Gold Plated Metal

Gold plated items have a base metal underneath the gold plate like copper or silver which makes the jewelry piece stronger and less likely to bend though these jewelry metals tarnish.

Gold plated metal.

The average gold plating kit will include a liquid gold solution an electrical supply and a plating wand or brush that links to the power supply and directs where the gold is bonded. Gold plating is a process where a thin layer of gold is bonded onto a base metal. Generally plating is the process through which a piece of jewelry made from a certain metal or alloy is covered with a layer of another metal. For more traditional methods often used for much larger objects see gilding.

An all inclusive kit is ideal. For example a copper or silver ring with a layer of gold on top would be sold as gold plated. Additionally this step is used when the base metal like copper is known to atomically migrate outside of the gold layer to create spots of tarnish after plating. In a gold plated jewelry item the metal beneath the gold plate will eventually come to the surface and become discolored so it will need to be polished.

Plating is quite common in the jewelry world with gold and rhodium being two popular types. With costume jewelry the base metal would contaminate the tanks with the gold in them so a different metal is plated prior to the gold plating.