I've been considering purchasing a mold to make blade baits. I go through a lot of silver buddies in the fall and want to start making them since I've got everything I need except the mold. My question for you guys that make them is how do you plate the lead in either silver or gold. I don't want to paint them. Is there foil you can buy to cover the lead in? How do you guys do it? 

 

 

Polishing the Brass / Nickel Blanks and then applying a coat or two of spray lacquer will reduce tarnishing.

Painting the lead body is optional but a nice touch; as are the "eyes"

A-Jay

 

 

http://www.jannsnetcraft.com/do-it-bladebait-mold/025724033318.aspx

What A-Jay said. On the nickle blanks, they are very shiny, so no need to polish them. On the brass blanks they need to be polished and clear coated to keep them from tarnishing. However if you want the silver and brass blanks to shine like gold chains and shiny car bumpers, you will have to get the blanks gold and silver plated. It costs about $75 per color lot to have this done. So you are looking at $150 for plating costs just to start out. Those are your options.

You can find several of the molds for them on ebay - the old ZR mold is a copy of the Silver Buddy, the ones I've seen are the 1/4th and 1/2oz. sizes.  Molds for the bigger ZR sizes can be tough to find.  The cheapest blanks right now are from Barlows - I did a spreadsheet on 6 places trying to find the cheapest and it was them.  I got a 100 of each size in nickle and brass, and the 400 blanks cost $117.00. 

 

On the nickle blanks once you pour them the lead is nice and shiny - wait for it to cool and just coat with clear epoxy.  On the brass ones I want some of them to tarnish before I coat them it gives them a rusty brown crawdad color. 

 

Cad where is the place that does the nickle plating??  I'd definately like to check that out!

Im guessing the silver buddies and buckeye blade baits get sent out to be plated then? I don't need my baits to shine like that, I just really want them to look as good as possible. I will paint the lead part of the bait in silver or gold if I have to. Just curious if there are other options out there. 

Another great option is to purchase blade baits from Cincy Fisher.  He makes great baits and uses very good hooks. Check out Cincy Fisher at http://www.cincyfisher.com/.  You can order 10 baits in a mixed group ( sizes and both solver or brass for $25 in sale right now. They are normally $30 for 10 baits and these include Mustad KVD short shanked hooks. I have a bunch of friends tearing up Potomac River bass and Chesapeake Bay stripers on them.

I'm thinking the shine is less important than the vibration.