Bottle Stoppers
- Thread starter Madman1978
- Start date
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wolf creek knives
Member
Nice stoppers Michael!!! Are these Chrome or Stainless? To be honest, I've had a lot better success with Stainless than with the Chrome plated. Personal preference but the resellers I sell too really like the look of the Stainless Steel stoppers and the warranties that Ruth Niles offers on hers. She not the only Stainless supplier, I just like the deals she offers and the one on one attention she gives. Nice work hope to see more in the future.
Madman1978
Member
These are the Chrome one from PSI
Penchant 4
Member
My experience with the chrome plated stoppers is that, with time, exposure to the acids (presumably) of wine caused the plating to peel and flake off. Luckily, none of my clients had experienced the issue; but I replaced the chrome versions with stainless steel at no charge. Since then, only stainless steel go on bottle stoppers coming out of my shop.
monophoto
Member
Many years ago, I saw a discussion of the various plating options. As I recall, gold was described as one of the least desirable because i would rapidly wear away, while chrome was not much better. According to that article (which I believe may have been in a CSUSA catalog), the titanium nitride platings were rated as very good.
I made a couple of pens for my wife around the same time, and they have held up extremely well (and she uses them nearly every day) - one has gold plating, and the other is a combination of gold and chrome. I also made a wine stopper with black TiN plating that I used regularly on a bottle of red (my doctor has prescribed one glass a day, along with dark chocolate - its good for you!). After several years of regular use, I noticed that the plating on the stopper was starting to corrode. Eventually, I replaced the TiN 'works' on that stopper with Ruth Niles stainless steel which looks as good as new after about five years of use.
I don't sell stoppers, but if I did, they would all be stainless - I'm old fashioned and believe that if you are accepting payment, you must provide quality in return. However, I do make a lot of stoppers that I give away (which means that the recipients have no basis to complain), and they are all made of the silicone sleeve design. For a long time I used the PSI version that comes with a short tapered dowel that you glue into the turning. More recently, I've started using the version from Woodcraft via Amazon that consists of the silicone sleeve only - you either have to make a short dowel that you glue into the turning, or else you must turn a 1/2" tenon on the turning and then slide the silicone sleeve over the tenon. I typically apply a little silicone sealant/adhesive to fix the sleeve in place and prevent wine from penetrating between the sleeve and the tenon. This approach is much less expensive than using stainless steel, and that's important since I give them away.