At McCluskey Arms, we recently added gold plating to our list of gunsmithing services. Our first gold plating project was a Glock slide. In this blog, we explain what gold plating is and how we gold plated this Glock.

What is Gold Plating?

Gold plating is the process of applying a thin layer of gold to the gun’s finish using heat and an electric current. The gold comes dissolved in a liquid form and adheres to the metal at 120 degrees.

Prep and Polish

Before adding any gold, we had to prep and polish the Glock slide.

The gold plating finish of the gun is directly related to the finish before adding any gold. If you want shiny gold plating, the gun must be polished to a mirror finish before gold plating can start. Otherwise, the gun will just have a matte finish.

Testing the Gold Plating Process on a Punch

The polishing and prep took hours of work. Almost all of the polishing was done by hand with sandpaper and then finished off with the buffing wheel.

Once the metal was polished, we gave the gun a bath in degreaser to make sure it was completely clean. If the steel isn’t clean, nothing adheres to the gun.

Before doing anything to someone else’s gun, we always run a test. For new optic cuts and bluing, we always test on a scrap piece of metal. Similarly, prior to gold plating the customer’s Glock slide, we made sure the entire process worked on one of our punches. Once we had the golden punch in hand, we started the process of gold plating the slide.

Nickel First

Before gold could be added, we had to nickel plate the gun first. Nickel prevents steel from rusting under the gold plating. Without the layer of nickel, water would be able to seep through the gold and rust the steel underneath. Because gold is porous, it needs a barrier between it and the steel to prevent the formation of rust.

Like the gold solution, the nickel plating comes in liquid form and uses heat and electricity to adhere to the gun’s metal.

For both the nickel and gold plating we used, a setup similar to our electronic bluing tanks but in a smaller form. To make sure the liquid was at the right temperature, we used an electronically controlled heating element and PID.

It took thirty minutes for the nickel to adhere to the slide. Once that was complete, we cleaned it in the degreaser again before starting the gold plating process.

Glock Gold Plating

With the nickel plated Glock in hand, we dunked the slide into the liquid gold mixture and waited for the magic (or science) to happen. It only took 30 seconds for the gold to adhere to the gun.

After the Glock was gold plated, we rinsed it and carefully reassembled the gun. Because gold is a malleable material, the finish scratches easily so we had to be extremely careful putting the Glock back together.

While gold plating might not be the most durable finish, it’s incredibly shiny and flashy. Who doesn’t want a 24 karat Glock?

While the majority of the cost comes from the hand polishing, our price of gold plating will also always be relative to the cost of gold. We are currently charging $12 per square inch. This covers the cost of both the 24 karat gold and the hours hand polishing required for the mirror finish. Drop by the shop or give us a call if you’re interested!