Brass plating restoration?

[Richard_C]

My son is an orchestral percussion and timpanist. Baroque/Period Timpani are smaller than the modern pedal tuned ones, have different sound and are tuned by '6 or 7 taps' around the edge and he now has a pair as a restoration project. One has chalked inside "restored by T Smith, 1913" so will be considerably older than that. There is much to do, a few dents on the copper bowls, goatskin heads to be got and wrapped, polishing and more.

The once brass finished 'tap handles' are worn down to what looks like an anodized steel body so will need polishing or better still re-plating in some way. I don't know if anyone does decorative brass plating or even if it can be done.

Any ideas welcome.

 

[Jelly]

Gateros offer a Brass Plating kit, but it might not be economic if you need to get a power supply as well to do it.

Beyond that, there's a reasonable number of metal platers offering it, so you could have a ring around, it might take a few before you can find one who will take on a small restoration order though.

 

[Richard_C]

Thanks, that diy kit link looks interesting and its good to know that it can be done commercially. Lots of planning and thinking going on.

 

[scholar]

@Richard_C I just had this problem! (well, a similar one).

I am restoring my father’s old model sailing yacht from the ‘30’s - seem to be called Pond Yachts. Various of the deck fittings that I thought were tarnished brass turned out to be brass-plated copper, whilst some other fittings are solid brass. I toyed with painting them which just wasn’t the same, then had a look at a DIY kit, which looked quite involved.

Eventually, I found a company in Birmingham that does brass plating - I am expecting them in the post any day now, so will happily share the results. They should be stripped/cleaned/plated/polished/lacquered. Ill let you have the details once I can speak for the results!

Cheers

 

[scholar]

Well, I am pretty pleased with the brass-plating results - these arrived back today.
Here is a before and after:
/

The company I used for this was Brass Plating | Chrome Fix. It took a couple of months but it was a truly tiny job.

My only problem now is matching the finish on all the screws and the various other solid brass parts!

Cheers

 

[Richard_C]

Excellent example, thanks (sorry to be so long getting back to you). Will call them when we have made a bit more progress with the other bits. Off now to find a goat ....no, not really, there are companies that supply the treated skins.