thoughts on nickel finish?

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kbg77

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i understand nickel finishes are far superior to blueing for corrosing resistance, just curious if they look "tinny" and cheap? never seen one in person. in particular, i am looking at a smith and wesson revolver
 
depends on who does the "nickeling"- i've got a factory colt gov't in nickel that some will kill for
 
NAA said:
Only if you pimp it up with some faux ivory or mother-of-pearl grips.... :p
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Nickel wouldn't be my first choice of finish on a firearm. I'm not even all that fond of brushed stainless either but I 'could' live with that, if need be.
The comment on pearl grips, if I'm not mistaken a similar comment was supposedly made by General George s. Patton in response to a question from an interviewer. Apparently the interviewer asked him something about the 'pearl handled revolvers' he packed. His reply was that "His handgun grips are ivory not pearl. The only one who would put pearl on a handgun would be a pimp in a New Orleans whore house".
 
While I'm generally not a fan of shiny firearms, it is both very rust-resistant and the carbon and fouling wipe right off. In that respect, nickel is awesome.
 
Nickel is softer than chrome, but more corrosion resistant, also has a yellowish hue next to chrome.

Electroless nickel finishes are thinner compared to chrome. This is a benefit when plating small firearm parts. The plating gets into the smallest noock and cranny, it doesn't fill in the inside corners as much as chrome and doesn't add to the thickness of the parts to change their physical specs.

Some chrome applications consist of both, Nickel Plating and Chroming on top of the nickel to take advantage of both, corrosion resistance and hardness.

Another thing ... nickel provides better lubricity.
 
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glad i picked up on this thread. offered the fellow in question 1000 but was rebuffed...however i picked up a brand new nickel model 24 for 1050:D

hope its a good one!
 
Umm....any metal plating shop. Look in your phonebook.

Nickel is a miracle metal, 100 times more awesome than chrome to any chemist. Seriously, it's a marvellous metal.

Sadly, chrome is prettier because it's got a slightly blue tint, instead of nickels slightly yellow tint, and and chrome is a little harder. You can really only tell the tint if you see them side by side under good light though. You probably already own things that are nickel, that you think are chrome.

Nickel is ductile though, while chrome is brittle. That can be a good thing if you bang your gun around. The nickel will bend and stretch with the base metal, instead of crack and split.

Also, if you have a chrome plated gun, it's already nickel plated. It generally goes base metal, then copper, then nickel, then chrome.

It also means that if you have a gun that's already nickel plated, it's pretty easy to overplate with chrome if you want to.
 
Thank you for the info for the process of plating and quality of it. But , I dont feel confortable to send my handguns to a metal plating shop!!

Any smith who do it?

Yves
 
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To quote Tommy Lee Jones in the Fugitive:

"Lose that nickel-plated sissy pistol and get yourself a Glock!!" :D:D

(although I actually have a nickel-plated Para in .45 Super that shares safe space with my Glocks... they don't seem to think it's a sissy ;))


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SMITH45 said:
Thank you for the info for the process of plating and quality of it. But , I dont feel confortable to send my handguns to a metal plating shop!!

Any smith who do it?

Yves
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Maybe, you'll have to ask around.
Get yourself a buffing kit and small plating kit from Caswell and you can do it yourself if you want. It's time and effort, mainly with the polishing.

Metal plating shops do better work though, much better, better than you, and better than all but the highest volume of gunshops.
 
Bobby Ironsights said:
Umm....any metal plating shop. Look in your phonebook.
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Umm, no. You can't send your pistol to someone who can't legally be in possession of it. Even if one of the employees at the plating shop had a restricted PAL, which in itself is rather unlikely, you would not be able to get an ATT to transport your pistol to his shop if he didn't also have a gunsmith license.

Your only option is to find a gunsmith who can do the plating for you. Of course, this only applies to plating complete pistols or pistol frames. If you only wanted to plate a slide you wouldn't have to worry about all this nonsense.
 
Thank you both for the input. My project concern a Colt 1908 in .380ACP. It's a blue one, all the blue is almost gone, that is why I was looking to have it plate. Was trying to get the same look then John Dillingers one when he was killed.

Yves
 
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