Gold Plated sword!?!

O

oolong dao

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Jan 21, 2014
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I was wondering about something, people, especially modern criminals and ancient nobility, tend to spend money of gold plating guns and armor. So i question, what would happen if you gold plated a functional sword blade?

how durable could one make a gold plating? is there a optimum gold karat / steel alloy one would use? what would happen to the plating if the sword bent, would it too return to place?

QUESTIONS!
 
I would think that perhaps a gold sort of coating akin to Ti Ni might be applied, but literal gold plating sounds fragile to me.
 
I remember a gold-colored coating called cassidium being used on a Marfione custom before. Apparently it is super durable, similar to a DLC coating. There seems to be very little information online about it though.
 
I believe bladed weapons traditionally use gold as furniture, not on the blade itself. We would probably get more information from our sword forum experts, so I will move this there.
 
I remember seeing gold inlays on bearing sword blades in museums, but they were never intended for use in actual battle. They didn't have sheathes, too, as they were intended to be carried bare to be seen and hung on a wall afterwards. Any real friction would wear the gold off, even too much polishing could ruin the look. That said, I saw a gold-colored knife on the cover of Blade once, and it looked awesome, It had a modern treatment and was not gold-plated, but it was still waaaaay out of my price range.
 
Gold-plated hilts or guards were done. The entire hilt on Indian swords, guards and pommels on European swords with non-metallic grips. On Indian swords, one also sees gold koftgari (a type of shallow inlay). As above, one sees gold inlay on blades. This appears to be most common on Persian swords. Many European swords have blades that are partly gold-plated (usually by fire-gilding), typically in combination with bluing:
http://harveywithers.co.uk/british-and-continental-napoleonic-blue-and-gilt-sword-blades/
If you search Google Images for "blue and gilt sword", you'll find lots of them. Mostly 19th century officer's swords. I don't recall seeing a sword with a blade that's completely gold-plated. You wouldn't want to do this for a sword intended for cutting things, since sharpening will take off the plating near the edge. Would work for a purely decorative/dress/ceremonial sword, though there would be the issue of wear, as noted above.

For fire-gilding, the coating is thin and just flexes with the sword blade.

http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/fire/hd_fire.htm
 
You should check out Buster Warenski's Legacy series. Coop had some amazing photos.

GemoftheOrient-KingTut-FireIce.jpg
 
Gold plating works best on anime-inspired swords made from VG-10 with all-Japanese materials.
 
Rust prevention.
I believe Warenski (re)invented a steel-gold alloy, keeping the formula secret.
 
Oh i felt this thread sorta ended with no reference to the reason i started it. I wanted to know because I've always wanted a custom made khopesh and while im a big fan of steel, having a steel khopesh seems like having a baseball bat made of plastic. so i wondered if gold plating would be possible to increase the worth of the blade over time so it wouldn't simply be a hanger.
 
I don't think gold plating would help it retain value. A solid gold khopesh might be a different story.

Why not go bronze?
 
Gold plating would make it a dedicated wall hanger, and every little scuff would be extra aggravating. If you want a steel khopesh to go with your Cold Steel Brooklyn Smasher (the plastic bat), then search this site for one, and there is a maker here with a couple of models ready for sale. But bronze would fill the need for something shiny and period-appropriate. Bronze swords are also much rarer than steel, for what its worth, so it might have the cachet you want. Bronze gets short-shrift versus steel, but in side by side comparison it does surprisingly well. If the smith hardens the edge with hammering, it can take a sharp, durable edge, the softness of bronze lets it absorb energy, and it will bend before it breaks. There are several companies and individuals that make a bronze khopesh, and I remember a thread about their relative merits at myarmoury.com. Some come finished and some you polish and add the hilt yourself, and the pictures of the final products were really amazing.
 
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/07/130724124919.htm

Here's how they did it in the old days !

Timo, gold alloys might be the way to do it .Mechanical properties would be better and colors are available .White, yellow,green,red alloys are used in jewelry today that I have seen. the colors are in the metal not a surface process.
We have to re-invent the wheel. The goldsmith's techniques of Peru [Incas] have always been a challenge to us dumb modern types !!
 
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