Plating issues?

[wood-of-1kind]

Is it me or is it someone "else" that keeps putting Berea's plating down? My experience have been very good with the Berea plating and certainly on par with CSUSA. I know that "we" have discussed this in other threads here, but I would like to hear if your plating experiences have changed significantly of late. I do not wish to do a poll, but where do you rank the big "three" in terms of plating quality. You know the teams:

CS, Berea, PSI

Any significant comment(s) are welcomed here.

-Peter-

 

[gerryr]

I don't have enough experience with PSI to say anything about their plating, but I have used lots of Berea and CSUSA kits. I don't use upgrade gold, 24K gold, 10K gold, any satin finishes except satin nickel or that tactile finish. That said, I haven't found any difference in the quality of the plating between those two. I do prefer the color of Berea's Ti Gold over CSUSA's Ti Gold, but that doesn't have anything to do with quality, just personal preference.

 

[mrcook4570]

What Gerry said except I don't have a preference of one Ti gold over the other.

 

[wdcav1952]

Make it a double ditto of what Gerry said.

 

[Rudy Vey]

I use mainly Berea since about 8 years or so, and lately more and more kits from CSUSA (Retro, Statesman Jr, Gent). Pretty much a half year after I started, I switched to Ti Gold. Why? Well, I sold a pen to my chiropractor and within 4 or 6 weeks he asked me why the gold color was nearly gone and nasty spots of corrosion were visible and roughness could be felt. So much for Upgrade gold. Then I made some time later my first Gent Jr. 10K gold. The plating also came off very fast. This was the last "gold" plated pen I did. Now I am using only: Ti Gold, Black Ti, Platinum and Rhodium, Chrome and satin Nickel. Have not had one pen coming back for plating/coating issues.
The TiGold of Berea looks more like Gold, and the TiGold from CSUSA does look a bit brassy, someone mentioned this already in one of the earlier posts. Other than this, I believe the platings of both Berea and CSUSA are par.
I don't use PSI kits or any kits that are copper plated.

 

[wood-of-1kind]

Thank you very much gentlemen, very informative info provided so far. Anyone else wish to add to this entry?

-Peter-

 

[redfishsc]

I, as well as a few other folks, have had a terrible time with CSA's rhodium and ti-gold pitting. The problem, according to CSA, is that the pitting was already existant but not visible when the kit is shipped to them, and when the pen is made and exposed to hand crud and the elements, the pits get worse. Sounds to me like the buffing medium that is used to polish the base metal was not properly cleaned off.


I have had a few Berea ti-gold items come in looking like slightly tarnished brash, but a touch of tarn-ex removed it.


All being said, I have had ABSOLUTELY NO problems with anyone's chrome or black ti. Those are my staple platings now anyhow.