Durability of Plating on Pen Kits?

[Mac In Oak Ridge]

OK,can anyone address how long the plating really holds up on pen kits? I know it depends on how much the pen is used. But.....

You got 10K Gold with some kind of coating over it. You got 24K Gold. 24K Gold with Cobalt added. Titanium Gold, Titanium Black. You got, Satin, Chrome, Nickel and so on.

Are we talking the less costly platings wear off in weeks? Months?
You got people coming back upset in a few days because the plating is gone. You never hear from them again?

If you want to sell a slimline for $20 you can't afford to put Titanium plated hardware on it and make any kind of profit. If you by 24K Gold kits from Arizona for $1.49 you can sell a $20 pen and come out OK.

 

[jwoodwright]

I have pens out there that are used daily for over six years and many repeat customers. These were Craft Supply 24K Slimlines. I've never heard anything bad. I'm rough on stuff and they seem to hold up.

 

[Guest]

The only pens I have ever worn a finish off of is the plastic advertizing pens I get for gree.
I would hope the kits I am buying are better than those.
Also I can never remember wearing a finish off a pen I purchased at a department store.

 

[Rudy Vey]

Gold platings will wear off, period. I have some pens I used for only two months and they show quite some wear. I mainly use Titanium Nitride coated pen kits in gold color (also called Titanium Gold). Here you are sure that there is absolutely no wear on the plating, I have one pen in daily use for two year now, and it looks as it looked the first day. Please, keep in mind these Titanium Nitride coatings are widely used on tooling for many years and have increased lifetime of tooling (best example are punches used in cold forging, here a minimum of 10-20 times the number parts can be forged in comparison to un-coated tools; and we talking here 5 to 6 digit numbers). The second best plating I think is Chromium plating.
The next should be the Platinum (Berea) and Rhodium (Craft Supplies) platings. I have so far not enough experience with the satin finishes
(and I wildly guess here they are just paints, powder coatings).

Rudy