option): horror@blueyonder.co.uk
Proper period dull chrome has a distinctive blue-grey colour and a very smooth surface. It is not the grainy rough feel that is often passed off these days by chroming over a bead-blasted surface.
Was here some sort of die or colouring agent included ? Did the process use the now-banned hexavalent chrome or trivalent ?
Although some modern chromers have come close, I haven't seen real, proper, instantly recognisable dull chrome since Raleigh stopped using it on their bicycles in the mid 1960s. For some reason, the technology seems to have been lost. It must have been a trade secret as various searches of old technical publications have turned nothing up.
Very few metals are naturally shinny, so we polish them to make them shinny.
Bright nickel plate is what all platers do and dull nickel is plated out of a different bath under different conditions and a dull bath is poison to a bright bath so no one want to have to send 1000+ gallons of contaminated acidic heavy metal solution to the hazardous waste plane, well not if you want to remain in business you don't.
Some shops will do a sort of dull chrome by running the parts through the line before the levelers & brighteners have been added to the plating bath.
To do a proper dull chrome, you polish the surface to achieve the amorphious semi metallic glass surface layer, then etch the surface to break u the surface before plating.
This yields a grainy look more than a dull look but not a mirror finish which most plating tanks are set up to achieve.
email (option): bsansw1@tpg.com.au
Fascinating stuff, So I now sort of know what proper Dull Chrome is and that I can't have it.:grinning:
Rob
email (option): robmiller11(a)yahoo.co.uk
So how does dull chrome differ from satin chrome?
email (option): meck04@bigpond.com
The same as Matt paint differs from Satin paint. Ron
email (option): ronpier@talk21.com
You can do Dull chrome at home with the home plating kits and a battery.
email (option): bsansw1@tpg.com.au
I used to get this chroming done its not called dull its proper name is sateen chrome it is a different mixture than bright chrome as used on WD B40s velocettes Greeves tanks I did a lot and if done right it makes a bike, sadly to keep it clean and flowing ie no grit like marks (bits) in plating it has to be used hourly with heated vats and pumps that keeps the vats bubbling it was only me and a few other companies using it, the vats got less used and dirty so he took it out and replaced it to copper, copper was only used to fill pitted metal as it's easier to apply and remove than nickel, my chromer said he vapour blasts the chrome afterwards and it looks the same it doesn't it's like dull stainless if done right it colour is blue/grey with a sheen. mal
email (option): malmotorcycles@gmail.com