20mm zinc alloy luggage Buckle

Super Technical

For those of you who love the technical stuff…

Zinc is mined in Rosslyn, outside Johannesburg in South Africa, refined and mixed with various other metals to form alloys suitable for casting. Moulds are made from a special silicone (for small production runs) and from steel (or large production runs). The zinc alloy is heated up to 425° Celcius and becomes liquid. The molten zinc is poured / spun / pumped into moulds and allowed to slowly cool. The castings are removed from the moulds and the casting ends ground off and polished smooth by hand. The castings are tumbled in a gently abrasive vibratory polisher to remove any burrs and sharp edges.

The completed raw buckles are then pickled in various non-acid surface preparation solutions, electro-cleaned, rinsed and a thick layer of copper applied through an electroplating process. The copper further rounds the edges and provides an excellent corrosion resistant base for the subsequent electroplating layers. In this case the last layer is a thick, rich, deep golden layer of brass. Because brass will eventually oxidise (and darkens in colour) we fully immerse the freshly electroplated brass buckles in a clear lacquer, centrifuge off the excess, spin dry and bake to a very hard and smooth finish offering a lifetime of maintenance-free protection. No more polishing buckles! Brass and it’s antique variants are the second most popular buckle finish after nickel (silver colour)