Gold Tank valve, anyone got any info on this valve?

[Herman]

My LSD shot me an email hoping I could help a customer out with some information of an unusual tank valve. This valve appear to have either never been chromed or was plated with something that appears to be brass or gold in color . Have any of you ever seen or know anything about this valve? The only thing stamped on the valve is CIVEQUIP" or some thing close to that.

[usddude]

Looks like polished solid brass.. maybe the manufacturer skipped the chrome process and sprayed on some clear coat instead. Perhaps a homemade job??? Hey this might be a good idea for rough chrome. Sand off all the chrome...voila...clear coat and you've got gold man!!! Civequip sounds kinda chinese...I'm just saying..OK

[swimjim]

Somebody took that one to the buffer wheel and removed the chrome in the process. I guess you could say that's polished brass because thats exactly what it is. If you send the valve to DB he could fix it. In the mean time the perpatrator needs one up along side the head.

Jim

[Herman]

I don't think so Jim. The amount of trouble it would take to get the chrome out from the threads, inside the valve port and from inside the lettering would make it a very difficult process unless you use some chemical/electroplating process. Why on earth would someone go to that trouble. It appears to have never been chromed but even then if it was polished brass it would have to be coated or it would tarnish quickly. There does not appear to be any coating on it and it's not tarnished. I wonder if it may have been intended to go with the gold plated Scubapro that was produced some years ago but it that was the case you would think it would have SP on it somewhere.

[swimjim]

I remember reading somewhere about divers who were researching something possibly in a cave or cenote where they went through a layer of some sort of acid that was bad enough to make the chrome come off their regulators. As a matter of fact I think it was Tamara Thompson who owns a dive shop in the Madison Wisconsin area. She may have been on some trip with some people from the university. That might be what happened to the valve. There are marks near the dimple for the yoke screw that look like they are from a buffer wheel on a work bench. Hence my earlier observation. Perhaps DB has an idea. If anybody would know, it would be him.

Jim