Since when Keys were Chromed

forgottendoll

Does anyone know when keys begun to be electroplated?
If a key is chromed, how old it could be, maximum?
Thank you!

Dean Nickel

Electroplating metal has been in use for almost 200 years. But Chrome is newer say about 1900-1910. So keys that are chrome plated couldn’t be more than 110 years old in modern production methods. If I was to guess I would say the last 80-90 years is likely for keys. Nickel-Silver blanks about 60-80 years. I could be wrong.

Pschiffe

What you are describing as “chromed” is more likely “nickel-plated” which has been a standard finish on brass keys for many years. Late 19th and early 20th century cylinder key blanks were often made of nickel-silver material, however later versions, particularly residential are often made of less expensive nickel-plated brass. Perhaps intended to simulate the nickel-silver appearance and prevent the tarnishing common to plain brass. My 2 cents.

Pete

forgottendoll

Thank you, this is very useful.
I sometimes run into nickel plated keys that seem to have iron underneath, like this one:

and some more plain than that, and I can’t say how old they are.

Dean Nickel

It is possible it was “Hot dipped” in a zinc or other bath and then filed and polished. That is a much older tech to about 1750. They had several finishes back that far that are now hard to duplicate and have survived.

forgottendoll

That is very interesting! Could I find out the plating material type from some home experiments, or do I have to get some testing substances? Thank you!

Dean Nickel

Short of a mass spec I am not sure you will know for sure.

Richard Phillips

I don’t recall seeing British keys plated much before the 1960’s. There were some, though; from at least the 1920’s Union plated a few. So did Chatwood, but safe/strongroom keys are in a different league from most.
Further back, at least to 16C, some high status keys were silver-plated, and gilded. Not sure that tin-plating on objects such as keys was possible before electroplating became possible, but hot-dip zinc plating was. Not aware of keys being either tin or zinc plated, though.

Richard Phillips

forgottendoll wrote
Thank you, this is very useful.
I sometimes run into nickel plated keys that seem to have iron underneath, like this one:
[ATTACH=CONFIG]6201[/ATTACH]
and some more plain than that, and I can’t say how old they are.

I don’t have this French/(German?) key in my hand, but looks to me as though it is steel rather than wrought iron, and has rusty patches.

[unknown]

Tom Gordon

keys similar to that one are still being madein europe -cast iron and chromeplated.
chrome, nickel and ainc will react very differently to acids