Replate, de-plate, live with it or trade it off?

[Cary Whitlock]

Been cleaning on this one for a while. It was so rusty/dirty I had no idea it was plated till it spend a few days in the electro tank. I saw a little silver on the lid and thought it might have a bit of spray paint on it.

anyway, inside cleaned up fine. no pits, sits flat. I would like to keep it as a user but it is still ugly and I am pretty sure it is not going to get any better.

I could try and find a plater to strip it or what?

[Cary Whitlock]

Would walnut blasting even touch the plating?

[C. Perry Rapier]

Hello Cary. Welcome to WAGS. Its great to have you. Thats a hard call to make. Should you spend the money refurbishing a more common piece. You'd probably have more money in it than it would be worth. If it was me and I wanted to use it, I think I'd just work it over real good with some SOS pads and season it and let it go at that. As far as value, even in real good shape I'd say this piece is worth maybe sixty dollars or so, maybe less. I hope that helps. If you have anymore questions that we can possibly help with let us know.  :)

[Jeff Friend]

I agree with Perry.  Clean it up and make a nice user out of it.  Walnut shells won't touch the plating.  Now, there has been some discussion here that molasses might remove some of the plating.  That might be worth a try and it's cheap.

And welcome to WAGS.  Keep us posted on your project.

[Gary Salsman]

I found a local chrome plating shop that will strip my items for $10 each. Underneath some is copper plating which has to be removed using another process. My plater does not have the ability to remove the copper.

[Dwayne Henson]

Does nickel plating have copper under it as well?

[Gary Salsman]

Hard to say.

[Jeff Friend]

I have never seen a layer of copper under nickel on a skillet, like you might on an item that has been "triple-plated" with chromium (copper, nickel, and chrome).  That is not to say that some manufacturers used a copper strike for some reason.  I have ERIE and some Wagner nickel plated pieces and there is just iron under the places where the nickel has peeled away.

I believe all cookware was electroplated in nickel because  electroless nickel was not developed commercially until the 1940s. 

[Cheryl Watson]

I have a product / catalog sheet from Littlestown Hardware & Foundry Co.

It states:

" CAST IRON HOLLOW WARE"
FINISH.... Copper plated first and then covered with nickle.
with trim highly nickled and polished.  Very durable.

So this manufacturer states copper plated first.

[Neal Birkett]

never seen a layer of copper under nickel on a skillet, like you might on an item that has been "triple-plated" with chromium (copper, nickel, and chrome).

I have a Griswold 10 Button "bright chrome" skillet cover that was in fairly nasty condition.  I had it stripped.  When I picked it up, it looked pretty good, but when I lyed and cleaning it, a copper tinge was clearly visible.  I am convinced that Griswold bright chrome from the 30's forward included at least some pieces that were triple-plated. 

I know some earlier pieces were tin-plated, and I understand that tin is not as tightly bound to the iron as copper-nickel-chrome.  There may also be pieces that were chrome-plated without the use of copper.

PS the company that did the stripping was unsympathetic to my dissatisfaction, and did not care that I would not go back to them.  Try this on low value pieces first, not pieces that you will unhappy with your investment on, if it does not turn out well.