Plating

Plating means applying a thin coat of metal over a baser metal. Plating can be done with almost all metals, but the ones most commonly familiar to the general public are electroplating with gold or silver. A lot of jewelry is made by plating gold over silver jewelry so that the finished piece looks like gold jewelry, but the body of the piece is silver. The advantage of this process produces a piece of jewelry that looks like an expensive gold piece, but the price tag is modest. Since silver is a stronger metal, less malleable than gold, the piece that is made of silver, plated with gold, produces a stronger piece.

Most electroplating takes place with items made of copper that have been coated with silver. Typical pieces are tall candlesticks. The copper inside the candlesticks gives them strength so they do not bend easily. Silver coffee sets are commonly made of silver plate because of the strength the base metal gives to the set. Sterling silver coffee and tea sets dent easily and lose their beauty, but the plated ones stand up to much heavy usage without showing any damage.

Another common use of silver plating is in cutlery. Since the price of silver has increased so much, many people prefer to purchase and use cutlery that has been silver plated, rather than sterling silver. Silver plated knifes, forks, and spoons can hardly be told from sterling, except they are stronger and less malleable, and the price is considerably less.