Close Plating

 
SnufferBirmingham was the centre of the close plating industry in Britain. Close plating was a craft in which a thin layer of silver was applied to an article made of a base metal, most often iron or steel. The object was first smoothed and thoroughly cleaned. It was them heated in a charcoal fire and afterwards submerged into first a solution of salt-ammoniac and then into a molten tin. This completed the fusion of the steel and tin and the item was allowed to cool.