Reduced Ion Electroless Nickel
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Wood’s Nickel Strike

When I look in the literature or talk with other platers, I am told that Wood’s nickel is an easy bath to use and shouldn’t cause any problems. Generally, that seems to be the case, but is there any place I can get additional information about the strike bath?

Arthur S. Kushner
Arthur S. Kushner
Consultant

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 Q. Everybody talks about the Wood’s nickel strike prior to plating of materials like stainless steel or other hard to plate substrates. Our plating shop uses Wood’s nickel for such purposes. 

When I look in the literature or talk with other platers, I am told that Wood’s nickel is an easy bath to use and shouldn’t cause any problems. Generally, that seems to be the case, but is there any place I can get additional information about the strike bath? K. K.
 
A. You are correct! Most everybody will tell you that the Wood’s nickel strike is an easy-to-use bath. It is, but it does require some level of maintenance. This is where the problems come in. Such things as concentration of nickel, the ratio of nickel to chloride, temperature and time in the bath all can cause difficulties.
 
A typical bath is formulated in the chart to the right.
 
This formulation is one of many that are described in the literature. Any of the formulations you find in a handbook or on the web will likely work well for you but you must remember to maintain the “health” of the bath. 
 
Seems simple enough but if you do some “digging” on the Internet, you discover that there are many variations to the bath and many opinions about how best to operate the bath. For example, a thread on finishing.com has a fairly lengthy discussion about the Wood’s nickel strike, short.pfonline.com/forum. Look at this thread to get a better idea about some of the intricacies of this bath.

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