How do you get gold plaiting off of metals?

Answer 1

There are several ways of recovering gold from plated items. Assuming this is what is being accomplished, rather than just "getting the gold off" to expose the underlying metal, there are some chemicals and chemical compounds that can be used to remove it. Unfortunately, they are all toxic or corrosive - or both. One is aqua regia, which is a one-to-three mix of concentrated nitric and hydrochloric acids. Removing plating to recover the gold, if this is what is being done, is best left to professionals. The reason is that recovered gold from, say, a printed circuit board's edge conncetors is worth only pennies because there is so little of it. The chemicals used to recover it would cost more than the gold recovered is worth. Gold plating is only a few tens of atoms thick. Think about it. Gold foil is thousands of times thicker than plated on gold. Only "production" recovery of gold plated onto other metals will net a profit. Even at the price of gold today. Notice that not a word in the above paragraph issues any warning about the hazards of substances that will remove gold from metals. You get that here: The substances used to remove gold plating from metals are uniformly toxic and/or corrosive! Complete a high school chemistry course at a minimum before even considering an undertaking like this! A link to a YouTube post can be found below. It's not good quality, but may be informative. What is of most importance is the list of related videos you'll find to the right. Start looking at those to see what you're considering getting into. Lastly, consider who else may be affected by any accidents you might have working with recovery materials. Give some thought to the damage to structures, too. Use the gray matter on this one.

Answer 2

To remove gold plating from metals, you can use commercial gold plating remover solutions or visit a professional jeweler who can strip the gold plating using the appropriate chemicals and techniques. Alternatively, you can try mechanical methods like sanding or buffing the gold layer off, but these may damage the underlying metal.