I'm looking into making my own switches to satisfy my oddball tastes, and I'm having trouble sourcing the right material for the oh-so-important contacts. Gold plating is the er..gold standard for electrical contacts, but after doing a bit of research, it appears it's not so simple. If you're gold plating copper you need to plate with nickel first and I'm sure there are a host of other metallurgical factors at play so I'd like to just source some material to use that I can trust.
What can you recommend to use that will give me superior protection against corrosion? Flat, thin springy metal would be idea, but I'd be happy with wire if it was quality. I can design the switch around the needs of the connectors.