cyanaurate gel

[Geo]

I have been studying on making my own gold plating solution. I have a few friends that are willing to pay me for gold plating certain metal items. I am confident that I can make cyanaurate and keep the PH adjusted between 8 and 3 for tank plating, but I was wanting to make a gel that I can brush on. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[Geo]

This is the process I hope to follow.

1 liter distilled water
15 g, potassium ferrocyanide
15 g sodium carbonate
2.65 g gold chloride

1.Bring 1 liter of distilled water to a full boil and add 15 g of potassium ferrocyanide.

2.Pour 15 g of sodium carbonate into the water once all of the potassium has dissolved.

3.Wait for the sodium to be completely mixed into the water and add 2.65 g of gold chloride.

4.Let the solution boil for half-hour and turn off the heat. The solution should be left to cool off for as long as it takes to make it at least room temperature.

5.Filter the solution through a fine sieve and place the solution into a container until you are ready to use it.


The PH has to be monitored to keep the solution within a certain range. Too low and hydrogen cyanide gas is evolved, too high and the gold precipitates out of solution as a solid. PH can be adjusted with sodium carbonate or sulfuric acid. Warning, adding acid to a cyanide solution is very dangerous. All of this should be done with double protection, within a fume hood while wearing either a rated respirator or S.C.B.A.

This is why I would like to make the gel form. Besides the obvious of letting someone else do it, is there anyone who can give me some pointers.

 

[Geo]

Okay, can someone at least tell me if this is accurate or not. Just wanting to plate a few knives, nothing big. I have the gold. I just need to know if this will work.

 

[Harold_V]

Okay, can someone at least tell me if this is accurate or not. Just wanting to plate a few knives, nothing big. I have the gold. I just need to know if this will work.

I expect that the idea of plating directly to the knife may not be realistic, although I can not say with certainty. A nickel strike may be required.
I have very little experience with plating, although I have done a small amount, primarily acid/copper, cyanide copper and cyanide gold.

I made my own gold plating solution, which was VERY simple. I simply introduced well evaporated gold chloride solution to a cyanide solution. I do not recall any of the details, as this was very long ago. Anyway, my purpose was to plate a couple railroad spikes, one of which I still have.

I'm not going to suggest to you that what I did was as good as it gets, as there were no brighteners or any additives of any kind in my solution, but it did, indeed, plate gold. I used a gold anode so I wouldn't deplete the electrolyte (plating solution). Note that a nickel strike was required, which was applied for me by one of my customers, who routinely plated nickel.

Here's a picture of the spike:

 

[Geo]

Very nice finish. That's pretty much what I want to do. Thank you Harold.